To think weight-loss injections should be prescribed in person only. The scale of abuse must be shocking.

The NHS may have to deal with it, just like they deal with everyone else who comes in with ‘unnecessary’ medical issues. Think: the broken leg caused by skiing, the person run over by a car because they were not looking where they were going, the person who fell on broken glass because they were too drunk to walk straight. All avoidable, but it happened anyway. There is just no point in saying things like ‘but we all have to pay’ - we also all have to pay when football hooligans cause damage to our cities or when people murder other people and we all have to pay the police, the judge and the prison. Don’t forget the NHS will also be able to save costs when so many obese people can now obtain a healthy weight, and will have less health problems because of it. At least most Mounjaro users are actually trying to better their health, which in my opinion, can only be a good thing.

I'm struggling but I won't take the medication. I have lost weight before and hope to do so again. I hate the thought of injecting any kind of chemical or hormone into me and I have a feeling that even medication wouldn't work for me as I am an emotional eater. And I also hate the thought that I would have to be on it for my whole life.

I think that losing weight is about finding other ways than food to comfort yourself if you are an emotional eater. I always think initially that weight loss is an impossible task whether I only have 7 pounds to lose or 40 (as I do now). I find that eating more protein and fewer carbs (not cutting them out though) has the same effect, as is reported with the meds, of making you not feel hungry. The moment I eat a bit of highly refined carbs like sugar my need for cakes and biscuits becomes insatiable, so I am avoiding them.

Wouldn't it be funny if all the weight loss meds were really a placebo and the scientists were conducting a huge experiment to demonstrate that, for some of us, a lot of the resistance to weight loss is in our minds?

You are so right OP, seen loads of photos of people taking it who really don't need to. Also know of two people who are 5'5" and 5'6" and both weigh around 7.5st. They look emaciated but can't see it themselves. They still think they need to lose weight. They are both in the eating disorder category, their BMI's are on the floor and they still carry on.

I agree with you that people need to be verified in person but unfortunately, you will always get a private pharmacy who will prescribe it. Channel 4 Dispatches covered this topic and it is truly frightening!

The problem here isn't with weight loss jobs. The problem is with your friends.

I have a good friend who has been obese for the last 30 years. Weight loss jabs are transforming her body and her life. People who actually need them shouldn't be denied them because people like your friends abuse them.

I don’t know the ins and outs of how but four of my relatives are on MJ and none of them would meet the official criteria. One I would be surprised if their BMI was over 25, a super fit cyclist type. The others were maybe a bit heavier than they’d have ideally liked to be but at most I’d say BMIs around 26-28. It does seem to be perfectly possible to get the drugs as long as you can pay for them.

Why do you care?

I used it to lose a lot of weight. But now im usually between 56-60kg, but always have a pen in the fridge for when i tip over 60kg (after hols).

And no I don’t use them, I don’t t need to. But I’m lucky I have my health. If I became unwell and couldn’t be active for example, it might be very hard to stay on 1100 calories a day (that’s the maintenance at my height and age for a sedentary life) for the rest of my life.
It’s having an active life that means I can enjoy a balanced diet. And lucky genetics.

For context, I'm on Mounjaro myself and stayed on 2.5 for quite a long time. Obviously I'm aware that you need to step it up.

The whole thing is so open to abuse. I was discussing the face to face consultations coming in with a friend who told me she's getting them for a friend who is not overweight. She also gets them for herself from a different pharmacy! I pointed out her GP is likely to find out and her friend is at risk because she hasn't been properly screened. It's idiotic!

The even more worrying one I heard about yesterday concerns a nurse prescriber who works in the NHS. She already does botox etc privately but has now jumped on the Mounjaro bandwagon and charges £300 a month. Two weeks ago she gave my friend's husband his first dose - 10mg. The label on the box is handwritten and tells how much you're getting per click. She's told him how many clicks for 2.5, and later in the week she told him to do another 30 clicks! She also told him he's ok to reuse his needles when he said he wouldn't have enough.

I'm still trying to work out how to report this person. Absolutely shocking.

