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.

I can only go by my experience- I had to send a time stamped photo of my body and weight showing on scales with feet on display. Photo ID to check I am who I say I am.

The provider also wrote to my GP and my GP has me recorded as obese and I’ve had consultations for it with regular weigh ins. I have engaged with a named GP by email and on the chat function whist taking the medications. They sent me emails and there is an online support function with information.

I can’t imagine how I’d fake my weight (not that I need to!) but accept some may be doing this on other providers (hopefully they get shut down by CQC if not following the regulations).

This ^

It is possible to become overweight without having disordered eating.

Exactly this.

I wouldn’t say effortlessly slim … but I was always within healthy bmi fluctuating by a half stone or so. And I could very easily pull it back if I’d had a bad few months. At some point that changed and I found myself 1.5 stone over “my normal” weight. That’s when I developed the prediabetes. My number is not at all dangerously high. Also not menopause related as far as I know (I’m just 40 and no signs).

But when my doctor told me the only way to combat this was regular exercise and healthy eating, I was quite concerned as I was already doing that. I continued to do it, increased my efforts - no results till now.

I will add I am in not in the UK and I’m sure uk doctors would not have given me this option (but the uk guidelines are so restrictive, understandably, due to costs - not due to health reasons)

I know exactly why I became overweight, I don’t need a psychiatrist to tell me.

Yes, obviously. I have PCOS, I fully understand there is also things like endocrine disorders etc that cause weight gain due to insulin resistance/thyroid dysregulation. But lets be honest, most obesity stems from too many calories in and too few being burned. So many people have an unhealthy relationship with food, whether they realise it or not and, in my opinion, Ozempic and similar drugs are not the answer to that.

It’s a myth that fat people all have disordered eating, or eat a terrible junk food diet, or are ‘addicted’ to food. Usually they just eat more calories than lean people because they feel hungrier. Take away the excess hunger via medication and they eat less, don’t binge, don’t eat more crap than anyone else and lose weight. They aren’t ’greedy and lazy’ or broken, they are usually simply a bit hungrier in a world which makes it very easy for people with a genetic vulnerability to eat more calories. As for that appalling bully Jillian Michaels, there’s a woman who has got rich on fat shaming and the myth that diet and exercise is a sure-fire cure for obesity. No wonder she doesn’t like Ozempic! It’s a commercial rival. The winners of The Biggest Loser overwhelmingly regain all their lost weight and more. This article is a real eye opener https://www.outsideonline.com/health/wellness/the-biggest-loser-reboot/

@Purplerain1234 I know a few paying privately in your position. It’s effectively preventative & possibly even curative as body resets?

What is the answer then? I have repeatedly posted that no one is offering any solutions as to how the obese population should be persuaded to make the lifestyle choices that are needed, but my posts are being ignored. Which suggests no one has any idea.

Is it just weight loss that you think we should "do the old fashioned way " or everything ?

Should we go through childbirth without adequate pain relief
Hope to make it through polio without a vaccine
Pull teeth out instead of filling them
Institutionalise people with mental health conditions instead of providing therapy

Old fashioned is the old way of doing things for a reason. Science moves on. You can get on board with it or not but do read up on new research. It'll blow your mind how the old fashioned way of losing weight DOES NOT WORK for the majority of people. Statistics back this up.

A show where people who are overweight or obese have an injection once a week and lose weight and see their health improve while living a normal life and becoming more able to be active wouldn’t be the ratings winner that gladiatorial fat-baiting is.

@AnitaLoos nailed it & people don’t get the gnawing hunger.

I think this thread proves that if you’ve never been obese or you are not a bariatric specialist, you don’t know what you are talking about!

Some posters clearly don’t understand how impossible it is for an obese person to follow a low calorie diet for a sufficient period of time. We don’t start out eating junk foods and UPF- I bet many of us have healthier diets in terms of nutrition content compared to the wider UK population. Listen to what us experts are telling you!

That’s my hope.

What I was eating for the last year (which I would describe as well balanced, whole foods, with the occasional wine and treat at the weekend) - was enough to maintain my weight.

Therefore I hope when I get back to my usual weight, I can easily maintain at that weight, which keeps my pre diabetes in check. It’s a bit experimental at this stage but I feel such relief that I’m finally seeing some results.

On the stomach fat, yes I am losing weight from here but I am a typical apple shape so that’s where I hold it most.

@PatsyStonesBeehive hormones are what drives me to overeat (by very small amounts actually) I have never binged or suffered trauma, so this doesn’t apply to me and many perimenopause/ menopause women

If I could ask a personal question - is this the first time that you've lost weight or have you managed it before and then put it all back on ? That has been my experience and the same for most overweight women I know. We all know how to lose weight but it just isn't sustainable, for a myriad of reasons. These medications make it sustainable to be in a calorie deficit. If I have to continue to pay to be on this medication for life, it will be worth it for a healthy body.

