If you are on weight loss injections, what do you make of this article?

[IwishIwasacaterpillar]

If you have come off them, have you gained weight very quickly?

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jan/07/weight-loss-jabs-regain-two-years-health-study

I know people who lost weight (not on WLIs) who are in both camps.

Some are the same or fatter than they were before weight loss. Some have kept it off for near a decade.
The thing the ones who kept it off all have in common were they made permanent lifestyle changes. The ones who regained did not.

Firstly, the paper is not a gospel or oracle of truth. The papers is is based on extrapolations from evidence of other studies. It is not the presentation of dogmatic facts but more of a discussion paper.

Researchers behind the paper, published in the BMJ late on Wednesday, analysed data from more than 9,000 people from 37 studies that examined the effects of ceasing the drugs. On average, the participants took the medicines for 39 weeks and provided follow-up data for 32. The scientists extrapolated from the studies to forecast what would have happened after a further lapse of time.

The scientists acknowledged limitations in their work including that almost a third of the trials they surveyed had a high risk of bias. The populations in the drug and behavioural treatment programmes might have differed in potentially important ways, such as the degree of obesity and incidence of comorbidities, they added.

All diets tend to work, as long as people are on them and this includes when using WLI. Most people can successfully diet, the problems occur when they stop. Therefore it doesn't take a genius to surmmise that the same will be true for those on WLI. Much more recognition needs to be given to what the co-author of the paper said:

“Obesity is a chronic relapsing condition and it’s very clear that . . . some sort of intervention needs to continue if we’re going to sustain the benefits of these treatments.”

I hope that these articles, instead of encouraging all the ranting frothers to bang on about how fatties are lazy, greedy and bound to fail will actually stimulate more understanding of the problem of the epidemic of obesity we are facing and its multi-causal factors and how best we can deploy WLI and medications to tackle the issues - along with all the other things we should be doing too.

Nevolate plus others I think - all generics of liraglutide as that's off patent now.

Thanks for your insight 🙄

I think ‘duh’ that’s also the case for obese people who lose the weight through diet. There’s no magic bullet, people are predisposed to obesity and have to work really hard to stand firm against that predisposition

I lost 1 stone in 9 months. Put 1.5 stone back on in 6.
I am now doing 800 fast, no booze, no carbs.

I also have a damaged sigmoid colon from the jabs - regular a&e trips and will be on and off antibiotics for life.

@Dragonscaledaisy apologies it seems that Nevolat is available, which is liraglutide as you say. There is no generic semaglutide or Tirzepatide at the moment though.

I also think they fuck with your metabolism.

It HAS to be for life otherwise the big Pharma can't make money... if everyone gets a magic slim / healthy bullet they are out of business.

I think the article is telling us pretty much what everyone can work out for themselves, if you don’t change your diet composition, your attitude to food and your overall lifestyle then as soon as you stop suppressing your appetite you will eat too much and gain weight. Whether you loose weight with injections or dieting alone you need to put in long term strategies to keep it off, this includes more activity (to increase calories burned) and lower calorie intake for life with a balanced diet you can stick to. I am loosing without injections currently, but it’s a struggle, depriving yourself is hard so the minute you take your eye off the prize you put it back on, injections are basically giving you extra willpower

Nevolat is widely available

With any weight loss at all unless you change your mindset and eating patterns then you absolutely will regain weight ( even with bariatric surgery).

I’ll ask again as you seemed to not have answered, yet you’re obviously very invested in WLIs.

So, in your opinion, what are the negatives vs positives of WLIs?

I think it’s wonderful that people are able to address their weight and become free of food noise, and get a chance to reset their metabolism, if that’s what they want to do. Life is too short, and health is so important. If people need/choose to be on them for life, I think that’s a matter for them.

For context, I’m someone who has never struggled with my weight, so I have no skin in this game. I’m currently a size 6, I have two children, my youngest is just 2. I just don’t struggle with my weight, and the way people describe themselves when they are on the jabs seems to be how I am. For example, I didn’t know food noise was a thing until I saw it mentioned on MN. I do naturally prefer healthier options and I like walking, swimming and yoga, but I’m no athlete and I also have a sweet tooth!

