To be jealous of everyone getting slim in weight loss jabs while I get fatter !

[Sundayslump]

Okay - lighthearted ? Maybe.

I’ve been lucky to grow up and be a size 10 . Had a baby at 27. Lost all the weight but my body changed. Baby 2 , again gained 4 stone but I’ve always kept the last stone. I am now 12/14 uk.

I work full time and have two children . I eat healthy for the most part and walk and exercise. When I am super strict which feels so much harder at 40 I am a size 12 but unlike in my 30s it seems so much harder to lose weight now . I feel crap in my clothes and I wish and dream of being a size 10. Call me pathetic !

My brother and his wife , twos sisters and their husbands , work colleagues and a few of my good friends who were never obese but had a few stone to lose are all taking weight loss jabs. They have all lost around 2/3/4 stone and are all now looking fab . All the women are now in size 8 jeans and I am jealous. I sound pathetic . None of these ladies were any bigger than a 14/16 to start with.

I totally understand these jabs are so life changing for so many people who need them but it seems in my life everyone has taken them and gone from a 14/16 to a size 8/6 size Uk and I can’t help but feel like if I just bloody jump on the bandwagon I will feel good, feel happy and be slim.

Now everyone around me is so slim I feel ever more aware of my size .

I want to state I exercise and do eat a healthy diet . I have just found after two babies and getting older unless I basically stick to 1200 calories a day I can’t maintain a size 12.
Ahhhhhh. Sorry for sounding so so so vain.

I feel exactly the same! I think about it all the time. I've had to throw out all my size 12 bottoms to replace with size 14s since turning 40. I miss my old body, and exercising and a good diet hasn't prevented that. I feel like I'm getting bigger, tbh. I'm super envious of people around me on the jabs but feel nervous about their side effects and feel like I can't justify spending the money, given I'm overweight but not obese.

The fact it’s possible doesn’t mean everyone can do it like that though.
A bit like it’s possible to get over an (bacterial) infection without antibiotics but some people can’t and need them.

It is true that eating healthily, exercising etc… can make huge difference. I actually think you can’t be well wo doing that,
But I think we need to be careful to not assume they’re always enough and that people who dont manage to stabilise cholesterol/weight/blood pressure 'naturally' just havent tried hard enough. Because THAT is wrong.

bepo77 once im back at my usual weight i find it easy to maintain. The food noise is bad but the hardest work is done so i wont go back.

It's possible for some people to reverse high cholesterol and high blood pressure through lifestyle, lose weight, improve diet etc. If you do that then no need for the medication.

You are right @squidgymum and I used Mounjaro to make sure I had extra support while changing my lifestyle and diet. Countless other diets have failed as it's hard to sustain a daily 500 calorie a day deficit to lose 1lb a week and then do that for 42 weeks to lose 3 stone. Dieting is a long, hard slog and it's easy to fall off the wagon because of work stress, social events, real life. Mounjaro makes your diet easier to stick to. It doesn't just dissolve the fat while you eat like you did before.

None of these ladies were any bigger than a 14/16 to start with.

@Sundayslump that's obesity for quite a few women. I was size 16 and well within the obese category at average height. Just dropped to 14 and I'm borderline.

I don't blame you and might be tempted to try it if I could. But what happens when you stop in a month? Won't you just slowly put the 5 kg on again?

YANBU. I do worry slightly that there haven’t been any longer term studies yet on these jabs for weight loss (only for diabetes afaik) AND we don’t know how whether those who lose the weight will keep it off yet- meaning it may not be worth the costs/side effect risks until we know more.

Personally until we have more information on this, I think they should be restricted to what used to be called the morbidly obese (BMI of 40 or more). The hint was in that name that being that heavy has serious health implications- meaning that any potential side effects or putting the weight back on in future would still be worth the costs/risks of the jabs for those individuals. Imo it’s not worth the risk yet for lower weights until more studies have been done.

I say all this of someone who used to have a BMI of 48 which I reduced naturally to 28 (so am still medically overweight), but have kept it off for a number of years now. I don’t think I’d risk the jabs now, even if I was allowed them - but I would have at my heaviest.

You want to go on them with a BMI of 20, that's crazy, I'm sorry. They are not for people with a very normal BMI, nowhere near obese.

OP, I’m doing a pre diabetes course (NHS) at the moment and the nutritionist leading it is fairly dismissive of the jabs. She says it’s important to learn to have a balanced diet/exercise for yourself because it’s more sustainable over a lifetime.

