To be concerned at the number of people lying to get weight loss jabs?

[sahah]

Not to mention the people buying the unlicensed stuff off of the streets?

I’ve seen it so much lately, this surely can’t end well.

Yes, why wouldn't you be?

They’re not unknown and unstudied drugs, they’re repurposed drugs that have been in use for a while to treat eg diabetes.. They don’t work by melting fat, they help control appetite by controlling blood sugar making it easier to stick to a diet.

Recent research shows they help reduce the risk of heart disease and other diseases independently of obesity, probably by reducing inflammation.

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2024/may/weight-loss-drug-semaglutide-linked-better-heart-health

You can be prescribed at a BMI of over 27 if you have weight related health problems eg osteoarthritis, chronic knee/back pain etc so it’s not necessarily the case that people who don’t look ‘that’ fat in their before photo have lied about their weight to get it.

The potential for people to access fake or unregulated drugs online is a separate concern. Improved access to the drugs on the NHS would hugely help this.

Or who are taking it even though they don’t need to. Because they feel you can never be too thin.

My plan is to take it on and off, just to maintain my ideal weight. Not constantly as it's expensive, but every couple/few months or so if I can get it.

Ermmm...there are plenty of providers who offer a maintenance dose once you hit your target

It's not envy related, that is ridiculous. My BMI is 19.9 and I'm concerned. How self involved do people have to be to not ever be concerned about something that doesn't impact them directly.

Yes, she was an otherwise healthy teenage girl, not overweight whatsoever, when she began taking Wegovy through Boots Pharmacy. She presented with life threatening starvation ketoacidosis, which is caused by severe low calorie intake.

From the article about this story (‘they’ is the A&E doctor who treated her)

“…the incident is part of a growing pattern, adding that “in the last month or two, every time [they had] done a shift pretty much [they] had some patient who, to a lesser or greater degree, is having a complication from getting these weight loss drugs” - in many cases from an online pharmacy or private beauty clinic.

“Without fail, none of them would fit the criteria at all,” they claimed, adding that another patient had “ended up going to intensive care” after obtaining weight loss drugs and presenting with pancreatitis.
Other acute doctors have raised similar concerns on social media.

“They're really dangerous drugs - it's shocking,” the doctor told C+D.
“It isn't people who need those drugs that are doing this. This is people with probably an element of eating disorder and body dysmorphia and that's what terrifies me,” they claimed.
“I just look at these young, beautiful girls. Oh, my word…it really makes me very sad,” they said.”

But isn't there always going to be a small section of people who are just stupid and misuse drugs/prescriptions/dieting advice?

This girl who obviously lied to boots to get the injection, misused it. Did she really use it properly or inject it all at once? Did she even need it? So stupidity and deceitfulness.

Those getting it from the hairdressers/beauty salons etc, well least be honest, that's just plain stupidity!

The woman who died by drinking 8 glasses of water all at once instead of following the recommended guidelines of 8 glasses throughout the day? news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bradford/7779079.stm
Is water to blame or stupidity?

Where do you stop?

If people want to take this stuff, they will, I don't think you wringing your hands over it is going to change it.

It's not as simple as that. I assume you would have had to remain with the same supplier and take it consistently every month, which not everyone can afford. Lots of us change suppliers to get the best price, take advantage of introductory offers etc. Or stop taking it when at target weight and then wanting to go back on it you basically start as a new customer. I was at the maximum dose of Wegovy but it wasn't really working so well anymore and I was near my target weight so I stopped taking it and when my weight started creeping up again I changed to Mounjaro and basically had to start from the beginning and lie.

I use them and I agree. It’s really irresponsible and may also impact people who are honest and have a legitimate health need (me) from getting medication they need. I would go to a private GP and get it prescribed that way if I need to but a lot of people may not be able to afford that.

This thread is confusing:

Multiple posters say that it's not magic fat melting and you need to still control calories and eat healthy to lose weight on the drugs

Multiple other posters say that it is impossible for them to lose weight by reducing calories, moving more and making healthy choices. They have tried all that, it doesn't work, their body doesn't operate by the same rules as everyone else.

So how does this stuff work?? Magic or calorie reduction? And if it's calorie reduction then other mechanisms of calorie reduction would also work if they were rigidly stuck to and it's a mindset change that is needed.

I mean surely it works by reducing craving so that you eat less doesnt it? So it works by reducing calories so calories in vs calories out therefore is not bullshit as is so often claimed.

It's completely barmy. I understand the use if you've tried everything and are very overweight but people seem to think it's appropriate to use them for being a couple of stone or less overweight. I simply don't understand how anyone can maintain health whilst being on these long term. What about microbiome ? What about gut health and eating enough fiber? I'm seeing people on it are literally eating one little meal of protein per day. Long term that's surely a recipe for bowel cancers at the very least. We need to eat a huge variety of fruits/veg/herbs/seeds/pulses to be healthy. People will end up completely malnourished. If they're not on it long term and just using to lose the weight it's really no different to yoyo dieting, unless they change their habits. And the evidence is showing 2/3rds regain most of the weight.

