The rise of the trend of GLP-1 and the pressure it brings?

[PiriPiriMenopause]

First of all I just want to say I have nothing against the choice people make for the injections at all, I think they’re great and they obviously work for people who need them! I totally get why someone would want to take it, and it really is transforming lives.

But I worry about the pressure this is bringing so the it. I’m a size 14 and pretty normal. At the moment I don’t have trouble buying clothes or getting stuff to fit. My BMI is about 26 which yes is higher than the recommended but not massively so.

So many people I know are on this drug! Honestly, in my normal every day life, I know of at least 15 people who are taking it. It’s working brilliantly and the results are fantastic they’re happy and it’s great, I love seeing how their confidence has turned on a sixpence. Some of the women were larger than me some were not that much larger than me or the same size.

I’m not sure if my experience is a reflection of what’s going on country wide or not. But AIBU to worry about the knock on effect this will have moving forward. I worry that a size 14 will soon become almost obsolete in the shops because people are no longer requiring larger sizes, I worry about the knock on pressure this will bring to those of us who can’t afford to take it or simply don’t want to or can’t take it. I worry about it becoming a culture for people of my daughter’s age and what it means for their confidence in future.

I’m just interested to see if I’m just being paranoid or if this is something other people worry about. There’s always been a massive pressure on women in particular with their size and appearance but this is the first time I’ve ever really felt it so extreme!

I know a few people using it through work /friendship groups. Only one friend to ask the nitty gritty though! she was getting on well with it, hasn’t gone crazy, BUT it has stopped working and she’s back to basic willpower, exercise and not overeating. The others I know, including men look ill- and that’s not just me saying it, it’s other men too. It’s all very well losing weight, but none of the people I know exercise, there’s no muscle, just skin and bone. It’s a horrid look and they don’t seem to stop when they’re down to a healthy weight? That’s the bit I don’t understand- I mean what’s the goal. They look haggard, lined, aged. No thanks.

It’s an unhealthy pattern, if they don’t address the compulsion to eat, they’ll simply be stuck in a cycle.

Size 14 isn’t big in any case, especially if you are tall. I don’t think you need to worry about clothes! I imagine you look great!

Case in point. Amazing you’ve lost weight, but why on earth are you still using it? What’s the end game, what size are you hoping to get down to? Size 6, size 4? 7 stone? 6 stone? Maybe 5 stone? Seriously I don’t get it.

I’m 5’ 6 and I’ve been a size 8 and 7-7.5 stone in my twenties and looked skeletal. 9.5 stone and size 10 was my ideal weight, but I was using weights and doing spin.

I’m the same, I went from an 18 to an 8 -10. I am staying in a maintenance dose also, which is what is is authorised for. Why, I’d have thought it obvious, but here’s why

it is critical to me to maintain my weight and not regain, losing weight, be it with mounjaro or not, involves dieting, we retrain our eating habits , that’s how everyone does it, but when we stop, like any other weight loss method, the risk of regain is high, 80 percent of people who lose weight by diet alone regain within 5 years. I cannot risk this, my health is too important.

i do not want to live my life feeling constant deprivation and struggle to maintain a healthy weight,

i want the long term benefits of the drugs, cardiovascular, kidney, liver health, reduced cancers, reduced inflammation letting my internal cells regenerate.

i can afford it, i am 18 months on the meds, 8 of them maintaning on a 5mg dose, which keeps me completely in control of what I eat, with no struggle, my weight is completely stable, and I eat healthy recommended portions and exercise 6 days a week.

my blood test results were all excellent last month, and my gp and my prescriber support me staying on,

that’s why,

PP continues to lose weight- that’s not maintenance.

My goal weight is 8 stone 7lb. I am chasing that number I guess, but, when I hit it I will increase calories slightly through extra protein and start to maintain. Currently I’m loosing at about a pound a month, so it’s very slow. I’m happy with that. By February I anticipate to be in maintenance and I will likely stay there for life.

Sorry I didn’t spot that, so yes you asked a valid question. The poster has a bmi of 20.1, however I am aware their ethnicity may mean lower is better.

personally I stopped at bmi 20, as it was perfect for me, my body looks toned, I have a very narrow frame howver, even though I’m a little taller than the poster, and my health was at significant risk when my bmi was 32,

I was on max dose of two blood pressure meds and my bp was uncontrolled. Coupled with sleep apnea, and high cortisol that occurred during peri, meaning I was being seen by my gp, a minimum of monthly often fortnightly, due to the risk of an event. It was directly weight related, which in turn was directly cortisol related, and I couldn’t get out of it, as I was permanently exhausted, always hungry, that’s why my gp supports me staying on, reducing my body weight has vastly improved my health.

