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

I lost 3st on Mounjaro, going from 12st 8lbs down to 9st 8lbs. Since last July I've been maintaining on 5mg.

I intend to take MJ for the long term, not just for weight maintenance, but because of all its other health benefits and protections. Yes, it's expensive but it's still much cheaper than a monthly membership at our local, fancy day spa.

I just see it as a gold standard standard investment in my current and future health. Health is wealth.

I've not seen the programme. Did they mention the smoking rates in the 70s and how they've steadily declined since?

Yes, the sudden increase in advertising was shocking – and so much of it aimed at kids.

The thing that annoyed me about the programme though is that it blamed women in the 1970s for the explosion in processed food because more went out to work and families needed convenience meals. Without any extrapolation about why more women had to join the workforce.😡

Registered and licensed ones yes. Dodgy under the counter no, but they cannot be used as an argument against these unless you want to use people who share log ins as a reason to ban Netflix. There will always be people who try to abuse a system. Doesn't mean the system is wrong.

@Passingthrough123 I didn't see that one (will look it up now) but read an article last year about changes the food industry implemented in the 1970s. It was based on the US but they said it came into Europe just slightly later.

Increase of artificial flavourings, reduction of real food in the product and addition of corn syrup/sugar. More processing as it was cheaper to produce.

Add colourful advertising via TVs and magazines, promotions and so-called "health benefits" like all the zero fat products which are just sugar ladden stuff.

The graphs regarding weight gain they showed were staggering, it wasn't just one part of the population, it was across the board. And that has to have a reason which is more than just laziness or overeating.

Since I am on WLJ I have to be careful what I eat, ultra processed food causes nausea. So you start reading the ingredient lists of stuff a lot more careful and I knew it was bad but I got shocked how bad everyday items are.

A poster on another thread who'd read the BMJ review note that the average WLI taker was still lighter at the end of the studied period than those who'd used diet, which was interesting. Because they lost more weight in the first place.

I lost 45kgs in 13 mths on Wegovy (never got about the 1mg dose) and stopped 3 months ago when I reached goal.

I’m the same weight I was when I stopped (just before I went on holiday for 3 weeks) and im
pretty confident I can keep the weight off.

I’ve totally changed how I eat and increased my exercise to give me the best chance of being successful.

There’s more to it than habits-
i calorie counted and did 3 intense gym classes each week for months and months and didn’t loose a pound

I am on WLI 6 months now and through December I slacked off the gym and ate my body weight in chocolate and baileys and I lost a pound.

so it’s definitely not all to do with lifestyle and more to do with blood sugar regulation

85% of people who lose significany amount of weight "the old fashioned way" regain it within 6 years (50% within two). Usually gaining more fat and less muscle than before. So WLI or not, you're fucked either way if you're obese and losing weight.

Firstly, the OP hasn’t been back. I often wonder about the motivation for threads like this.

But secondly, if you did the same study of most diets/weightloss methods, you’d probably find the exact same thing. This is why the weightloss industry is booming because they know that statistically, everyone will sooner or later gain and this is a ‘customer for life’. I can think of 6 different people I work with who have all lost significant amounts of weight while on diets ranging from Slimming World to fasting. 6 out of the 7 have all regained and I think the 7th is only doing ok because she remarried and her new husband is a fitness coach.

For me, MJ is different than other plans because it’s helping me to get to a weight I could not have done on my own. The changes I’m seeing in my body and in my life are really lovely and they’re not things I’ve experienced before. I’m completely realistic about the nature of diets and regain but what’s the alternative, stay as I was and just gradually get fatter? At least I’m doing something!

Mounjaro is a LOT More effective than rybelsus.

Sorry @ShawnaMacallister, not sure why that quoted you!

As a sidebar to the discussion, did anyone watch the Josie Gibson 1970s diet experiment programme last night? It was fascinating - and showed it’s no wonder we have an obesity crisis! I was born in the early 70s so can’t remember much about portion size but they showed a pizza sold for an adult which was the size of a kid’s one today. And a family chocolate bar that was eight sizes smaller than the biggest one available now. Plus the clothes sizing! 😳 A 12-14 dress had a 26in waist - now that’s more like 32.

