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

All I’m saying is that having to resist the cravings/hunger during the diet phase helps staying on track during the maintenance phase.
Obviously it doesn’t always work, but still it works more often than for people stopping injections and suddenly having all the food noise back.

I lost 20kg on MJ a year ago and largely kept it off with small fluctuations. I was only on 2.5 ml, had very little appetite in the first few days of taking it each week and then more hunger in the last 2-3 days. In the first days I to some extent forced myself to eat more than I could get away with, because I didn't want to lose weight too quickly and give my body a stress signal. I get anxiety and insomnia if I restrict calories too much, my body just lets me know it's not happy. The benefit of MJ was being able to overhaul the bad emotional snacking/overeating habits which developed due to the chronic condition and stressful events in the last years, it just gave me a break to redesign my eating, what's available in the house, notice how I had thoughts about snacks when I wasn't in the least hungry because of habit/emotional needs. I worked on that and found other ways to manage emotions and tiredness. I took weight loss very slowly compared to the majority of what I'm seeing in the WLJ community. Brought regular strength training back into my life. My hormonal balance massively improved once I stopped consuming so much sugar, and reduced the need for it and meant I had more energy to be active. I was prepared to tough it out in the first weeks after stopping, I knew hunger would intensify, which it did, but then it stabilised. I am largely able to keep my good habits going now, just the same as I did before weight started piling up and I went down the spiral. I think WLJs can really, really help people like me who ended up with a lot of extra weight after certain events rather it being a life-long battle, because our bodies and minds remember functioning with lower weight. I think it's much, much harder for people with a longer history and higher levels of BMI. Not impossible but much harder.

I completely agree!

I have fortunately been able to maintain a healthy weight without the injections but I know a few years ago I would have bitten someone’s hand off for them!

But unfortunately they are not a magic wand and research and peoples experiences are showing that there are a lot more downsides than people first realised.

I think it’s so rude of these posters to be so dismissive of other people’s experiences.

If they genuinely want to promote the WLI’s then they should be giving posters unbiased opinions rather than bullying any poster who dares say they’re anything less than perfect.

There is absolutely a massive element of this.

In fact I’d say it’s 99% of the reason - this is my own opinion as someone who is very interested in psychology.

Wow. For your information, I am a recovered bulimic and have been positively so for years. So positive, in fact, that I can now try to lose weight I've gained in menopause using traditional methods and not be triggered. Going on these meds would most likely trigger me, which is why sensibly providers won't prescribe them to anyone with a history of ED.

But trying to use my ED to try to boot me off the thread is as fucking low as anything I've read from anyone in the pro-WLI brigade. You should be ashamed.

If that were so, why is it that we have an obesity epidemic? Why are all those people dieting conventionally not staying slim? People have been dieting for many, many decades and yet the global population is only getting fatter. That doesn't seem to fit with the logic of your argument.

Some of these comments read like posters almost salivating at the thought of regaining weight, it’s really horrible. Spiteful jealousy. Or acting like regaining weight after a diet is some new thing.

And totally ignores that
a/ eighty percent of people regain after normal dieting,
b/the weight loss of the people in the trials is very low, most people in real life lose an awful lot more
c/ many people are choosing to stay on for life. I am one of them.
D/ if people find the weight going on after stopping, they can restart with most suppliers within 12 months even if not meeting the 30/27 bmi levels.

of course many people will regain if they come off permanently, they do on all diets, and speed is subjective, and of course peiple changed their eating habits on the drugs, you’d be knocked sick if you didn’t, it’s not some new thing to regain after dieting, and the drugs don’t work if you don’t take them.

everyone should factor in the maintenance decision when deciding to start. Life long or go back on if regain happens.

However if you’ve several stone to lose, it’s arguably much better to struggle to maintain at a healthy weight than stay obese, if you decided that then no one would diet at all. And again it’s subjective, if you lost 7 and regained 2 it is better than staying at 7 overweight. And again, you can restart.

these articles are no biggie, nothing new here, maintenance be it life long or restarting is offered by most pharmacies. The issue is over the nhs and their prescribing criteria.

It’s actually shocking that you would stoop as low to use childhood trauma and ED as a way to try and bully people off this thread.

This isn’t your thread.

Why do you think your opinion is more important than anyone else’s.

Providing a balanced view is not fear-mongering, especially when posters are saying they are pro-WLI.

I think you’re the one that is obsessive and it doesn’t seem healthy for you to feel so personally attacked by a thread that is meant to be a discussion.
Perhaps you’re the one who should step away for your own MH.

Yes, this isn't how traditional diets work. Or don't work, to be precise. People by definition have learned to resist well enough to lose the weight in the first place. Then the large majority of them put it back on again, because expecting to be able to continue that resistance long term doesn't work on a population level.

I think what PP are suggesting is more transparency at the beginning of the WLI process. Make sure people are aware that they will probably need injections for life / stats about weight gain if they stop.
As would be the case with any other prescribed injection or medicine.

