Sick of people on weight loss jabs saying you still have to “put in the work” with wl jabs

[Plind]

I’ve lost a fair amount of weight naturally this year. It’s been hellish as I’m fairly sure I have some sort of psychological reliance on comfort eating. I asked a couple of people I know if they recommend I go on WL jabs for the last stretch as I have lost momentum and am stagnating but could probably still do with losing another 20 pounds. They always say well “WL jabs still elan you have to put in the work. The fat doesn’t evaporate”. I’m sorry but WHAT. The injections are doing the hard bit for you. Ie stopping you from wanting to shovel large amounts of unhealthy food in your gob. It’s very annoying. I see this comment online all the time too.

I definitely do not have an issue with people on WL jabs. I would use them too but I am saving up for a mummy makeover so have chosen to save my money as a SAHM.

Very defensive comments imo!

It was one of my reasons for doubling my efforts to lose weight - I had a bit of a scare suggesting that I might have uterine cancer. Being obese is a known risk factor for the condition. (I've had three clear biopsies, thankfully.)

Mounjaro and other GLP-1 medications don't just suppress your appetite though. I've attached a post from Reddit which explains how they work and why suddenly we're seeing a lot of people drop weight after years and years of diet and exercise with little result.

I've got PCOS and I'm 5 stone down on Mounjaro after never being able to lose more than 10lb through diet and exercise alone. I wouldn't begrudge anyone taking it - you wouldn't stick your nose up at someone using aids to stop smoking, so why be annoyed that someone is trying to stop being fat?

Ok. Keep taking them then 🤷🏻‍♀️

So odd. I was just talking to a friend today about how society needs to be healthier, yet people despise WLIs. Fewer fat people = fewer ill people = more money for society. But because it’s about fat people, there’s a lot of negativity.

Thanks, it's good to know I have your permission.

I know a lot of people on these drugs who are not morbidly obese, some barely overweight. Not enough research has been done yet. They’ve already linked the jabs to a couple of cancers - wait a decade or two and let’s see what happens. As previous poster said, don’t f with the pancreas. Pancreatic cancer is one of the fastest killers.

I’ve lost the same 5 stone twice in 10 years - once naturally through diet and exercise, and once on WLIs and am now on maintenance. It took about a year and a half naturally, a year on the jabs. I agree with OP, it was far, far easier (and quicker) on the jabs. Yes I still get cravings but fewer of them and I physically can’t eat as much whereas before when I did it, it was a constant battle and I haven’t needed the same level of willpower. My DH is also on them and says the same. I guess everyone’s different though, but for me they’ve been so much easier.

Yeah I totally get that. But there’s absolutely no way I’d take my chances with the pancreas.

I'm with you OP. I lost a lot of weight the 'old fashioned way' but after a year i was fed up of the constant battle with willpower. I started the WLI and i found that i didn't require that same level of constant willpower anymore, so YES you will need to eat less and move more etc, but you wont have to battle or fight with yourself to stay on track so much- at least that's my experience as i felt less hungry, fuller quicker and went off lots of high cal foods.

Well done on your loss!

Yes, I feel so much better. I used to be embarrassed to even leave the house TBH, so now that I'm a size 10, I'm much more confident just living life. I can also exercise more, which is definitely a plus too!

I was never able to lose more than 3 stone without reverting back to bad habits again because I always just felt so awful, shaky and ravenous, even if I was eating enough calories. That didn't happen with Mounjaro, so I'm thinking it fixed whatever was up with my hormones.

In my experience you do still have to put the work in though. Yes I cannot eat as much as I did before, but I can still pack away chocolate and crisps, more than my body needs which means if I don't change my diet I won't lose weight.

I may not get as physically hungry as I used to, but I still crave the comfort of a cup of tea with a chocolate bar, and because I can only eat such a small amount to lose weight I can't have the chocolate bar even if I wanted to because it would push me over my calories deficit.

If you are an emotional eater, or boredom eater, then you overeat for reasons beyond hunger, so appetite suppressant won't prevent you from overeating. The jabs might remove food noise, but you'll still be sat there going "hmmm I really fancy munching some crisps" because you enjoy the sensation or the endorphins that come after eating.

Weight loss is a minefield. I'm not going to take GLP-1s myself until there's a bit more data on long term effects, but I don't begrudge anyone for doing so. Mind your own journey, look after your own body, and leave others to do the same.

