People who think weight loss injections are cheating

[AuntieDote]

I've seen this viewpoint over multiple threads recently, and I'm just really curious to understand it a bit more because it makes no sense to me whatsoever.

What do you think people using the injections are cheating at?

As in - what's the competition and who are they gaining an unfair advantage over? What do you think the rules of being allowed to lose weight are/ should be?

Is it more important to you that overweight people/ those struggling with obesity lose the weight, become healthier, reduce the burden on the NHS, stop taking up more than their allocated amount of space in the world, or just stop doing whatever it is that upsets people so much about the existence of fat people -- or is it more important that they struggle and suffer whilst doing so?

Or would you secretly prefer them to remain fat so you can feel superior?

Is it that you feel you've worked really hard to either lose weight, keep it off or never put it on in the first place, so nobody else should be allowed to achieve this without the same amount of struggle?

What do you think the weight loss injections actually do, and do you not recognise that those on them are also doing all the usual things people who are trying to lose weight e.g. modify their eating, exercise etc? Does it not count that they're doing these things because it's made easier in some ways by the drug?

What types of weight loss support or tools are not 'cheating'? e.g. I used hypnosis once and it worked for a bit, to the point that I felt pretty much the same way I do with the injections i.e. reduction in food noise and compulsion to snack etc. It didn't last anything like as long, but it worked for a time - was that cheating?

Would it still be cheating if they weren't as effective as they are?

FWIW, I really couldn't care less if people think I'm cheating - who cares? Who does it impact only me and my bank balance? If someone said here, press this button and you'll be a healthy BMI overnight and stay there forever I'd press it with both hands and not give a shit about how anyone felt about it.

But it's just the logic of it that baffles me - I've never seen it as a competition and have never felt like getting to or being a healthy weight only counts if it's done in a certain way - I suppose I'm not much interested in what size anyone else is or what they do to get that way, so I can't imagine for a second ever thinking another person was 'cheating' - only ever being happy for them if they're happy and hopefully healthy too.

But we know upfs are inherently poor nutrition wise, high in fat and salt. I don't eat it, I choose not to, that's a choice everyone could make. It's the way I was brought up, and I brought my own children up not eating it.

It’s not cheating - it is a medication that treats a problem. However I do find the reaction of some truly fascinating and I also think a study will be done around this response to this type of weight loss.

Can you come a d cook for me please

I took it for three months, lost the weight I needed to lose and stopped at the end of September. 2 1/2 months later I haven't put any weight back on because I changed how I ate.

And you my friend, haven’t got a clue what us disgustingly obese human beings go through in order to lose weight.

Get off your sanctimonious high horse

No I think most people understand that they stop you feeling as hungry ergo you don’t want to „eat and eat“ so you aren’t constantly thinking about food. So the glp1 receptors.

i think l the thing that irks people (apart from the fact that it appears that a lot of people don’t want others to have it easier than them in general so the kids these days don’t know they are born sort of comments, i left school at 14 etc) . Is there is sometimes an assumption from overweight people that thinner people are so because they just don’t get hungry or they can eat loads and just don’t gain weight. Some thinner people are saying no that’s not the case I am bloody starving I feel like you I think about food . It’s each side dismissing the experience of the other imo .

I live abroad and my injection is prescribed through an endocrinologist, there are hormonal imbalances being addressed by the jab which is enabling me to lose weight this time, for good. This specialist-prescribed medicine is very expensive here and I have had a number of not very pleasant side effects, but the effort to me is worth it. I am eating in the same healthy deficit as I did when I dieted previously and exercising. I would consider this dieting 'properly'. Judgement, much?

@Movinghouseatlast exactly this.
Every diet I've been on, everything I've read, has told me I should be eating somewhere between 1200 and 1500 calories a day (depending on diet). I sometimes lose a little to start with, but it plateaus very quickly. Because my body needs less than this - despite telling me its starving.
I've read so much that says eating under 1200 is bad/dangerous for your health. But my body needs less than 1200 to lose weight.

Also, not all calories are created equal. Yes, you need to be in deficit. But my body reacts very differently to healthy whole or home cooked food than it does to processed food - even when the calories are strictly controlled. Not everyone will be the same.

I personally would definitely try appetite suppression injections if I was overweight/obese. But with my history of ED it wouldn't be a good idea.

I do worry about the long term consequences. And how long can you take it for? I know it's good for the heart apparently as well. It's just quite a new thing. So nobody knows.

I remember 25 yrs ago being given dodgy speed by a 'doctor' from an ad in the back of the paper. That seemed pretty normal, but I knew it was a bad plan for long term use.

I think these drugs are helping a lot of people though. So it shouldn't be dismissed. It's life changing for some who can't control their eating.

But they need therapy to address why they are addicted to overeating in the first place.

@Dinoswearunderpants "Calorie deficit, high protein eating" - that's what I'm doing, weight loss injections enable me to do that. That's how they work.

But we know upfs are inherently poor nutrition wise, high in fat and salt. I don't eat it, I choose not to, that's a choice everyone could make. It's the way I was brought up, and I brought my own children up not eating it.

No one said 'UPF' until fairly recently.

And you say it's a choice. But if you were brought up poor, with no cooking skills, eating from Iceland freezers, working two jobs as a single mum so no time, no food culture, and socialised like a mate of mine to think brown bread is poncey and only for wankers, you'd eat UPF. You would. Don't kid yourself.

BTW I got fat eating good food. I'm getting thin eating the same good food minus the carbs. I can't remember the last time I had a chocolate bar or crisp. Probably over a year ago.

