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 was quoting Voy, but OK.

She was just curious! Isn’t a woman allowed to be curious about other people’s weight and personal choices anymore?! 😂

I’d say I’ve responded incredibly well to it. No side effects at all, never had to go up a dose and it works almost as well now as it did when I started a year ago. I’ve lost on average 2.3lb/week. So yes, at the higher end but not freakishly rapid. This does obviously include th disproportionate drop in the first month (as I have every time I lose weight, that’s not unique to this).

😂😂😂😂 my bad

voy have said you can carry on eating as you were when you were obese and see rapid weight loss? Couldn’t screenshot that bit for me could ya?

Wow, they need to be reported. That’s so wrong, I’m not sure if they haunt these boards many of them do, so if they are they need ro explain themselves. That’s so irrepressible and they could lose their licence.

Money and fear of side effects and media hype

The claim Voy are making is fantastically devoid of specifics. They have a graph showing 6 months along the X axis but the Y axis has no scale or label. There are no other values indicated on the lovely downward lines other than the claim that the end point is 5x more than the diet and exercise alone line. Without knowing the specifics no one could say whether the weight loss Voy are advertising is rapid or not.

Ok I think I see the disconnect, you think 5 times more means rapid. It doesn’t. Many people struggle to lose weight through diet and exercise, losing and gaining the same few pounds. I think you’ve misunderstood.

up to five times more will be accurate for some but thay doesn’t mean rapid. It doesn’t mean if you lose 2 lbs a week you lose 10 a week with voy

it meqns if you diet for 10 months you might lose one stone on your own,but 5 with boy.

@Donteatmychips You can keep trying to engage me about whatever "facts" you think ive missed, but I'll just keep refering you back to the final parts on my original post which i'm happy to reiterate in case you've forgotten.

This thread, OP, is shit.
You've clearly been obsese. You know how it feels for women. You probably also know the shame judgement self loathing and and hopelessness.
You and i injected our way out of it. Many women cannot.
What are you doing judging them, making them defend themselves over it, and contributing further to the misery of obesity.
"Im just asking, im just curious" head tilt breezy breezy.
Give it a rest. You're the ex fat girl joining ranks with the same kind of bitches that made your life hell.

You so miss the point of what WLIs do for people. I'm doing cardio and a mild-moderate calorie deficit whilst taking mounjaro. I am losing weight at the rate of about a lb a week. What I'm not doing is trying to put food - any food - in my mouth continually - food really no longer interests me after a lifetime of not being able to stop thinking about it. It's that which is making the difference and pushing the weightloss forwards. Nothing else.

So who did collect your children from school, take them to clubs and put them to bed?

Because for me to pay someone to do those things to allow me to work extra hours, would negate the extra I earned!

I said up thread that my aunt and cousin both had gall stones which their surgeon attributed to their weight-loss on slimming world, it wasn't slimming world per session, but the weight-loss that caused it. I suspect that WLI are more likely to lead to gall stones because they work well and require less "willpower" (I put in quotes because I don't really believe in willpower) than other diet types, so of 100 people on WLI and 100 people on slimming world the % who actually lose a meaningful amount of weight will be higher.

I'd be very interested in an actual study though.

Plenty of posters on this thread are misinformed!

Do you mean pancreatitis? Because WLI do not increase the risk of pancreatic cancer (or any other cancer). They do list pancreatitis as one of the rarer side effects though.

If the drugs themselves don't carry a risk of pancreatitis, gallstones (often requiring removal of the gallbladder), or gastroparesis, etc etc, why are such things listed by their manufacturers' as potential adverse effects?

The drug companies are making billions. They don't list adverse effects for no reason. This is considered fair warning.

It does sound as if you, as well as another poster, are blaming patients who experience severe adverse side-effects.

I am on a GLP1 for diabetes, so it's prescribed (only a low dose though) but I couldn't afford to pay for it. £100 or more a month when you are struggling to pay your electricity bill is just not possible!

Some people are worried about the side effects.
Some people are worried about having to inject themselves
Some people don't see being fat as a problem

There are all sorts of reasons!