I think it comes from the sort of pilgrims progress idea that in order for something to be meaningful and moral it needs to involve some sort of work and / or sacrifice. Which I guess is fine if you’re an Olympic athlete or even a professional in any capacity but for day to day life (weight loss comes under that category) it leaves me largely baffled

Actually, no. For some people it suppresses appetite. I have deliberately under-dosed so I still have to deal with hunger and cravings, so I can off them one day. The reason I struggle is that binge eating is a symptom of anxiety - not because I just shove food in my mouth because I like the taste. When I binge I don't even taste the food anyway, it's mechanical. I have had mental space to completely change my diet and general lifestyle. I have worked fucking hard. So fuck you.

Well, luckily forcing people to take medication they don’t want to isn’t legal!

To be honest I do agree with you @Plind

I do feel like people on weight loss injections can be strangely defensive. It’s hypocritical cause you get people in that camp adamant that their excess weight can’t be addressed through diet/exercise alone (ie hatred of the phrase “eat less, move more”); whilst simultaneously saying “you have to put the work in” - as if to admit that actually, diet & exercise is important after all.

That's lovely to hear. Well done. :)

I agree. I've lost 2 stone very easily in a year. I don't have to put work in because the way it makes me feel I just don't want as much food anymore. It doesn't even cross my mind to overeat. I don't think much about it at all.

Oh is it like fat people being defensive in general by any chance? Because no matter what we do people will still criticise? All that's happening now is that other fat and formerly fat people have finally got something superior to feel about themselves.

A lot of people using WLI are though, or were at the starting point. For us the risks were much higher due to the weight and that cannot be ignored because other people have a different starting point.

Obesity is also taking a chance with the pancreas in any case. The reality is that an obese person is already fucking about with their pancreas. And formerly obese bodies don't behave like people want them to. They try to become obese again!

You make no sense. You say you have an emotional eating problem yourself and then immediately turn around and say that as long as a weight loss jab cures your hunger, there’s no hard work. Um, isn’t that the issue with emotional eating???? You’re eating when you’re not hungry, or your psyche has turned some other kind of distress into hunger? So in your case, weight loss jabs would still require all the emotional work you’ve put in to stop comfort eating. There are plenty of people who “out-eat” the jabs and lose no weight, and I would bet most (or all) of them are emotional eaters.

For me, I’d say it’s doing 50% of the job for me. Reducing the hunger really does help. I do still experience hunger, and I can get ravenous, it’s just that once I’ve eaten, I’m satisfied for longer. So that definitely helps.

What is hasn’t done for me, which is the thing I struggle mostly with, is taken away the cravings. I still have to practice restraint when it comes to choosing the delicious foods I love - chocolate, pizzas, desserts. I had salmon a few weeks ago and was violently sick afterwards and felt unwell for days. My stomach just couldn’t handle the oil in it. Last week, I had a night away with a friend and had a chicken gyros and again, spent all night in the toilet being sick and had diarrhoea.

I could quite easily eat a family sized pack of crisps in place of dinner though without being sick if I wanted to, which is where there needs to be some self restraint.

I think it’s all very individual. If your reason for being overweight is due to hunger and you just eat excessive amounts of good, clean food and don’t have to worry about food cravings for “bad” things (by bad, I mean things that might trigger a bad tummy), then I can see how it would do 99% of the work for you. But if you have any issues with making poor choices and needing to undo many years of poor eating choices, then there still remains work to do on stepping away from those choices and making better decisions.

I've been taking the WLI for a year and am stopping after this injection.

I have had very, very minimal side effects - no diarrhea, no sickness, no constipation, no headaches. The only thing I have experienced is indigestion if I eat too much.

It hasn't stopped me from overeating - I can easily eat the same as before and stuff my face. I can't stop myself even though I know I'll be waking up in the early hours with indigestion.

It hasn't taken away the food noise - I wake up thinking about food and what I can eat today, what have I got in the house to eat and I think about food constantly.

I have continued buying it because I'd started the programme (through my surgery, agreed to 12 months) but it's been costing me nearly £300 per month (not nhs) and that's why I've decided to now stop it.

I have lost weight by being careful to burn off more than I consume most days. I walk miles, I carry weights, I swim, I have weighed food, I have calorie counted, I have stopped myself from eating bad things because I'm spending so much money on this bloody injection even though I don't think it's working.

I defy anyone to tell me that you don't need to put any effort in because that's certainly not been my experience. If I'd just been injecting and carrying on as I was before, I'd be even heavier than when I started.

It really doesn't matter,does it? You've chosen the strategy that works for you, others have chosen a different one. It's not a competition!!