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!

When I look at the threads on here, I see the vast majority of people eating clean and healthy diets. I do also see a lot of people not eating sufficient protein to protect muscle and not doing strength training, again to protect muscle, but that’s a different topic to making dietary changes.

i agree with you and other posters pushing back, i see a lot of these negative posters making the assumption that people go on th4 drugs and don’t change their eating habits, that either we just starve ourselves or the fat melts off or something, and it’s nonsense. Sure a tiny majority do not do it right, no doubt about it, but the vast majority don’t. These drugs are a huge investment into our health, they are the last resort for all obese people as we all tried everything else first, be it keto or slimming world and all regained as it wasn’t sustainable.m on the drugs you chose healthy meals, understand calories or healthy portion sizes and how much your body needs.

it’s the drugs that give us the ability and time to put what we know into practice, we don’t need the likes of slimming world with its 97 percent failure rate.

Bloody hell we dont know because we are waiting for the longterm research like any drug. It contains a blackbox warning for potential cancer risk. It is known to reduce muscle mass as well as fat. This is all extremely common knowledge which is why medical professionals have things in place to make sure that not just anyone can take it - the benefits have to outweigh potential risks.

It was a clear insinuation you were making, I’m sorry your husband is foolish with his health and continued to be unhealthy,but he’s in the minority and the man has bigger issues.

That’s brilliant. I hope most people do this. There will be people who dont, like there are for lots of diets.

Who is we? They have close to 40 years of data on these drugs being used. I’m waiting for nothing, again speak for yourself.

Youre seriously unkind. He’s not foolish. We have an extremely stressful homelife. How do you know that he’s in the minority? Have you seen the majority of the population? People have a lot of issues with food.

Is your whole argument that everyone should be on the jabs? Are you trying to argue I should be on the jabs? Im breastfeeding so Im not allowed.

Good for you.

There are several posts on this thread alone where people have known someone who didn’t eat well on the jabs and didn’t do any exercise - therefore that’s the case for everyone. It’s so condescending. And the response is always ‘you’re too sensitive’ or ‘you’re triggered’ because that’s a great way of shutting people down who dare to say anything.

Im sorry other people do that but I haven’t. So stop attacking me. Saying that everyone does something is a stereotype. All I’ve done is wish people well and add my experience (it’s a chat forum). Ill stick to my lovely friends and family who have proper conversations.

The data is from those who use them for type 2 diabetes (which is how they realised they induce weightloss), and it is not "40 years of data" for that (any more than your weird made up figures of the decades they were discovered and worked on (not the 1920s and 1950s, as you've stated!).

They have only a handful of years of data for these drugs being used for weightloss, at the weightloss dose. Effectively, everyone on them now is part of a worldwide uncontrolled trial.

And nobody, including the manufacturers, know what longer term usage looks like, or what longterm ramifications on or future problems with health might be; and nobody, including the manufacturers who have admitted this, know what the effects will be on babies who were born to women on these drugs and hence 'on them' in the womb, etc.

An actual discussion isnt allowed sadly.

These medications have gone through the process that all new medications go through. There have been the necessary clinical trials, for weight loss alone as well as for T2 diabetes. I genuinely don’t understand why people seem to think that this process is not sufficient for GLP-1s but don’t seem concerned about other recent medications. Their use for weight loss is not an uncontrolled trial any more than any other newish medication.

Erm, I was clinically obese and wearing 14/16 in January and am now a size 8/10. I will probably stay on a very low dose forever because the drug has has numerous positive effects on me beyond weight loss. But it is perfectly possible

You know what definitely is linked to many types of cancer? Obesity. As well as high blood pressure and stroke, heart disease, liver disease, arthritis.

That's right!! We KNOW the benefits of reducing obesity on health and blood sugar as well. Even for people only a bit overweight, all the evidence points to the GLP-1 meds having a net benefit. Plus they are turning to have, on the whole, more positive unintended benefits as more data becomes available both in terms of numbers using the meds and the length of time being used.