The real division is a financial one - if they were affordable to all, a lot more people would use them and would throw their principles/cautions out the window.

It’s another way in which financial status will determine the way you look, your health (the risk of overweight related illnesses is at this stage far higher than WLI as there isn’t sufficient evidence of long term effects) etc.

Campaign about the inequality by all means but it’s unrealistic to say people should do what you think is best for them. People take all kinds of risks.

Maybe they started taking it ,when their BMI was in the accepted range for medication and now they are only comfortable telling people they are on it,now they have lost weight.
My experience was it was very thorough,and certainly my provider is very good .
But like anything in life , personal responsibility comes in to it
And like smoking,drugs alcohol,it's a personal choice to use them or not .
And it's a personal choice they are making to abuse the weight loss jabs ,and they will have to take responsibility if it all goes wrong.
I don't think those of us who are taking it responsibly ,should be punished because some People choose to abuse it

You’re wrong and I can see this becoming a black market drug if you were to succeed in making it direct prescription only. More people would be obese and those with ED would continue to lie to get access.
Under current regulations I’ve had to upload my photo ID and have a video consultation including weigh in - that’s enough.

Im on it, but I weigh over 17st and am going through an online pharmacy. I didn’t have to upload a photograph, but I was honest about my weight. The online pharmacist sent a letter to my GP regarding my prescription!!! I have been under weight management with my GP too. If I was your size 8/10 friends GP I would absolutely be contacting them to get them off it!!

My neighbour is going back down the doses! She did have a fair amount to lose BUT now she looks gaunt and it’s made her look ill. she’s lost over 7 stone in a year.

I’m all for using it if needed BUT I’ve been on it since February and lost around 20lbs in that time. It’s slow but I am happy with that!

No, I mean they didn’t even need them in the first place - I’ve known one of them for 3+ years now and she’s never been obese during this time, I wasn’t aware she’s had a gastric band years ago, so she does have a history of weight struggle.

We were talking about the injections because I’ve been considering it (endocrinologist recommended, I’m just wary of the cost) and she gave me this whole speech about them and how to still be able to get them even when you don’t need them anymore (or need a lower dosage?). It was a party so another friend joined in with all the tips.

I’m still considering it but I did feel like I was being recruited into a cult 😭

Me too. I’m two weeks away from my target weight of 85kgs. It’s about 8-9 kgs above my upper BMI but it’s never been my intention to reach that because I don’t believe in it as a means of calculating a healthy weight. I’m tall, I have big bones, my feet are a UK size 10 but must of all I have muscles because even when I was 109kgs (and long before that) I was a serious excercise.

I know what I’m made up of due to dexa scans I’ve had that included body composition so I’m not worried about still being over my BMI. I’m 67 and in the last year I’ve slashed my BP and will probably come off medication in two weeks, I’ve completely turned my cholesterol levels around to excellent and I’m no longer pre-diabetic, in fact my blood sugar levels excellent as well.

I planned my Mounjaro journey like a military operation and adopted a whole person approach to ‘me’ which took care of my head, my emotions/my heart, and my body. So too bloody right when people have gone about losing weight this way, that we don’t want to be involved with the fools who lie and cheat their way to their WLI. Bugger off and give yourselves a bad name, make yourself sick and die as a result if you want to because you deserve all you get.

They are never (or at least for another decade) going to be available freely via the NHS so people need to turn to private.

Changing it to be a face to face only prescription will make it inaccessible (due to significantly increased private costs) to tens, even hundreds of thousands of people where it could be life saving.

The GPhC has tightened its prescribing guidelines, what they need to do is up their inspections of the big online pharmacies to ensure they are complying.

For my provider I now need -

Video call
Photos
Copies of medical records/prescriptions
Independently verified proof of height and BMI (Drs records, done at pharmacy and stamped, video with height taken in video etc)
etc

Other providers will have to tighten up in time as they get inspected.

People will always get around the rules. I am more concerned for those that may not have access to the medication that need it than those who try to cheat the system. They need to have some accountability for their own actions, I would go as far to say I would have no problem if they made it a criminal offence.