What was even more depressing is that it’s not our greed that has brought us to the point where WLI are needed. It’s the food industry supersizing and over-processing to the extent we have lost sight of how little our bodies really need. Which makes me even more certain the price of WLI won’t drop as much as we hope so they are more accessible - it will boost both industries’ bottom lines to keep society trapped in a cycle of overeating and medicated loss.

I'm ex NHS. The NHS is a creaking monolith full of outdated practices, it takes a long time to effect any change, and decisions are largely based on cost, not patient choice. Bean counters often decide, not clinicians. Clinicians are often pretty conservative and anything new is looked at with suspicion just because it's not the established NHS way. Procurement processes are ridiculous, so they probably are looking at how to access the drugs in tablet form, but it will take years to put the supply chain in place. They will always offer the cheapest choice even when they know there are better options available. Leaving patients to either gen up and fight for better care, or languish. It's a right mess.

Its been available for ages in Europe, its Rybelsus-once a day tab. Its licenced in the uk but for some reason nhs opts for injections and dosent let the patients choose?

I think we have to start thinking of WLI’s as a cost effective treatment in relation to the cost to the NHS for treatment of the inevitable health conditions people will develop if they remain obese. If they have to remain on a maintenance dose for life then surely that’s preferable to developing other conditions which may be irreversible.

I think so too. I think people really believe that you hand over your money and get sent the drugs in some kind of shady deal. The reality is so different. I've been so well informed and supported and maintained now for 5 months. I know that's thanks to the drug. My pharmacist is supporting my tapering process and monitoring me regularly with live video weigh ins, photographs and questionnaires every time I buy. My hrt was much easier to get!

I experienced this happening when I stopped being as careful about my diet. The literal second I relaxed and started eating the odd bit of UPF here, a few sweets there for a pick me up. A Starbucks latte and a croissant instead of a black Americano and a protein bar on a work trip because I'm stressed out and why not. A can of Coke Zero in the afternoon because I'm tired. Not making healthy choices while eating out for work. A drink on a Thursday instead of waiting til Friday evening. Skipping exercise because of Christmas nights out and family obligations.

I was telling myself each time it was just a one off, but the food noise and ravenous hunger returned quite quickly and bang, back to prediabetes and 3kg rapidly regained because all of a sudden I'm ravenous all the time again. I am having to accept that if I want to stay off MJ and stave off diabetes without medication, I can't eat UPF, I can't base my meals on carbs and not protein and veg, I can't drink sweetened drinks and sodas, whether artificial or sugar sweetened. I've returned to the fairly strict diet I was keeping before I hit a period of stress and overwhelm and I feel like I've learned a valuable lesson that there just is no complacency and I can't get away with a few weeks of being lax with my diet and habits if I want my weight kept down, food noise not to rule my life, and not to end up like my dad with uncontrolled Type 2. WLI may be a tool I need in short ish term bursts to ensure I can get back on track if things do fall off and poor blood sugar control starts driving my appetite and metabolism again.

It doesn't feel fair in a way that my biology is this way, others can eat these things blithely with seemingly no consequences, if I have a poor diet and don't exercise as regularly for a few weeks, my body goes bang, makes me overeat, stack on weight and feel awful due to the blood sugar rollercoaster. But I can either give in to that or not. I choose not.

Same! Nobody ever took this level of interest when I was taking the contraceptive pill long term, for example. If the comprehensive initial assessment and briefing, regular appointments and discussions with a pharmacist that my WLI provider offer are a tick box exercise, I dread to think how every other medication I've had would be described..

Possibly it is down to it being a private v NHS thing. Money talks, sadly.

I don't know? We haven't been using them long enough to know. I've been on them 18 months and they haven't stopped yet. My DH was on Prozac for ten years and it never stopped working. I'm not sure why it would.

Who is saying it won't happen to them?

It will probably be a long-term drug for most people. It will be the magic bullet, new products even more effective than MJ are coming to the market in the next couple of years. This is really all the solution needed

I've wondered this. The body builds tolerance to most things. If you were to take these for five or even ten plus years is there not a risk that they'll stop working entirely?

The difference is the rate of regain is so much more rapid than traditional dieting methods. It's well known that the majority of people who lose weight regain it within five years, but it seems that people are regaining the weight much more rapidly after stopping WLI.

Well… If you can stay on them, they absolutely are