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.

What actual planet are you on? There would be no such thing as poverty if people could somehow magically 'find' the money for whatever they needed.

Oh come on, you're not doing yourself any favours.

Some people genuinely have nothing to work with. I'm fortunate to be able to find the money, and so were you. But that's not applicable to everyone, it just isn't.

I do prioritise Mounjaro over other things on months when I'm tight, but if there's no fat to trim so to speak, you can't trim it - however much you might want to.

@Anyahyacinth great post! And what a leap. Because this is exactly what happened to me. My son needed to be assessed and by fuck I was not waiting years for him to be done through the education system. So, yes, I took on extra work and paid for it privately. I would like you to explicitly point out to me where I make any point in any post where it shows this I say NOT doing this shows a lack of care. I do not. What I say is - if it’s important to you, you find the money. Which is what I did. And what I will always continue to do

I answered this a couple of times. I'm absolutely saving the amount I spend on WLI's on food. Without question. That and more probably.

But by the same token, there are people here that have said they wouldn't be anywhere close. So yes, very possible. But no, not for everyone.

I lost 6 stone on mounjaro and then ended up in hospital with acute cholecystitis thanks to gallstones that had formed due to (WLI induced) rapid weight loss

this is just so difficult to understand for me. You write it like you were a passenger, and not the person buying the drugs and injecting yourself each week to rapidly lose weight.

the drugs have a half life of 5 days, you need to inject weekly. Everyone knows safe weight loss. If you can’t eat enough you dial back or stop.

the rapid weight loss wasn’t weight loss injection induced, it was induced by you.

@Donteatmychips Do you not recognise that some people do not have the capacity, capability or ability to take on extra work?

@MyLuckyHelper really? I don’t consider the great personal sacrifices I have made to be ‘luck’. I would have loved to have been able to pick my DC up from school each day and Ben home for dinner and clubs. I would have liked to be there for holidays and weekends - as would they have. But that was a sacrifice I decided to make, not luck

You absolutely have to realise that what is possible for you, is not possible for everyone. Someone unable to work - lets say as a full time carer for example - wouldn't be able to just up their hours, or get another job.

If you refuse to acknowledge that, it makes all of your argument look silly.

Is it not more fatties berating ex fatties for taking rhe jabs and telling them how much they are risking, how old they will look and how they will have lumpy boobs, shit themselves and end up in dire consequences?

True, there's room for a lot of ridiculous threads like this before it gets anywhere near parity with the other side of the coin lot you describe here. Wouldn't it be nice if we didn't have either!

Find the money how? I literally can't "find the money" . I'm glad you were able to. But many many people can't.

@MyLuckyHelper did I make a blanket statement about everyone? I thought I was talking about myself.

I read your contributions and formed my opinion.

@Verv but I was asking the opinion of others. The thread was not about my opinions

You've got a nerve claiming other posters on this thread are "misinformed"!

Aye aye.

Given that you're such an expert in my weight loss perhaps you can help with the following -

How long was I on Mounjaro?
What dose was I on and how long did i stay on each dose?
How many pounds did I lose a week?

I really can't remember saying, so perhaps you can fill in the gaps for the assembly on my behalf.

Maybe, just maybe, if we didn’t spend so much time questioning the bodies and choices of other women, they wouldn’t feel shit enough to take drugs to try and drop the weight quickly rather than sensibly.

Maybe.

And blaming people for their side-effects. It's inhumane.

I am an "other" and you've had my opinion.

As for those debating WLI's - do it if you can afford it and are comfortable with the risks.
Don't if you can't and aren't.
But don't succumb to anybody outside of your shoes judging you for your size, or the decisions you make regarding it.

You did, yes. See the above quote...from you:

What I say is - if it’s important to you, you find the money

Please share with us all where this vast magic money tree forest is where we can all find the money when we need it. Pretty please. 🙏

I have no idea why you've tagged me in a post about luck, that's the first time I've heard it mentioned.

But as you asked...your health, allowing you to go to work every day, in a job that paid you enough to live well on, is your luck.

I'm very surprised by that, unless you were hugely overeating in the past.

I'm losing weight on WLIs and making better food choices, saving some money in the process, but I'm not covering the cost of the jabs in food savings. I'm not disbelieving you but I'm struggling to work out how it's possible.

You have a very strange way of interpreting what I wrote so I would draw your attention to "thankful for the push I paid to get out of the obesity danger zone and would probably do it again" and "you and I injected our way out of it, many women cannot"

When you are obese, any decrease in appetite and eating results in a quick fast loss. This can be through WLI's or calorie counting.
More to the point, my most rapid loss was on the 2.5mg dose which was quite literally all it took to get the weight tumbling.

I made an absolute choice to use WLI's, and I ended up with a side effect that is presenting itself in many women.

If the rapid weight loss was induced by me, so be it. I don't remember complaining while i was relaying the facts.

A removed gallbladder is not as dangerous to long term health than obesity.

With that in mind do you actually have a point?

I was hugely overeating. Which is why I was Class II obese.

My Mounjaro is £113/month (although I use it to get 5 doses, not 4), so costs me £22.60 per week. I was probably eating that in junk food most days. I was obviously eating 3 meals a day, plus a family bag of crisps, family size bar of chocolate, cake, other crisps, a pizza for a late night snack. Takeaways at least 4 days a week.

So I am absolutely saving that and much much more by now only eating 3 meals a day.

If you're only just tipping into the overweight category, then the drugs are not for you, and the health implications outweigh any benefit.

There is increasing evidence that this isn’t true. The benefits for cardiovascular health, which is a major cause of ill health and death, are looking to be considerable, over and above the effects of any weight loss from using wli.

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/oct/weight-loss-drug-helps-heart-regardless-amount-weight-lost