If you are on weight loss injections, what do you make of this article?

This isn’t news and was clear before I started Mounjaro in 2024. The drug addresses a hormonal imbalance in the same way blood pressure medication, HRT and many other meds resolve the symptoms and needs to be taken continually.

Cheaper maintenance options will become available, especially once patents expire.

I'd be more willing to credit the sort of people making those posts with that level of sense if they showed any understanding that remaining obese is a risk too. Sadly, once you're obese there is no risk free path available! You stay obese, follow a method that's likely to see you regain all the weight or you stay on the WLIs.

Well, I suppose there is the issue dons hard hat of not knowing the long-term risks, which is why people are cautious about staying on them for a lifetime. Yes, the medication itself has been around for years but not specifically described for weight loss etc etc.

Yes - I have that amazement too, about how it feels to have a ‘normal’ response to food (when on WLIs). It is unbelievably different to how I feel without it.

‘Same as any diet’ - agree, although with WLI I actually lose weight, whereas with other diets it’s never happened. So that’s the difference for me. Once I’ve actually lost weight I’ll spend some time maintaining with the injections and cementing my new lifestyle (which is becoming possible because I’ve lost weight…), and therefore theoretically will be sustainable. Am still 5st overweight but have already made changes such as now I am running 30 mins 2 or 3 times a week, and usually only have 1 or 2 meals a day. So if it’s happening now, hopefully the lifestyle changes will continue to begin and engrain along the process. Takes time for your body to adjust and settle into a new normal.

Soooo sorry to those who are desperate for everyone to fail 😅 I personally like to see others succeed and wish the best for most people ❤️

I am surprised people were expecting otherwise. If you don't introduce long-lasting nutrition changes in your life you are going to get the weight back. It is just common sense really.

I have this. I have never in my life felt full up..... until WLI.

I ate reasonably healthily in so much as a raving carb craving would allow, but I ate too much. You get fat on healthy food too, if you eat too much of it. Which I did because my brain never receives "you are full signals". Ever. Without jab, I am hungry at all times.
When first took MJ I was astonished to discover what ordinary or slim people must feel like.
You eat a normal portion, you feel full, you stop eating, you don't think about food until the next meal time. Astonishing. I had never experienced that.

so many of the replies clearly don’t understand obesity.

i eat a healthy diet and exercise daily but if I stopped taking WLI the food noise and raging appetite would return and that combined with PCOS and peri means I know I’d like it back on

I’ve been expecting to stay on them for life so not at all surprised.

Ive lost 5 stone and am so much healthier in every way and want to stay that way.

just hoping a cheaper version comes out at some point.

I’ve lost 3 stone since June 2025 on MJ. However I’ve also joined a Gym (something I would not have done when obese) and changed my diet.

Yes 2 stone back on of the 4 stone lost. It wasn't overnight gain and no amount of being active has prevented it.

I am having a blood test tomorrow to see if diabetes type is still in remission after being asked to take a break for 3 months off the medication. I genuinely think it has a working life of 4 months and relies on the person becoming obsessed with losing weight as probably all diets/weight loss plans do.

It's a lot of money to pay out for no results after the initial burst of weight loss, and in my case I cannot say it has helped my health massively. I would love to say differently but feel it irresponsible.

I eat loads of 'simple (bad)' carbs. I have them for every meal. I don't get food noise and uncontrollable hunger. I'm a size 8.

I think it's safe to say that foods affect people in different ways. Cutting carbs might work for some but not for everyone. I imagine loads of people currently using WLI have already tried to cut carbs and not found it sustainable or effective.

WLI have been used for years to safely treat diabetes. What sudden avalanche of side effects are you expecting to come to light?

Not sure if the BBC article on this has been linked to in the thread yet. I still haven't read the BMJ article, but thought this paragraph interesting

Only eight of the studies assessed treatment with the newer GLP-1 drugs, such as Wegovy and Mounjaro, and the maximum follow-up period in these studies was a year after medication stopped, so the figures are an estimate.

Wonder if the researchers intend to do follow up reviews as more studies relating solely to the newer GLP-1s come in.

Since obesity is a disease it makes complete sense to me that unless additional tools/therapy etc have been used alongside the medication then of course the weight will go back on.

That’s why you need to change your lifestyle, record calories and work out how many calories you should be eating a day and sticking to those. They aren’t a cure for obesity they are just a tool.

When I have lost weight traditionally literally all I’ve thought about is what I’ll be able to eat once I’m at my target.

I’ve always convinced myself once the weight is off I’ll be able to be moderate. I can’t!

Your mum has done very well. She obviously didn’t enjoy being big and has made every effort not to return there.

The injections are a great and quick kick-start to live a healthy life, it’s just up to the person to take full advantage of this starting point.

