So if your friend lost 5 stone in 6 months .. would you wonder how ?

[AboutVattime]

Just inquisitive.. my best friend has always been obese. About 22 stone. I have worried about her health silently for a very long time.. she started Mountjaro in April and is now 14 st. I am completely thrilled for her . Her blood pressure is now 'upper' but not ' see your healthcare provider' .. her heart 'murmurs' have ceased.. I am worried that when she come to the end of her treatment she's will just gain it all again. It is without a miraculous drug.. she has struggled to afford...she is incredibly good with money and financially planned every inch of her journey so that her treatment equalled less than her cost of food consumption.. but only in the short term ( she planned 8 months but goal in 6)

My AIBU is ..I see the amazing difference , she is so happy for the first time in a long time after years of weight watchers, slimming world, Cambridge diet.. low carb, NHS gastric band..(15 years ago which helped but only ever got her to 16 stone before piling it back on) .. she has found one of the Mountjaro providers who will prescribe a maintenance dose...

But she can't afford it long term. It will be £189 per month without a discount.. AIBU to say I can pay this for her. She is my very best friend . I love her new found sense of self confidence.. and don't want it to go.. the money is not an issue for me . I am extremely comfortable and struggle to spend. However would love to help someone I love very much.

Just for complete transparency I had crept over into 'unhealthy' zone as also had osteoporosis in knees. Also took Mountjaro for 2 months and know how incredible it is. I have kept it off for 5 months without a maintenance dose .. it just reinforced healthy eating recipes for me . . But I haven't been morbidly obese

What I am actually asking is .. AIBU to offer my lovely friend the money to maintain her health ?

The difference in her is amazing. She is happy and l self confident.. but above ALL .. healthy. !

BP currently in 'above normal range' but decreasing daily.. no longer needs pre-diabetes drugs.. I am happy to pay to keep her in this range or lower because I don't want her to have a heart attack or stroke. - which she was heading for 6 months ago..

That is such a good point

The shit they put in food now is designed to keep us eating crap and making food manufacturers (and drug company) profits over human nutrition.

Elephants in the wild live longer than elephants in captivity because they follow their natural diet.

The natural human diet is good quality protein (not daily, certainly not at every meal) and seasonal fruits and vegetables. Limited grains and certainly not stuff in packets. Extended fasting is really beneficial for the liver and gut.

@AboutVattime If she's budgeting for 8 months, she's still got some budget left, there are loads of discount codes on here that will help her stretch that and give you the chance to discuss if she would like some injections paid for as a Christmas gift.

How long would you pay for it?
2 years, 10 years, 30 years?

If she’s had a gastric band and put the weight back on, then she is going to have to stay on this medication long term else she’s going to put it all back on.

So say you’ll pay for it for a year, you decide it’s time for her to come off if it and then she starts regaining weight and asking to please go back on it for another year.
How would you feel?

What happens if after that year you stop paying and then she starts gaining and asks you again to pay for it for another year?

I think what you’re suggesting is lovely and she’s done a great job at getting it off but she needs to be in control of her own health and weight.
I can’t see it ending well if you offer to pay for them.
You don’t want to lose a friendship over it.

Perhaps you could buy her a yearly gym membership instead.

OP, you’re question keeps changing.

If you want to offer to pay for this then only you know if she will be offended or not.

If you’re asking will she be judged, yes she will by some but the health benefits alone should be enough for her not to care what bellends think.

And everyone saying obesity is caused by 'eating too much' clearly knows feck all about what actually causes that or the other combination of factors.

Even 23&me have clear categories for genetic predictors. Guess what - many, many, many millions of people are predisposed to be overweight/obese. Many of those will also fall in to the categories where a keto, i.f. or hunter gatherer type diet will serve them best.

Guess what though?

With even the NHS being so thick as to recommend t2 diebetics attending their clinics eat fuck tonnes of carbs and shit cereals, and 'low fat' (but obviously then high sugar and carb foods)

It's incredibly hard for people to either revert to their natural state or to have ever been there in the first place, even from birth with carb filled baby formulas.

