To think weight-loss injections should be prescribed in person only. The scale of abuse must be shocking.

[Thisisdrugabuse]

Hear me out here. I have had 5 friends in their 30s and 40s tell me they're using weight-loss injections from online sources. Fine. Except one is a size 8 and another a size 10. Oh, it's so easy to get, just upload a photo of a day you looked chubbier a few years ago and change your height/ weight a bit. Out of my friends that recently told me they're taking it, the size 8 is on the highest dose. She looks ill. Only 1 is over a size 14 I'd say.

Am I being unreasonable

No-to think these medicines are not licensed for normal sized people. They might be at risk of osteoporosis, liver problems and who knows what else. It all seems dangerous and completely unregulated.

Yes- jog on op. These are important medicines helping lots of people and if people lie, that's their issue.

Plus you have to have time in your life for several hours with a PT each week - many people don't have those spare hours to travel off to the PT

I've tried personal trainers but I know more than a lot of them as I've been going to a gym for 30 years. If exercise made me lose weight I'd be a size 6. It's eating less which makes me lose weight. My diet was very good but I need to eat very little to actially shift the weight.

Yes indeed. I lost 4 stone in just over 2 months on a shakes diet (recommended by my GP). I'm pretty sure it's what gave me gallstones and I put the weight back on within 6 months. It was never a good solution.

I think there is an argument for better prescribing. But I hold the prescribers and dispensers responsible, not the individuals, if people get their hands on it who should not take it.

My biggest hope however is that whilst these are really wonder drugs which will save the NHS millions, I hope we don’t lose the focus on why obesity is increasing and how we got here. It would be much better to tackle the root causes than treat the end result. The WLIs may be a distraction from the real issue here.

It is incredible how the people yarning on about diet and exercise don't realise how exceptionally fucking stupid they sound.

There is no combination of diet and exercise that has been shown to work at keeping a majority of formerly obese people within normal BMI. Not just losing the weight in the first place, but maintaining. You are pissing in the wind. Nothing in human evolution has prepared us for whole lifetimes where food is never scarce. Human bodies get obese easily because they're supposed to, because there are thousands of generations of selection for that very thing.

I understand having concerns about misuse even when a lot of the examples given on here are clearly people trolling but we are not going to diet and exercise our way out of the obesity crisis. The science is settled.

I’m taking it. My BMI was 27 when I started, and I have both high cholesterol and PCOS. So I was totally honest with weight / height. The reality is that I’ve been into weightlifting for several years and I know that I’m likely carrying an extra 6-7 kg of muscle than what I had say 10 years ago. So when I started I was a size 12 (ie size 10 clothes too tight).

Since menopause I’ve found it so hard to lose weight and cholesterol has crept up.

I’m sticking to the lowest dose, I’m not at risk of osteoporosis (had a dexa scan last year). I’m also very careful to eat over 1200 calories a day and at least 120g protein.

Meanwhile. It’s had the most amazing effect on my menopause joint ache. I don’t have any side effects, and I love that I can eat a healthy meal but am not tempted to snack.

i’m on a Facebook group wit the supplier and I’m in shock with the number of people saying stuff like:

all I could eat yesterday was a piece of toast or
I’m being sick all the time but I want to continue as losing weight or
clueless about protein or weight bearing exercise

So, I don’t have any issue with your thin friends taking, I have more concerns with suppliers not making people check in more often to confirm they are eating a balanced diet / are lifting weights / don’t have awful side effects

Thank you for explaining this so well 👏

Hrft but certainly interesting.
I suspect if you reviewed the papers of 70 years ago when people were promoting the benefits of cigarettes (but no SM) the comments, on both sides, would be similar.

I don't think there's any argument now to suggest cigarettes are safe but it took a long time to make people believe how awful they are, and many people still can't function without them. I suspect these injections will follow the same path.

On what basis are you comparing WLI (which the science has actually been around for years, it’s just recently they are prescribed as an WL aid) against smoking?

I’ve read it all now.

Vibes. Possibly copium too, hard to say without more information. All desperaly scientific either way.

Every single person taking these injections has the same opportunity to find out information about side effects and dangers. If they choose to lie in order to take them, that's their choice.

And what serious and potentially life threatening disease were cigarettes treating before people realised they caused cancer?

Another thread where people are predicting awful side effects to emerge.

These drugs work by mimicking a natural hormone present in the body. They really can’t be compared to smoking or vaping or opioids or other drugs. The best comparison is probably HRT.

Of course people with eating disorders will abuse them. Of course people who want to drop a couple of pounds before a holiday will abuse them. Of course dodgy ‘practitioners’ will sell them under the counter and none of this will stop regardless of any measures put in place to make accessing the drug legitimately more of a hassle for the people who meet the criteria.

You might not believe this but my grandparents were advised by their doctor to take up smoking during WW2 to combat 'war nerves'. My grandpa was in a reserved manual occupation in a large city that was a target for bombing, and due to his job there was no option to move anywhere safer. They smoked till the end of their lives - they lived to their late 80s, dying within weeks of each other just before the Millennium, and interestingly, didn't die of smoking-related illness.

If you look at vintage cigarette adverts there are lots that recommend smoking for its calming effect, appetite suppressing qualities and even as a soother for coughs!

I think the point is that there was no evidence cigarettes were actually doing any of these things, though. We know there were lots of claims made about them being health giving, which were believed even by people in the medical profession sometimes. But they weren't backed up with any science, which makes them the complete opposite of WLIs.

That's true, but at the time medical science was nowhere near as advanced as it is today and it wasn't considered necessary to back up health claims with evidence.

Cigarettes do have a calming effect if you are a smoker, and nicotine is an appetite suppressant, so it isn't that those claims are incorrect, it's just that the health detriment far outweighs any benefit. I'm not sure how anyone ever thought they soothe a sore throat, though!

Linked wrong poster! Oops

Yes exactly, medical science was nowhere near what it is today. Which is why the poster who speculated about WLIs following the same path as cigarettes was being so ridiculous.

Yes but that was in the 1920s. Medicine has moved on. These drugs mimic a hormone. Cigarettes were never designed for medicinal purposes although I accept that they were promoted for that at some point but that was for different reasons.

it’s comparing apples and oranges and a completely illogical argument.

Yes, I doubt they will follow the same path as cigarettes. It's a fundamentally different type of product and market. You don't get a 'hit' from taking WLI and they're not something that might be considered cool and edgy by a youth market. WLI are actually cheaper than smoking as an appetite suppressant, it would cost about £100 a week to smoke 20 packaged cigarettes a day.

Interesting overreaction.

I don’t think so. You introduced the scenario of only you knowing a tsunami is coming and you being responsible for warning everyone.

that says a lot about how you view yourself in this scenario.

weight is a complex issue. Lots of medications have side effects. But this one is causing uproar - people don’t like it when other people lose weight: often it is a way people get to feel superior. In your scenario you clearly feel superior - only you have the information that will save everyone and no one will listen.

My provider wrote to my GP, and all my use is communicated to them. I think it would be a good idea to have to go to the doctors and be weighed, and for weight to be communicated to the weight loss medication provider, to stop any abuse.

While I agree this would be a very good control, GPs simply don’t have the time to do this.

maybe a few of the big chemist chains would do it and charge?

Mmm, there's a certain grandiosity evident in the tsunami analogy.