Is it the begining of the end for Weight loss injections?

I’ve lost 4 stone and now have a bmi of 21 which I’ve maintained for nearly a year.

I eat really well, better nutrition than ever - 3 healthy meals a day or 2 meals and a few snacks of an evening. I walk every day and lift weights twice a week.

Im fitter and more energetic than I’ve ever been. Im also happy - i was depressed a lot of the time before as i ate crap and didn’t exercise and that detrimentally affected my MH.

Your “friend” is talking bollocks.

You do realise WLI’s don’t cause muscle wastage/loss of bone density? That is caused by lack of exercise, and would be the case with any person who didn’t exercise.

It seems a very strange thing for someone who must be quite intelligent to say?

This would be a stronger point if it weren't so often wheeled out when someone has said something dim on the issue.

True, but the whole point of WLI is that they ensure weight loss is far more rapid and far greater. So muscle loss is going to be rapid and greater too.

I have lost 2.5 / 3 stone since June 2024 on Orlistat (weight loss tablets prescribed by Boots Pharmacy). Absolutely nothing else worked prior to the pills. Spinning classes multiple times a week, running, healthier eating - nothing. The tablets seem to have kicked something into gear and the weight started falling off slowly but surely.

I very much have to still eat healthily, and spin or run every day, as the pills aren't magic - but I am so much healthier now, lower cholesterol etc. Being overweight definitely has enough risks of its own. I for one feel and look so much better.

It is indeed, but this is also the case with traditional weight loss methods, as the article alludes to. When one is already obese, there are often no risk free options.

Hahaha, you’re funny OP.

Did you believe the story about Robbie Williams “going blind” from using it too??

Yes, the article says "Research shows that up to one-third of this weight loss is so-called “non-fat mass” – this includes muscle and bone mass. This also happens when someone goes on a diet "

There is a lot of research going on at the moment, how these jabs can help arthritis, MS, heart conditions etc. We may see this medication being expanded. And with tablets on the way, who knows where this may be going. Let’s hope the research brings positive results.

This echoes the BBC piece about loss of muscle and bone density. It IS a concern.

https://news.liverpool.ac.uk/2025/01/02/weight-loss-drugs-help-with-fat-loss-but-they-cause-bone-and-muscle-loss-too/amp/

I watched that bbc article and came away with a different take. Interesting what confirmation bias can do, isn’t it?
The majority of the article was about the benefits of the drugs in reducing the effects of many serious health conditions, including obesity obviously. Yes, there was mention of people obtaining doses when not qualifying but it certainly wasn’t the main thrust of the piece.
They also pointed out that an estimated 2 and a half million people in the UK are on the jabs. Doesn’t sound to me as if they’re going anywhere anytime soon, other than to be succeeded by tablets, perhaps.
I am so fed up of the bollocks and scare-mongering about the jabs. There’s a lot of ignorance being spouted on here too, once again. Anyone who stops any sort of weight-loss programme runs the risk of regaining the weight if they’re not vigilant. One of the main benefits in my experience is that, when you’re very overweight, the prospect of losing enough to make any sort of material difference is just too overwhelming. To have a helping hand with appetite reduction is HUGE. I’m now at goal weight (and maintaining that) and exercising more than I ever have in my life because I’m lighter and therefore can do it!

There are loads of posts I could reply to on this thread, s someone who started MJ in November I’ve found it fascinating.

But what I would say to this particular PP and those on a similar vein of thought is that we don’t all have the headspace or willpower to transform how we think about food. I am hoping the MJ helps me with that. Before I could never stick at calorie counting, now I am. Not because I’m eating less, but because I don’t have the food noise. The most relatable post I ever saw on here was a person saying that they knew how to lose weight and what habits they had to introduce, but mentally they just couldn’t do it. MJ gives you that mental space to be able to start new habits which you will then hopefully stick with when / if you stop the drug. I was already exercising a lot but I’m using my time on it to try and get into new habits and eat better so that I find it easier to maintain. Some people can eat better and introduce new habits on willpower alone - I just couldn’t and if I could have done then of course I would have rather done that than spend a fortune each month.

