Losing weight, weight loss injections or gym?

[undecidedfatty]

I've recently been lucky enough to go up a pay grade. The number one things which gets me down, which has always got me down, is my weight. I've been a size 16 since I was a teenager and I can't seem to change it. It goes up and down a bit but I've never been a healthy weight. I lost quite a bit a few years ago by fasting every day but I can't do it now as I get too shaky and irritated.
I'm a single parent, I have two small children all the time, I work full time out of the house in a healthcare related role and I cannot lose any weight. This is partly circumstantial as often the thought of a few rich tea biscuits is all that gets me through a difficult shift. My DC's don't sleep, one has autism and I honestly can't keep my mind on dieting. I don't overeat but I often make a cheese toastie for tea or pot noodle (I'm veggie) as I'm so busy and worn out, I'm also skint a lot.
I really need to do something and thought I want to lose weight. I'm not looking for a quick fix (and I don't think such a quick fix exists) but I can't carry on trying to reduce calories as it just feels so joyless in an already pretty difficult existence.
Would the weight loss injections be a good investment? Or would a nice gym membership (with pool) be a better investment? I really want to do something to improve my overall well-being, and feel more refreshed outside of work, mum life.
I would really appreciate some advice from mums in similar situations, especially if you have chosen one of these options. I really don't want suggestions on home exercise (tried it, kids don't let me, no room) or complex diets when I'm constantly on the go, running on adrenaline, no time to cook etc. I'm out the house from 7.30am until 7.30 pm and I have no time nor energy when I get back. I don't enjoy cooking and I can't even batch cook as we have a tiny freezer. I don't even get a lunch break.
I have about £150 a month to tackle this and I really need help after 20 years of trying to do this the natural way.

I haven’t read the whole thread so sorry if someone has said this already. I can’t comment on injections as haven’t tried them . I do occasionally listen to a hypnosis tape as it can help me sleep. One thing she said during it that I thought was interesting is that food is wasted whether you eat it or not.

When you think of it it does make sense. Eating food that your body doesn’t need is wasted food. It contributes to excess weight and increases your risk of various illnesses that become statistically more likely as your BMI gets higher. That hit home to me a bit so thought I would mention it just in case it helps a bit.

Its a no for the injections from me. It just seems too short term and a bit "if it sounds too good to be true then it usually is". My guess is most who go the injection route havent got the will power to deal with it by diet or exercise. It therefore makes sense to me that the majority of those people will most likely end up back at square one within a couple of years having spent a lot of money and with the possibility of health issues. Then they will end up in the position of having to go back on the drugs to achieve the weight loss again and it just ends up in a cycle of addiction, need & cost (financial & health). I bet the drug manufacturers are loving their new income stream.

I lost 20 kgs in just over 12 months by adjusting my diet and working out in my own gym (Lifting weights). It was hard and no, i dont expect everyone to be capable of this. Thats not the point of this post, Rome wasnt built in a day. The point is that i am now in my 3rd year and i have been able to lift the foot off the gas with the diet because i love my gym sessions and i have stacked on a load of muscle. Along with having a decent knowledge of how my body now reacts it makes life so much easier now. I can pretty much eat as much as the next person, i exercise and i dont have any health issues. All the indigestion & acid reflux issues i had have disappeared too.

Its not easy but if it was easy there wouldnt be a market for these wonder drugs. It is definitely worthwhile.

Tell me you understand nothing about the complexities of obesity without saying you understand nothing about the complexities of obesity

The complexities of obesity. Yeah, lets make it more and more complex so the issue never boils down to self control. Lets see how it pans out in 10 years time when the side effects of these drugs and the quick fix are properly known.

@Tessasanderson the drugs have been in use for 10 years plus, they are not brand new. There has been plenty of research into side effects, and still more ongoing. What are the terrible side effects that you are hoping to see?

Obesity is complex, otherwise, there wouldn't be such a significant number of people who are obese. It isn't about a lack of self-control, a moral failing or being weak. Being obese is the only issue that I have in my life. I have a family, a partner, postgraduate qualifications, have been employed my whole life, contributing positively to society, law-abiding... But the one thing that I struggle with, I cannot hide or mask. I have been overweight or obese since childhood, pre-teen age. I have only been a healthy weight as an adult for a short period of time when I had very disordered and restricted eating, and had the headspace to be that controlled and restrictive.

You seem to object to these weight loss injections making it possible for people who have been struggling for years, decades even, to lose weight. That we must only be allowed to do it the "correct" way and that using these injections is to become a stupid unthinking source of income for drug companies. It's a baffling attitude to me.

And again…

my self control is fine. Now I’m on the meds I could eat rubbish all day long as it doesn’t stop you doing that. But I am able to manage cravings for food more like a “normal” person. If there was no medical issue at play, medication wouldn’t work, would it?