ANY weight loss will reduce muscle mass. While the benefit of losing body fat is generally still a net positive, it's definitely a problem due to the rapid weight loss that can happen with the GLP-1 meds. But it's something which can be managed through higher protein diet and resistance training (something older women especially shuold be doing anyyway).

I can give you a whole ton of data on the impact of obesity and gestational diabetes/T2 diabetes on pregnancy and neonatal outcomes - and it's not pretty.

Be that as it may, what the effects might be on babies is as yet unknown.

Are they even licenced for pregnancy? I have no idea.

But you can't ignore the known negative impacts of obesity and diabetes on mothers and babies. This is a real issue.

Are they being perscri ed for pregnant women ?

Honestly i read mad posts like this, and raise an eyebrow, where someone comes on with very little knowledge and thinks they are very knowledgeable

fhey have 15 years of trial data for the drug before it was approved for diabetes, this covered thousands of people, there were multiple trials, the surmount and surpass trials, yes surmount was for people with diabetes, both from overweight to healthy weight and the impact on the body much of that was then able to be used for the surpass trials, for weight loss and then much of that was then used for the surpass covt trials, now completed, for cardio vascular health, along side the long term usage since initial approval.

you appear to think that the data gleaned in initial trials has absolutely no bearing on future trials, and no data can be extrapolated, this is wildly incorrect. They have data from when this was initially developed, through to animal testing, to life time usage.

The world, and there is over 50 million currently on them, is no more in a trial than any other prescription medication, that has been approved by all the global health authorities.

Pregnant women are not prescribed them. Of course there will be some who fall pregnant while taking them and don't realise for a while, and there will be some who are idiots and continue taking regardless. They will act as research data. There might be a problem, there might not. That's not a reason to stop people taking the medication though, is it.

Yes, especially as none of them ever seem to explain why, nor make any attempt to balance it against the already known risks of obesity.

Why do you need to be in the drug forever?

My Experience is that the suggested diabetes diet also ends cravings and helps satiety. The hard part is getting started. The drugs could help you get started. Once you have established the new lifestyle when you come off them you probably won’t crave/experience ravenous hunger.

I am not on jabs but I do follow a diabetes diet because I am pre-pre diabetic (not quite pre diabetic but getting there). I find it an absolute game changer. No hunger.

With a little bit of googling/chatgpt I found that GLP-1s don't easily cross the placenta so there's not concern over direct effect on the foetus. The main issue is the decreased appetite in the mother leading to restricted foetal growth which was seen in animal testing hence why not recommended during pregnancy. And that makes total sense as the mother won't be able to respond to the normal appetite cues during pregnancy (i.e. when you feel you could eat a horse before breakfast!) .

I can answer for me only. The reason I am staying on:

like any diet , the risk of regain is high and I do not wish to live my life battling to stay this weight and feeling deprived, hungry etc,
I cannot risk regain, I had high blood pressure, sleep apnea and high cholesterol, my blood tests show I am now very healthy and I am off rhe harsh blood pressure meds, the only medication I now take is a low therapeutic dose off mounjaro weekly.

i want the health benefits the drug brings, not just blood sugar and insulin management, but the cardio vascular, kidney, liver health, reduced cancers, reduced inflammation, anti ageing of internal organs, and other things now being trialled, ie reduction in dementia,
I want the mental health benefits I now have, where I am happier, where I am not focused on food, eat a healthy balanced diet, exercise regularly, and know I can stay the weight I am, I’ve maintained effortlessly mentally for 8 months. Had I come off it would be a constant mental battle, I do not chose that.

it’s a personal choice, and this is the one I’ve made, with support of my prescriber and gp. Others will chose differently. The drug is approved for life long usage. The failure rate for any diet is on average 80 percent, with regain within 5 years, I know no matter how hard I try, how much I struggle every single day, I will at some point see the scales go up. I do not chose this.

im glad you find the diabetic diet works for you and no hunger, no cravings, no blood sugar issues, you’ve won the genetic lottery. It did not work for me.