I have my own struggles with other things (like my hair - I would love to have long, thick, wavy hair) and if I could take a pill or jab myself which to have that, I think I probably would. As it is, I’m stuck with supplements and extensions. Maybe there’ll be a hair equivalent in the future and we can all sashay around with waist length hair if we so desire 😆

I’ve only put two pounds on and that’s from pigging out at Christmas. Now I’m back on track with my eating and exercise, albeit minus WLI, I fully anticipate it will come off again.

If time spent on WLI is used to generally overhaul one’s habits, I think that massively cuts down on the risk of regaining.

I stopped MJ in May after loosing 3.5 stone, I am still maintaining my weight now. I did take it really serious and changed my food habits, exercise ect which I have carried on. The weight I lost really spurred me on and I don’t want to go back to weight I was before, so has kept me motivated.

I agree with this. I have not started them yet but healthy eating isn’t particularly a problem for me. I do have junk food once in a while but my diet has plenty of veg, seafood / fish and lean meats. I rarely eat red meat. My issue is portion control (driven by constantly feeling hungry), starchy carb and sugar cravings and constant food preoccupation (“food noise”). I know that when I hit goal weight I will have to manage the above and it will be HARD.

I did Weight Watchers years ago and kept the weight off for 3 years but then I moved country and changed lifestyle (more money to eat out, stressful job with insane hours meant I craved sugar, carbs, lost time to work out, poor sleep and lots of takeaways due to late finishes. But when I was maintaining it’s because I maintained a weekly prep and planning program and will do the same again with WLI.

You are right most of the above is psychological so that’s where people need to focus.

Please tell me where i mentioned it being a horrible situation. The poster you quote was the one who termed it a horrible situation

Exactly what happened to me! Back on MJ 2 weeks ago to try and get back to where I was. Going to have to have a long hard think before stopping them again...

@Tessasanderson it was in your post at 9:55. "Its a horrible situation. Granted there are positives of course but much much more negatives"

I don’t actually give a rats arse about changing non-users opinion, why on earth do you think that?

I care about people posting their incorrect opinions as fact and putting them straight.

Yes, this is absolutely what will happen.

Sorry i didnt realise (or read back) that i said that. I was referring to the fact that it doesnt give you a final solution to the issue of being overweight rather than directly attacking someone taking these drugs for WL.

My bad, i accept i did say it. Sorry

I lost seven stone using conventional willpower based methods, and kept it off for two years. Unfortunately, I then regained the weight when I became severely ill with Long Covid (still have occasional attacks these days).

I'm confident in my ability to sustain weight, diet and exercise as needed barring extenuating circumstances. Unfortunately I'm now in possession of a toddler, and know that I'm therefore not in the position to make the commitment I did to weight loss unassisted by medication.

My choices appear to be:

• become healthier unassisted (low probability, I can't do 4-5 exercise sessions pw as I did previously). Possibly return if another health crisis occurs.
• become healthier assisted (good probability, already lost almost 3st). Possibly return if another health crisis.
• become healthier assisted and succeed in keeping the weight off.
• become healthier assisted and require to stay on drugs long term to remain healthier.

I can't see any reason why the first scenario is considered better than the 2nd-4th.

Perhaps if people called it "became healthy" rather than "lost weight" people would stop being such wankers about it? I was on SSRIs for a brief period whilst I developed self-management and escaped the crisis point, but you don't see endless threads about that.

(Honest opinion - anyone who buys into the baiting by the press of people on WLI is more than a little thick.)

'Can you understand...?' In your last two posts you've questioned my ability to understand something which is pretty basic research. If you get off your high horse and stop being so condescending I would have a conversation but you're not worth the time. Can you understand why I can't be bothered...?

I was a SW member for years and enjoyed it and actually still follow a lot of the SW “rules” and recipes.

But taking WLI’s is worlds away from SW - for one I never have to worry about eating out bc just have whatever I fancy and eat until
I start feeling satiated. I don’t get any of the angst about what to eat/calories etc. I just don’t even think about it any more. It’s fantastic.