to think WLI have given many people huge health improvements despite the remarkable number of people on MN who are anti WLI for no good reason

[MountainStorm]

There seem to be endless anti WLI threads on here filled with misinformation, faux concern, and thinly disguised jibes at overweight people. I don’t really understand the motivation but that’s another issue.

On the other hand, many people have seen huge improvements in their health, confidence and wellbeing from using WLI. I certainly have.

So I wanted to ask AIBU to say that WLI have given many people huge health improvements and to ask what health improvements have you personally experienced on WLI?

For me

• been able to reduce antidepressant medication
• improved fitness, don’t get so tired or out of breath when walking

I dislike liars is the main reason why I don’t understand why people lie about it. As for you others - 1 I highly doubt most people even consider WLI as medical information, 2 already covered that, 3 already covered it, 4 makes no sense, 5 who cares if the person using them is happy ignore the debate and 6 is hilarious because all the people that lie about it do is create gossip. The only people I ever hear being gossiped about are the ones that say they’re not on WLI. Anyhow, agree to disagree.

And I dislike people who think they are entitled to know all my personal information.

That doesn’t make me a liar, that makes it none of your bloody business

@20bloodypounds & @DamsonGoldfinch in regards of people gaining weight once they stop, can't get better evidence than this:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c050ljnrv2qo

I haven't read that research and don't know if it's better quality than previous studies saying otherwise clearly neither have a lot of the people trumpeting it in social media, but I wonder where this leaves the people who are so insistent we can't stay on it long term?

The main issue is costs and dependency/ addiction.

It's not the miracle cure that everyone hopes it would be. WLI do not replace the need for long term lifestyle changes and simply sticking to it avoiding cretin foods & drinks.

Did everyone hope it would be a miracle cure? Not me. I recognised that it's an effective tool for sustained long term weight loss. I am not dependent or addicted to WLI, either physically or psychologically. Wanting to continue to take an effective treatment is not a dependency or an addiction. The costs are mine to worry about, and I don't worry about it as I can easily afford them. Other people are capable of managing their finances and affording them long term too.

I wish people could grasp the idea that using WLI allows a lot of people to make long term lifestyle changes and to embed them, where they have not ever managed that before.

I've definitely made and continue to make long term lifestyle changes. I am at my goal weight and maintaining on 5mg. I eat maintenance calories and probably a but in surplus as I lift heavy weights 6 days a week at the gym, which I love. I love my morning gym ritual at 6:30am before rhe craziness of the day starts. I'm eating about 2200 to 2500 calories a day. My plan is to be on these when I have maintained this lifestyle for 3ish years. I'm not using the drugs as an appetite suppressant anymore, as I eat a lot of good nutritional food and I need to to be able to workout the amount I do. I also run and do yoga and walk lots. They certainly aren't a magical cure and I have changed my lifestyle so much. People assuming that those on WLI aren't changing their lifestyle are just wrong and once again assuming that all obese people are stupid, lazy and uneducated. WLI have enabled me to make these changes which I just couldn't so before for so many reasons including pain, inflammation, insulin resistance, low mood, food noise etc.

I’m not someone who thinks the BBC is a very reliable source of evidence but I’ll play along. Let’s look beyond the headline shall we?

The researchers looked at 37 studies with over 9,000 patients to compare the blockbuster weight-loss jabs with conventional dieting or other pills.
Only eight of the studies assessed treatment with the newer GLP-1 drugs, such as Wegovy and Mounjaro, and the maximum follow-up period in these studies was a year after medication stopped, so the figures are an estimate.
People who diet instead can expect to lose less weight than with the jabs, but afterwards weight creeps back on more slowly - perhaps around 0.1 kg a month - say the researchers, although it does vary.

So in 8 out of 37 studies, people who lost weight slowly put it back on slowly. I mean that’s hardly ground breaking is it? Looking at the actual analysis, they analysed people who had lost on average just over 8kgs in a year on WLIs.

Firstly, that’s a very slow weight loss on WLI. So either those people weren’t massive overweight in the first place or they really didn’t change their eating habits very much. As a reminder, I’ve lost 1/3 of my body weight in 18 months.