The plain fact is that if diet and exercise worked really well and all you had to do was tweak your diet and do a couple of sessions on the exercise bike a week and it just dropped off, then these weight loss injections would have no market whatsoever.

It's because it's one of the intractable problems of our time, that even with all our knowledge and willpower to hand, many of us simply get bigger than is healthy and bigger than we want to be. That's what's happened to many of the people on this thread saying I lost 20 kg- but you got 20kg too heavy in the first place. That's a lot of weight to have on that you didn't need and I think the crappy food and obesogenic environment has a lot to answer for, but there isn't a simple solution otherwise most people would not be either overweight or obese (which the majority are in most European nations now).

I also don't get the 'well what will you do after the injections' problem- in that whenever you stop a diet, you eat more normally, you put weight back on. That happens in pretty much most diet programmes and even for surgery which is recognised to be effective- most people struggle to keep it off even after that huge effort. It's not the case that people lose it once, then just never have to bother again, otherwise, again, the injection industry would not exist as people would just crack on with diet/exercise once in their lives and then eat moderately and we would all be a sensible weight.

I am totally a believer that the pharma industry creates problems and then drug solutions, but they also provide solutions to ongoing illness and lifestyle problems, and in the case of overweight and obesity, it's one that the majority do not crack alone, even with their powerful knowledge, which is why there's such a rush towards the injections, which by the way, can be used alongside diet and exercise all of which are more possible when you are not obese.

I dont have an objection. You do you and i will do me. Thats the beauty of these threads, we can have our own thoughts.

You are obviously invested financially and physically in taking the drugs to achieve your weight loss that has been there since you were young. My point is that i believe there is no quick fix to the 'complexities' of weight loss and although this may help some, there will be some who might not benefit for reasons i mentioned (relapse, health, cost). I gave those reasons and i gave my example of how it is possible, again for some, to take the long term route and see the physical, nutritional and mental benefits of weight loss over a long period.

@Tessasanderson why do you think that using the injections is a "quick fix"? It won't be a quick fix, it cannot be, considering how much weight I need to lose. It will take me considerably over 12 months to get to my final target weight. Exactly the same as if I managed to do it the "correct" and acceptable way, without using the injections to help manage the effects of obesity on weight loss and maintaining a calorie deficit.

These drugs are not a quick fix though. I have lost 2 stone in 4 months, so an average of 2lb a week, a reasonable rate of weight loss. You do still have to eat healthily and exercise. The medication doesn’t make you do that or magically make weight dissolve. It still requires work and effort.

Obviously I’ve managed to raise three children in London without ever once going to a park, push my kids on a swing, plonk them in a sandpit with a bucket and spade, let them paddle in a pool or watch them scramble up a climbing frame 🙄. However I’m assured that exhausted and hungry kids love nothing more than to play in a deserted, pitch-dark park (sunset is 7.30 by the first week of September) in November. Then they love coming home, cold, hungry, tired and wet, changing out of dirty clothes and eating dinner (mum has to make it so no dinner before 9pm, kids!) then do homework, have a bath, story and bed after 10pm before getting up at 6.30 so mum can get out of the house by 7.30am. What little kid wouldn’t love that? And what a joy for their mum! I mean obviously it would make zero difference to mum’s efforts to reduce her obese BMI, which was the entire purpose of her post, but let’s not worry about a trivial issue like that.

I'm intrigued OP- you work 12 hour shifts? Is this over 3 days, or 4?
7.30-7.30 is a long time to be out the house at work.
Do you get extra days off. Could you focus on weekends to get prepped or do a workout etc?

I would try and fit in a morning 6am session at the gym (or a home workout) but I appreciate that isn't for everyone.
I did nothing for years and then I found the gym in lockdown and I will prioritise it over a lot of things.
Everyone is different.
Exercise is not a way to lose weight but the other benefits are amazing.

Otherwise, pre prepped meals and calorie counting. And see what your doctor says about injections... although I really don't see it as a long term solution

@strawberryandtomato the OP is presumably a nurse on 12 hour shifts or in health-care, and as a single parent, is then looking after her kids when she is not working. I think if she had days off every week where someone else looked after the children that would be an ideal time to exercise or gym, but as a single parent, that may not be the case unless there's a very involved father.

I’ve no doubt the injections work. But so did diet pills of the 1980’s, slimming world, juice diets, Rosemary Connely, and on and on.
You’ve just got to accept that you are “on a diet” for the rest of your days if you want to be slim. It’s relatively easy to lose weight, its keeping it off thats the challenge and I’m not sure the injections are going to be any more successful at that than all the previous fads were.

The point is that none of those things did ‘work’ - in that few people lost substantial amounts of weight and tiny numbers were able to sustain their weight loss. These medications are revolutionary because they do work. People taking them lose almost as much as people who have the most effective types of bariatric surgery and they can maintain their weight by continuing to take them, in the same way that people stay on other meds such as thyroid meds. Alternatively people may be able to go back to them if they regain.. Maintenance is a big area of research now