The evidence shows that people regain the weight when they stop the medication. The evidence says nothing about people's behaviour or habits whilst they are ON the medication. Some people including you are extrapolating that weight regain = no habits or behaviour change whilst on the medication. Can you understand why one doesn't equal the other?

Because they are hungry?
I could eat a 4 course meal and still feel hungry. Because my brain is getting the "you are full" hormone signals.
It is very difficult to ignore hunger just as it is very difficult to ignore thirst .

I mentioned in my post above that I found out I had a faulty gene variant a few years ago, one of the effects of this is that it massively reduces the release of serotonin via the gut - brain axis after eating. Serotonin (feel good hormone) I suspect is important for reducing cortisol levels (stress hormone) amongst other things. I have a completely overwhelming / gnawing hunger that is much worse when I am stressed (I also have high cortisol levels); eating (comfort eating) does help, as it prolongs the release of serotonin (even though I don’t release much serotonin).

This gene variant that I have is probably one of a multitude within this functional pathway, so I imagine that the majority of people who are morbidly obese probably have a faulty gene variant in this region. Sadly, clinical medicine (eg standard hospital consultants) knows nothing about this gene variant… it is just known about in terms of one disease (if you have two copies of the faulty gene), but only in the field of bio-medical research have they started looking into the wider impact of eg having just one faulty copy of the gene, and I think research has been primarily in animal studies. It will probably be decades away before there is a greater understanding of/ willingness to treat the causes of obesity.

Surely it’s the same as any diet - once you stop if you return to your old habits you will gain the weight again? This happened to me when I lost weight using diet shakes!
I used MJ last year and felt fantastic in it (I lost a few stone) I had to stop just before Christmas due to the cost rise as it’s just not something I can afford sadly. I’m thinking of taking weygovy but going to try intermittent fasting for the month of January and see how I get on (so far so good but it’s early days yet!)
My mum lost a lot of weight when she was in her 40s on slimming world. 30 years on she has maintained her weight but still sticking to the plan mon-Fri and then eating what she wants at the weekend.

Like any other diet then.

Are you on them OP? What do you make of the article?

Of course lots will regain when they stop, like any diet. But I know plenty of people who have lost weight on them, stopped taking them, and maintained, but I suppose that doesn't make as interesting an article.

So just like any other diet then if you return to over eating.

Most people on ordinary diets regain what they lost or more.

The difference is , that in the majority of cases they wont even have reached their target weight or even get near it. They will lose a stone or two before hunger or cravings beats them, they fall off the wagon, and they regain and lost the same couple of stone over and over.

On the injections they will reach target weight. I imagine many of them will try to stay on it for maintainnce as long as they can.

How very condescending of you. I am perfectly capable of reading and understanding the evidence. Unconscious bias maybe...?

This is why its imperative that weightloss is treated psychologically as well as physically.

I agree with this.

Firsrly, observations I've made of people who appear to be naturally slim or able to maintain either weightloss or a healthy weight to begin with - they don't overeat and they don't routinely reward or console themselves with food. The food they feel they 'deserve' is food that is nourishing for their bodies and they are mindful of what they consume.

(But I also have to say that, whenever these people post on seeking weightloss advice or "How are you naturally slim?" type threads, they are always shot down with, "Life is too short to not eat cake" and "I love a big bowl of pasta - I suppose that's why I'm a fatty!" type comments. Or people who 'need' chocolate every day. And mocking people who eat a 'massive salad' is a favourite of people on here yet people who eat massive salads generally aren't obese either)

People whose relationship with food is less healthy should receive psychological support to address this if they can't manage it themselves for whatever reason.

If they don't, then old habits will resurface. They're going to however they lose the weight.

People (especially on MN because that's the only place I've read it!) like to say, "Diets don't work." But they do. Of course they do. If you change your eating habits for the better, you will lose weight. If you maintain those good eating habits, you won't regain the weight.

I have no skin in the game regarding WLI. I don't need them, I don't hate them and the people I know who are on them aren't close enough to me for me to know their eating habits (they've just shared it on SM or mentioned in passing that they're on them at work but I don't share meals with them) but it's obvious no one gets to a point where they are prescribed them through eating 'healthily'.

If this were true, we wouldn't see almost everyone who lost weight without medication regaining the weight, which is not the case

Weightloss isn't magic.

If someone is significantly overweight/obese due to poor eating habits and they then return to those same poor eating habits following whatever weightloss strategy they use, it's obvious they're going to put the weight back on.

Maintaining weightloss is possible and I know plenty of people who've done it but it worked because they didn't "go on a diet" as much as they changed their attitude towards food, eating and their diet. Permanently.

But some people want to go back to eating cake, chocolate every day and 'huge bowls' of pasta because that is what they consider to be a normal diet.