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

I forgot that! Yes, my cholesterol was high too (and getting higher).

BMI over 27 and raised cholesterol qualifies.

My BMI was only just a hair's breath below BMI of 30 and I'm very small boned (wrist circumference is only 13 cms, which is the averahe wrist size for a 7 year old girl, and I'm only a size 4 shoe). Plus I'd also taken Tamoxifen for several years which had messed up my metabolism. So I had a face to face (video) consultation with the pharmacist where we discussed this and the bloating and joint pain etc.

I think using a BMI is a very blunt tool, really.

Aside from smoking, there's nothing more damaging to your body than being overweight/obese. Nothing.

At my heaviest I was 5ft 6, 12st 8lbs and a portly size 14. A lot of MNers would insist that was a perfectably acceptable weight and dress size etc. Except is really wasn't. My cholesterol was creeping up and up. I had painful plantar facilitas in my right foot. I had a painful coccyx whuch made extended periods of sitting akin to torture. My fingers were permanently swollen and I suffered with uncomfortable, constant bloating (despite a tummy tuck 5 years ago). I looked and felt unhealthy, below par, frumpy and very far from my best.

Since (slowly) losing 3 stone on Mounjaro all of the above symptoms have completely disappeared. Cholesterol low. Zero bloating or swelling. Zero aches and pains. I'm a slender size 8/10 and have much more energy.

And yet still the Resentful Naysayers desperately try to put a negative spin on my experience. Their motives are totally transparent and risible.

have you tried telling them to just try to be happier and maybe take a walk?

MJ prevents you from being able to binge though so probably would be very effective for you.

It’s up to you of course but I think you’re mad not to at least try them if you’ve been offered them on the NHS.

I do have one very obese friend who hasn’t tried them and cites similar reasons although I honestly think it’s because she’s a food addict and is scared of losing the ability to binge eat. Is this what you mean?

Surely with what you have described WLI would work perfectly for you?

The 800 cal blood sugar diet (Michael Moseley) lets you lose weight fairly quickly and loses the 'food noise' people talk about but I'm one of those that can eat and eat without actually feeling hungry. So WLI wouldn't work for me and is why I've refused them although eligible on the NHS. My problem is in my head. Although I wish I'd known about Slimpod at the same time. Plan now is to fight myself and go back on the blood sugar diet. I have the keto version of it now.

I find the weights in the pockets difficult to believe - I'm told that a current photograph in underwear is required, along with height and weight.

I was in the NHS BMI 'obese' category before losing two stones. I've now just edged into the NHS 'overweight' category - just under a BMI of 30, so I'm ineligible for the injections.

A consultant told me not to consider the injections, but to concentrate on lifting weights. (My age might be a consideration - I'm nearly 66.)

I wasn't seeing him about my weight - I'd mentioned that I'd lost a couple of stones and that was probably why I'd noticed a possible problem. He told me that he'd had an upsurge in women coming in because they'd lost weight too rapidly and had been left with lumps and bumps in one area. (He was running a breast clinic.).

I'll not quote his exact words. I did on another thread and caused offence. I'll reiterate that he was talking about dramatic weight loss in a short period of time.

I know people who are on Mounjaro and are very happy with the results. However, they were all in the 'obese' category and they all followed doctor's orders - they didn't aim to lose a lot quickly.

I would have tried the injections myself, were it not for the fact that I suffer from IBS and once I read about the side effects that some people suffer, I realised that it wasn't for me. However, it seems to me that it's been a life saver for some and it's not an easy fix - you still have to watch what you're eating.

Yes, if I wanted to make that point and be taken seriously I'd at least acknowledge that being obese is inherently risky in itself.

Weird how some people are advising more risk-aversion and caution about people taking a "new" drug (that isn't new) than about the well-known risks of remaining obese.

This is like having a problem with people buying Dyson hairdryers (and getting very irate/upset to the point of starting threads frothing about it) because there are fake Dyson hairdryers out there that people can access in dodgy means that are then exploding in peoples faces.

And if people are buying something for £50 from TikTok when they know full well legitimately should cost them £180 then more fool them.

Do you see?

Fake goods are not the real thing and have absolutely nothing to do with the subject of WLI’s and everything to do with people taking stupid risks with their bodies to get something cheap.

And in addition, some side effects are so rare that only show up once you have data from years of use.

The MHRA (and FDA and EMA and TGA and others) approve new drugs if they consider the data from studies show that benefit of the drug is greater than the risk. It doesn’t mean the drugs are risk free, far from it.

Your doctor should always say why they are prescribing you a medication and if you have concerns you should ask them whether there are alternatives. Your pharmacist will be able to tell you more about them when they hand them over and you should always read the patient information leaflet - they look scary but they’re a standard format across all medicines.

Those of us taking WLIs have done our homework and decided that for each of us, the potential benefits outweighed the potential risks. The vast majority of us taking them privately have obtained them from reputable online providers (Boots and Asda do them for heavens sake).

