All these weight loss drugs... surely we are heading towards disaster?

[shellswirl]

So as we all know there are various weight loss drugs that have become very popular in recent months.

It seems like the whole of Hollywood is using it.

Even regular people are spending huge amounts of money on it from online pharmacies.

I get that these drugs might be useful for certain people with real medical conditions, but really a lot of people are using it as a quick fix to be thin.

With no consideration to side effects or future health. And without thinking about what happens when you stop it?

Surely the best way to lose weight involves no drugs. No fad diets. But exercising more, moving more, eating a balanced diet. Retraining your brain and finding food and exercise you enjoy.

I say this as an overweight person too! Surely there are other ways.

If every other person is taking these drugs won't there be a huge pool of people to monitor side effects etc?

Aibu to say the whole thing makes me feel very uneasy.

Mounjaro has calmed my adhd dopamine chasing brain so that I just eat normally. I came off it for two weeks and it was hell

Thanks to Mounjaro I can’t even seem to finish my wine. And can’t remember when I last had chocolate. I just don’t think about it anymore.

havent had any side effects except possibly teeth grinding

These medications have their place if prescribed and used properly. I don’t think they should be widely available to whoever wants to lose a few pounds. Obesity is a serious medical condition that increases the risk of many other illnesses. If these drugs work and it seems like they do, then I support that.

I can’t see people injecting themselves with this medication for years on end, it’s not a very pleasant thing to do. The 3 month reset programme is probably the most feasible course.

It’s perfectly enjoyable

@BruFord isn't the point though that it works in conjunction with better diet and eating less as it helps to decrease appetite- it doesn't just melt the fat away on its own- I have a bad feeling that some people it won't work for because that reduction in appetite won't register as eating (and drinking in some cases) is very much a mental issue with some people and a self soother - I may of course be wrong.

You really are coming across as very arrogant in your posts, like you somehow know better than everyone else.

"If I was president of the world, I'd" do x y and z 🙄Well you're not president of the world, there is no president of the world and there's been many people who actually work with people with obesity who obviously wish they could change x, y and z to make things easier for people or to make people to stick to stuff but they can't....so they move with the times and use medication if there is some available which can make a difference.

It's the same with all sorts of other things that professionals treat, diseases, illnesses, viruses....

I'm sure it is being abused, but isn't a lot of medication?
I don't think people should be able to buy it online and I do think that the person should need to go to a doctor and have blood tests etc.

As for your last paragraph, for many it seems that the benefit to this is so great also. With cancer without the drugs it will spread and get worse.
With obesity without the drugs the same is likely to be true, many people will become more obese, their health with get worse, their mobility with get worse, they will have other illnesses etc.

This is wrong. It reduces appetite but also food noise so you lose interest in stuffing your face to cheer yourself up. Just as you don’t fancy wine.
it also seems to make fat just disappear. I can eat what would usually be a maintenance amount and lose now.

Injecting medicine is the easiest way to take any! It doesn't hurt, it's quick, works quicker, and it isn't something you have to remember to do multiple times per day. There is nothing unpleasant about it.

Tbh, @Crikeyalmighty, I don’t know how these drugs work. All I know is that my SIL became obese nearly 20 years ago and is now morbidly obese, so her situation isn’t improving. I wouldn’t be surprised if she dies before 60 unless something changes.

same. I took my first dose of Mounjaro and by the next morning I’d stopped obsessing about food. I eat my healthy meals, a snack if I feel peckish, and that’s it. I had a chocolate biscuit a few days after starting and after a few bites I threw it out. Without getting a “hit” from it I didn’t want it. If I was greedy, lazy or stupid a medication wouldn’t help me would it. Modern medicine produces game changing drugs. I don’t know why people have to be so doom and gloom. Many drugs people rely on now were newly developed once.

its also really insulting to insinuate that people haven’t educated themselves before taking it. Yes of course you get some dimwits but I’m fat not thick, I’m able to read and comprehend data and make up my own mind.

a lot of opinions going around here that are clearly deeply uninformed

If I was greedy, lazy or stupid a medication wouldn’t help me would it

Exactly!

@kkloo read the full thread... several people asked me directly. "What do you propose instead?" So I answered

The side affects are what puts me off. I’d never forgive myself if in 10 years I ended up with organ damage or something just because I took ‘the easier route’. So I’ll just keep chipping away at it, in a calorie deficit and slowly losing it. It didn’t go on overnight and it won’t come off overnight either. Am I tempted? Yes, who wouldn’t love an easier way. But it’s not worth the potential risk in my opinion

Yes, they seem to work on the cravings anecdotally but think investigated in other situations e.g. alcohol misuse, can imagine same for drugs. Could be revolutionary if so, especially given the issues over the pond.

For people that are morbidly obese, it's a mental condition. They would be better off with therapy etc.

Because what are they going to do once they are at goal weight? Stop the injections and get fat again? If they don't stop them, what happens? They waste away to nothing? Do they level out and maintain? Does anyone even know?

Are there guidelines on how to come off them and not get fat again?

What happens if you stay on them for life? What happens if you don't?

Know one knows and that's why I wouldn't take them.

Remember thalidomide? The current blood scandal? They said all that was safe. They said smoking was safe. They said asbestos was safe.

Til they weren't.

Mumsnet has a huge amount of traffic.

Pharmaceutical companies are making a huge amount of money from these drugs.

Do how many of these replies are real? Well I guess we’ll never know.

I'll take whole foods and a slower rate of loss over this shit.

And you can! No one will ever force you to use medication. But you can’t make decisions for other people 🤷🏻‍♀️.

My GP was all for me trying Mounjaro. I went to her first to ask her opinion and am happy to pay the £140 a month. I am a snacker and was piling on the weight due to no longer being able to exercise so much because of arthritis , waiting on a knee replacement and the dreaded menopause. I have made sure I am eating a balanced diet, plenty of fruit,veg, protein and calcium . Sticking to around 1,200-500 calories a day. But the urge to snack has completely gone . I just don’t fancy anything naughty ,the interest in food has gone and I eat normally. No side effects apart from feeling slightly nauseous in the first week. I’m 2 stone down and got the spring back in my step . Another 3-4 stone to go depending on how I feel . I’ve been on the starter dose for 4 weeks and am about to go to the next dose up. It’s working for me and I’m very happy about it . I was heading down a very unhealthy road, and with heart disease in the family I had to do something drastic when nothing else worked

@Bringbackthebeaver
I suppose the difference is that semaglutide (Ozempic/Wegovy) was first discovered in 2012 (by a guy who still works at the company, Novo Nordisk0 with the first clinical trials (human studies) starting in 2015. It was approved for use in diabetes in 2015. So it has obviously had a much longer time being investigated than the Covid vaccine did.

Some people on here seem really pissed off at the thought of others being able to lose weight easily!

These drugs reduce the desire to eat crap though- I have pretty much stopped eating junk food, I've just lost interest in it. Food that I used to force myself to eat to "be healthy", actually appeals to me and I choose to eat it.

Obviously, it's entirely your choice to try to lose
weight however you like. But tbh, in 10 years you'll most likely be in exactly the same place you are now, struggling with your weight.

Or tomorrow you'll be off to Boots to ask them how much it costs....😅

So it's only been around for 12 years? And tested on humans even less? So these are unprecedented times. And no one knows the long term effects?

All I can say is good luck people, you'll probably need it.