Curious about weight loss injections but scared

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I’ve been looking into weight loss injections such as Ozempic and Mounjaro.
I am a size 22 and always struggled with ‘food noise’.
I was very slim as a child and teenager but since my 20s the weight has piled on. And particularly since having my son 6 years ago.
But I’m really anxious about the possible side effects and long term issues that may occur.

Really conflicted. No idea what to do. Can anyone offer words of advice if they’ve already done it?

I started WeGovy about 3 months ago. Spent the first few weeks feeling very sick a lot of the time, then was fine for a few weeks, and now feeling more tired than usual which could be a side effect (but could also be other things, who knows).

I'm consistently losing weight each week now I'm in month 3, and didn't increase my dose for month 4 since it's working at my current dose.

Not saying you're wrong to be anxious about possible long term side effects, but you could also choose to worry about possible long term side effects of being obese or consuming UPFs as a high percentage of your diet (if indeed you do) etc - I was nervous but since I am already seeing health issues form being overweight decided to go for it as I have a long history of struggling to lose weight and keep it off. So far, so good.

The drug in both the injections is fairly short acting and will wear off in a few days if you choose to stop. So you could take the first injection and if you don't like how you feel you can choose to stop there and not continue. The downside being that you've spent the money on the first pen. It's up to you if you're ok with that.

This medicine is as tested and supervised as any other available and authorised medicine. All medicines have side effects, the serious ones that you see in sensationalised headlines are rare, or associated with misuse or fake versions of the drug bought from dodgy sources.

I had no side effects at all and I've lost 3 and a half stone, after trying to lose menopause weight for over 7 years.

I was really worried about the health implications of being obese. Obesity is linked to so many cancers as well as heart disease.

I've always eaten healthily but realised that my metabolism had changed. I only need 1400 calories to maintain my weight these days. I lost on 1000-1200 a day which I don't think I could have done without Wegovy.

I started taking Ozempic two and a half years ago when it wasn’t as mainstream (for want of a better word) as the medications are now. I was desperate and figured it was worth it to reduce the risks I was facing from being obese. Ozempic as a medication has been around for longer than you might think but was only being prescribed for diabetics.

The newer drugs Wegovy (which is Ozempic under a different name) and Mounjaro are what you should look at. Mounjaro apparently has less side effects and is more effective.

I have lost three stone and basically sort of stalled on Wegovy for a while and when I tried to reduce my dose I gained back half a stone. The food noise definitely came back. And the carb cravings. I went back on it and went to the highest dose and have lost what I regained. I have just taken my last dose of Wegovy and am planning on switching to Mounjaro.

Not everyone gets bad side effects. My main one was constipation. Also felt sick a few times but sometimes that was when I needed to eat something and another few times it was because I had overeaten.

Some people do feel very tired. I did at first but it passed.

You should also know that if you go back to eating the way to did to gain weight then you will put it back on. You need to concentrate on protein and fibre and drink lots of water.

There is a whole section in Weight Loss about weight loss injections so have a look there too for information.

I was on the semiglutide tablets rather than injections.
stopped me thinking about food all the time. (Otherwise it dominates my thoughts and I binge eat mindlessly). My sister was on them at same time and described it as suddenly the portion size on the pizza box felt like it was actually the portion size rather than wanting to eat the whole thing 😂.
i felt a little nauseous on them, sometimes was up in the night with diarrhoea and also got these weird sulphur burps at the beginning. I also had some hair loss (though I have a lot of hair so that’s not a huge issue). I lost 2 stone. My sister had no side effects.

In the 80's & 90's both my mum & my sister took a weight loss drug called Adifax. Recently, my sister found out that the current advice is that if you took it for 3 months or more then you need to now see a doctor as it causes thickening of the heart arteries. A side effect that wasn't reported at the time. If they're reporting a possible side effect of ozempic is thyroid cancer, imagine what they're not telling you about.

I'm absolutely not trying to sound patronising but you would likely be better spending your money on therapy to understand your reasons for overheating. I've tried every single weight loss drug (bar ozempic), diet, shake, patch, pill, but until you fix the underlying issue it's not going to work.

I don't understand the relevance of posting about a completely different type of drug that works in a completely different way??

Go for it. Yes there can be some side effects but so does obesity.

I only just met the BMI criteria without pre existing conditions (30) I’m 3 weeks in and 10lb down. Minimal to zero side effects.

There's a dedicated section in the weight loss chat on here for injections, pop over for a chat as there's really good information. I started a couple of months ago and the chat on there has been invaluable. AIBU tends to attract a lot of people who just want to give us overweight people a good kicking.

But you're assuming there IS an underlying issue that is fixable with therapy, mindset work, habit changes etc. The reasearch increasingly shows that is not the case for everyone. Some people's bodies just respond differently to food that others, some people's hormones are diferent than others for reason beyond their control, etc etc. I'm not saying there isnt value to other therapies for some people, but for some people those therapies and solutions just won't work because they're not wired that way.

The relevance is that it's a weight loss drug that was deemed safe at the time but now they're saying oh btw, it causes thickening of the heart valves/arteries. Sorry about that.
If they're saying ozempic can cause thyroid cancer, you can bet it also causes a whole lot worse down the line that they're not mentioning.

Maybe. But is a drug the answer for those people though? What happens when they come off it? Weight goes back on, then back on the drug to lose it again, rinse & repeat for life?

Current medical advice is that once you start these drugs you should stay on them like statins for instance. I think you should think long and hard about whether or not this is something that you want. If there realistically isn't another way that you can lose the weight than it may be better for you to start taking these drugs if you can afford it, personally I would exhaust all other methods first though before committing to taking medication long term, the same way I would try and adjust my diet before committing to a lifetime of statins.