There are always humans who misuse medicines, whether it’s for a recreational high, body building or weight loss etc. The issue there is addiction, the illicit supply of drugs and the education of people on why we have medicine licensing and controlled manufacturing and supply chains in the first place. But generally those people have a much higher tolerance for risk than the rest of us.

It’s a balance between getting meds out so people can benefit vs caution re knowing the full picture. For me, I wouldn’t be taking them when I can use other means to lose weight that don’t have a possibility of unforeseen problems down the line. But like I said upthread, if I were morbidly obese and running significant health risks because of my weight, and I’d tried and failed to lose weight by other means, I might well come to a different decision.

I don't understand why there is so little reasonable discussion on this topic on MN. Some people who take them seem to think that anyone raising their concerns about WLI is "judging" them. Some people who don't take them seem to think anyone who takes them is "cheating".

It's the same thing with cosmetic procedures.

I’m not telling you what to do. I don’t know you, do I?! It’s not personal to you. For all I know, you could be somebody falling squarely in the category of those for whom the jabs can legitimately be prescribed, and who is otherwise facing serious health risks from obesity. But there are people out there asking if clinics insist on photos etc - there are regularly threads on here about it - ie they don’t legitimately fall within the category of people who the jabs are licensed for. These people are not weighing up the risks like you might have, they’re just focused on losing weight as quickly and easily as possible, without worrying about the risks and carefully calculating the risk/benefit trade off.

Personally, I would like longer term data before I took them. You’re at liberty to come to a different conclusion.

And if, as the BBC item mentioned, there really are 2.5 million people in the UK alone taking these drugs (not to mention many, many more in the USA and world-wide), I would say there must be a lot of data coming in daily re: potential results/bad outcomes.
The doctor on the bbc news last night was talking at length about the benefits but the OP has minimised that as it doesn't fit her agenda.

How many decades of data do you think is sufficient for approval of a new medication?

we are still learning new things about many commonly used medications because our understanding of how the human body works is incomplete and continues to evolve. Identifying issues post approval isn’t a flaw in the system - if anything it shows that the system is working as it shows that pharma is adhering to the requirement to continue to study and monitor for adverse events.

@BunfightBetty Don't you think after 2 decades of use that anything really serious contraindications would be showing by now. You get to set whatever standard you like for the drugs you take and I'll do the same.

Oh, I do worry about other MHRA decisions, in fact it’s knowledge of the fallout of long-term effects of other meds they merrily approved without long-term data that leads me to be concerned about these.

Just one example: they approved the SSRI Paroxetine without any understanding of the long-term side effects or the severe discontinuation syndrome effects in medium and longer-term users that have led some patients to be stuck taking it for decades, with terrible symptoms. This has wrecked lives. There’s a huge class action being taken in the US but UK law prohibits any compensation for people here whose lives have been wrecked by it.

It’s not that WLI are being singled out, it’s that they’re suddenly being taken in such large numbers that are pushing them onto the radar.

I wouldn't dream of going on a thread about anti depressants and expressing concerns about how people are taking them, the potential for abuse, why people need them in the first place and what they intend to do when they come off them. It's just rude and irrelevant. I'm not on the board of the medicines regulator and assume they know what they're doing.

Yes, exactly this.

Participating in a discussion on a subject you've no real idea about doesn't usually end well if you don't recognise when you're talking to people who know more than you do. No group of people are going to take well to someone who shows no evidence of understanding the basics whilst also complaining that they're not being listened to. And we've seen a number of posts like that on this thread.

WLIs are the same as anything else in that respect, they just come up more often.

@ChazsBrilliantAttitude YES SNAP

I think what many of us find frustrating about these threads is people assuming they are providing a brand new warning that nobody taking WLI would have thought about

• Loss of muscle and bone density- this is a known risk for rapid weight loss so that is why good nutrition and exercise need to be part of the approach
• The drugs are new - except that they are not. GLP-1 agonists have been used for decades. Weight loss was discovered as a side effect of diabetes medication.
• People are misusing them - yes some people probably are but abuse of prescription and OTC medicines is not limited to WLI. eg codeine addiction from OTC and prescription sources
• Accusations we are taking insulin from diabetics- insulin is a fat storage hormone nobody will use it for weight loss (well nobody who knows anything about physiology anyway)

These are all known issues and many of us have weighed up(sorry!) the pros and cons and have made a rational choice. Being obese is not a low risk activity.

Some people will take stupid risks to lose weight and abuse of WLI are another stupid risk option but if it wasn’t WLI it would be something else. I can still walk into Boots and buy a medication containing codeine even though some people will end up addicted. I can buy paracetamol in the supermarket even though the gap between the therapeutic dose and the harmful dose is small.

At some point you have accept that people can assess risks and make different decisions to the one you would make.

What interests me is why are some people so invested in WLI failing or being problematic when they have the potential to improve the health of the nation and save the NHS a fortune in treating obesity related diseases.