I really don’t think that’s going to happen. Even when the world was slimmer in the latter part of the 20th century clothes went up to an 18 or 20 in regular shops. My late mum was a 14-16 and never had an issue buying clothes to fit.

My close friend is massively overweight (she would admit this) and could no way afford the injections so I don’t think everyone will suddenly be a size 12-14!

You’ve done great, looks like your goal was the same as mine.

I reverse dieted, upped my cals by about 100 or so, a week, whilst slowly reducing my dose each month, 10mg, down to 7.5, then 5 which is my maintenance dose , which meant the effect stayed the same,

I upped my protein, I’m now about 1.6g per kg of body weight, and continued with streght training as well as cardio, so although my weight is 100 percent stable I’ve dropped my body fat percentage by two points, and upped my muscle mass, since hitting goal , which has made me look leaner but more toned.

You assume that everyone on the jabs is obese. We all know that lots of people who aren’t obese are taking them.

Hardly, as I'm currently taking them with a sub 25 BMI and plan to do so indefinitely. Plus surely everyone knows by now that it's possible to meet the prescription criteria even with a starting BMI of below 30.

But really, even if you now conveniently want to focus only on people who are taking them without having met the prescription criteria when they started, why is people subsisting only on Mars bars suddenly a concern if they're on WLI when it wasn't before?

@Daisywhatsyouranswer @24kPalamino If you are happy, I suppose that’s all that matters. I just can’t imagine staying on something for life I suppose, if obese I get that it’s healthier and people that I know did consume a lot of alcohol and can’t drink on these jabs so no doubt much healthier in that respect - I just personally think it’s better to go on how you look and feel, rather than chasing a number /weight
and knowing when to stop.
You’re both likely a lot younger than me, so maybe this is just the future/way forward.

All that matters is actually I remain healthy, and I didn’t chase a number, I actually moved my goal weight 3 times based on how I felt , my blood pressure and my blood test results, and yes how I looked. I’m sure the pp is the same. It is not we pluck a number out of thin air and chase it.

and I’m more than happy to stay on it for life, it is much better than staying on blood pressure meds for life, which are so brutal I had to have repeated blood tests to check for kidney damage. Many people take drugs for life, statins being an obvious one. It’s also much better than spending every day feeling deprived or struggling to maintain.

this drug has many health benefits which I’ve already listed, as well as enabling me to be sure I won’t regain. So for me, it’s all good.

edit to add I can drink fine on them. Many can, but I doubt anyone would put their need to drink about their health, well not unless they had other issues.

Both wegovy and mounjaro are licensed and approved for weight loss so are not being prescribed off label. Again it seems to be very odd to come onto a thread about the impact of WLI and start banging on about things being prescribed off label when neither of the drugs people are referring to are being prescribed off label.

Can you clarify which injections not approved for weightloss are being widely prescribed for the purpose of weightloss?

Guess what, statins are for high cholesterol, but millions of people taking statins don't have high cholesterol. Now have a little think about why that might be.

I suspect they mean when it's being prescribed by pharmacists to people who have lower BMIs than the eligibility rules allow. But that's still not off label, that's people circumventing the rules by lying about their weight/height.

That’s very hard to achieve now. As you need to submit photos, with your body on clear display, you still need to look like you’ve a bmi of 30 or 27 with health issues, and your gp has to be notified under new rules. So sure social media myths abound about women stuffing their cheeks with cotton wool and sure you can lie about height and weight, but you’re body is not going to look obese if you’re a bmi 23. So some maybe bmi 26 or something and slip in, but it won’t be the huge numbers some folks are making out.

there is a black market, but there is for many drugs, and thats a different issue, from the regulated pharmacies there are strict controls and are audited.

Yes, this is my experience too. My stomach will rumble but there’s no immediate emotional rush of, ‘ooh I’m starving, I want a takeaway’. It’s as though the emotional experience of food is gone and I can be just as happy eating a grilled chicken breast and salad as I would be tucking into chicken and cashew nut from the Chinese.

The ‘emotional rush’ (I can’t think what else to call it) was incredibly powerful and seemed totally impossible to defeat. ‘Old me’ would decide on a takeaway and no amount of steely willpower or distraction could chase the thoughts from my brain. Before I started taking MJ, I began to think there was something really wrong with me. Why couldn’t I just use more willpower? Why, even when I was being good, could I not stop thinking about food? Over the last 2 decades, name a diet and I’ve done it but while I’d lose weight, it was usually temporary and I’d soon regain.

With MJ, will it be any different? I can’t honestly say. I’m realistic in knowing that I’ll always be able to easily gain weight and I’ll always have to calorie count BUT, I’m hoping this ‘time out’ from excessive food thoughts is allowing me to renegotiate my relationship with food and also with my body.