And to the poster asking if this is coming from a place of jealousy, definitely not. I’m interested as have suggested to a loved one that WLI could be the solution for them - even if it means lifelong treatment.

But thay can be said for any diet, and again they don’t need it for life, they can restart and do it intermittently if they find they regain past a level they are comfortable with.

People seem confused about the aim of these articles, it is about the nhs doing 2 years. Private prescription, which 99 percent of users use, maintenance is sorted, you can take a low dose, you can stop and restart. It is not once and done like the nhs,

No one but you has answered.
This says it all we need to know.

Ignore those against the use of these injections - it’s pure jealousy. Although, if you offered them the chance to switch places and suffer from obesity simply to drop an extra 2/3 dress sizes - which may or may not go back on - when stopping the injections - along with another 7/8 stone on top of that, they’d say no for sure! The negativity is madness!

I think that's a good idea if combined with information about the likelihood of regaining weight if lost through traditional methods. Make sure people are fully aware of the potential outcomes.

People on WLIs have a lot of experience of dieting, and 'learning to resist'. No one goes straight to expensive injections. People try diets first; I've been trying them for thirty-five years. I've lost weight in every possible way imaginable, over and over again. So many women in our 40s have spent our lives battling to lose weight and keep it off. So many of us have lost a stone, three stone, five stone on the diet-relapse yo-yo cycle time and time and time again.

Speaking for myself, trying and failing at the same thing for 35 years tells me that it isn't going to work long-term. And yes, as well as every diet you've ever heard of, I also tried that magical 'changing your habits', 'it's not a diet, it's a lifestyle change!', 'it's just eating less and moving more' just like I've tried all the diet plans and regimes and exercise routines that have ever existed. I haven't yet 'learned to resist', and there are many women who have my exact experience and history. WLIs seem the most promising option for actually breaking that cycle for good, by staying on them long-term. Because nothing else works. It just doesn't. And that's not just my personal experience, that's backed up by every reputable weight loss study that's ever been done. For most people, most of the time, nothing works beyond a year or so. No diet, no lifestyle change, nothing. Not for the vast majority of people.

Why can’t people see that being forewarned is a good thing ? Why is that being seen as being jealous or negative?

or are you all not actually on the jags but instead are working for the pharmaceutical companies and don’t want to give people a fighting chance ? Because that’s what makes sense

I feel it’s like the warning on McDonald’s apple pies that they are hot, or not to drink the anti freeze in your car. Bloody bonkers.

the drugs don’t work if you don’t take them. Like any diet doesn’t work if you don’t follow it. I find it astonishing people seem to think you get to a healthy weight, stop the drugs and you’re slender for life. That the drugs work even when you don’t take them. It is utter madness.

Absolutely. Informed consent is essential.

Traditional dieting can work though, for a good number of people.

Women who gained weight when
having DC for ex. Plenty of my mum-friends had to diet for some time and then back to their pre-DC weight (and still there 6+ years later).

WLI are still revolutionary, and possible the only thing that will work for lots of people. But why not accept that a small downside is that they will need to be taken for life? Why always answer that « it’s the same for all diets » when actually it isn’t that clear cut?

I think those who haven’t experienced obesity themselves or haven’t had a family member experience obesity, can not fathom not being able to control food intake. It just doesn’t make sense to them.

They see this magic injection as a cheaters way and should their friend or family member become simmer than them, they just can’t handle it. Jealousy! They are probably delighted when the weight starts creeping back on, if the injections are stopped. Sad world we live in.

I think as it says in the article obesity is a chronic disease. Medication would ideally be taken long term at a maintenance dose.

I don’t think this is quite true, actually.

If you get to the point where you have four, five or more stone to lose it feels hopeless. That was how it was for me anyway: I was fifteen and a half stone in the summer, and losing a pound or two a week with a huge effort and will involved felt like an insurmountable task.

Let’s say I come off the medication and gain half a stone. That’s not such a huge task. That is more easily dealt with. I think as with most things you have to know yourself. After all, I can always go back on them!

100% agree!

I just don’t see how it is incompatible with informing people from the beginning that they will need probably need to take them for life. Most will still want to take them - and that’s fair enough.

On a population level, obese people who have lost weight through traditional methods usually then regain it. We know this. It is that clear cut. If it wasn't, people would be able to provide some evidence. I can't tell in your post whether you're being specific to obese people there either? My point isn't about people who weren't obese and lost weight.

I expect to be on WLIs myself, and absolutely agree that they are indeed revolutionary and the only thing not proven to fail for a formerly obese person like myself.

All this jealousy and spite over people losing weight is ridiculous. There is always going to be a new standard to be attained…

You can already see that skinny is just not good enough anymore to set some people apart from others and I reckon being strong and fit is going to be the next status symbol and unfortunately for everyone there is just no shortcut to that.

PS I am pro WLIs. I was skinny and then I was fat and now I am skinny again. I will never ever ever be fat again knowing how much happier I am now.