To be really jealous of people who can afford weight loss injections?

[Charliede1182]

It seems like everyone and their dog is taking them, I personally know several people who are on them with significant and effortless weight loss, and I feel like there is becoming more and more of a disparity between those who can afford to buy themselves a smaller appetite and those who can't.

It's not just a social or cosmetic issue, it's about health equity.

In my case I don't want to lose weight for vanity or to cater to patriarchal beauty standards, I am comfortable and confident in my appearance and keen to model body positivity to my daughter.

However I am on the combined pill (for important medical reasons not contraception) and my weight is starting to threaten my ongoing access to this.

I am very fit, walk 5-8 miles a day, some of it with a weighted vest, gym 2-3 x weekly, resistance training, cook almost everything from scratch and although I am no angel I would say my diet is about 90% healthy.

I just don't feel full with small portions, it is an apparent mismatch between appetite and metabolism which is why I would love these injections to make me less hungry.

Even if I had the willpower to just eat less, being hungry all the time isn't a good quality of life and my attitude has always been I would rather enjoy myself and be a bit heavier than society thinks I should, than be thin and miserable.

Whilst I could probably get the money together for a couple of months of treatment, this is not how these drugs work, as people's appetite just comes roaring back if they stop, and then they can end up in a worse position having lost lean mass as well, so I would only go down this road if I could afford it longer term.

Just wondering if anyone else has Ozempic envy right now??!!!

I have been on WLI since the beginning of August and lost four stone. I want to lose one more.

i can only speak for me but I’m not planning on being on them indefinitely. I can barely afford them now, to be honest. I’m losing the weight and then seeing where I am. But it’s so much easier to deal with maintenance than it is with losing five stone. I know which I’d rather.

Was your diet pre WLI very different to what you eat now? When I started calorie counting and focussing on nutrition my food bill increased a lot! I can’t imagine that just a bit less of the same good foods will save enough.

@Charliede1182 I'm jealous that your body is strong enough and that you have the time to walk over 5 miles every day.
I’m jealous that you have the confidence (that you don’t have when you’re heavily overweight) to go the gym 3 times per week.
I’m jealous strangers aren’t judging you for your size, and then making judgements about your intelligence, personal hygiene etc

Having lost around 15kg on MJ jabs so far

• for this to work long term, you change your eating habits - smaller portions, cooking healthy meals from scratch, being in a calorie deficit every day for months.
• Judgement from people you know (& don’t know) about your choice to use WLIs
• Screwing up your courage and going to gym despite every fibre in you wants to run away and hide

Wouldn't it be great if we could support each other instead of being envious?

if you feel jealous then that’s how you feel, it’s not unreasonable to wish you had the money to afford things you want. It doesn’t particularly sound like you’re actually that keen to use them anyway.

To the people asking about whether GPs would prescribe WLI, not for most people. For weight loss only, not T2 diabetes blood sugar control, you need a BMI of 40 plus, and 4 out of 5 specific weight related health conditions to be prescribed Mounjaro. Wegovy is only prescribed by specialist weight losss services, not GPs, and you need to be on Tier 3 having worked through Tier 1 and 2 without success. Then you might be offered Wegovy instead of Bariatric surgery, but what is offered depends on your NHS area.

I’m in them but have never gone above 2.5 mj
this dose enables me to fast very well with no problems.
the eight is coming off slowly but I also have so much more energy.
i pay for them by cutting back in other areas.

I think the OP might have tried that once or twice- the same as lots of us!

I have picked up an extra day at work a week to pay for them .

lost 85lb in 350 ish days . I haven’t been this thin/ healthy for 15 years.

I’ll definitely be making the trade off for another year at least .

completely worth loosing a day a week in my opinion…. But I have to say I’m jealous of people that get it on the nhs !

the grass is always greener ect .

I would imagine that cheaper alternatives come along soon - I am sure I read somewhere that the 10 year copyright(?) for it runs out in two countries next year

Can I ask how you did this? I'm early 40s and am definitely noticing an increasing propensity to keep the weight on my tummy now which is something that needs to change. Step 1 for me will be reducing alcohol intake which is far too high at present.

People who get it on the NHS are very very unwell people, you really shouldn't find yourself jealous of them, no one wants their health problems I promise you.