Secondly, the people on WLIs were still lighter than the people who had pursued diet and exercise only one year after stopping WLIs. They lost 15% of their weight and regained 10%. Diet and exercise people lost 5% and regained 2%.

What this shows is that yo-yo dieting is yo-yo however you do it. If you only do WLIs for a year and lose a relatively small amount of weight before stopping them, you’ve probably not changed behaviour or eating so just like any other diet, you’ll likely pile on the pounds.

For those of us who are determined to make a wholesale change, who are going to the gym and have drastically changed our diets (we’re not just eating less, we’re eating differently) the outcomes will be different. And I’m quite prepared to be on these for life. I’ve avoided statins and hypertension because of WLIs. My blood pressure is normal. My VO2 fitness is way above average. I’m fit, healthy and happy. And I have my investment in myself via WLI to thank for it.

You know what a a scroll button is?

Lol at the BBC being a trusted source 😂Hopefully the BMJ is a bit more reliable.

I would be interested to know what the situation of the people in the trials was ie why were they on WLI and were they paying for the drugs themselves? I’ve had a quick look at the BMJ paper and can’t see anything about this but I might have missed it.

Someone made a point about this earlier in the thread, that people who pay for their WLI are likely to be very motivated to maintain a lower wait, possibly more so in general than people who are given the drugs free. It would be very interesting to see results separated out for people who pay for their WLIs and people who don’t. I wonder if there would be a difference in weight maintenance after stopping.

Very interesting analysis.

Going cold turkey is a real challenge, he says.
"This is further exacerbated if the individual in question has relied solely on GLP-1 to do the heavy lifting... artificially suppressing their appetite without them establishing any dietary or behavioural changes that would help them in the long run."

so no you’re not supposed to go Cold Turkey, you are supposed to tritate down to manage the suppression waninfg.

and without changing diet or exercise habits of course you’re going to put the weight back on. Same as slimfast, weight watchers, low carb every other diet everyone else has tried.

That shouldn’t be headline news.

Erm....of course it's medication. Its prescribed by medical professionals and, as conveniently ignored by many, when mounjaro is prescribed in relation to diabetes, has a positive impact on blood sugar levels and blood pressure as a minimum. Uou can dislike liars all you want but you have no right to any of that information about me just because you want yo know why I've lost weight. As for who cares if I'm happy?? Are you serious? And plenty of people are losing lots of weight without injections. No one deserves to be gossiped about.

I think calling them weight loss injections rather than medication leads people to dismiss the fact that they are actually a medical intervention. That and the fact they believe it's somehow linked to your moral fibre and they get to judge your worth on whether you take them or not. Like I've said, I don't care as I dislike people who don't like the fact I'm healthier thanks to a medical intervention so I'm happy to screen them out my life. Other people think differently and choose not to tell and that's fine too. I do get bored explaining about maintenance though.

Please stop going on about 'unknown long term side effects' when GLP-1 medication has been used by millions of people with diabetes since 2005.
Globally.
For the past 21 years.
Get yourself up to date FGS.

Yes, exactly, it's very frustrating to read over and over when these drugs AREN'T new. Also it's interesting how people are apparently so concerned about these alleged unknown long-term implications but aren't about not only the very well-known implications of obesity but also, depending on the person, of things like consumption of processed meats or alcohol. It's like people have blinkers on for something perceived as new, even if it isn't, that they won't examine.

It's a bit like when you see a recipe for Peanut butter cookies and you have a nut allergy...you just don't bake them.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/m002r3kd

This might be of interest...

Highly recommend this, a very interesting listen.

I went on pharmica to get it to help with peri menopause. They asked for lots of photos and they refused me and said I would have to go to the gp or pharmacist so they could judge bmi 🙈

It turns out, fat people aren’t lazy or unmotivated or stupid.

Millions of fat people are queuing up to spend thousands of pounds each to buy medicine to help us eat less and lose weight. The moment an effective treatment became available, we were onto it.

That really upsets some people.