Sister needs weight loss jabs but doesn’t qualify

[Mondaytuesdayhappydays]

My step sister has been struggling with her weight all her life
In order fir her to keep her weight stable she has been fighting food noise and cravings since about 13 but has resisted which she describes as a full time job along with exercise which is baked into her life but she hates.
she is a healthy weight and quite slim but at 44 wants a breather from her life revolving around food and food noise.
She wants the jab for some time off all this

Im fat and qualify and use the jabs - 3.5 stone down but still very overweight and now finding that that the suppression lasts longer so have agreed to order my next lot as the starting dose of 2.5 for her so she can have a month or two off

AIBU
she is riddled with food noise and has had over 30 years from a teen with total
food obsession. Virtually sticking her fist in her mouth and doing exercises rather than overeat
agreed she hasn’t put weight on by overeating as has managed not giving in but this has been torture for her and she needs a break

Food noise reduction is not an inevitable side effect of weight loss jabs (didn't do ANYTHING to stop food noise for me, I eat less on the jabs because it's physically not possible for me to eat more) and they're not some easy way out either. Side effects are very real. She's already coping with her weight so the drugs are not aimed at her. To reduce food noise look at learning from people who can help reprogram her brain so it's not an ongoing issue - try Corinne Crabtree's podcast Losing 100lbs with Corinne (no jabs when she did it) for example.

A lot of us slimmer people actually fight internally with ourselves constantly about food. It annoys me that people assume slim people don’t have these issues.
For many of us it’s hard work staying slim and trying to drown out the food noise.

Unfortunately she doesn’t qualify for weight loss drugs and it would be dangerous for her to have them.

I think a lot of people have the same problem as your sister. Im quite slim, but i work hard for it. I run 10km 5-6 days a week and do strength training 3-4x additionally. Im constantly “hungry” because I never eat enough to feel full. When my kids have a birthday I fast all day so that i can have a bit of cake with them.
It takes a lot of discipline for me to stay slim and as soon as my diet slips (holidays) I gain weight right away.
I was borderline overweight (bmi 25) after my second child was born and i didnt feel good at that weight at all. It took me two years of dieting and exercise to reach my usual weight and i have to keep the diet up now at 40 years old just to maintain.

I would never consider taking a medication that i dont need though. Sure, maybe it will make it easier to stay slim, but there are certainly side effects. For overweight people these side effects are possibly better than the side effects of being fat, but for me it wouldnt be worth the risk.

Therapeutic intervention?

I don’t even know what it is. I’m going to have to Google it.

The risk of pancreatitis and other health conditions by taking any of these jabs when not needed is real. Google 'risk of taking mounjaro when you're not fat' and see what the medical profession say.

Hypnosis would be option I'd choose. It's cheaper than buying the injections, has no negative side effects and is longer lasting.

You can buy earworms online for this that work or pay a local hypnotist with good reputation and reviews.

Good luck to her and you. Thinking about food constantly must be exhausting. X

To be clear - the jabs do not address a gene deficiency that you (and you beleive) your sister have at all. They do through slower gut emptying and other aspects make you feel fuller. So can eating lots of fibre and protein / controlling your sugar (just not as easily but if she has the self control to stay thin then she should have the self control to manage her diet that way by focusing on big protein/ high fibre / low sugar diets).

Exactly. There is some sort of reverse elite-ism going on now where those who are slimmer but endure a daily struggle to be that way are excluded.

I think there is a LARGE amount of overweight people who don’t know how hard it is for some people to be slim. It is not easy and I fully sympathise with the OPs sister and truly understand what she means by taking a breather. I am constantly inundated with food noise (whatever that is). I think about my weight as many times as men think about sex (there is some random statistic about that and it’s a lot) and am constantly making better choices and planning my exercise routine to the point of exhaustion. It is wholly consuming, I too would like a break but I would have to let myself get unhealthily fat in order to get any reprieve (this would be easy to do btw).

This is completely messed up. She’s a healthy weight, according to you, and she exercises and has to think about what she eats, which is exactly how a good proportion of people in the west stay slim. She’s doing all the right things and seeing the benefits, but suddenly she can’t be arsed to put in the hard work anymore. This attitude really will give these weight loss remedies a bad name.