I’m not at all jealous of overweight and unhealthy people!!

@Newyearnewnamef people who get Mounjaro on the NHS have at least 4 very serious weight related health issues, and a BMI of 40 plus. I am not remotely envious of them even though they are getting for prescription cost what I am paying private prices for. I am extremely happy not to have their health challenges! I’m also glad that they can actually get an effective treatment for their situation.

I feel the same and I am still taking it. I'm on my second last pen and can no longer afford to get it any more. Some people have never been able to afford it. For me the greatest benefit has been the improvement in digestive issues and the anti-inflammatory benefits and I'm really sad that I basically have to return to that reversing due to affordability. Some people have never even felt that reprieve. So I do feel envious of people for whom affordability isn't an issue and who can continue to experience those improvements indefinitely.

I don’t understand how anyone can walk 5-8 miles daily (some with a weighted vest), cook from scratch and work out 2-3 x per week plus resistance training and still be so overweight they need mounjaro. You must be eating an inordinate amount of calories. Cut the food significantly and you’ll lose weight and maybe even afford WLI

I’m with you. It’s hard to read about how many people lose shed loads of weight on tiny doses. I’m on 10mg and losing half a pound a week if I’m lucky. Sometimes nothing. It’s very expensive but due to health issues and medication I’m on, I’ve had to stop all the exercise I was doing previously and the meds I’m on make weight gain inevitable. Feel stuck between a rock and a hard place. Switched to Mounjaro from Wegovy as having no luck, and Mounjaro was cheper. Two weeks later, trump happened and mounjaro costs sky high ffs.

How much do you pay for your gym? Can you put the money to WLI instead?

YABVVU OP.
Envy/jealousy is both the thief of joy and an unattractive trait in anyone.
I would like to earn enough to have a £1.5m property, with a bigger kitchen, extra bedrooms and at least one en-suite, but I’m also aware that many people see my current 3 (well, 2.5) bedroom house as one to aspire to.
Losing weight is perfectly possible without turning to injections: raise your resolve and try changing your lifestyle instead of obsessing how “easy” weightloss is with Ozempic - many many people are finding out that along with the weight loss, they are having other problems that you don’t get with just diet and exercise.
The easy way out is often not what it’s cracked up to be…

I much prefer to spend money on living healthily, eating well and working out, than spending it on WLI drugs.

Yanbu.

It was actually one of the reasons I delayed taking it- not the cost to me (which I'm fortunate to be able to afford) but the health inequality it creates a long with the societal impact of people being "skinny" (which I don't believe to be the indicator of health MN seems to think it is). I did in the end take it but I do think it should be much more easily offered on the NHS given the cost implications we are told obesity causes.

Yes, but OP wants weight loss injections.

Are you the OP? If not, the question wasn't directed at you.

I work overtime just to pay for them. I’m on a high dose mounjaro and don’t want ozempic so it does cost a lot. I could do with putting the money aside to pay for a holiday this year but I’m prioritising myself

You can spend money on eating well, living healthily, working out AND pay for WLI ! Shocker lol

Yanbu to feel envious. I know from experience how brilliant they are and it's understandable that people want them. It sounds like you're at least overweight if not obese, so I hope you can get them at some point.

I swapped from mounjaro to wegovy due to cost and it not really working but I am gaining weight on wegovy. So frustrating.

I do not think you are being unreasonable and that’s how I voted, because so many people find benefits from these injections.

However, there are ways to boost your GLP-1 naturally and it’s a question of adding particular foods into your diet rather than thinking about taking foods out. Adding GLP-1 promoting foods will reduce the proportion of other foods that you eat: that’s a natural consequence of increasing one aspect of your food intake.

There are many articles about this. Focus on soluble fibre foods, grains, vegetables and legumes. Berberine is also suggested as something that boosts GLP-1. So the idea is that you focus on the foods that promote GLP-1 naturally and not on restricting food or consciously dieting. Exercise also promotes GLP-1.

If you Google, there’s loads of information and the advantage of doing it this way is that you won’t have to worry about what happens once you reach your ideal weight and have to stop, or can’t afford them anymore.

example articles are : https://health.osu.edu/wellness/exercise-and-nutrition/activiating-glp-1-naturally

https://www.webmd.com/obesity/features/natural-glp1-boosters