To be annoyed by another scaremongering Guardian article about weight loss medication

I agree OP that the article is really problematic. There are some good (if hardly groundbreaking) points about media representation of women’s bodies, but the author is really preoccupied with looks and barely mentions that WLI are prescribed as a medical treatment to improve health. For her it’s all about fatness and outward appearance, and not to do with managing metabolic disease, improving health markers like blood pressure and visceral fat, improving mobility, reducing joint pain, making exercise possible and extending healthy lifespan. Not to mention the MH benefits of living a normal life without shame or experiences of prejudice.

She seems to think that fat people are obliged to stay fat, with all the associated health risks, so that she doesn’t have to be “consumed by furious jealousy” when they manage to lose weight. She questions other people’s motivation - “not, they say, in the pursuit of skinniness…”. She is unable to see that it’s possible to be positive about your body and also want to be as healthy as possible, and that there is no contradiction between body positivity and losing weight, quite the opposite.

It’s great to encourage people not to beat themselves up about their weight and to accept themselves with all their flaws, but encouraging obese people to remain obese and be happy about it is crazy imo. The consequences for health of obesity are well documented and very significant. Shaming people for taking a medical treatment to improve their health because she tried to do the same, failed, and is now consumed with jealousy, is really awful.

This is ridiculous. Almost all forms of mediations have side-effects that can cause problems in other areas and a very large part of medicine is balancing those problems against the main issue. It's a risk/benefit analysis. At the more extreme end you have medicines like chemotherapy, which involves essentially poisoning a person in order to kill the cancer. It involves killing healthy cells along with the cancerous ones and is awful for your body. But the cancer is clearly worse. So you make your patient sick with medication in order to save them from something that will kill them. The risk is worth the benefit.

On a more middling end of the scale, my DM developed osteoporosis over lockdown. The medication she is on for that has reversed the osteoporosis back to osteopenia and is currently reversing that to hopefully healthy bone density. However the medication makes her feel crap when she takes it, for the initial hours, while also overtime causing damage to her digestive tract. She is now at a stage where her doctor is weighing up the benefit of continuing the medication, versus the damage the medication is doing. Whereas I, knowing I'm at higher risk for osteoporosis, take measures in my diet and lifestyle, like lifting heavy weights, wearing a weighted vest during housework, gardening, walks, etc, in the hope of never having to make that risk/benefit analysis, because if it comes to it - I will obviously prioritise my bone health over digestive damage, but if I can avoid having to make that compromise, I will.

GLP-1 receptor agonists, like Mounjaro, Ozempic, etc cause damage along with benefit. There are people who are better off risking damage than not taking them, but the risks of damage are serious and ignoring the potential harms because they make you feel mentally uncomfortable is dangerous. For one, it means you won't take steps to mitigate serious but not insurmountable issues like muscle shrinkage. And you are less likely to keep a track on your heart size, or issues like potential thyroid tumours.

I don't think this is a bad article. She saw the weight loss drugs working. Wegovy didn't work for her - her experience was atypical but not unusual and she got good advice to come off it. And she then had to reset (again) her feelings about being fat in a world that had only just begun to "accept" larger women as any kind of a norm, before that norm was taken away again (she perceives).

That's a lot to deal with, really. I'm fat and on Mounjaro - happily it's working well. I used to be skinny and menopause battered me. I have a friend who has always been fat and it's caused her no end of mental pain. She's worked on it by being as fit as anything and she knows she's not unhealthy. But developing and keeping that mindset is a lifetime's work. I can't talk to her about weight loss. She doesn't see very well why people want to change themselves instead of changing the world to fit them. I have a lot of empathy for that, but it's not so simple. I was starting to not be able to do some things and could see metabolic syndrome looming over the horizon.

The writer reminded me of my friend. In her frustration she imagines that people are desperate to lose weight so they fit into society better. Except that's not it, really, is it? Lots of people want to lose weight so they can do more, and avoid the very well known (but not inevitable) health problems.

If I mention big pharma I'm just going to be accused of wearing a tinfoil hat, but sorry I can't resist. How to make a fortune:- lower the guidelines for potential obesity - scare the living daylights out of anyone a pound or two over average - tell everyone they're pre-diabetic - bring out an expensive weight loss drug - ker-ching💰💰💰

I always find it weird that people who take weight loss drugs are so defensive about it whenever anyone else points out the potential risks or how utterly tiring society's fixation on weight is or even just says why it's personally not for them. If you're so convinced they're amazing go ahead and fill your boots.

But it simply isn’t true that you can be healthy and obese - obesity isn’t healthy

Well firstly a huge number of people clamouring for weight loss drugs aren't medically obese. They're possibly carrying a few extra pounds but they're perfectly healthy, just fixated on their weight because society tells women their only value is to be stick thin. Way, way too many woman are obsessed with weighing themselves and calorie-counting when they are a perfectly normal, healthy size.

And secondly weight is far from the only measure of health, and weight loss drugs do nothing to encourage an actual healthy lifestyle: working out, exercising, eating the right amounts of the right food, enjoying food and fostering a mentally positive relationship with it. They don't make you stronger, they don't build stamina, they don't make you more flexible, they don't help your immune system or gut health or mental health. Those are much more important indicators of your overall health than what the scales say.