I'd rather die of muscle wastage or whatever having been fit and well enough to run around after my kids than die of a preventable cancer because of being such a fat ass.

@SilenceInside There is no other treatment other than prevention, and how one would do that is completely unclear.

My point is that severe calorie restriction whether done medically, surgically or via lifestyle intervention is not benign. Yet before there were these goady threads, there were pages upon pages of women telling other women to eat less and move more as that was the 'healthy' option. But calorie restricting at the level needed to treat obesity is going to be increasingly recognised as a bit of a double-edged sword, no matter how you do it.

I don't think GLP-1 agonists have created a new problem, I think they have made an old one legible.

I think in many ways they have been great for many people and I'm not against them on the other hand I also don't think you are wrong that some sort of proven negative long term effects may emerge in time.

Anyone who looses a large amount of weight is at risk of many health conditions, things like osteoporosis, gallbladder issues etc.. The difference at the minute is that:
A) more people are being able to loose weight because they have access to a treatment that wasn't available before (keeping in mind weight loss drugs have previously existed, they were just disgusting like those pills that cause you to sh*t yourself if you eat any fat or inaccessible)
B) they are a big topic so the media and social media cannot stop talking about them.

Weight loss jabs will never go away, if anything they are showing great side effects such as reduced inflammation and promising signs of help for heart conditions.

That aside, I am an advocate for the NHS to offer paid for clinics in order to ensure the right people are getting the drugs. 99% of people who take it are doing it right, the 1% is more interesting and going to be in the news.

@ThisTaupeZebra hair loss is not indicative of severe health issues due to weight loss. It’s usually temporary and self resolving, not a long term problem. It certainly doesn’t counter the health benefits from losing weight.

I am very curious as to how you would treat obesity if not to restrict calories for weight loss?

There is, as yet, no data on the millions of people taking WLI in the UK, using private prescriptions. You have absoloutley no idea whether, or how many people gain weight, or how much.

And your opinion counts for nothing to those who have lost weight, reduced or stopped WLIs and who have maintained their now healthy weight for 6, 7, 8 , 12, +++ months.

Cope and seethe, babe. Cope and seethe.

We're losing weight and it's a problem for you, clearly.

As somebody else pointed out on another one of these threads, if the level of caloric, and accompanying nutritional, deficiency necessary to treat obesity is so significant that it causes unrelated health complications, then why isn't this a concern with lifestyle interventions designed to treat obesity?

I know several people this year who have lost weight under medical supervision, either with GLP-1 agonists or gastric sleeve surgery. All cited hairloss as a side-effect. I don't think that it is the beginning of the end for weight loss injections, but it might be the beginning of the end of the idea that calorie restriction for weight loss to treat obesity is inherently benign, or even 'healthy'.

And one dunce who doesn’t know the difference between your and you’re. But hey, we’ve all got our faults.

That’s not quite true though.
I (and many people I know) have been on countless diets over the years. Strict calorie counting.
I eat more on MJ than I have following calorie restriction diets, I’ve done strict keto. All other diets have resulted in painfully slow weight loss, even when eating in a strict calorie deficit.
MJ means I’m losing weight steadily, so it’s doing something to me apart from appetite reduction.
I can also walk without pain, and a couple of very long term chronic conditions went within my first week of MJ.

Feels pretty fucking magical to me.

What an arsehole comment.

I must admit, it's not been around long enough in this use for me to try it, am a chicken. But I think it's great - it seems to have helped so many people, people who just have tried everything for years. Obesity has so many health risks attached and if it helps cut those down then that's got to be a good thing?

There will always be abuse of prescription meds, it is not unique to WLIs. I take thyroxine for an underactive thyroid. Some people abuse thyroxine to lose weight. There is widespread abuse of pain killers.

Don't justify yourself to these fools, they're not worth the time it takes you to type your defence.