Yes that's just 'one' type of fat person. But fuck me, society and corporations is the problem, at every level. Same with alcohol and cigarettes. Not solely the individual.

If someone is so pig ignorant to not be willing to accept that because that's not their 'experience', then honestly gtfo.

The bottom line is this SAVES MORE MONEY and is literally going to transform healthcare

Well no it doesn’t.

If there was no NHS and you had to pay for your own treatment you would be more inclined to do everything you could to keep healthy.

Why not set a limit on funds? Say 6 months. By then she should’ve changed how she feels about herself and wan to keep the weight off.

She needs to shop around for a maintenance dose - online pharmacies (registered ones not charlatans) are significantly cheaper - in the £120s

Eating 600 calories is not healthy AT ALL

You can not be on it forever

The health risks that come with this drug long term will be scary

Lots of people already starting to have health issues with it

No, they aren’t, @PrincessofWells. Reasons aren’t excuses. My own particular reason came from growing up in a deprived, dysfunctional environment where my parents, who were themselves the products of extreme dysfunction, had no ability to meet my most basic needs. I was left to cry a lot and not fed, or left to wait for food till after my mother had fed the men (lived with largely male extended family whom she prioritised), so I was often hungry and stressed. I learned to self-soothe with food once I was able to get it myself, and books. Which meant I got to Oxford and a successful professional life, but am only now, after a lot of therapy, beginning to learn other forms of self-regulation.

summersnowstorm

You've not read my post. Obviously anyone can afford the food to put on weight when they can only eat 800 calories without putting on weight - that literally half a pizza

You think it's fair for me to pay £200 a month for the rest of my life to prevent obesity when I am not able to eat more than 800 calories without putting on weight ? Have you any idea how hungry a normal person is if they're only allowed 800 calories. Mounjaro takes away that hunger so I stay a healthy weight.

This drug will save fortunes for diabetes, heart disease, cancer, strokes, thyroid disorders

Obesity is a killer

No, I wouldn't pay for unnecessary medication that has as yet unknown long-term side effects for someone who has had the medical help they need and now needs to change their lifestyle permanently to live in a healthy way.

I’d offer to pay for a year. Leaving it open ended like that is risky - your circumstances could change, you could fall out, it could change the power dynamics of your friendship. In your shoes I’d offer her a very generous Christmas present of the drug for a year and then this time next year, if it’s all going well, you can give it to her again.

Except trying to live on locally grown seasonal vegetables isn’t really realistic when people also have job.

locally grown, seasonal produce is usually quite expensive.

Not sure if there was a CoL tens of thousands of years ago or how they managed to hunt and gather, whilst also having to work full time AND travel. And take their kids to hobbies and to school and so on.

You still have to eat the calories though. I'm predisposed genetically to alcoholism so I don't drink.

drybiscuit

Eating 600 calories a day is causing me to lose one pound a week

It's very unfortunately healthy for ME.

I am not lucky.

Apart from the people that will get cancer and other chronic diseases from Mounjaro, of course.

ekakf

Yeah, but you don't have to drink alcohol

You DO have to eat food (or you die)

You would be ridiculous to offer to pay long term this amount of money for a friend for this reason. A one off to help save a roof over someone’s head maybe. But this is ridiculous, imagine you fall out one day and you have been subbing her for five years. Or you have a sudden drop in income and can't afford it.

Is that why people in the US are all slim and they don’t have an obesity problem?

I assume they don’t have alcoholics or drug addicts either?

ittook9years

You've seen studies that Mounjaro causes cancer and diabetes and is a killer ?

But you can’t just not eat.

I don’t drink for the same reason as you. But it’s easy to not drink. You don’t need to drink at all.

But that’s not the case with food.

Well, obviously. But this case study of one manages it whilst working 200 miles from home half the time, studying a degree, raising a teenager, maintaining a home without any outside help, keeping a dog walked and fed, working out 4-5 times a week and maintaining an active social life.

The reason everyone in the US and UK aren't slim yet is because so few people are on it. And those that are have a lot to lose so are not yet there.