Why are many severely overweight people not using GLP-1 treatments?

[Donteatmychips]

Just a pondering when I was on a day out yesterday. I know of course that there is an economic cost to GLP1s, but is there really really any excuse to such widespread obesity these days? I was walking around a seaside town and a National Trust property, and I would say a good half of those around were still large. I understand they are not that easily prescribed on the NHS, but I believe you can shop around and find deals from various online pharmacies. Is it just more that people don’t want to?

For full disclosure, I am on a GLP1 that I acquired elsewhere by walking into a pharmacy and just asking for it. Yes, it cost a lot of money and I know I am lucky to be in a position to have done that. I fought being on one for a long time and it’s not a magic bullet, but it does help and I’m grateful for that.

I know that modern versions of obesity are skewed, but I am talking really about people maybe 250lbs or over now, not just a stone to lose.

I haven’t yet, I’ve only lost 7lbs. Loads more to go!

But lots of people can and do, a colleague lost 5 stone about 3 years ago and hasn’t yet put it back on - she’s currently pregnant and still hasn’t.

I by no means think it’s easy, or possible for everyone, but I think you’re ignoring the whole group of people who can and do lose without WLI.

I've lost over 50% of my starting weight (22st) over 90 odd weeks on Mounjaro. There's a whole thread of people in the Weight Loss Injections/Treatments topic who have more than 10st to lose, who are at similar numbers to me or well on the way.

This is hands down & though I detest the word the most cuntish comment I have seen on here. Shame on you.

@Frequency where was the sales pitch from @Firesidechatter ? I don't see how her explanation of why people may decide to use WLI is "pushing" anything.

Why are so many people using this £300 a month figure? MedExpress starts at £180 for 2.5mg, £190 for 5mg up to £309 for the highest dose of 15mg. Many people don’t need to move up from the lower doses. I’ve lost 5 stone on 2.5mg. If you split doses it’s even less (eg use a 5mg pen for 2.5mg doses, cost £90 a month).

I thought about this again, and actually maybe some of the people you see are on them but because they are obese you cannot tell.

E.g. if I started tomorrow and lost a stone, I would still be obese.

£90 is still a great deal to a lot of people.
£90 still perhaps pays for something that the person values more than this if they are not feeling particularly unhealthy.

No-one needs to "excuse" themselves to you. HTH.

So what if it "evens out" if you don't have it up front? Heat or eat...or weight loss drugs? Come on now.

£90 a month is still more than I could afford. Bmi is only 28 so not a full fatty by the OPs account but still.

Yes, but there’s a lot of people who couldn’t afford £300 who could afford £90. I was questioning why people keep quoting the highest cost not the one many people pay.

Also, you can offset a £90 cost a lot easier than a £300 cost. As I said earlier, I save more on food than I spend on wli. I appreciate everyone’s before and after diets are different but I can’t believe I’m the only person who ate a healthy nutritious diet whilst obese but just with too many puddings and treats on top. Well, obviously I’m not, as other people on this thread have said their food bill has reduced. It does seem controversial to say that eating less food costs less money than eating more food, I don’t really understand why. £90 a month is £3 a day. It’s really not difficult to spend an extra £3 a day on crisps, cakes, a bar of chocolate, snacks in cafes etc.

And yes of course there will be some people who are obese whilst only eating home cooked healthy meals with no biscuits, cakes, snacks etc, but honestly I believe these are very much the minority.

Agree because if you're just eating very big portions of otherwise nutritious food, its not so much an emotional dependency and would be far easier to just reduce portions, without a noticeable change to your diet, than if you are entirely overhauling your diet, removing frequent takeaways/snacks etc. Even if you're just reducing the amount you eat, it would naturally follow you're spending less. But not to the extent that it would counterbalance the cost of WLIs.

Of course if you don't have it upfront it won't help. But for me for example if I get paid on 1st month and usually spend £400/month on food, but this month choose to spend £113 of it on WLI on 1st May, as I'm eating far far less, I won't need the full £400 for food, so won't be out of pocket, or stumping up money I didn't have as I'd have had that money earmarked for food anyway.

