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 am extremely grateful. I never thought I would stop craving sweets.

I know of many people who have done the same. And I am putting this out there for those who want to give it a serious go.

I couldn’t have put it better myself.

Sigh.

Absolutely nobody has attacked you. Perhaps it’s you who is the sensitive one?

I always find it surprising when people say well once you’ve made the diet and lifestyle changes it will be easy. Especially when fat people say it. Are they saying they got fat as they didn’t know any better? I knew better, I just couldn’t do better, day in day out. If I could, I would have. I tried everything and couldn’t sustain it.

Every single fat person can put a diet and lifestyle change in today, if it was so easy, no one would be fat.

I also see this underlying current of either “well if I can do it so can you”, as if we are all the same and not individuals, or this “well it’s one thing to take the meds to lose the weight, but another to take them to stay slim forever, why should I have to do the hard work and you don’t have to”

im glad the poster has found something thay works for her, and she doesn’t have cravings or hunger, lucky her. She’s in a very small minority. I am not, and we all get to make personal decisions that work best for us as individuals. If you can do it without medication, good for you. If you need medication, and can afford it, then also good for you. All that matters is we are all healthy.

I'd imagine many GLP1 users are similar to me - took it for a year and now I'm a healthy size 14!

Look it up. The jabs mimic what the body is able to do naturally. Perhaps you are really diabetic and your body doesn’t allow it. It may not be for you but it is important that people know that the jabs are not the only way as people will have to spend on them for the rest of their lives. My guess is that the appetite is suppressed straight almost immediately when you use the drugs. If you don’t use them it can take a few days for the sugar to stop affecting you. Some people experience an excruciating withdrawal which is why they keep “failing”. If they grit their teeth and get through that they experience the same feelings as those on jabs. This is not just “another diet”.

@AbbaCadaBra as I have said before most people using WLI have done many diets in their lives. I've done Keto and I lost plenty of weight on it. It also sent my thyroid completely into a spiral (it is a known issue, particularly for women) so I had to stop doing it. You won't be suprised to hear that I regained all the weight again. All diets work! Every single one of them. Strange how we still find ourselves with an obesity crisis. I wonder if it could possibly be more complicated that just gritting ones teeth and sticking with it?

I don’t need to look it up. I tried it. I am not diabetec.

You really need to stop with the it works for me so it should work for everyone, just grit your teeth nonsense, and not one person has said the drugs are the only way, but they maybe the only way for some, you need to accept this.

and yes it is just another diet, as said I’m really glad it one which works for you. It’s great you’re now slim healthy able to maintain and have no cravings or hunger, genuinely.

I didn’t say it works for everyone. I want to encourage those it MIGHT work for. The jabs aren’t for everyone. I for one am relieved I don’t have to take them. A couple more pounds and I will be out of the obesity zone.

Mmm, there's just no reason to swap a tried and tested medication you already know works for you, with wider benefits, for a diet because someone else reckons you probably won't have any cravings if you do it. The risks are too great as a formerly obese person. The cost is only relevant if it's something you need to worry about.

Of course, for those who prefer the diet approach/don't prefer it but are forced by circumstance, I wish nothing but the best of luck.

“Grit their teeth” through sugar withdrawal?

Why are some people so invested in how other people manage their health? No one would be planning to stay on a medication that wasn’t working for them - particularly given the cost - if they didn’t consider it the best option for them.

as you say, it mimics what some peoples physiology does naturally. That seems far more sensible to me than a lifetime of struggle, Yoyo dieting etc

I. Know.

That. Is. What. I. Said.

I hope everything works out for you.

@AbbaCadaBra
Not everyone's physiology works properly, hence we have an entire industry built around healthcare, which many people dedicate their whole adult likes to working and innovating in.

If it was as simple as relying on our own correctly functioning physiology we could scrap the medical side of healthcare and focus everything on trauma care.

