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.

Meh. I have been overweight/ borderline obese all my adult life. Always fit, played at a sports club, and tried every diet going. I have been taking Mounjaro on and off for a year now. I initially lost 25lbs and I have taken 4 shots since the end of Jan to maintain.

When I first started, I had some nausea and headaches, now I have no side effects at all, other than not being hungry. Sex drive is high ( normal.for me) but I am also drinking less alcohol. You don't feel the need for the next drink as much.

MJ was GLP 2 for diabetes initially, now they have released Zepbound in the US, which is exactly the same drug but marketed for weightloss. Prob to do with their insurance system.

I am not.lying when I say it changed my life. I am just in the normal weight range. I love my clothes and body, but most importantly, all my blood work is so much healthier. Have best body and health at 50, then ever before.

YANBU

Needing drugs to control your weight can’t be a good thing.
Stop eating so much and move more- that’s what I need to do!
I work with someone who has lost 7 stone, it’s taken years of hard work but she’s fit, healthy and happy.

It’s no doubt useful in some cases but not all.
I wonder if there will be a fallout in years to come.

With the exception of the odd corner case where the individual has a glandular problem, or some kind of endocrine disorder which effectively forces their body to store too much or not know how to burn it off, I think the problem is people love shortcuts and don't want to put the effort in. Which has been the case for decades at this point. It's laziness and entitlement. But it makes the pharmaceutical companies happy. Lots of depressed, overweight people to make money off of.

It also saves a lot of money, too. For the health care system.

It still doesn't add up for me

I think they are great drugs for morbidly obese people and diabetics... the alternatives if you do nothing are terrible

They are not suitable for the celeb or regular person that wants to drop from a 14 to a 10 in my eyes. You can do that by diet and exercise.

I am overweight, I'm certainly not slim and to be slim I need to work very hard indeed every day.

But I make no excuse... I'm fat because

• I'm short
• I enjoy food
• I don't like cooking
• I've suffered disordered eating in past (fad diet and binging) without getting to cause
• I sit at my desk 8-10 hours a day for 50 or so hours a week
• I'm stressed
• perimenopause

At the end of the day, I'm fat because I eat too much of the wrong stuff. I will eat two kitkats where as my slim friends wouldn't even put them in the trolley to begin with 🤣

Yes, but WHY do you feel the urge to eat too much of the wrong stuff?!

Absolutely agree re genetic disposition to putting on weight easily. DP is 6ft 1 and a few months ago weighed almost 20 stone yet he has a very physical job (gardener) and eats relatively healthily. Some days he’ll have a tub of cottage cheese and a pear for lunch. That’s literally it apart from a modest breakfast and tea (plate piled high with veg). He was a chubby child, at 30 he played squash virtually every day and weighed 12 stone but as he got older the weight piled on. His siblings are the same. He’d be an ideal candidate for ozempic or mounjaro but his GP has prescribed xenical and with that the weight is coming off. I’ve stopped all baking sadly and that’s also taken away the temptation.

Has anyone died from these drugs? Because if they have it's not a risk I'd take if I "just had a couple of stone to drop"

And I know you are going to say "yeah but loads die of diabetes complications because of being fat"

FOOD is playing the part of DRUGS

@VolvoFan i think some obesity does have a genetic origin. There was a TV programme 10 years ago or so observing people who were obese and their eating habits. They then did a blood test to see if these individuals actually carried said gene and yes it was a thing but not necessarily the individuals they expected which tells me there’s more to it than genes although it does play a role !

So you're terribly worried about these drugs, but haven't even done enough basic research to know if anyone has died from them? And not even waiting for an answer to throw out a wild "well if they have that's terrible!". Jesus Christ, the ignorance is astounding.

Yes, they are buying via online pharmacies, but pharmacies are regulated and they all have to follow the same guidelines set out by the NHS in relation to prescriptions.

The guidelines are bmi over 30+ and other criteria.

Because I prefer the taste of mars bars to apples.

Because when you've worked a ten hour day at desk you don't fancy making a healthy meal from scratch. It's easier to chuck a pizza in oven.

Because we use food as part of socialising... bbqs, meals out, drinks etc

I'm not saying it's easy at all but I still believe education would be a better solution and a long hard look at the food industry

There's always been obese people in the world. But there has been a sudden massive increase. We hear about health services complaining about obesity epidemics and how they're struggling. We hear about the NHS declaring a state of emergency every bloody winter for respiratory issues mainly. Why has there been a sudden explosion in the number of obese people? You have to admit, people never used to be this big 3 or 4 decades ago.

This is a beautiful example.of passive aggressive virtue signalling.

Wow, what ground-breaking advice. You should consider patenting that doozy.

I am a diabetic, not overweight, and have been on Victoza for 7 years. At the level I am prescribed it does not affect my weight but helps control my blood sugar levels. Since they have started using semaglutide as a weight loss drug I have been unable to get mine on the NHS. So, I have been self sourcing for nearly a year but it is too expensive to keep going with no end in sight.
My Dr offered me Mounjaro as it has roughly the same effect but also warned me that supplies for diabetics on the NHS is patchy due to people buying it for weightless.
So I must disagree with your post as someone who is living with this on a daily basis.

Further to my last, if you Google it it quite clearly states that Mounjaro us a diabetes medicine that can also help obese adults lose weight.

