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

I have lipoedema, a connective tissue disorder, sometimes called ‘painful fat disease’. I carry large amounts of nodular, unsightly fat on my limbs and upper arms.

I am on Mounjaro because it helps with the pain and inflammation. It is helping me lose any non-lipoedema fat and ready myself for much needed lipoedema liposuction reduction surgery, which is not available on the NHS and will cost me tens of thousands of pounds.

I am otherwise fit, active and healthy so have to pay for my Mounjaro and I will continue to take it. I eat very little now and will soon see my ribs and collar bones sticking out, lose hair and my face look gaunt - whilst still remaining a fat-legged high BMI.

My boss, a GP, won’t even prescribe privately for me (so I can obtain at cost price through our dispensary) even though she can see how much it helps.

I do admit to being mildly irritated by type 2 diabetics, who have brought on their condition entirely due to their unhealthy lifestyle, being given the drug for free but there is absolutely nothing I can do to influence NHS England’s prescribing criteria (I am also annoyed that my GP will prescribe different/special erectile dysfunction meds privately. 🙄) As I have a disease that only affects women, there is barely any research into how GLP1 drugs help the condition, despite all the anecdotal evidence.

It is clear that one of my daughters has the same condition as me, which will only worsen with each hormonal change so I’m saving now for her to be able to access surgery should she wish, before she gets to the stage I am at.

I think your figures are out somewhere as 8st 7lbs is not BMI 22 for someone who is 5'7, it's BMI 18.6. I know as BMI 23 is about ten and a half stone, which is my goal.

Well it's the consequence of short term politics isn't it. These changes should have been made decades ago. We need the sugar tax on steroids.
A full belly isn't expensive. We would do well to take note of how poor people in other countries, or in our own history ate. A little bit of fatty meat is enough to meet protein and fat needs and is far cheaper than adding healthy fats to lean protein.
I did also mention subsidies to make these choices more affordable. I'd rather government spend money on healthy lifestyles than medication. I appreciate you don't agree but I believe longer term, wider reaching solutions would be better.

Are our government even competent enough to take this on?
The Change4Life campaign was funded by nestle.
Whatever societal changes are needed they are up against the might of food corporations who employ many people to make their food more and more addictive.
If you’re poor and you’re looking to be satiated it’s very difficult to avoid UPFs totally. Protein is expensive. Healthy fats are expensive. Poverty is heavily linked to obesity.

I think the problem we have as society is people accept those underweight as having an “acceptable” ED.

Not enough is made prominent about how overeating can also be a form of ED. We often talk about “comfort eating” and it’s a thing. Some people with trauma will cease to eat and some will overeat.

That’s aside to the obvious other causes of both forms for disordered eating - illness is one.

Bit also CoL is having an effect as UPF are cheaper and more filling.

It’s such a huge amount of factors that input into it but I think anyone who is overweight and doing something about - however they are - is a great thing. Especially as people on WLI are often sacrificing huge amounts of their income to do so.

The people getting left behind are those who live with little money and their weight is directly related to that and cannot afford WLI.

Right so having lived a life costing the NHS double that of everybody else you now want end of life care cut so that even more can be spent on the same group of people that are getting the most already.

No

I have none of the above illnesses, I just have tried and failed multiple times to lose weight and I was on a doom loop constantly, felt awful about myself which perpetuated the vicious cycle of eating crap.

I honestly don't care what people think and if they think it's cheating, why would I do it in the same way I have done for years and failed at and not an easier way?

I paid for it myself, and anyone overweight and not yet obese should be able to get it. Although criteria on NHS is wild, someone I know is type 2 diabetic, obese and has struggled massively with losing weight despite calorie counting and was told no, you have to do through diet and exercise - when told this hadn't worked, they just shrugged.

Fresh fruit and veg are absolutely not expensive. Thinking you need out of season strawberries and mango in order to eat fruit and veg is ridiculous. Eating healthily is so much cheaper. Highly processed food is more expensive and so is meat. We should be cutting down on meat.