I hear you OP. I'm a size 14, bmi 25.5 and it will be 26 by January and I'll work hard to get it down again. Was 12 all my life till I hit peri. I know at least 10 people on meds. Am I tempted to hit 10/12 again? Yes, but afraid of the long term effects

please read my post. Not everyone who struggles will struggle forever - even after what seems a lifetime. We are encouraged to think that we can't do it, but we can. The world is actually structured to be unhelpful to those who do struggle, but I would say that not everyone who struggles needs medication. They really don't. I think it's important that message also gets conveyed. I am not saying people shouldn't take medication, far from it. But many don't want to. Including me. And I am relieved to discover that I don't have to. That is not a judgement. It is a choice.

You who are on the jabs aren't the only ones who are allowed to say how wonderful it is to not have to experience the ravenous appetite. Those of us who have (finally) discovered a way of experiencing that through a lifestyle change are allowed to be equally "evangelical".

The problem is that in questioning people about why they're staying on something tried and tested, and attempting to persuade them to do something else based on your belief, you're going beyond just people who don't want to take a medication. You've specifically addressed yourself to people who clearly do.

A person who's on WLIs would also be overstepping if they did this to someone who's successfully managing their obesity through diet, and has shown no indication that they want to be regaled with what someone else believes. There was an example of a pp upthread who's WLI taking friend can't understand her not being on the jabs, and several of us told her this is out of line.

Good grief, are you even reading the responses. We are all saying it is down to the individual, it is you who is banging on about diet and how some of us may be too stupid to know what works for us but should try your diet.

once Again, we all fully understand meds are not for everyone. We all fully understand some can do it with diet. We all fully understand you’re relieved you can do it with diet, you don’t need to keep repeating it. Which to be honest, is a really bold statement for someone who is still obese and not even entered maintenance yet. Come back when you e been a healthy bmi for a year and tell us just how easy it is.

you need to accept that others will want medication. Not one person here has said everyone should take the drugs and stay on for life. What we are saying is we are fully equipped to make our own health decisions. We do not need to do what works for you.

Many on here were saying that they are going to wean themselves off the medication at some point and I am offering a tip about what might be helpful in not triggering the appetite again. Let me be clear: I am not persuading anyone to do anything, but people like me who don't want jabs also need to hear that there are alternatives.

But you wouldn't be able to get it. The medication in its current form is not prescribed to people with a BMI of 26.

You asked why some people are staying on for life. We told you why. You then started havering on about getting the message out about doing it by diet alone and how this diet works for you, when staying on long term is about maintenance. You’re still obese and a long way away from this. And as much as we all admire your optimisim, giving tips to people who chose to stay on on how to maintain with your diet when you’ve never done it yourself is mind boggling. We are a healthy weight, some of us are maintaining, we know what works for our bodies, at this stage you are an obese woman telling people how to maintain and how easy it is. Even saying grit your teeth to get through sugar withdrawal, not one of us in maintenance would need to do that. We withdrew from sugar a long time ago when we were like you, still obese.

But you specifically replied to someone who had said they wanted to stay on it long term, and asked them why. You clearly didn't think you were talking to someone who intended to wean off the medication.

If you wish to address people who don't want the jabs, you don't do that via questioning someone who does.

No need to be unkind. I am 1.5lbs into the obesity zone. I wear a size 12 (I am petite in height). I am just over the moon to not feel hungry, just as you are. I have done it before actually and maintained for many years. I don't see the weight gain as a failure. Life happens.

I don't want to hand my appetite over to a drug. So I am pleased to know that I don't have to. The plan I am on was formulated for my body by a nutritionist.

Interesting that now you are normal weight you have become a fat shamer. But that's OK, isn't it?

@AbbaCadaBra I don't think acknowledging that someone who has stated they are obese is obese is fat shaming!

How long have you been doing your diabetes diet for this time? How long did you do it for last time? What happened that you became obese again?

I'm not in the UK, I know people who just pay for it