Agree. All the faux concern is just so transparent and tiresome. I pretty sure that not a single, faux concerned, poster is a healthy weight themselves.

But we (fat people) have literally thrown money at this for years - all the various flavours of weight watchers, gym membership, counselling. The diet industry alone is worth billions of dollars every year. This actually works, which is a game changer.

I get mine from Boots and the procedure is pretty stringent, but I actually agree - I think prescription in person and a weigh in now and then at the pharmacy would be safer all round. I’ve lost 6 stone on wegovy so there was never any doubt I’d be prescribed it, I was not a marginal case.

It must be incredibly tempting for people with eating disorders- but very unsafe for them. And a bit of monitoring wouldn’t be a bad thing, imo.

In an ideal world, GPs would be able to prescribe it for people who really need it. Until then, I think the Wild West will continue.

But if anything happens to their bodies that they are responsible for, I imagine just a tiny proportion of the people abusing them only use private healthcare healthcare so the NHS will be dealing with it.

I'm a 12 and just a few kg overweight. I got it from an in person consultation in Harley Street - felt safer that way. I just asked to be able to micro dose like the Times journalist so that I could lose 10kg which would make me feel much happier. My mental health is quite shot by being the size I am so it will have an enormous difference on my life.

I agree with you. I am desperate to get on the injections - my financial situation is stopping me but I am constantly thinking of ways I can save up.

But more importantly, I am constantly thinking of ways I can abuse the system. Most pressingly because my BMI was 31, and I've managed to lose about 12lbs on my own, which brings me to under 30. So having a BMI of 31 gets me the injections, but a BMI of 29.5 doesn't? I am certainly nowhere near a healthy weight or body shape (all fat stored around my middle and I also KNOW I can't maintain this with any consistency on my own (30 years of experience has taught me that). But by the technicalities I won't qualify, and so if and when I can afford it I will DEFINITELY lie.

I assume you meant then BMI of 25+ but with comorbidities?

The problem though is that all our health issues (high blood pressure, etc etc….) aren’t all linked to our weight.

I know that’s often the answer you get - pain in your knees ➡️ loose weight. High blood pressure ➡️ loose weight. Feeling tired? Loose weight.

But the reality is so much more complex than that! Sometimes, it’s not how you’re eating but what’s you’re eating that’s making the difference. Some times, it’s stress or lack of community or light or outdoor spaces etc etc….

I feel saying we should offer WLI as soon as people are falling into the ‘overweight’ category is a very reductionist view of health

A work colleague has been using it for a little while and yes, he was a little overweight when he started, he now looks a little underweight, gaunt and pale.

I am overweight, I've adjusted aspects of eating, exercise and lifestyle to lose some and I have, over time, but obviously the WLI was of interest to me because I've still got more to lose so I asked him about it.
I don't really know the ins and outs because he's really focused on the fact he now feels he has control over binge eating, that because he has no appetite now he feels free from something that made him miserable, and he's worried to stop taking it and go back to feeling like food rules his life, and I can totally relate to that. However I do feel that he's gone a bit too far the other way, maybe because it's happened so quickly and the contrast is stark, and I do think that continuing would risk him being more and more underweight and the issues that brings too.

It's very easy for people to write me off as jealous of him because he's lost weight quickly and I haven't, and I definitely think there is an element of jealousy for some people, but I'm concerned that actually all it's done for him, and all it would do for me, is enable a continuation of a bad relationship with food because of issues with self esteem which I suspect he has, as I have, linked to being overweight, and feeling like losing that weight will solve those problems when actually I don't think it will.

It's a great idea for people who are overweight and I don't see it as cheating, it works for people who are overweight and for health reasons need to lose it, but I don't think it solves the underlying problems some people (me included) have with self esteem and genuinely liking yourself for who you are and actually although yes, I'd lose weight on it, which is something I want to do, I'd be worried I'm setting myself up to just be under another set of control and still have a bad relationship with myself and food.