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.

People come onto the WLI board to pick fights. Some admit they are jealous that they struggle to stay slim while, in their eyes, others are 'cheating'. They use the actual word jealous. It's very disordered and it's pointed out to them every time. But at least they are honest, rather than all this faux concern.

Where is your source for this statement about bone health? BMI above 23 would be categorically Overweight for many ethnicities, so I struggle to understand this as true. If true, what do they choose - bone health or healthy BMI?

You only have to look at the WLI threads in that section to see its widespread. I've just started on Mounjaro and started reading on there and there are a lot of people openly admitting theyre not eligible and how they get past that. Holding a weight behind you when stepping on scales for the video seems common. I saw someone say she'd put one down the back of her pants.
These jabs come with side affects that are weighed up against the risks pf obesity. We can say 'personal choice' as much as we like but the same can be said for any other abuse of prescription drugs.

I agree OP but any perceived criticism of them on here is often met with defence and sarcastic comments about bingo cards of WLI ‘cliches’.

You mean the Slimming World and Weight Watchers people would join many times over because it very rarely worked at all, let alone long term?

Sorry, I didn’t mean to reply to you @MyUmberSeal . I hadn’t thought of some people being able to do that, though.

Yes of course YANBU. I don’t live in the UK, I live in Belgium, and they are very hard to get here even though they are not covered by insurance. Only diabetics can get them covered. You cannot order them online unless you have a verified prescription from your GP. I have several friends who are ‘overweight’ but with BMI <30 who have been told no. They argue that they are paying for it so why not but GPs won’t prescribe.

Yep. Those ones. Change them into somewhere where you just get officially weighed now.

You wouldn't be concerned about a friend or family member who are misusing drugs and becoming dangerously underweight?

I think people with disordered eating/eating disorders will find a way to obtain it regardless or just move on to another method. Plenty of places you can buy prescription medication without needing a prescription, you can easily find websites online and order all sorts and have been able to for years. Stopping legitimate online pharmacies prescribing won’t change that. They already have rules now about video calls, ID checks, continued verification videos, etc.

People with healthy approaches to food and weight aren’t taking diet jabs to lose weight at 20BMI. These people have eating disorders and people with eating disorders will find any way to achieve what their goal is.

I am also not convinced by how widespread this abuse is. Your experience of so many slim people abusing it seems unusual, the only people I know on them are people who would be eligible due to starting BMI or are on maintenance at a healthy BMI. The benefits on a population level in terms of it easily being accessible to people who are obese are massive and IMO way outweigh some people with eating disorders who have just found a new method to abuse.

Well I guess we will only know in ten or twenty years times about the long-term outcomes to health of taking these drugs. What is undoubtedly true is that these drugs are not risk free and that the cost / benefit equation is going to be very different if you are clinically obese to if you are size 10.

I agree entirely op, but it's not all online pharmacies. I am taking it. I started with a BMI of 42, taking medication for three obesity related conditions so fit all the criteria for prescribing it, but my health board had had to close it's waiting lists because one of the NHS conditions is that you attend their weight loss clinics to address all the other aspects around your weight and they just don't have the capacity to see everyone who needs it yet. My provider insists not just on a photo taken with their software in close fitting clothes but also consulting your GP to be sure that what you say about your medical history is true, and then a video consultation too. And you have to take part in weekly check-ins too as well as having to get a new prescription every month.

it's so easy to get, just upload a photo of a day you looked chubbier a few years ago.

This, I suspect, is absolute bullshit and not permitted under the General Pharmaceutical Council.

It's brilliant you're taking it responsibly. Good luck in your weight-loss journey. Honestly, this post isn't about people taking the drug who need it, just those abusing it.

How is it different from me at a BMI of 23 continuing to take it (used to be obese).

if they’re using it to control their intake and not lose it’s the same effect right?

I have no option but to continue to use the drug in order to eat sub 1000 calories a day. That’s my intake without putting on weight, this is my stable weight.

without MJ I would put on weight as 900-1000 calories is completely impossible for me to do as I’d be starving all the time.

is there no chance your size 8 colleague has been fighting her body all her life and now finally is able to maintain without starving? Is she definitely trying to lose weight indicating disorder?

I’m not trying to lose, I’m not losing anymore and I’m still having to take 10mg to maintain at 900-1000 calories. I expect this to continue forever.

There is widespread abuse of these medications but it can be so difficult to discuss properly as as soon as you mention anything remotely negative/concerning about them you, as seen on this thread, get bombarded with defensiveness and accusations of jealousy.

It is true that these are incredible drugs that are helping thousands of people, but it is also true that abuse is widespread and growing, and many in the medical community have huge concerns about this. Trying to deny either side of that debate is naive and unhelpful.

Sadly, this is what my friend said. I haven't tried myself. Im just going by our conversation.

All you can see from the replies is that a few people known to people posting replies are abusing the prescribing guidelines previously in place.

I suggest if you want to see the reality of being prescribed WLI you go through the mountains of posts on the WLT and read them. They are the widespread reality. Not the rubbish people fall over themselves to post on these nonsense threads.

My jury is out on them altogether until time tells what the long term health impact of taking them purely for weight loss will be.

However, the person who started taking them when they weighed 20 stone will, all being well, eventually become a person who is taking them weighing 10 stone. Are they supposed to just stop at that point, if they need to lose another stone to be at their ideal weight, or even maintain at that weight?

If your TDEE is, say, 1300 calories (about what mine is) it's so hard feeling hungry all the time when you are trying to stay below that to lose weight - my understanding is that the jabs stop all that. I'm about 2 stone overweight and have health issues that would probably rule me out for the jabs, but I wish there was something, other than eating, that could stop the feeling of constant hunger.

If your TDEE equates to 1000 calories a day, something is very wrong. Most people’s BMR alone is around 1300.

Because it's nothing been tested on people with low bmi and may not be safe. This is my concern. Im not sure if maintenance doses have been tested or not for people who've lost weight, so I can't comment on this. This whole post is really because I'm worried. I think the scale of abuse could be pretty huge.

I mean, if you so so worried about your skinny friends being addicted to this medication to the point where they look ill when you see them and one is about to be left by her husband….. maybe you do have to say something to them. Rather than start a thread here, which isn’t going to help them or do anything other than feed into your deep level of worry about them.

Requiring medication like this to always be prescribed in person, is asking for something that isn’t required for other similar medications. If the scale of abuse is as shocking as you feel it must be, based on your personal experience, then the regulators will continue to act, as they have already done, to ensure prescribers are meeting the regulations that already exist.

Do you mean they have lost weight through using them legitimately and you don't think they should still be taking it? Because it's prescribed for maintenance for very good reasons

And maybe I have said something to that person. She wasn't the first person that told me. It was the first person that told me, I was so shocked, I said nothing. Her husband won't leave her I don't think, but hes trying everything to get her to stop as he's worried about his teenage daughters.

myumberseal

1000 is perfectly normal for a menopausal very short woman. And illustrates how different we all are.

and for me why I’ve been fighting my body for 40+ years as it was so hard to stay under 1400 calories a day. I’ve had willpower in abundance for 40 years which is why I put on weight so slowly, it took me all that time to put on 7 stone.

I have a very slight build too. Very thin wrists and my bust is 26, waist 23 etc.