Sorry, not the point of the thread, I know!

i suspected that was what she meant, but the PP insisted on doubling down on her off label assertions so I can only assume she knows something that no on else knows.

I've been thinking overnight about why people baulk at the idea of taking WLI for life but are happy to take medication like statins and I think it comes down to a perception of vanity.

People aren't prescribed statins for vanity reasons, they take them purely for health – that's the accepted view.

Until WLI came on the market, the accepted view was that people only ever lost weight to look good. Think about all those magazine coverlines – "lose a stone in a week!" they'd scream, but health was NEVER referenced – it was all about getting a bikini body, slimming down for Christmas, dropping a dress size for a special event.

That widely-held societal view hasn't shifted quickly enough to keep up with the millions now turning to WLI for the sake of their health. For the first time that I can recall in my adult life (I'm 53), people are signing up to a weight loss programme that – unlike Atkins, Dukan, 5:2 etc – genuinely has little to do with wanting to look slim and isn't being marketed that way.

(I'm not saying that there aren't people who are doing it just to look good as a size 10, but I think they are the minority.)

I do think, after mulling it over last night, the societal view will eventually shift in the coming years and the accepted view will be that users are signing up primarily for health. Sadly, it means users are going to continue to face judgement about vanity until that view shifts.

Having thought about all the above, I'm now even more upset I can't take it! If I wasn't at risk of an ED relapse, I'd be taking it like a shot (no pun intended).

I just don’t see how this is possible. You have to be in a calorie deficit for the drugs to
work. The drugs don’t magically melt fat. If your friend is eating 4 mini rolls and a pastry the size of her head, she can’t be eating much else for the rest of the day. Also, if she’s a healthy weight, where is she sourcing the meds from?

I agree with you, I think this is rhe disconnect.

people who take it, take it for health, both physical and mental,
people who are angry or resentful about it, think it’s purely vanity, to get to a lower dress size, as for them that’s what they see for them that’s what it’s about.

this is then made worse as when you loose the weight, you find your vanity again, you look good, feel good, enjoy clothes. So the angry or miserable brigade think that’s what it is all about.

there is nothing wrong with a bit of vanity, we should all have high self esteem. But I’ve noticed no matter how many people post about their health issues pre jabs or why they did it, the angry and miserable folks totallly ignore it in the main and focus on the fact they are now a size ten.

I completely agree. I think your post is extremely honest and reflects the truth that a lot of the 'disapproval' around WLI is related to peoples deep seated views and judgement about vanity, obesity, laziness etc. It's refreshing to see that acknowledged rather than the faux concern that is so often posited as a cover for the disapproval. Given you state you have previuosly had an ED, it strikes me that you have probably had to think a lot more reflectively about how you and wider society view weight and food over the years, hence being able to actually take a nuanced view now.

I think historically there was a similar level of judgement around mental health issues, for example people disapproving of people taking anti-depressants and instead thinking they should just 'pull themselves together' or take up running as a cure all. I think the difference is obesity seems to be the first physical condition where people seem to think taking medication to address it is 'cheating' or some sort of moral failing. Though as I said above, this has been the case for some mental health conditions previously.

Thank you. Accepting that users are signing up to improve their health is what really makes harder for me as a person with a history of ED – I would love to improve mine by taking WLI, but I cannot risk a relapse. I have to eat little and often for my recovery and long gaps without eating would 100% trigger me once I tapered off the medication, which I'd have to do because I couldn't afford to take WLI indefinitely. My BMI is currently 32 so I'd qualify too!

I think also the fact this is a prescription medication, developed to treat the single biggest killer in our society, gets routinely ignored, the focus instead on dress size. And the negative feelings some people have about others getting slim and staying slim.

the societal benefits, the huge reduction on resource requirements from the nhs and other functioning health care systems globally, the improved health outcomes for the population, are largely ignored,

a bingo card of the same old silly objections trotted out , unknown long term effects, the osbournes, looking older, side effects, can’t drink, don’t retrain eating habits, lose muscle, look ill, blah blah blah and all put forward totally ignoring the fact these drugs are the biggest advancement in medical care in decades, proven very safe after very onerous trials for decades involving tens of thousands of people, and the fact it’s a prescription medication to treat the biggest killer society has,

weight, is a subject that’s really messed up for a lot of people. It’s based on how they feel about their own bodies, and some of fhese responses on this and the many other threads show just how rife that is, just how much some women compare themselves to other women, or compete with fhem, Christ we women on here declaring thenselves a healthy weight all their lives and posting repeatedly about how rhey disapprove of fat people using these drugs to lose weight, or how rhey aren’t a fan, How messed up do you need to be to do that.

and we never see it for other drugs, so many new drugs come to the market each year, no one is starting threads about them, but when it involves women getting slim, it brings out the envy, resentment, anger and frustration some feel about themselves.