Why on earth weren’t you buying those things for your children before? The NHS should not be paying to parent your children

Agreed. Roll on the time when these drugs are out of patent or whatever the term is and they become a lot cheaper.

But your post assumes that once people are allowed WLI then they no longer need “good choices” when actually it’s the reverse.

Good choices are essential on WLI and what the jabs do for me is ensure that I feel the consequences of bad choices rapidly and firmly!!
It also makes it easier to make those good choices in the first place.

Therefore, my children are benefitting from this. On MJ I go shopping and fancy apples and blueberries instead of chocolate and crisps so I buy those and now they are used to having them in the house and choose them for a snack.

So, for me, everybody wins really.

Yes I don't understand why governments haven't done something about this. Tax the shit out of processed foods, use the proceeds to subsidise healthy food and invest in infrastructure that supports healthy lifestyles. Far better to invest in societal level changes than dependence upon medication that will end being passed down between generations.

Some of us avoid UPF and still manage to
be obese.
Of course availability of addictive shit food is a contributing factor, but that’s always the assumption - fat, oh he/she eats shit all
day long, and that’s not always the case. There’s far more to obesity than people’s base judgments.

It's also the fault of our food industry. If fresh fruit and veg, and decent proteins weren't so expensive, a lot more people would be eating healthy meals.

Diets don’t work.
Is it 5% of people who can lose weight and maintain it?
Thats not diets working.
The diet industry would cease to exist if diets worked.

Your other comments about people not caring enough to sort it out shows that you don’t understand. It’s not about caring, it’s about having a drive to eat that overrides logic. There’s actually research going on at the moment about this - why some people have a faulty driver. Why some people are susceptible to obesity - is it genetics? (In some it is), is it trauma? Neurology? Ancestry?

Some people seem to be rather delusional about the state of the NHS (or the nations finances in general). We literally cannot afford to treat everyone for everything, indefinitely. The scope of NHS responsibility cannot expand infinitely.

Definition of addiction:
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/addiction

WLI are creating a dependency. It's not addressing the rout corse of the problem.

This is completely why I stopped, combined with uncomfortable side effects (mainly diarrhoea and painful wind), and I found it was increasingly ineffective - as time wore on I was almost “getting used” to it and what I ate was increasing even while taking it.

Its definitely useful for some people but has to go hand in hand with lifestyle changes, which is what I’ve done for the last several months, and so far so good.

I think a big part of the issue is that it isn't the silver bullet people think it is. The majority of users put the weight back on when they stop, and the NHS can't fund the 60+% of the population, who are overweight or obese, to be on these drugs indefinitely. It's a very difficult one! There needs to be a threshold somewhere, but perhaps a BMI of 40, which is super morbidly obese, is too high. Maybe 35 would be fairer, but then do you run the risk of people, with for example a BMI of 33, gaining weight just to qualify.

But diet's do work!
I have a low UPF diet, it does have the desired effect of feeling better and I lost some of the extra weight I am carrying.

I'm currently doing what is known as carb loading for a multiday hike next week- ok I put some weight on (that I will have lost by day 3 hiking up & down some mountains!)

The question is, does the average obese person care enough about themselves to embrace a diet with low UPF's, lots of plain vegetables, fruits and meals cooked from scratch? Do they have the skills and time?

WLI are just creating a dependency that will make some companies billions! Billions that will be paid by individuals, governments and health services.

Someone suggested that taking GLP1s is transferring one addiction to another, which is a ridiculous comment. Would you say that asthmatics are addicted to their inhalers?

Theres now growing information showing that it’s helping with addiction. People no longer feeling cravings for alcohol for example, impulsive behaviour decreasing. It’s improving mental health. It’s addressing and highlighting factors in obesity that will enable more thorough research into the causes of it.

People are allowing their hatred of fat to inform their opinions on treatment for obesity.

I can’t vote because I fully support people getting mounjaro on the nhs or privately as long as they meet the proper criteria of high enough bmi.

I do get annoyed by those few with only a stone or whatever to lose lying to get it.

27?!

I couldn't give less of a shit and tend to side eye people who give too many shits about what other people do with their own grown up flesh suit.