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

Do you honestly believe recent increases in obesity are due to a fundamental lack of willpower/moral failure in large swathes of the population? FFS

I agree.

I wonder if they would be told to just ‘eat more and have therapy for their issues’.

I doubt it, as that’s only reserved for the fatties. Lots of sympathy for anorexia but not the moral failing and ultimate sin of being fat.

What do you think it’s down to?

Absolutely agree with this - eating disorder help sounds like a more appropriate intervention here. As someone who was previously anorexic, food/exercise can become all consuming (my behaviour could have been described as my “life revolving around food and food noise” too).

At points when I was slim (but not underweight) and dealing with this, I was more terrified of gaining weight than I was preoccupied with losing it. My mum and older sister were both morbidly obese, and I was convinced that’s what would happen to me if I didn’t strictly control my diet. If WLIs had been around, I’d have almost certainly been trying to get hold of them by any means possible, and definitely would have cited the same reasons as OPs sister.

Once recovered, it turned out that I naturally hover around being a UK 10-12 if I listen to my body and eat when I’m hungry (with no bingeing, because I’m no longer obsessing over what or when I’m allowed to eat). I’d just never given myself chance to discover this - like OPs sister, I’d been preoccupied with food, weight, and dress size from when I was a young teen.

OP, people suggesting therapy aren’t being naive or flippant, and sarcastic comments about “obesity crisis solved” are ridiculous when your sister is “a healthy weight and quite slim”. Even if she’s not dealing with a disordered relationship with food (unlikely given your description), giving her your weight loss drugs is irresponsible, dangerous, and won’t help her in the long run.

You don’t need to be psychic - effectively no one gets their weight loss injections on the NHS, this is well known.

Counselling would be a better, more long term solution.

I'm no expert but think genetics, epigenetics, UPFs may all play a role. Alongside fatties being such weak willed people of course!

If I were you, I’d just get them for her.

Genetically, given my family, I should be fat and I love a McDonalds cheese burger as much as the next person.

But how do these things account for the ‘recent increases in obesity’ as you claimed? They’ve been around for ages.

I think people are being unfair saying all slim people have food noise too, they just impose willpower on it- certainly isn’t the case for me, I am a healthy weight and really enjoy food, but just get full at a certain point and don’t feel any desire to overeat (sorry I know that sounds annoyingly smug, but it’s true). It’s pretty well known now that a subset of people just don’t feel this way, hence the effectiveness of the injections in these people. My understanding is that when they work successfully, people are still hungry, but just at a much less manic level, and a healthy amount of food will satisfy this- so it doesn’t necessarily mean the OP’s sister would lose weight, just that she could continue to eat as she is now (which sounds like is achieved through will power), but without that constant feeling of wanting more.

However, while I can see the thinking behind it, I don’t think it would work longer term. Surely after a few months ‘off’, it will be a thousand times worse for your sister, having to go back to feeling like that again (though is that the same for everyone who comes off?). As PP have said she may lose weight even whilst saying that’s not what she wants- with those hunger cues reduced she may find she’s eating a lot less than when she was applying that willpower before. When the hunger comes back- she may then find it’s a yo-yo effect of over eating for a time and she may end up putting weight on to a point she’s heavier than she is now - and she may then really struggle to get that weight off.

It might give her a break for a few months, but I think in the longer term it could make things worse. It sounds like she’s doing well to keep herself healthy, I don’t think the injections would be a good plan in her case.

I was wondering this. Suddenly everyone has a ‘food noise’ in their head - what does it even mean? That they think about food? That they feel hungry? I’m sick of hearing it tbh. 😅

I mean the difference between say 1950s rates and now. I guess recent is relative.

So if she takes the weight loss drugs for a month, what happens after? Will there be increased food noise when she stops? Some people have reported that once they stopped the drugs, the food noise came back with a vengeance worse than before.

She is being very naive to not consider the risks with doing this.

And this thread here is EXACTLY the reason providers are tightening up on regulations….

it will become harder and harder for GENUINE people to access due to all the idiots pulling these stunts

i think this post is a bit of a wind em up and watch them go post tbh!

Food noise is such a ridiculous concept! What does it even mean? And what food does it even refer to?

What about her medical history? Who is looking at that?

It is ridiculous.

I think about food all the time. Gosh as a mum who doesn’t? Forever planning the next meal and grocery shopping. It’s all food noise… There is a lemon meringue at my local coffee shop which screams my name every time I walk past it 😂😂😂 but I’ve told it that we can only see each other once a month!

Why ask? You’re going to do it anyway.

You're going to lie and cheat, as is she, in a way that could potentially cost the NHS a fortune when it all goes horribly wrong.

You’re both ridiculous.

What is this food noise bollocks? hunger? It is natural to feel hunger as you get to your next meal

Just resist it, I do, ffs, keep busy, eat 3 meals a day and no snacks, plenty of water

This is a really bad idea
Also it is ILLEGAL to supply prescription drugs to someone else.

Say she takes it and becomes unwell, needs treatment, has to admit she's on them and where she sourced them.

I totally get why your sister wants them and why you feel sorry for her. Me and my sister struggled our whole lives and managed to stay slim mostly, by a bit of yo yo dieting, tonnes of exercise, meal replacement shakes. Our lives have been consumed with worry about gaining weight, our parents are both morbidly obese. Eventually, towards our 50s we put on weight. Mine was caused by going on HRT, hers wasn’t so severe but she found out she was hypoglycaemic. Long story short, we both tried the injections and it feels like a miracle. The food noise is massively reduced and it is a relief. Problem is we are both slimmer again now but don’t want to stop! Am scared stiff or coping without the Mounjaro and even when I reduced right down to a low dose, the cravings and feelings of wanting to binge returned. My sister is allowed to keep taking it because of her medical condition, but in theory I am meant to be stopping now, and am really struggling. So, whilst it might help your sister in the short term, she will get out of the habit of exercising her willpower and it might make managing her weight harder in the long run. I would definitely say no, also, she might lose too much weight, even without meaning to which wouldn’t be good.

It sounds to me like what she really wants is permission to not devote her life to being slim, as she is exhausted by the effort it takes to maintain. That is a perfectly valid desire, but she’d do much better to explore this in therapy and figure out how to either combat these intense cravings for more food (are they linked to times of stress or emotional upheaval, by chance?) or to learn how to listen to her body and actually EAT MORE if this is what she actually needs, even if it means gaining a little weight. Has she had her thyroid checked as well as calcium, vitamins B12, D, etc? If she is deficient in something her body may be making her crave certain foods.

Giving her your jabs is not going to solve her underlying problem which is her abject fear of being fat, and her longtime obsession with ignoring her body’s cues. You would not only be unreasonable to give them to her, but utterly complicit in fuelling her ED and jeopardise her health.

Which is why there is a case being made for long term microdosing as a maintenance plan.

It seems to me that there is a significant subset of slim people who are really quite incensed by WLI availability. Like they really value a feeling of superiority over those who struggle with their weight. I find it extremely odd.