She also reckons the jabs basically mimic the hormone effect that you get if you eat more slowly and more mindfully.

Track marks 😆

Mounjaro is injected into the stomach with a tiny needle. It would be more obvious if you’d squeezed a big spot!

Don’t do it, OP. You don’t need it.

I’m late forties and have just lost a stone by switching to high protein breakfasts (full fat yogurt and nuts instead of toast and jam) and a big salad with proteins at lunchtime (instead of a sandwich.) Dinners haven’t changed much: meat, veg, bulgar wheat etc… Monsignor course but a couple of squares of chocolate most nights.

I used to be hungry all the time. I’m now never hungry. And I’ve never felt so nourished.

I’m learning to love my body and take care of it. And I hope you can too. Take care of yourself.

I understand how you feel, and it's completely valid. Feeling jealous won't do anything good though, and other people's weight and body has got nothing to do with yours. I hope you feel happy with your body some day. I'm still carrying lots of baby #2 weight and although I don't look my best, I try and be happy for what my body is (healthy, feeding my baby, feeling good and painless - which wasn't the case for a few months with pregnancy and slipped disk and sciatica, so I feel pretty happy I don't have those anymore) and I try and focus less on what it looks like. Easier said than done.
I'd try and accept your feelings of jealousy, unfairness maybe, and then let those thoughts go and focus on something else that you are happy with. Maybe you love your clothes, your hair, your face, how string you are, etc.

yes I've cut out junk food and all ready meals and instead eating 'real' food if that makes sense. Staying away from bread as we now know most of it is UPF but eating baked potatoes (with prawns) for example. Like you I'm upped my protein (salmon, venison, seafood, ostrich and a bit of chicken) and eating more veggies, salad, fruit and natural yogurt.

Food noise massively reduced after going through withdrawal from the junk food. Not taking weight loss jabs. Instead food bill from waitrose is huge.

I agree with this. I've lost over a stone by reducing carbs and stopping all snacking. I'm just not so hungry any more.

Speak for yourself! My TDEE is 2100 a day and I eat a lot more than 1200.

Yep, I started with a BMI of 30.4 (5’7, 88kg) and am a size 14 in most shops. Also says something about high street sizing these days! I don’t think anybody I know would have thought of me as obese. Frankly I was shocked myself when I realised.

Guys just do Keto, in my experience same quelling of food noise and the weight drops off

They'll likely pile it back on once they stop taking the jabs. You can lose weight without them.

@researchers3 psychologically it's a lot easier to realise you have put on two pounds over your goal weight and start a diet for a couple of weeks to lose it than it is to be 50lbs overweight and know it's going to take a year of solid dieting to lose it.

I lived in denial of my slowly creeping up weight for a decade or more and thought that was just what happened in middle age. I worked out that my 50lb weight gain was the equivalent of eating about 50 excess calories a day for a decade. Now Mounjaro has put me back at 138lbs, I am taking action as soon as my weight goes over 140lbs.

People regain after stopping any diet if they go back to old habits.

This isn't true 🤷🏼‍♀️

YANBU. I do worry slightly that there haven’t been any longer term studies yet on these jabs for weight loss (only for diabetes afaik) AND we don’t know how whether those who lose the weight will keep it off yet- meaning it may not be worth the costs/side effect risks until we know more.

But surely people will have to volunteer for these studies? Someone’s got to be the first to try it.

That's why people who are suitable for the medication (obese or formerly obese) will be able to take them long term for maintenance

Terrifying that an NHS professional is so uneducated about the psychological issues around food. (Not you, your trainer). Do you not think that pretty much everyone who resorts to these jabs has tried everything? My diet was exemplary on paper, I can deadlift well over my body weight and run a marathon. I have times meals to slow down eating, have barely touched a UPF in years…but my brain does not know when it’s full. MJ has changed that.

It’s futile trying to explain this to anyone who hasn’t suffered with these issues but the patronising assumption of ‘fix it yourself’ will not make for a great health professional. Thank goodness my GP (I still pay privately but was discussing with her as part of my HRT checks) isn’t so naive.

I would quite literally put money on the fact that it will eventually come out that these jabs can cause long term health effects. A bit like how long term studies about vaping are coming out.

Also unless you plan on jabbing yourself for the rest of your life, I wouldn’t bother. Everyone I know who’s come off them has put the weight back on immediately.