All these people taking weight loss appetite suppressant drugs?!!

[OnHerSolidFoundations]

Is it me or is this a bit sinister?

It can and does. But do the effects continue after the medication is stopped? Although if it is a lifelong thing then is that a bad thing? Definitely not for the drug companies! But then it's not as if there's a one off cure for obesity.

Menopause can cause ridiculous weight gain. I know nutritionists and personal trainers who have been blindsided when it happened to them personally.

I think they are amazing. Naturally slim people have no idea what it is like to crave food morning to night. My WL meds (pills not injections) have stopped all the cravings allowing me to sensibly choose healthy foods at each meal, the meds also give me energy which have allowed me to establish a gym routine. I can now think like a naturally slim person. I finish the meds this week after 6month and a 2stone loss and aim to continue to lose weight without the meds now that I have established exercise and eating patterns, I have no doubt the cravings will come back big time but I hope that the healthy habits I've ingrained will override those.

I totally agree. Of course they do.
The company that made this drug, their profits were larger than GDP of Norway last year. The entire country.

This is huge and is going to change the world.

You can't make that pronouncement based on a sample of two people on one occasion.

Come and spend a year with my underweight husband, and watch him trough Mars Bars, biscuits, full fat rice pudding, five mini Swiss rolls at a time - he's been the same weight all his adult life, less than 8 stone, now in his 60s, and still eats no end of sugary junk with no sign of 'middle aged spread'. While I, his fatty wife, gain weight if I eat more than 800 calories a day.

Once the drug is out of patent, and anyone can make generic versions, then they'll make less per year because cheaper versions may exist.

I'm what's known as a 'good doer' in the farming/horsey community...meaning I need very few calories to keep weight on (I would be an excellent native breed pony!). Sadly, I am a human being and the ability to stay fat on minimal food is not such a desirable quality.
After filling out numerous food diaries, seeing dieticians, multiple GP appointments etc where none of them could pinpoint what I was doing wrong (clue...I wasn't doing anything wrong!) they prescribed me wegovy.
Basically it means I can now function on one meal a day (rather than the three small healthy meals prescribed by the dietician that I was eating when I had an appetite!). It means I am automatically fasting without thinking about it, I assume this is how naturally slim people feel.
Not all of us fatties are sat binging Macdonalds 4x a day, in fact some of the most unhealthy eaters I know are the slimmest, they are just lucky!
For those up in arms saying it's as simple as eat less, move more....go and walk to a field with a heard of cows in it during summer. They all eat grass, some will be fat and some will be very thin. All animals metabolise food differently, only us humans see this as a moral failing.

You’re not listening. Your partner has diabetes so he will likely be on the drug for life. You don’t have diabetes so won’t be prescribed it anymore once you reach a weight that puts you in the “normal” range. What will you do when you no longer qualify for this drug and your appetite or food noise returns?

Until at some point it comes out they cause other medical issues and it doesn’t help the nhs at all.

It seems ridiculous to me

Because it is possible to medically manage obesity. Because obesity comes with a whole raft of other health related complications. Because it's not as simple as move more and eat less. Because we all know that your portion of protein should be the size of the palm of your hand.......and it doesn't fecking work. Because many of us have been on every diet, change way of eating, gym and exercise trends there are and it doesn't make a difference. Because there wouldn't be the same stigma or questioning if you were taking medication for diabetes or hypertension, because there is a solution for many that does work, with medications that inhibit or increase certain hour,ones to help with cravings and yes, eating portions too big. I have no issue with it, and wish we treated obesity as a chronic health condition, because it's not a choice for many, and there is a need to help medically.

It’s tricky because we shouldn’t need to be taking medication for weight loss !
what has happened with food industry with fast food processed foods and high costs of clean foods !
The government should not allow what has happened ! Instead of curing the root cause there just adding another problem that will show the effects in decades to come !!
The world in my eyes has gone completely crazy !
If fast food was super expensive and chicken and fish was cheap I think that’s your answer !
And there should be a crackdown on fast food outlets !
And more education on healthy lifestyle .
It’s very hard to lose weight but the benefits of being successful has spurned me on I am 2 stone lighter since October just eating sensible upping protein and veg and limiting my carbs ! It’s not easy specially because most social things are all around eating ! X

@SevenSeasOfRhye yes but these people are anomalies.

Most people who are overweight by their own admission eat too much. Simple.

You don't just inject yourself after eating crappy food. That's not how they work.

