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

Your biology is very strong. Your brain and your hormones can drive you to overeat, and it can be nearly impossible for most people to resist. I think everyone saying that it won't happen to them is being extremely naive! There needs to be a serious discussion and research about how to deal with this in the longer term. WLI really are not the silver bullet people claim that they are!

I'm glad to hear that your husband is benefiting from them. However, contrary to popular belief, there are actually a number of checks you have to go through in the private sector. I'd have thought that your experience would lead you to understand why people would want to reduce their risks of life long medical issues linked to obesity. It's available because the benefits outweigh the risks. If your experience is through an nhs doctor you wouldn't know the level of care you get privately and the challenge of long term maintenance of weight is absolutely shared at the start in very plain language.

I don't really understand your comment them. You state that some people have less capacity than others to consider the long term need for weight loss injections. If you hold all drugs to this standard, what do you think should happen? No long term drugs supplied? I've had far more thorough briefings and appointments with my pharmacist for weight loss injections than for any other drug I've been prescribed.

'I always get shouted down by those posters screeching'

@PersephonePomegranate

No one is "screeching". Nasty.

I think that the WLIs are an excellent development, @DarkForces .
my diabetic husband has been prescribed 2.5mg for a few years now and the benefits have been life changing for us.
I think they should be readily available on the NHS to every obese person who has been struggling with their weight historically. It makes absolute sense. Obesity is responsible for so many health conditions that burden the NHS: with this breakthrough, unnecessarily.
My concern is the private sector, where people who are not obese are easily able to obtain a powerful medication that they will potentially have to take for the rest of their lives without necessarily understanding that. I know from personal acquaintances that it’s basically a tick box exercise. Some people are so desperate to lose weight that they’ll sign up to anything without necessarily thinking through the long term consequences.

There is no difference. I don’t hold them to a different standard.

Furthermore, it has been shown via the clinical trials and via the judgement of the MHRA that the benefits do outweigh the risks for anyone who is obese, not just morbidly obese. So people with a BMI in the range 30 to 40, not just 40 plus. The benefits also outweigh the risks for people who are significantly overweight (BMI 27 plus) but not yet obese, with a weight related health condition.

There is no health benefit to anyone who is BMI <27 starting to take these medications and no legitimate prescriber would prescribe them WLI for weight loss if they applied legitimately.

@unageing "But it's clear women of normal weight and those who are only modestly overweight are on WLI with little to no supervision."

Well, those people could not be supervised, as they must be accessing WLI either fraudulently or via the black market in counterfeit medication. There are already existing regulations around checking patients BMI before prescribing and legitimate pharmacies will be inspected on that basis and required to improve if found lacking. There is also a lot of work being done to confiscate and disrupt the supply of counterfeit medication.

No one sensible would be suggesting that people of healthy weight or who are just a little overweight should be legitimately able to access WLI for obesity, whether supervised or not.

You can apply that logic to any long term medication. What's so different about weight loss injections that they're held to a different standard?

You must realise that not everyone has the same capacity to understand the long-term implications as you do?

But it's there in the OP, and there at the very top of the article linked in the OP which is the topic of the thread if you'd bothered to click on and even glance at it.

Not only do people apparently gain weight four times faster than people who have lost it by other methods, but people on WLI are also said to lose more lean muscle while dieting (around 40% of the weight lost is lean muscle, while it's around 20-25% of the weight by regular dieting).

The concern would be you lose lean muscle, go off the WLI, and regain four times faster. Go back on the WLI, and then lose even more lean muscle. This muscle loss sets people up for future health problems, particularly older people whose muscle mass has deteriorated already with age and lack of use. Also worth bearing in mind, the heart is a muscle...

And at any point you may pick up a bonus longterm health problem such as pancreatitis, serious GI tract, gallbladder, or kidney problems, vision loss, or bowel perforation.

The benefits would probably outweigh the risks if you were morbidly obese, and had good guidance. But it's clear women of normal weight and those who are only modestly overweight are on WLI with little to no supervision.

However, anyone who wants to discuss WLI in anything other than glowing rapturous terms is called bitter, jealous, spiteful, and my favourite, "seething," all of which is surely projection, and a posse of posters engage in a group effort to bully them off such threads.

You’d think so. It’s a friend of a friend though so don’t know her well enough to comment. It was Xmas though so I put it down to eyes bigger than belly scenario.

The solution is simple, carry on with the medication until you kick the bucket. Simples.

Mmm, WLI users have our own dedicated and well used space on here and threads on the issue outside there are often started by non users.

How very odd.

@Hellohelga has she really not ever noticed that she's eating half of what she used to? Presumably you've eaten with her many times and seen her serve herself large portions but only eat half. Maybe you could comment on that and ask her about it? One of the first things that I noticed was that I wasn't eating anywhere near as much, obviously, and so now I always use a small side plate rather than a large dinner plate for my meals.

I had Xmas lunch with friend on WLI. She put double the food on her plate that I put on mine. We ate about the same so she had half a plate of food left. So basically the WLI stops her overeating but her brain hasn’t adjusted yet to what a normal portion is. Until she makes that psychological shift she can’t come off without regaining. In fact last year she did come off for a while and it started going back on.

It’s the people not on them who keep posting about it. Along with all the other nonsense they apparently are surprised the drugs don’t permanently make you slim and you need to be warned of this fact before starting.

its literally unbelievable.

I thought everyone knew this, that the drugs don't lead to permanent change and that typical weight loss is about 20% below start point. Was a bit surprised this is news story.

Well only if that is the only factor that leads to obesity, which i dont believe for one second.
I reckon its way more about hormones, blood sugar and emotional eating than it is about what was described by that PP.

I’ve been on the injections for 15 months and have lost 20kg and am now at my target weight (55kg). I have always known that this will probably be a lifelong medicine for me - my prescriber is very open that the drugs don’t work if you’re not taking them.

I can’t think of any other drugs that we expect to continue working if we stop them.

its pretty obvious that weight gain is about a lot more than just willpower and self discipline.

im happy to stay on them for life. I take a small dose every 10-14 days now and this keeps my appetite on an even keel.

I can absolutely believe that the weight would go back on for alot of people.
If it works by cutting out food noise anyways.
I was obese most of my life and food noise was a major issue. I lost the weight when perimenopause happened (my food noise was hormone related it turned out). When it comes to food noise for me it was the difference between having zero willpower around food and just not even needing willpower at all.
I mean you can have learned healthy habits on WLIs but if that little voice comes back then good luck sticking to those habits!

Nice work!
I have done before and end up exercise purging afterwards. From the outside I look completely fit, healthy and mentally strong but I really struggle sometimes. It's tough and we're all doing what we think is best at the time

When I read some of the judgemental, ignorant comments here about obesity and weight loss medication I'm grateful that at least there's a jab for my condition.

Don't worry. I ate them for you.