I have no skin in the game as I'm healthy and fit, but weight loss fixations are so aggravating to see.

Not engaging-= ignoring an opposing view I have nothing to argue against.

I think laziness is more relevant to those that ignore the health risks from weight loss drugs and choose to go for the quick fix as opposed to the longer, harder and safer route.It is ok to voice this ( particularly when laziness is hurled at those who don’t go down this route) and part of the discussion.

Don’t like it then don’t start a thread re WLI, it’s very much part of the discussion. You might want to stick your fingers in your ears and go la, la, la. Others don’t and won’t, particularly on AUBU.

Wow, your summary is incredibly biased and very influenced by you personal experience.

Which must be based on the short term. I don't think you can really be qualified until wlyou see what happens is 5/10 years' time.

I get why that people who've used them have become evangelical about them, but I don't think that makes you experts.

Body positivity is a con. I’m obese it is hardly something that is my best achievement to be promoting to others, I achieved it by eating too much for gods sake.

I’m sure people who go on insta who are obese have other qualities and those are the qualities they should accentuate to build their esteem, ie play to their strengths not their weaknesses.

This woman comes off as a profession whinger. Lots of people who are overweight use their other skills to compensate and don’t focus on being fat as the main thing or really anything about them, myself included.

More and more that newspaper attracts people with a victim mindset.

She has written an article that in today’s thin drug pushing culture isn’t going to be popular.

How exactly is taking a quick fix drug that comes with risks taking responsibility for mental health exactly? I’d say going on a longer more soul searching and harder journey that she is on is taking far more responsibility.I’d also say that those who do go on the longer more difficult and safer weight loss journey devoid of drugs are taking better responsibility for their physical heath too. No health risks from drugs and also weight loss that’s more likely to stay off due to lifestyle changes and the fact that jabs cease to work when stopped.

But there are serious side effects beginning to show up from WLI. A lot of the weight loss comes from muscle shrinkage which happens at a notably greater rate than through traditional weight loss, so shouldn't be taken without serious counter measures to prevent muscle loss, as muscle loss is one of the greatest risks of death as we age.

There are also animal studies that show cardiac shrinkage, which is incredibly serious if it also occurs in humans. There are very serious concerns about the long term efficacy of WLI, as early research suggests that higher doses may be necessary in future usage if people regain the weight.

When WLIs are used it really should only be for people where not using them is the greater risk to their health, as is the case with many forms of medicine.

My main take away from this is that she (and everyone else) need to get off instagram. It’s insane that people’s views of themselves are so shaped by strangers on the internet who are only ever doing it for the money.

But she’s not wrong is she! I know several people on WLIs, none of whom are significantly overweight, none of whom have seemed to have used a ‘reputable’ clinic (what even is that?) one has sent photos of her sister in and has gone from size 12 to size 8 in a month!!
Until they are available on the NHS and prescribed by GPs there will always be clinics who exploit vulnerable people.

I read the article and thought that it was a thoughtful, considered point of view based on her own experience.

Before agreeing that use of WLI leads to better health, rather than simply being thinner, I’d like to see much more evidence of how the benefits are sustained once the individual stops the injections. Or is it the case that one is on them for life?

I think the article should be applauded. I worry hugely about the health implications of WLI and as a mother of a daughter who has battled anorexia the seemingly increasing thin worshipping society we’re living in.

Dangerous heroin chic advertising increasing, quick fix injections are being pushed with the risks being ignored. Where is the far preferable MH and lifestyle support? WLI are just sticking plasters that come with risks.

I agree with you OP. I grasped the content about broader societal trends, but felt the article drew general conclusions about WLI (and er, the whole of society) based on one person’s unhappy experience.
I don’t see, within my networks, WLI promoting skinniness (although I’m sure some are using them inappropriately). I see them promoting health, letting people exercise and be active and feel better about themselves.

The fact that it changed your life for the better is irrelevant to the discussion of the article. What happened to her was different and she was right to publish it.

Isn't up to readers,listeners, watchers to do their own thinking or research into any topic rather that just believe whelatever they see etc.at the time

Has critical thinking gone out the window? People need to think more

Well quite apart from the fact that I think your points 1 and 3 are actually correct, the article isn’t just about WLI. And even if it were, she’s entitled to her opinion about them just as much as you are. 🤷‍♀️

YABVVU

If you want an echo chamber then you might want to source your news exclusively from SM and let an algorithm shield from a different point view point. I’m hoping when you looked into taking your WL drug that you would have not relied on one article.

I think it's more a criticism of society's attitude to overweight people, than a criticism of Mounjaro - the jabs have led to fewer overweight 'body positive' influencers, which has had a negative effect on the writer's self-esteem. The jabs didn't work for her personally as the side-effects were unacceptable; she doesn't say anything about side-effects in others. It isn't scaremongering to say 'Some people may have adverse side-effects' - that's a standard caveat to any medication.

I think articles like this are excellent. It’s good to hear someone’s personal experience. Wli injections are not right for everyone. The more honest information people have the better I think.