You can read plenty online about how these GLP-1 receptor agonist type drugs work, if you're interested. They act on receptors in the pancreas and brain that normally respond after eating food, to produce an insulin response to adjust blood sugar. These drugs mimic the effect of having recently eaten, so making you feel fuller for longer, less hungry and full quicker when eating. They don't act directly on body fat at all. The effect of stabilising your blood sugar is I think the thing that helps people who struggle to lose weight when already on a lower calorie diet. And potentially helps them to have an even lower calorie diet and not be climbing the walls with hunger.

This is the crux of it. I've seen on MN so many times that eating very low calories doesn't work for people. Iim horrified by some of the diets that I've seen posted here that people claim to follow. t's not the actual mechanics is it ? It's the mental toll it takes to constantly feel hungry and thinking about how you can't eat what you want. I don't believe that before weight loss drugs people are eating one tomato and one chicken breast per day and still not losing weight, which is near enough what I've seen posted here multiple times.

It shores up your willpower basically
Makes it easier to tolerate the pain of a calorie deficit.
What I take issue with is people saying a calories deficit somehow does not work for them but the drug does. It is working by making it easier to maintain a calorie deficit so that is more proof if such were needed that it still
Is calories in vs calories out.

People taking meds without medical supervision are taking huge risks. People, can have all sorts of underlying conditions and have no idea they have them. I was in a clinical measurement unit yesterday at the hospital as I’m having a heart issue investigated. The waiting room had some really young people in. I sat feeling really bad for them because at least I’m late fifties and have never had to have concern for this before.

On a collective level any sort of cosmetic procedure that goes wrong and I’m really thinking more about the surgery overseas then has to be sorted out on the NHS.

Being a bit over weight I did look at using these drugs (by lying, I'm nothing like heavy enough) but by the time I'd read the possible side effects, common and rare, I decided it really wasn't worth the risk.

And I do think in a few years time there will be a big thing about how many people have had bad side effects and how were they able to get these drugs. Of course all the 'victims' will say they thought they were perfectly safe, and all their friends were taking them.

If you are obese such that your health is at risk then I 100% support people having access to these drugs but I just don't want it to take away from the public health work we need to put in to stop people getting to a point where drugs are necessary. Childhood obesity is a huge tragedy and they don't give these drugs to kids (yet..)

For those of you can’t understand why this is concerning, imagine for a moment that you have a teenage daughter. Now imagine, like so many teenage girls, that she is under immense pressure to look a certain way. Now imagine she has been struggling with body dysmorphia and disordered eating, and along comes this drug that she can obtain extremely easily online, by lying on a form. She doesn’t have any kind of medical nor parental supervision. And she may very well take it incorrectly in order to get the results she feels she needs to be beautiful / acceptable / whatever. Because of this, she ends up in the hospital with a life threatening condition.

Are you really not concerned about how a very powerful and serious drug is so easy to obtain by just about anyone? I happen to know of two pharmacies who don’t even require photographs, they just take your word for it. And no I won’t list them as someone will take that information and use it.

There was a thread a while ago from a woman who bought hers illegally. She ran out of needles and was asking if she could swallow it. Posters rightly pointed out that a) she has no idea what it even is she would be swallowing b) that is extremely dangerous and not how the drug is designed to be used c) she would know this if she had gone through the proper channels and not had to rely on MN to answer.

For those saying, aren’t you concerned about county lines, et al? Firstly, this thread is not about county lines. Secondly, a person can be concerned about more than one issue. Thirdly, I don’t see people talking about their involvement with county lines on a daily basis on MN. I do see people talking about buying weight loss injections illegally or fraudulently.

Exactly. The lackadaisical attitude toward this (from some) is terrifying.

It also acts on hormones so you feel sated and no longer hungry with a smaller amount of food

But isn't there always going to be a small section of people who are just stupid and misuse drugs/prescriptions/dieting advice?

Of course there are, and always will be. You cannot control all of the people all of the time, someone will always find a way to cheat the system. Any system. So hand wringing over it is pretty pointless.

There seems to be a rather dour, Puritan mentality toward weight loss drugs because [gasp] they make losing weight a little easier! Shame! Shame! No it must be difficult and painful, you must suffer in order to be slimmer. Suffer!

I recall years ago and acquaintance expressing faux horror that I bulk bought litre cartons of ready-made SMA Gold when DDs were babies. It was incredibly convenient. But apparently I was 'cheating' and 'squandering' money that could go towards their university fund?

Yes, it seems like half of MN have broken physics and solved the energy crisis, able to power an adult woman on 'one tomato and one chicken breast per day'.

Most of us can think about many issues all at the same time, OP, you're not unique in that. What also isn't unique is the number of threads that are posted by people aeriated about something that they are ill-equipped or completely unempowered to do something about, so a talking-shop with much hand-wringing ensues.

It's that impotent 'concern' that smacks of being merely surface or 'grizzle of the day'. if this thread isn't that then what, if anything, are you proposing we do about this particular issue?

I’ve not claimed to be unique in that.

In terms of doing something about it, talking about it and highlighting the dangers is the only thing I can do. Sorry if that smacks of faux concern to you, but that’s a you problem with how you perceive others and not understanding how someone could care.