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

Riiiiiight. Not quite an issue at the level that needs intervention though eh?

What??

Of course it's not the same for everyone, otherwise everyone would be obese!

I get raging 'food noise' sometimes except I don't pathologise it and call it that as that, for me, would imply that I'm a passive victim of something totally out of my control. It's taken years of hard work and effort for me to develop a healthy lifestyle and manage my diet and lifestyle. I would love for people to be have better access to weigh loss support, free gym passes etc but I do also think many people need to take better control and build resilience, endurance etc.

So just eat less and move more fatties.

Truth hurts?

What PP said is totally correct.

That's not what I have said at all. I've said it takes a multifaceted approach which also includes the individual developing coping skills, resilience, and taking control of their own health. Every ounce of my being tried to convince me to eat an entire pack of stroop waffels this morning. But I didn't.

Don't worry. I ate them for you.

When I read some of the judgemental, ignorant comments here about obesity and weight loss medication I'm grateful that at least there's a jab for my condition.

Nice work!
I have done before and end up exercise purging afterwards. From the outside I look completely fit, healthy and mentally strong but I really struggle sometimes. It's tough and we're all doing what we think is best at the time

I can absolutely believe that the weight would go back on for alot of people.
If it works by cutting out food noise anyways.
I was obese most of my life and food noise was a major issue. I lost the weight when perimenopause happened (my food noise was hormone related it turned out). When it comes to food noise for me it was the difference between having zero willpower around food and just not even needing willpower at all.
I mean you can have learned healthy habits on WLIs but if that little voice comes back then good luck sticking to those habits!

I’ve been on the injections for 15 months and have lost 20kg and am now at my target weight (55kg). I have always known that this will probably be a lifelong medicine for me - my prescriber is very open that the drugs don’t work if you’re not taking them.

I can’t think of any other drugs that we expect to continue working if we stop them.

its pretty obvious that weight gain is about a lot more than just willpower and self discipline.

im happy to stay on them for life. I take a small dose every 10-14 days now and this keeps my appetite on an even keel.

Well only if that is the only factor that leads to obesity, which i dont believe for one second.
I reckon its way more about hormones, blood sugar and emotional eating than it is about what was described by that PP.

I thought everyone knew this, that the drugs don't lead to permanent change and that typical weight loss is about 20% below start point. Was a bit surprised this is news story.

It’s the people not on them who keep posting about it. Along with all the other nonsense they apparently are surprised the drugs don’t permanently make you slim and you need to be warned of this fact before starting.

its literally unbelievable.

I had Xmas lunch with friend on WLI. She put double the food on her plate that I put on mine. We ate about the same so she had half a plate of food left. So basically the WLI stops her overeating but her brain hasn’t adjusted yet to what a normal portion is. Until she makes that psychological shift she can’t come off without regaining. In fact last year she did come off for a while and it started going back on.

@Hellohelga has she really not ever noticed that she's eating half of what she used to? Presumably you've eaten with her many times and seen her serve herself large portions but only eat half. Maybe you could comment on that and ask her about it? One of the first things that I noticed was that I wasn't eating anywhere near as much, obviously, and so now I always use a small side plate rather than a large dinner plate for my meals.

How very odd.

Mmm, WLI users have our own dedicated and well used space on here and threads on the issue outside there are often started by non users.

The solution is simple, carry on with the medication until you kick the bucket. Simples.

You’d think so. It’s a friend of a friend though so don’t know her well enough to comment. It was Xmas though so I put it down to eyes bigger than belly scenario.

But it's there in the OP, and there at the very top of the article linked in the OP which is the topic of the thread if you'd bothered to click on and even glance at it.

Not only do people apparently gain weight four times faster than people who have lost it by other methods, but people on WLI are also said to lose more lean muscle while dieting (around 40% of the weight lost is lean muscle, while it's around 20-25% of the weight by regular dieting).

The concern would be you lose lean muscle, go off the WLI, and regain four times faster. Go back on the WLI, and then lose even more lean muscle. This muscle loss sets people up for future health problems, particularly older people whose muscle mass has deteriorated already with age and lack of use. Also worth bearing in mind, the heart is a muscle...

And at any point you may pick up a bonus longterm health problem such as pancreatitis, serious GI tract, gallbladder, or kidney problems, vision loss, or bowel perforation.

The benefits would probably outweigh the risks if you were morbidly obese, and had good guidance. But it's clear women of normal weight and those who are only modestly overweight are on WLI with little to no supervision.

However, anyone who wants to discuss WLI in anything other than glowing rapturous terms is called bitter, jealous, spiteful, and my favourite, "seething," all of which is surely projection, and a posse of posters engage in a group effort to bully them off such threads.

You must realise that not everyone has the same capacity to understand the long-term implications as you do?

You can apply that logic to any long term medication. What's so different about weight loss injections that they're held to a different standard?

@unageing "But it's clear women of normal weight and those who are only modestly overweight are on WLI with little to no supervision."

Well, those people could not be supervised, as they must be accessing WLI either fraudulently or via the black market in counterfeit medication. There are already existing regulations around checking patients BMI before prescribing and legitimate pharmacies will be inspected on that basis and required to improve if found lacking. There is also a lot of work being done to confiscate and disrupt the supply of counterfeit medication.

No one sensible would be suggesting that people of healthy weight or who are just a little overweight should be legitimately able to access WLI for obesity, whether supervised or not.