I think this is so widely discussed because for years we've been told exercise and diet.

And for years many of us have been following that advice, but for some of us it doesn't work. For some people it works for a while and then stops. Some of us have been overweight most of our lives either due to disordered eating patterns followed by our parents, others due to medical conditions (such as PCOS) and due to genetics.

It has been known for a long, long time that whilst dieting can initially work, it is not sustainable. The reasons for that are mentioned so, so many times on this thread by those of us who have tried it the hard way and found that it does not work for us. We know our own bodies and we know our own medical and family histories. Like others on the thread, I have obese ancestors going back through many generations. I also have PCOS which is known to mess up hormones.

I am taking mounjaro. It is very early days and I have decided not to weigh myself but to see how clothes fit etc. I am experiencing very little in the way of side effects.

For your information, I am very aware of the benefits of this medication because, prior to a career change about a decade ago, I spent the best part of 20 years as a researcher in endocrinology in a lab in a very prestigious University. I have no intention of sharing my name, or the specifics of my career, but I have published over 100 papers in the field of...endocrinology. TO get that job I gained a 1st in Biochemistry and a PhD in Molecular Endocrinology. I have since gained an MPH - Masters of Public Health and worked in that field for about 5 years.

I may be fat, but I'm not stupid.

It's the billion dollar question. Food will always be the hardest addiction to crack, because unlike cigs/alcohol/ illegal drugs etc, you can't just remove it to stop temptation. We need food to live. Do we need all the shite that's offered up in supermarkets? Absolutely not. Should we very strictly regulate what's sold to us as "food"? Maybe. Perhaps follow Japan's example and weigh staff every Monday morning in front of everyone and then publicly shame them into weight loss? I don't know what needs done to fix it. But I do stand by what I said earlier about a lot of it being psychological.

I know exactly why I became overweight, I don’t need a psychiatrist to tell me.

Me too, but it looks like that is the new stick with which to beat us...I'm sure some fat people have mental health issues, just as some slimmer people do. Many of us don't.

Actually OP, you're catastrophising and also missing the point completely.

Firstly, the current generation of weight loss medications does not risk shortages for diabetics because these are separate medications. In fact, not all can be taken by diabetics and if you read up more, you would have known.

Secondly, you sound very Daily Mail dramatising over stomach tied up in knots. Like with every medication, there are side effects. For vast majority of people these are minor and far less challenging than obesity-related commorbidities they have to deal with daily. What you're talking about is very rare and highly unlikely and it's a misrepresentation of these medications. In terms of long term side effects - who knows. In reality it is too early to say. But many people suffer with commorbidities now and they will develop into cancers, hypertension, heart disease, bone problems etc. They will, and these are serious problems. We know it already. So it's a balancing act between avoiding the issues we know are coming and unknown risks (albeit they don't appear likely). I don't think you understand how long the process of losing and maintaining healthy weight is for an obese person - it's a lifelong battle, often a losing game, and the comorbidities won't just go away because somebody's been eating well and jogging for 6 months. But they may well go away if somebody's been taking the medication for 6 months alongside positive changes to diet and exercise - and that's the recommended approach.

Thirdly, no, categorically the medication isn't available to everyone, it's actually difficult to be prescribed it on the NHS or privately. There are strict criteria. If somebody's lying to their prescriber then that's their own risk, what does this have to do with you? They can virtually lie about any other condition and they probably do. What can you do? It could be the case we will see walk in clinics and I think this would be very helpful. It would also prevent eating disorders risks you are referring to. We are nowhere near at the stage of this being required yet, however.

Finally, you don't understand what happens when these medications are taken. People do start eating healthy and they move more because unhealthy foods make you feel poorly, as does alcohol. Stabilised glucose reduces sugar cravings. People are more energetic, lighter and willing to move more. Their mood improves, as does cardiac profile. So actually the nutrition and exercise aspects are at the forefront here and they will remain there. I would be delighted to see far less interest in crappy processed foods and manufacturers going bust as a result, roll on!

This is not the case for Boots or Asda. Full body photos are required as well as photos of the person standing on bathroom scales.

You are wrong. Many of us don’t have psychological issues with food. Obviously some people do, but even then, there will be other factors at play. The causes of obesity are complex and multifaceted.

It is used for diabetics I have been prescribed this yesterday to help control the high insulin usage

Regulating what's sold as food doesn't do anything about how much people buy, nor what they do with those ingredients once they have them. There would have to be a much stricter approach than that for it to make any difference. Like rationing, but without the black market. It's completely implausible.

As is the staff weigh in idea. I mean, what are you going to do if one of the people who's overweight decides to get nasty back? What about remote workers? It's just silly.

And the 'a lot' is so vague as to be meaningless. Jillian Michaels, my 600lb life and others who make a lot of money out of fat people say this is hardly a persuasive argument.