I'm obese. I have always been obese. I'm on Saxenda (all I can get where I am) - and it's not a miracle, but it has highlighted how all the smug 'just eat less, move more' people don't understand that for me (and many others) we don't have the same feedback mechanisms that thinner people have.

I lived in a continous state of being able to eat. The two extremes of extremely hungry and utterly stuffed was the only times I got feedback.

It's very mentally wearing to have to manually count everything you're eating to make sure you're not eating too much of it for my whole life! With Saxenda, I get the feedback, eat a couple of biscuits, or most of my dinner, and my body tells me when it's done. It makes losing weight so much easier.

Again, not a miracle, it's slow (the newer drugs are better I think), but the effect is there, and I'm actually angry at all the accusing and disappointed looks I got through the years, all the time spent beating myself up because I lacked willpower, when actually, the thinner people just didn't need the same mental energy and willpower that I did.

I'm getting a bit fed up of people that have been prescribed this medicine because of diabetes or clinical obesity. This thread isn't for you. If your GP days get on this drug then great. There is a medical reason.

If you are buying it privately on some dodgy online pharmacy because you read some celeb got thin on it etc (and fucking up supplies for actual diabetics) then yes I think it's wrong. I think it's a shortcut and I don't think people care about side effects or long term implications.

If I went to my GP today as an overweight 40 year old with a couple of stone to drop. Would he prescribe it? If not... why?

I’m obese, not massively but enough. I’m 42, I had breast cancer at 39, I suffer from a lot of after effects of the chemo I had. I have tried to lose weight for years and years. I go to every hospital appointment and they mention my weight. I won’t lie, I’m sick of it!

I asked my GP about weight loss jabs and she told me that although I’m classed as obese I’m not obese enough to get referred to a weight loss clinic who are the ones to prescribe the jabs, despite my past medical history (I’m 5’5 and currently weigh 14st 12lb). I don’t think she took the conversation seriously tbh. So I decided to do it myself, I spoke to an online doctor, we had an online consultation, I sent pictures and measurements and they prescribed me Mounjaro. I’m on week 4 and I’ve lost 10lbs. My overall aim is to lose enough weight to take the pressure off my joints (ankles especially) so I can then exercise effectively, I plan to be on it for 3-6 months and review how it’s going then move to gym and a PT. I see it as a kickstart. I’m paying for it myself but in the long run it will hopefully mean I don’t need the NHS as much as I have in the past. So far it’s very much a good move for me, it has suppressed my appetite in a way that nothing ever has done before and I like it. I eat 3 healthy meals a day now, no snacks, no chocolate or crisps (because I just don’t want them)

So bottom line is that I think it’s worth it. I’m guilty of eating convenience foods but this has made me change everything, more so than even my cancer diagnosis has. This weekend I went to the park with my daughter and for the first time I went on a seesaw with her! It’s a long road but I’m glad I’m doing it for myself at my own cost, and it’s definitely a better option than weight loss surgery.

Isn’t it highly likely that most people will put all the weight back on as soon as they stop taking these miracle drugs. Unless the plan is to take a dose for life?

People say it turns the food noise off and that’s life changing for them, but obviously that noise is going to reappear once the semaglutide has left their system.

Semaglutide/Ozempic was developed as a drug for type 2 Diabetics and was found to be very helpful - and then was hi-jacked by private clinics/celebrities etc all using it for weight loss. So no stocks for Diabetic patients who need it. It is only now beginning to become available to new patients on the NHS but it's still hit or miss

Those who are very Obese etc, I have no problem with, but for those who don't have any major problem with their weight, it has made helpful drugs for those who medically need it unavailable to them

If millions need to take it for the rest of their lives and it’s an expensive drug, all I can see is the Pharmaceutical industry holding us to ransom.

I simply don't believe that a medicine that works by causing the stomach to empty much more slowly than normal is healthy. They are now advising those facing surgery to stop these drugs days earlier because it has been found that food remains in the stomach for days longer than it should. I do believe that we will soon learn that the 'Ozempic face' is due to a unique kind of malnutrition resulting from the body's inability to extract and break down nutrients from food that isn't moving through the digestive tract as normal. It isn't just rapid weight loss causing this.

I wish I were wrong, but I have a feeling I am not. We will look back on this the same way we view a host of historical 'medicine' that people believed to be safe and cutting-edge in their time. Every era in history has believed they now understand medicine and science in a way previous generations did not. Every generation has had their own medical miracles that turned out to be harmful.

Many people cite the current obesity epidemic, and the fact that these drugs have been approved by medical professionals.

'It's a medicine, not a drug!' 'There have been studies that were convincing enough for doctors!' 'I trust my doctor!' 'The original symptoms are worse than any possible side effects!' ALL OF THESE THINGS COULD AND WOULD HAVE BEEN SAID ABOUT:

-THALIDOMIDE
-THE DIET DRUGS MY GRANDMOTHER AND HER CIRCLE TOOK IN THE 60S!
-FEN-PHEN IN THE 90S, ALSO A DIET DRUG
-LOBOTOMY FOR DEPRESSION
-MERCURY FOR VD

• COCAINE FOR TOOTHACHE

-ARSENIC FOR ANEMIA -LEECHES AND BLOODLETTING FOR A HOST OF VICTORIAN AILMENTS -INACTIVITY AND CONFINEMENT, SOMETIMES CLITORODECTOMY FOR 'HYSTERIA' -etc.

I have a bad feeling about these drugs.