Labour should invest in weight loss medications immediately

[HowToSaveTheNHS]

AIBU to think the Labour government should seriously consider rolling out weight loss drugs to the obese population, to tackle obesity, diabetes and cut NHS waiting lists? Traditional public health measures to tackle obesity are not working.

We spend so much money treating disease associated with obesity and it’s only going to get worse as increasing numbers of people are living for decades with multiple health conditions associated with obesity. Even dementia’s leading cause is Type 2 diabetes.

Looking at the Mounjaro thread on here, huge numbers of Mumsnetters are successfully losing weight and improving their health. But people on lower incomes won’t have access because the drugs are expensive.

A course of drugs for a year will surely be money well spent if we can reduce heart disease/ diabetes/ dementia/ cancer etc… even hypertension.

It's not "really hard" for the majority of the population to maintain a healthy weight.

This is why it’s sometimes (but not always) easy to lose weight but hard to maintain that weight loss.

I find it quite funny that people compare previous generations as if they were virtuous for being slim when it’s pretty much a certainty that if those people lived now they’d be no different and that’s because of the food environment we live in.

So a child can't eat the same size portion as their siblings because they are overweight and should go on a diet as a child? Great .. fat shaming kids now.... Ok...

But we can't blame the food environment for everything. There has to be, and is, a level of personal responsibility.

We know eating too much is bad for us. So design your life in a way that you don't.

Batch cook, only buy non upf, take advantage of frozen fruit and veg, meal plan. There are always going to be barriers for some but not half the UK adult population.

Yes.
I don't eat as much as my husband.
My 7yo eats more than his younger brother.

This is part of the problem, people thinking everyone needs the same amount of food, they don't.

I take it you didn’t watch the video.

Last time I was on one of these threads I tracked my calorie intake for a few days and averaged at 1800 kcals. Hardly greedy.

The NHS is already facing substantial and rising bills for obesity, diabetes type 2, heart failure, peripheral arterial disease, chronic kidney disease (CKD), metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASL) (used to be known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)), COPD and other respiratory conditions.

Several of these conditions are associated with obesity. There's unmet need to prevent, intercept, reduce and improve conditions before they have a substantial impact on people's survival or quality of life as well as the affordability and sustainability of the NHS. It's worth scrutinising the cost benefit of whether it's affordable to reduce obesity now with a view to reduced costs of complex and multiple long-term conditions in the future.

Also, as far as I’m aware once you stop these injections there’s nothing to say you’re not going to pile all the weight back on like with every other weight loss methods.

Just watched the video. Interesting that it's all about mindful eating. Basically having responsibility for yourself and what goes in your mouth. I agree!

That’s exactly what I do, yet I’m still fat.

Also, it’s not all about mindful eating. It tells you how the body and the brain fight against weight loss..but of course you fat bashers would overlook that wouldn’t you?

For me they do exactly that - all “food noise” is gone, so gives me a very clear and uninterrupted focus on good nutritious balanced food only

The thought of unhealthy higher fat or sweet food or even just someone suggesting it when eating out repulses me now as I’m so uninterested in it - a normal diet does not achieve it to this extent

Anyone can eat what they want.. just don’t ask taxpayers to pay for it

1800 cals could be too high for you though, if you're overweight when eating that amount....

I don't really get your point. 1800 calories is too much to be eating to lose weight. Clearly you need to eat even fewer.

The video explains the way to combat the body and the brain is via mindful eating.

Where’s the money coming from to find this then Op?

But it doesn’t say mindful eating guarantees weight loss.

My point is 1800 calories is a completely healthy amount for someone to eat and is not a greedy, gluttonous amount like some people think I must eat to be my size. I don’t need to eat fewer because I’m not aiming to lose weight.

No, NHS funds should be prioritised towards diseases that people cannot prevent/ resolve themselves. Losing weight is hard, but possible, for all but a very few people. It's just bloody hard and too many people think they are in the tiny percentage of people who cannot.

That depends on your height and how sedentary you are. I'm very short and my TDEE (daily calorie requirement with no exercise) is under 1400.

For me it’s normal. But my point was that 1800 kcals is not a gluttonous amount to be eating which is what people assume is the case for fat people.

I don’t think it’s the same situation as what’s available in lots of European countries. If I want to cycle with my children to school here there are numerous dangerous points on the journey where we’d have to dismount, or that would be dangerously close to traffic.
Once I get to school, there’s inadequate bike parking available for everybody’s bikes so I’d have to take the kids bikes home, which is impractical if I want to go to work directly afterwards.
This is massively different from when I lived in Europe and we cycled absolutely everywhere as a family (even with teeny kids), and parked our bikes safely at school. It was also perfectly safe for the kids to cycle to school alone, something which is unthinkable in many uk towns and cities.

Or perhaps more helpfully, target the big industries that control the misinformation and advertising associated with UPF?

Except that the science increasingly doesn’t support that view.
Once someone has been overweight for a while or through yo-yo dieting phase the natural weight maintenance mechanisms don’t always work effectively anymore. For example leptin resistance becomes an issue.
https://www.webmd.com/obesity/features/the-facts-on-leptin-faq

Consequently, people are having to battle against their own metabolism. Their brain is signalling they need to maintain or gain weight because it no longer recognises effectively that the body has fat stores. In an ideal world people wouldn’t get overweight in the first place but once they have their metabolism can be damaged to the point where losing weight is a fight with your own body. After a while, obesity behaves more like a chronic illness.

They really don't.

People know that at some point in your life you ate too much. But that doesn't mean you are now, otherwise you'd be gaining more weight.

Perhaps we should focus our efforts on ensuring people don't get fat in the first place then....

That might be a better idea.

Telling people to diet when they’re only slight overweight (which is what happened to me back in the mid 90’s after pregnancy) is never going to be the answer.

Like I said, I dieted myself fat. If I could go back to when I first started and carried on eating as I had in my pre pregnancy life, I reckon I’d still be stick thin. I’m the only one in my family who has ever tried to lose weight and the only one who is fat.

You are right - the evidence suggests that in general, repeated attempts at dieting leads to even more weight gain. You basically put back on the weight lost and more. It becomes a vicious cycle for most serial dieters.

It’s a biological mechanism kicking in to protect you from starvation in future. It’s incredibly difficult- impossible even- to override this drive from your own body. I don’t think people who have not experienced this understand … it’s not the same as maintaining your weight at a healthy or even overweight BMI

User2460177, why should the NHS fund people with self inflicted obesity and subsequent ailments ? It's time for people to start taking responsibility for their own health.!@health

I'd highly recommend the following books to gain further insights into why so many of us are overweight:

Ultra Processed People by Chris van Tulleken

Ravenous by Henry Dimbleby