Exactly.

For those scoffing at 'food noise' you've obviously never had it and now it's a thing I'm really glad as, before, it was really hard to explain or be understood.
It isn't hunger, it's different. It's this 24/7 noise in your head about food. What to eat or what not to eat.
Mentally calculating can I have this or that...based on what I've already eaten. Mentally thinking if I eat X I'll need to do Y amount of exercise. Beating yourself up if you do have a 'treat'. Feeling shit if you overeat. Really the noise of food controlling everything.
However as I'm overweight this must just be a lack of willpower right?

Mounjaro has stopped this constant noise. It's like just being able to breathe normally again. I eat when I'm hungry but seem to naturally veer towards good, balanced choices. I enjoy food. There's no mental torture anymore and I work out because I want to and I want to get fit not to work off the food I've eaten or am going to eat.

Edit. I'm hoping once I've ended my WLI journey that I've reset my thinking about food. The break in noise has helped my brain relearn normal eating. I may need to supplement it with some therapy but that's ok

You say for a breather but she won't want to stop using in a couple of months. I think you should think about the impact on your relationship when she doesn't want to stop taking your medication. You will be the one saying no more and no matter what she says now she won't be happy with you and will blame you for her food noise returning.

I have had 'food noise' but the way it is presented, as something controllable only via medication, is nonsense.

Do you think slim people don’t have to endure this noise? So only those who are overweight and have noise are allowed to be medicated to stop the torture?

I have food noise, I just work very hard to distract myself until my next meal, like millions of other people.
‘Food noise’ is something that conveniently came along at the same time as the jabs. It’s extremely useful to shut down any criticism and to simultaneously make the ‘sufferer’ a victim.

She needs to see a dr. Exercise is a healthier weight management tactic long term anyway. I also didn't lose much food noise on the jabs. Still felt hungry. Just got fuller faster so ate smaller meals.

Exactly this.

Uncomfortable as it may be to accept, plenty of slim people experience food noise and balance it with self restraint.

Exactly. I think it’s the most unhelpful reason to motivate the prescription of a drug to someone in these arguments. Like somehow slim people don’t ‘suffer’ from this noise!

Give me the health risks and I’ll be all ears listening to you but don’t tell me about food noise. If it was that simple then I would gladly stop everything I do internally to beat the noise (like exercise and fighting my own demons everyday) to put on a few stone to qualify for the jabs. Food noise is torture for everyone. It’s not some elite suffering for those who are overweight.

She eats sensibly, she doesn't get the "food noise" which comes from hypoglycaemia, and bad eating habits. The jabs are not going to change whatever "food noise" she imagines she is having

Take it from someone who has come off the jabs twice...that food noise after a few weeks of stopping is nothing like the food noise previously. I'm hungry, stomach pain hungry and I'm now in a bigger battle than I was before.

The weight piles back on really quickly and you just cannot feel full. I feel like I haven't eaten for days.

I was like your sister. Controlled my weight like it was a full time job until I was 40. In 2 years I gained about 4 stone which is where I started on the jabs. The jabs were efficient and did the job, but now I am back to the struggle...and it's much harder this time.

If your sister starts the jabs when she doesn't need to, she will find herself in a bigger battle after. Please don't let her do this to herself.

Everyone experiences a degree of ‘food noise’, it’s called hunger! How you deal
with it (or not) is the difference between staying a healthy weight and getting fat. For the majority it takes a degree of effort. WLI’s just remove the need for that effort.

Thousands of people are cheating the system to get WLI’s when they are a healthy BMI because they want to be slimmer. This was always going to be the case with these drugs.

I'm not buying any of this. Seems like the OP is taking an imaginative shot at WLI users who are "cheating" at WL when if they just had as much willpower as her DSis they would never have become terrible fatties in the first place. I've read plenty of posts bemoaning how slim people suffer to remain so. There seems to be a weird jealousy towards those being treated for a medical condition (obesity)

Wait until the outcry when off label micro dosing use for weight maintenance and general health is approved!

What? Now slim people can just stay slim with reduced effort???? How unfair!

Or some sort of weird reverse elite-ism from the fatties who don’t want their slim counterparts having access to something which requires less effort than actual will power and self control.

I sincerely hope this is on its way 🙏