AIBU to seek a consensus on who is a socially acceptable recipitent of Mounjaro?

@Periperi2025 but that's it. You cure or manage one condition/ health issue and create many more through medication. We are creating many more... so we need more medication and so on.
There's another way for many conditions but popping a pill or WLI are easier than actually changing things to accommodate our bodies and minds.

I'm not against medication if you are ill but I am against long term medication where the need has been created artificially again an issue with steroids and WLI.

Me. 👋

Im not using it - because I can’t afford it.

I was slim until I became disabled in my 40s and the patronising bullshit that is spouted on here really irritates me.

I don’t eat processed carbs more than once in a blue moon. I have a treat day once a twice a month and the treat is a small bar of chocolate or equivalent.

I am taking loads of drugs that have weight gain as a side effect and I’m now in a wheelchair most of the time, although I do use crutches when I can.

I wish people weren’t so damned judgmental and didn’t just assume you were a greedy lazy pig because you’re overweight.

But they do. And I’ve been in tears over some of the comments here because they’re so bloody cruel.

They want us to be fat as it’s more profitable but not so fat you die young and can’t procreate. So they will give you a solution to a problem they created in the first place, where the rich get richer. It’s a political problem

Hands up who is never, ever telling anyone about using WLIs after reading a few threads on here 👋

You first.

We already have evidence for how use of WLIs work for those taking them. I presume this is accepted and your point is that it's insufficient? You're at liberty to want eg longer term proof than the 00s, but that's not a position that can coexist with your previous claims that it's certain societal changes can be made that will tackle obesity.

You said there were changes we could make that would help and we could look to other countries, which ones and what changes? You clearly don't mean the US and how they reduced their obesity rates, so it's not clear who you're thinking of.

Its socially acceptable for anyone to have it if they pay for it.
The NHS should only pay for it if they meet the NICE guidelines the same as any other drug and treatment provided by the NHS, including IVF, cancer drugs etc.

Why do you care? I'm on Wegovy & am very open about it, idgaf what anyone else may or may not think. If it was a jab for alcoholics to stop them drinking alcohol and help them be healthier and happier, I'd support those people in wanting to make a positive lifestyle change. I view weight loss jabs the exact same way. And yes, I do know people who have lied and used fake images of themselves to get the jabs when they have something like 10lbs to lose, and I'm over here with 100lbs to lose, but I cannot bring myself to care. It's nothing to do with me what anyone else does, and nothing to do with anyone else what I do.

You don't have evidence that use of WLI enmasse will "work" either. WLI only work for the person taking them, for as long as they take them. Endless rollouts with no other changes = endlessly growing bill. I'm not sure how you think it will play out in the long run. Perhaps you could evidence long term affordability and efficacy on a population level?

We might agree if you were to post some evidence for your claims, but tellingly enough you haven't.

The fact remains that we already know WLIs work and that telling people to diet and exercise doesn't. Your ideas involve the NHS pissing money away for the sake of your uninformed belief system, whilst denying people access to what we know actually works. It's one thing for the NHS to limit access now whilst it's so expensive and the rollout needs to be managed, but the idea that this should be ongoing policy because you wish human bodies worked differently is grossly irresponsible. We simply cannot afford to indulge ourselves with evidence free ideals.

Well yes. The NHS is barely sustaining the current burden. And we've still got an elderly population boom to come. I wish anyone relying on the NHS for WLI luck.

But @Digdongdoo you could argue that at £6.5 billion a year to the NHS right now, treating obesity is unsustainable!!!!

OK, so keep demanding lifelong medicine from the teetering NHS. See where that gets you. We don't have to agree. But don't complain when treating obesity medically becomes unsustainable.
Medication isn't a lifestyle change.

No there isn't. But if you think there is a country that has managed to curb an obesity crisis like the UK has (about 2/3 overweight and about 25% obese) using your proposals, tell us which one it is. Prove the claim. You keep saying things are obvious and certain, so if that's the case you'll be able to show us some evidence.

And yes, obesity is something that can be medicated away. With WLIs. Those are a lifestyle change because they make people eat less. The evidence for that actually exists, whereas we have none at all that actually achieving lifestyle change without them is possible. You simply keep repeating your quasi religious mantra, and meanwhile the NHS teeters.

Thanks OP - the title made me smile. Just sums up being overweight, having ED’s etc. Everyone feels so entitled to an opinion and not only that but to voice it loudly and forcefully. Nobody knows the ins and outs of another’s medical and mental health history.

Nah I see a lot of people almost wishing for GLP-1 users to get some sort of horrible side effect. No free lunch and all that.

Interestingly, and purely for aesthetics, GLP-1s are heavily used by bodybuilders in the US. It’s an easy way for them to get their body fat percentages low without going through extreme dieting.

I wrote a post earlier about this.
Most of those I know who are morbidly obese fall into one of these:
Are ND, known to have higher rates of eating disorders (anorexia, bulimia, binge eating)
Only gained weight when put on a certain drug, often the pill or antidepressants. (One friend went on mirtazapine and went from a size 8 as a 30 yr old to a size 24 within a yr, drs did not care, blamed her for eating too much)
Have had cancer and gone through treatment and on medication for life.
Have a mental health condition like depression.
Have a chronic illness that prevents them from moving as much as they’d like and ties in with the drugs bit as well.
Has a condition like PCOS, diabetes, cushings, thyroid etc.

This could very well make up the majority of morbidly obese adults, considering that no matter what the cause, it’s irrelevant and ignored until there’s an acute crisis.

As an obese woman I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen the gp and they’ve blamed everything on my weight, so I can’t access the medical treatments I need for other stuff going on and I suffer, which adds to the lack of exercise and the depression. But if I go to the gp they still take the approach of “have you thought of losing weight?”.

I meet the criteria for prescribed GLP1s but there are hoops to jump through which make it inaccessible.

NICE have established metrics for weighing the benefits of new drugs against the cost. If the drugs provide a similar predicted gain in quality of life years compared to drugs for other conditions they should be prescribed on the NHS. That’s probably what happens currently. The criteria (age, BMI comorbidities etc) should be set to a level where the weight loss drugs offer fair gain compared to drugs for other conditions. The fact that alternative methods of weight loss exist shouldn’t come into it I don’t think. The fact that alternative methods to lower blood pressure exist doesn’t stop us prescribing statins. Yeah sure, provide diet/lifestyle advice alongside.

@Towelles hasn't the diet industry been doing exactly that for years already? The obesity crisis has worsened and they've got richer! Isn't it possible that WLI might be a game changer?

Isn’t it the issue that the pharma companies are basically inventing an expensive solution to obesity, which has been created by corporate greed. No one is going to stop the food manufacturers making or selling UPF because it’s such an integral part of the global economy. These production methods make the richest companies richer and the consequences is obesity but oh… Now pharma companies are cashing in on it too.

The run away train has no brakes and it’s too late. You can’t stop big foods now, and consumers do not want to.

UPF and WLI’s will have to co-exist side by side with all practical reasoning long gone.

You might be genuine or not.
Almost every obese person has a health condition or a reason outside their own responsibility why they are obese.

I don't buy it. Some people in my family are obesBut I agree that a small % of the population has issues that are leading to obesity.

But 1/3 of all adults?

@Periperi2025 the primary semaglutide patent is set to expire in March 2026, which is what Wegovy & Ozempic is made from. It will be interesting to see what other suppliers will be allowed to do in the European / UK markets thereafter.

IMO any "acceptable" recipient of Mounjaro/WLI is anybody willing to self fund it if they don't meet the threshold, and anybody who does meet it to use it through the NHS.