Meh these are tiny rare risks and linked to the weight loss or gain rather than the drug but that’s why it needs to go on, if you’re using for weight loss. It’s not for those who don’t use for weight loss ie diabetics.

but the risks of obesity are not rare or tiny, as said we know it’s the leading cause of cancer, we also know about stroke heart attack diabetes, skeletal degradation, fatty liver disease, etc etc

I don’t think I’ve ever seen another fatal disease where you have a prescription med to cure it, with an excellent safety record, not one person has died due to direct and correct usage of legitimate product out of over 50 million and people havering on about potential tiny and rare risks.

it’s like a parallel universe. And compare that to nurofen where 2000 die a year.

The fact that these risks are listed by manufacturers doesn’t automatically mean they’re all caused by the drug itself in a direct way.

Patient information leaflets are designed to cast a very wide net, they include anything observed in trials, reported after use or considered biologically plausible. Even where causation isn’t fully established.

With GLP1 medications like Mounjaro or Ozempic, some of the risks being discussed are indirect rather than direct drug toxicity.

As we’ve discussed a few times now, gallstones (for example) are a well known consequence of rapid weight loss regardless of how that weight loss is achieved. Pancreatitis is already more common in people with obesity or type 2 diabetes, which makes it harder to pin down causation.

That’s why these events are listed: not to suggest a cause & effect in every case, but to ensure patients are fully informed of any credible or observed risk.

There’s certainly no blame placed on people that experience side effects by me, and I’m not sure where you would be able to draw that conclusion from in anything I’ve written.

But acknowledging the difference between correlation and causation is important here & that’s not to dismiss or blame people who experience adverse side effects, it’s about being honest about what the evidence actually shows. Which, to date, is not that these drugs themselves are dangerous.

Meh these are tiny rare risks and linked to the weight loss or gain rather than the drug but that’s why it needs to go on, if you’re using for weight loss. It’s not for those who don’t use for weight loss ie diabetics.

Yet more of your misinformation.

Same risks for diabetic use listed:
Pancreatitis
Gastroparesis, or stomach paralysis
Bowel obstruction
Ileus, or intestinal paralysis
Gallstones and gallbladder inflammation
Acute kidney damage
NAION (or in diabetics, a worsening of diabetes-related eye problems)
etc

There's also a boxed warning for risk of thyroid C-cell tumours. Some carry psychiatric warnings for increased suicidal ideation, or so I've heard.

Both groups of users have an increased risk of nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, severe constipation, and other digestive problems.

There are reasons why people don't start on them or stop using them, and it is not just because they are too stupid or too poor to continue, as the OP seems to be saying.

Gosh you’re so angry and aggressive, these drugs really do have you in a spin. It is not misinformation, it’s the same warning for both as they don’t package and sell it differently

I think I’d take some time out to work out why you’re so furious we can take these drugs, is it as you can’t access them?

I think you must be projecting! I feel perfectly calm.

I wrote a factual list, to the best of my ability. I am sure you could write a better one using the product information you have at hand for your particular brand. But the fact remains, there are no magical side-effects for one use and none for the other - magically, being weight loss. The side-effects risk/benefit profile is very different for diabetics as the disease of diabetes can have such serious side-effects.

Pardon me, but doesn't this statement

It is not misinformation, it’s the same warning for both as they don’t package and sell it differently

(yeah, that's what I posted)

contradict this one?

Meh these are tiny rare risks and linked to the weight loss or gain rather than the drug but that’s why it needs to go on, if you’re using for weight loss. It’s not for those who don’t use for weight loss ie diabetics.

No, side effects are side effects are side effects and go on the leaflet. Some are witnessed in weight loss patients and not in diabetics

who gives a shit though, like seriously. I don’t. I give a shit about the very significant and life threatening risks of obesity, not stressing over tiny rare effects of the drugs which cure it.

i find it really odd how some folks assess risk.

If that is the case, what was the meaning of your word salad statement, which said the opposite?

PS: I am not assessing risk, you just seem to grab words at random. And I am not as you suggested angry or jealous - sorry, furious! - "so furious we can take these drugs, is it as you can’t access them?" - as I don't need to lose weight.

I'll leave you to monster the next poster who tries to reason on this thread.