Honestly, I think the idea of obesity rates continuing to go up and up is more sinister…

Im taking one of the weight loss injections.

Here’s how I normally feel: always hungry. Always. Absolutely starving. I can eat a big roast dinner - lots of protein, lots of veg - and everyone else at the table says “wow, I won’t need dinner tonight”. But I’ll be starving within 2 hours, maybe 1. Starving meaning I feel really nauseous. Most days I eat 4 full meals, otherwise I literally feel like I can’t function. I was a size 16 by the time I was 16, and over 20 years I’ve slowly gone up to a 24.

Once the weight loss injections started working for me, I found I could eat a meal - a normal, healthy, reasonable portion - and then I felt satisfied afterward. Satisfied! I had never felt that in my life! Honestly I cried the first day it happened. I’ve described how I feel to friends who are slim, or even in the slightly overweight category, and they don’t understand because that’s how food works for them naturally. It’s how good works for the majority of people I’ve spoken to who have lost a stone or two and congratulate themselves on being weight loss experts because of it.

So, no, I’m not cheating. No, it’s not sinister that I need to take these drugs to lose weight. It’s the brilliance of modern science.

Everyone going on about regain, it is of course a concern. But it's a problem with every single weight loss method aside from maybe surgery. The regain stats for these injectibles is no worse than keto, or slimming world or calorie counting. 95% of people who lose weight by any method will regain. So I can stay fat, because there's a high chance I'll regain, or successfully lose weight and fight to maintain it.

Wegovy has been the reset I needed and I'd rather be in the position now of having the challenge of maintenance before me than hating what I see in the mirror every single day.

It's a myth that fast food is cheaper, where I live anyway.

It's an observation. Of course some people will be outliers but for the majority obesity/overweight is a consequence of choices made that add up over time.

It’s not even just the cost !
it’s too convenient!
I’m hungry can’t be arsed to cook go on app and order takeaway ta da pizza arrived in 20 min opposed to cooking lean chicken and some rice it’s because people are more overworked and tired there are so many factors as to why it’s happening ! X

I agree @AhBiscuits that it is no different to other methods of weight loss in that regaining the weight is highly likely without lifestyle changes.

What is concerned is that a lot of people taking Ozempic/Wegovy etc seem to think that it’s a miracle cure when it isn’t. You are knowledgeable about it and have clearly done lots of research into it but others haven’t and it’s concerning they can get private prescriptions for an expensive drug with potentially awful side effects (which I experienced) without knowing the most basic things about it. For example that their appetite WILL return when they stop taking it, the food noise will come back. Sorry to be negative but it’s important to be transparent about things that the pharmaceutical companies don’t highlight.

We don't have all the delivery apps, nor that many takeaways, where I live either. Takeaways are fine in moderation though.

I’m going to (cautiously) wade in here…

I think part of the attraction of weight-loss wonder drugs is the promise of quick results without a lot of effort at the start. If you have a lot of weight to lose, and average around a pound a week loss or less, it takes a long time to see the results, and that can be discouraging. So people give up because they can’t get the satisfaction of obvious weight loss. But over a couple of years, a pound a week adds up to six stone or more. So for at least some people, it’s the quick fix that medication offers: I don’t have to think through my food/exercise/lifestyle choices in the long term, just use a drug that puts me off food, weight falls off, and the other things will fix themselves.

But it IS possible to lose a lot of weight without. It’s very, very slow, takes patience and self-discipline and involves periods when you are hungry and thinking about food all the time. It takes a lot of will-power to say no to that hunger.

Medication is not the only, or necessarily the best, way to approach weight loss. We all make choices about how to do it. I don’t like using medication (for any condition) until I have tried non-chemical routes. If I have a headache, I drink water, get some fresh air or have a nap to see if that works before I take paracetamol. Sometimes, I still need to take the pills. When I wanted to lose weight, I adjusted my diet, exercise and lifestyle, and it worked. If it hadn’t, maybe I might have considered Wegovy - but it did work, just very slowly.

I tried them and they made me very ill. I couldn’t cope with it. People who manage on them def aren’t taking an easy option

People are more willing to put chemicals they don't need or understand into their body than make some basic healthy lifestyle choices.

It is a lot easier to eat healthily if you've got a partner at home whose full time job includes shopping, meal planning and cooking. Not a choice for everyone nowadays even if they wanted to.

My partner is taking mounjaro weight loss injections …he had diabetes type 2 and it helps with that and weight loss which is fantastic..you can only do it for 6 months …not for life …it’s working