To consider a private prescription for appetite suppressants?

[whatkatydid2013]

I was listening to someone interviewed on radio 4 who had a trial with one of the new drugs you can inject weekly that help sue press appetite. I’m wondering if having a prescription for that to run alongside going back to a diet club of some kind would help as it might mean I wasn’t always feeling hungry. I usually have a good first 2-3 months but then go off the rails and struggle to get started again. Has anyone ever tried these and if so did they help you stick with it for longer so you could actually lose all the weight you need to? For context I’m clinically obese so want to lose for health vs aesthetic reasons and I’d want to lose 5-6 stone in total. Have successfully lost 2-3 many times but always end up gaining it back and I’m always hungry but not totally convinced it’s real hunger vs some kind of compulsion to eat and definitely I sometimes binge. I just wonder if this would be enough to help get past that hump stage you hit when longer term dieting.

I had a look last night - about £45 a week (single injection pen)

I read yesterday that the nhs has been instructed by nice to prescribe a new drug for weight to anyone with a BMI of over 35 and a weight related disease. It's not stocked yet but should be arriving soon. It's not a doctors choice, they must prescribe it.

However, it must be given only if the recipient is committed to a change in eating patterns and undertakes some form of exercise.
So I guess the questions are, do you qualify, would you change your eating and exercise patterns and can you wait a couple of months yo get it on the nhs?

I don’t think I would qualify as I don’t have any weight related diseases (it seemed to me like a good idea to try and do something before I got one and the cost isn’t unmanageable). I know I can change my eating habits as I’ve lost weight lots of times. I struggle to keep going and find it really tough feeling constantly hungry (which I start to after having a calorie deficit for a long period). I already do a reasonable amount of exercise (weekly sea swims, some cycling, quite a lot of walking). I do worry though that a significant element of my issues is emotional eating and maybe this wouldn’t help with that.

I lost 3 stone on it last year and just started it again to shift the rest

I use saxenda and it's a daily injection. USD alongside calorie controlled diet it definitely works. Pricey tho

I've lost almost 2 stone since January using ozempic. 2 more to go. Its changed my life

Are you in the pre-diabetes range? That counts as one of the illnesses?

If you can afford it definitely give it a go. Food addiction is just like other addictions and people need help to prevent obesity related conditions later in life. Its YOUR life so do what you want. You don't need to seek permission from anyone but the medic prescribing.

I take it by must prescribe that you could still refuse it?

Have a look at the ozempic threads on here. You'll find them helpful.

What happens when you stop using the injections though? It's not something you have to use for life is it?

Wegovy (the one that has been licensed by the NHS) is v similar to ozempic. There are a few threads in weight loss chat with people’s experiences of that - the most active are “I started ozempic last night” and we’re on thread three, but worth reading the earlier ones for peoples’ starting experiences

If you want to and you can afford it, why not? Though I'd maybe keep it quiet at your diet club until you get the lie of the land. It might not go down well with others.

Most of the studies found that participants of the trials gained around 2/3rds of the weight back after stopping the treatment

Haha. Yes. I wrote that badly, but I meant that the doctor can't decide not to offer it because he doesn't agree with it or something like that. However, you do have to commit to lifestyle change and I think you have to be on a weight management programme. The NHS has got 3 months to set these up but it's the NHS so when they'll be available in reality...🤷

If people regain it after ceasing treatment wouldn’t it be easier to address the emotional eating?

I’m in a similar boat - my worry is the thyroid cancer risk (I have two small children) and that I overeat not because I’m hungry but because of habit/ emotions/ having been on a diet since 11 & all the fat shaming diet rhetoric that came with that

The professor on the programme said some people would have to take it for life , like other drugs you might have to take for life eg statins.
He said obesity is a disease and the drug is not a cure as such.
Maybe we need more research on the psychological aspects of obesity.
My friend had a bypass but wasn't offered any counselling and still tries to over eat.

My understanding was it would be prescribed by secondary care weight management clinics. I'm on something similar prescribed by endocrinology - dulaglitide - and I've lost 3 stone in 7 months, even with issues that cause weight gain. It's halved my appetite, but does come with some side effects - nausea is the worst one.

For me, the low carb diet acts as a natural appetite suppressant. After I have breakfast (2 eggs, spinach, tomatoes, mushroom), I don't fancy anything until around 2-3pm. Then I have a healthy lunch and don't fancy anything until dinner time. I don't calorie count.

For me carbs are addictive and the more I eat of bread/pasta/sugar/rice, the more I want. Now I barely think about them.

Is this the one that you can't take with thyroid issues? Linked to thyroid tumours or a different one? I think I looked at one but I have a thyroid issue so couldn't take it even if I went ahead with it.
There's lots on the weight loss page about weight loss injections and tracking progress.

If your issues are around binge eating have you thought about trying to tackle the causes and make healthy replacements for that? I'm an emotional eater and definitely want to try and address my mindset about that to lose weight longer term.

I've started the tablet form of wegovy (can't remember the proper name) so far I still feel hungry....hopefully less so as the dose increases!

Only thing I'd worry about is what happens when you stop taking them.

I'd suggest the injections plus therapy to get to the bottom of why you want to eat a lot. What feels like hunger is often emotional hunger.

I feel like through my teens/20s I managed to keep on top of things by being strict about what I ate for a period as soon as clothes got tight and I thus never gained enough for it to take ages to remedy. After my first I lost the weight but I then had a period of no sleep while working full time and gained lots, then fell pregnant again and by the time my second arrived I was just so overweight I’ve massively struggled to stick with it. If I could get back to my pre pregnancy weight or close to that then do same as I always did pre kids that feels like it would be manageable. It’s sticking with a calorie deficit long term I’ve really struggled with and then feeling like when it goes wrong it’s just hopeless as I’ve failed when nowhere near the end. I’m hoping not being hungry would help me stick with it long enough to get there as a one off. I’m working on the emotional side of it already but breaking the habits and connections there is slow going and challenging and I honestly don’t know if I can do it. I wish I did as I suspect knowing you could do it would help. So frustrating how your own mind sabotages you at times and even though you know it’s happening you can’t seem to stop it. Am off to read some of the threads on it now and thanks (should have searched before posting)

No. I’ve been checked at work recently and blood sugars and cholesterol are fine. Blood pressure is fine. I’m not currently having issues but assume that can’t last forever.

That's good news, @whatkatydid2013. Much better to not have diabetes and pay, I can assure you. I hope you find something that works for you.