@PrincessofWells of course - I agree with you - but this is a new product that means those things don’t necessarily need addressing because now you can eat poor quality/nutritionally deficit diet and your resulting health problems can possibly be overcome. I suppose in my mind it’s like finding an antidote to cigarettes - imagine if you could smoke a bit then buy another product so there was less risk or negative consequences to smoking. The Tabacco companies would rejoice. On an individual level fat thin etc makes no real difference but globally for the food industry this is huge if not now it will be in years to come.

Yes I understood that to be an effect. Why are some people on here saying it doesn’t suppress their appetite ? I’m not trying to be horrible but there seems to be a difference of opinions. I thought the glp helped your body not to keep saying i am hungry!

Am I entitled to use them even though im not obese? or is that taking away resources from those who 'need' them for weight loss

@adulthoodisajoke the NHS supply is ring fenced so no one is taking them from people who would be prescribed them. In the U.K., for those going through private GPs, there isn’t a shortage of Mounjaro so no one can ‘take resources away from those who need them.’

If you aren’t obese, current thinking is that the risks of the medication outweigh the benefits of weight loss to your health.

Being seriously obese brings an insane number of health risks. These destroy quality of life, cost society billions in lists productivity, health care etc and are very damaging on the micro and macro level.

Thusfar all evidence indicates weekly injections help obese people to reduce their weight and therefore concomitant negative health outcomes. Those health outcomes are not the same for people who are overweight.

This isn’t a cosmetic treatment, although a lot of people see it like that. It’s focus isn’t to help us ‘look good’ but to reduce heart disease, strokes, dementia, arthritis, and so many other weight-influenced conditions. Many surgeries - even potentially life saving ones - will only go ahead once a patient reaches a certain BMI.

If there’s evidence that the drugs have a beneficial impact on the health of the slightly overweight, I’m sure pharmaceutical companies will be DELIGHTED to be able to sell it to larger demographic. So far the evidence isn’t there.

I couldn't care less how someone loses weight- as long as they are happy and healthy and it works for them that's all that matters!
People accusing people about "cheating" is so infantile and ridiculous. It isn't a bloody game.

The thing is if you don’t eat clean, lean protein, veg, salad, fruit, you will feel really ropey, nauseas, the runs etc, it forces you to reset your eating habits to healthy. People who continue to eat crap. Even small amounts, tend to have unpleasant side effects.

it also turns off your craving for sweet stuff, as your blood sugars are controlled, and things like dried fruit start to taste very sweet, and cheap chocolate tastes crap.

I’m naturally slim and always have been. There’s no “food noise” for me at all. I eat what I want when I want and don’t really think about it.

I also don’t really think about the weight loss injections or the people taking them. Other than maybe a “good for you” if someone I knew personally was taking it.

I think the women who are bothered by these injections and who see it as cheating are the ones who aren’t naturally slim. Who do have food noise and have to work hard to quieten it. They seem offended that other people can take an “easier” way out. I don’t understand that attitude at all.

It seems very similar to me to people begrudging people on benefits money if you’re just above the cut off point.

It boils down to jealousy I think.

So I know two people on weight loss injections. They have both said they basically have no appetite and aren't interested in eating. That’s not healthy either .

Honestly no, I don’t. If I don’t care what someone thinks I don’t really want to hear there thought process on because I just don’t care enough.

So as I originally said eat more simple unprocessed food.

For me, the injections have stopped in it's tracks an eating disorder/binge drinking problem I have battled for 25 years. I am intelligent. I have accessed therapy in the past but bulimia and binge drinking have been a constant and impossible cycle to break. I know how to eat healthily but my destructive brain doesn't. The first month the urge to binge and purge vanished the food noise was gone and my drinking stopped in its tracks. For the first time in my whole adult life, I felt in control in a healthy way. It has rewired my brain in 6 months. I stopped injections two months ago and the urges are gone . For me it was like anti-depressants it got me out of a hole showed me how I could feel and function. I didn't tell anyone what I had done and won't many of them have no idea the dark places my brain had taken me over the years so they would never understand.

How do you know why fat people over eat? Have you spoken to them all?

I was hungry. At all times. After a 4 course meal I was still hungry. In the middle of the nights I was hungry. Not emotional. Hungry. Fucking starving.
Because my body is completely insensitive to the " you are full " hormones. There is no point at the day in which I am not hungry.
Now maybe all the virtuous skinnies are also always hungry........but I don't believe it for a second. Overwhelming constant hunger is impossible to ignore, because your brain is designed not to ignore hunger in order to survive.

Even whilst "fat" I was on under 2000 calories per day. Because a on a normal level of calories my body retains energy as fat. I only lose weight and sustain loss in on very low calories, and that is virtually impossible to sustain long term, until now, with the help of the injections.
Oh and as to not working hard, I was in the gym days a week, ran 50 miles a week and did a 10k or half marathon most weekends. My resting heart rate was 45 which is the heart rate of an athlete . I was still fat.

Let’s be clear on one thing -there’s nothing healthy about using a chemical complex to alter a basic bodily function. If you are ill and take a medicine - you are potentially correcting or compensating for a function that is not working correctly. Weight loss injections are the same. It’s not so much about being directly healthy really as about trying to counter the potential or actual risks that being overweight brings. It’s definitely not a healthy way to lose weight and is not a route to good health without other lifestyle changes.

If you look at the threads on “what I ate”, you will see that’s not the norm. Most of us get hungry for our meals, we just stop after a small healthy portiom, and don’t eat crap . So I agree your friends are not being healthy and they are likely on higher doses than they should be.

Interesting thread. The complete vitriol for anyone expressing a negative opinion about them is abundant.