Obviously every single case is different and that won't apply to everyone, but that's my personal experience, so just saying it can be done. If you're choosing between heating and eating, obviously you've not got the money to spend on much of anything - so it's a non starter.

Well then surely they wouldn't be considering it 😂I don't think anyone has said £90 is /isn't a lot of money. The other poster was saying it's a bit disingenuous to keep quoting the figure as £300 when very few people will be paying that.

That would rely on absolute certainty of it working.

My mum is currently on week 2 of 2.5mg and has had absolutely no change to her appetite, so would be spending the same on food having already laid out money for a WLI that wasn’t working.

She’d then have to move up a dose, which costs more, and make the same gamble.

As it happens, she gets hers on the NHS and probably could afford to take that risk anyway, but if you’re budgeting very specifically and closely, it’s a bigger risk to take.

Because having the temerity to exist as a fat person is the easiest way to piss off judgemental twats like the OP.

Off to read the thread now.

@ChunkyMonkey36 No change of appetite on week 2 of 2.5mg isn't a WLI that isn't working, as the 2.5mg dose is treatment initiation and isn't expected to produce significant weight loss for the majority. Some people do respond immediately, but that isn't the norm despite what gets posted online. But I appreciate that working as intended still means no reduction in her food bill for the first month at least.

I wouldn't argue that WLI are affordable for the large majority. They can be afforded by many, but there will be very many other people who are priced out of trying them. I don't think it's sensible to argue that people on lower incomes could afford them by the cost being offset by a cheaper food bill.

Why couldn't it be easy? It's taken me a year to lose 8 stone on WLI, took me a year to lose 7 without them. One was an awful year, one wasn't.

You’ve got things like Varenicline for smoking and Buprenorphine for opioids - they make getting on top of those addictions more manageable. Why can't the same be done for food addiction?

I can’t grasp why anyone would think I’m trying to sell it to randoms on the internet. I don’t work for a pharma company or even in that industry, I have absolutely no skin in the game as to whether strangers take the injections, don’t take the injections, stay fat, don’t stay fat, have surgery, don’t have surgery. I literally don’t care, I’m simply joining a discussion.

Oh yeah it's definitely a gamble on it working, you're right there. Although if it didn't and you had no money for food, you'd reduce your calorie intake still (I'm joking and absolutely not suggesting this before I get jumped on 😂).

You're 1000% right, if you don't have the money, you don't have it.

How is it possible that you cannot lose heart muscle with mounjaro? You can lose hair, you can lose muscle, you can lose bone, you can be so malnourished you develop osteoporosis and sarcopenia. The heart is a muscle and anorexics lose heart muscle through insufficient nutrition, so why is mounjaro magic beans all of a sudden?

I think can't was probably a bit too absolute. Of course you can. Anything is possible. But it's not a typical or expected outcome on WLIs, any more than with any other weight loss method. Heart muscle loss is typically associated with extreme malnutrition. Anorexia isn't really comparable with medically managed weight loss.

@icecreamflowers Mounjaro doesn’t make you have all those things, I have lost 11st and none of those things have happened to me, bar the temporary hair loss which has long since resolved. And that can happen after any weight loss so not specific to WLI. Being on Mounjaro is not the same as being anorexic. Obviously.

Personally (and I do accept this may be personal) I don’t believe in taking WLI just because it’s difficult to lose weight without them.

Of course it is, or can be, I didn’t fall over and land in a load of carbs to put it on in the first place. Just like how smoking is an addiction, but it’s an addiction nobody forced me to have.

I do smoke, and would try quitting without medication too, because I’m accountable for the fact I smoke to begin with, and I’d be accountable for stopping. I couldn’t imagine resorting straight for medication because it’s “difficult.”

I do appreciate for many it’s a last resort, or because they’ve tried losing and maintaining loss themselves multiple times, or because of health concerns. But “it’s just difficult without” isn’t the same IMO.

Personally the circumstances I’d consider WLI don’t have anything to do with difficulty, it would have to be either genuinely impossible or too dangerous health wise to do it without. It wouldn’t be about ease.