to feel uneasy about what this means long term rather than surprised by the weight regain itself?

[HazelMember]

I’ve just read a BBC article about research into weight loss injections like Ozempic and Wegovy showing that people who stop taking them tend to regain weight quite quickly.

I’m not shocked that weight comes back. That happens after most weight loss attempts whether they involve medication or not.

These drugs are increasingly talked about as something people might take for years or even indefinitely. That raises questions for me about what happens when someone cannot afford them anymore, when supply changes, when side effects become an issue or when a person simply does not want to stay on a medication for life.

If stopping leads not just to regain but to a fairly rapid rebound, it feels less like a temporary aid and more like something that is very hard to step away from once started. That sits oddly with how casually they are sometimes discussed.

AIBU to think the real issue here is not that people regain weight after stopping, but whether we are quietly normalising a treatment that may be difficult to discontinue once begun? Or is this simply the reality of managing a chronic condition?

Its absolutely meant that way

Along with an 'aging face'

'oooh she's aged'.

That’s exactly why they do it. In their twisted, vengeful little minds, there simply must be a punishment for the gluttony and general moral degeneracy of obesity. If WLI have provided the evil fatties with a way of cheating their way out of early death and public ridicule, then they can only comfort themselves by pointing out that we must have yards of loose skin, muscle depletion and premature ageing. That’s just enough bile to tide them over until we inevitably “put it all back on again” and the real crowing can start.

My hairdresser has lost loads of weight, she is almost afraid to eat now cos even when she had one choc out of the selection box she was getting comments from her colleagues

she gets told a lot that its aged her….she looks stunning, people are stupid

When you start talking about “twisted, vengeful little minds” and using phrases like “evil fatties,” you just sound nasty.

Not everyone who questions WLIs is secretly rooting for fat people to suffer or die early. Some people have concerns about long-term effects, side effects, access or the way these drugs get framed as a moral fix rather than a medical one. You don’t have to agree with them but pretending they’re all driven by spite doesn't help anyone.

What's a moral fix, do you mean like how fatness is viewed as because people are in some way behaving wrong and then the jabs means they don't get that any more?

That would be why I didn’t address my comment to “everyone who questions WLI”. The posters who witter on about loose skin and ageing faces however, whether they do so gleefully or dress it up as concern, are arseholes, and there are a lot of them on MN. If you think I “sound nasty” for being blunt about what I think of them, well, I won’t be losing any sleep over it.

I get that except evidence suggests there isn’t the same concern for the number of people who started taking statins, for example, or lots of other ‘cash cow pharma’ products (your words) that likely require lifelong treatment and impact the same % of the population. It’s just all those aren’t visible in the same way of shrouded in inherent bias as obesity is.

So why the interest in the long-term
impact of WLI. Rhetorical question as I know the answers.

Because those challenges won’t be any
where near as bad as navigating life changing disabilities because you’ve had a stroke or facing debilitating treatments because you’ve developed a weight related cancer.

Do you really think you are more informed to be concerned about my health more than I do? That I'm not able to weigh up cost, risk and benefit? Why is me taking a medicine in line with the regulations which are based on actual evidence rather than assumptions up for debate? Would you like to debate my daily antihistamine or hrt? What makes this decision compared to those?

But you care so very very much 🤔

Exactly, some people have no idea

I don't understand the word concern here. If you are concerned don't take them? Or if you are concerned do something for a good cause related to obesity? Why aren't you showing the same concern for obesity that has effects that kill? Heart disease and stroke are right up there as the top causes of death. Cancers are a bit further down.

What do you want to achieve with concern? Maybe talk to a friend or a therapist about your concern?

I don't see it as weight loss bashing at all. It is asking a serious question based on real research.

I am seriously puzzled as to why people who don't use WLI and have no intention of using WLI should be concerned, "uneasy", or even give two hoots about what others choose to do?

When was the last time you had concerns over a medication you, personally, were not using? Me? Never. And yet these people are so worried about the folks using WLI. I guess we should feel very privileged- they’re not worried about anyone else’s medications…

Maybe its just another bias towards fat people. I would be concerned about a child or vulnerable adult. Not about someone obese as if they aren't able to make an informed decision. Anything and everything comes with risks. I could die tomorrow from a stroke, but if I suffered a rare side effect from WLI id probably get told 'told you so'.

Exactly. It is baffling to me why we - outside of the WLI board, where people can discuss whatever about losing or gaining weight, and the use of WLI, their side-effects, their lack of side-effects, pass on some tips, support and encourage each other, whatever they want - can't discuss real-world 'concerns' about WLI.

Every word is picked over. Someone writes 'concerns' which is a perfectly reasonable word in this context (relating to, about, relevant to, affecting, involving) and someone or many someones fires back: "If you're so concerned, why don't you... 'Why are you more concerned for my health than I am?" "Why aren't you concerned about statins??" etc

Hot tip: Just for starters, statins aren't so in demand they are being counterfeited, home-compounded, or sold on the black market. Statins aren't being sought out by people who really don't need them.

I think the difference is that we have to pay for WLI. Or at least that’s how I read OP’s concern in the first post. That lots of people started them not realising they’d likely have to stay on them forever, and they may not always be in a financial position to do so unlike statins etc which we get for free.

Pretty sure all of us paying for them are saving the NHS in the long run.
Extremely obese people with lifelong conditions do get them for free on the NHS.
Why did you start this thread if you’re not taking them or don’t need to OP?

I have read articles about whether taking stations long term is a good thing. And have had more discussions about that with friends than I have about weight loss injections.
Doesn't it make sense to ask about term effects of all.medications?
I don't understand why people are questioning research into the impact of WLI.

I think people would be even more “concerned” if the NHS was paying for the vast majority of WLI prescriptions. I’m glad that I’m privately paying for it as the financial decisions are purely my own and impact no one else at all. So the concern seems a bit, I don’t know, patronising or similar given that it’s my money and my decision making process. Of course I realise that I might not be able to pay for them forever if my circumstances radically change, but I am fairly certain that I can if I need to. If I could only afford them for a fixed amount of time, well, that would be for me to cope with and manage. No one else’s concern would help or be useful in any way. It wouldn’t stop me from trying to lose the weight and maintain it, even if it was then going to be harder to maintain the weight loss. I’d rather try than not.

So why the interest in the long-term
impact of WLI. Rhetorical question as I know the answers.

It might be a rhetorical question for you. You think you know the answers in why people are interested in the long-term impacts - envious, spiteful, whatever.

But the truth of the matter is no-one knows the long-term impacts of WLI. They don't know the impact of WLI on babies in the womb, born to women on WLI. They don't know the effect on body systems over the course of decades, for people on WLI. Nobody knows!

Maybe because posters are picking up on the word 'concern' as not being genuine. Its not the true purpose of the thread. Its contradictory to what obesity does to people. Society isn't known to have concern for obese adults. Society still thinks its a weakness. The concern here is backwards.

Maybe because posters are picking up on the word 'concern' as not being genuine.

It's a word with more meanings than you have assumed, as I pointed out.

It doesn't matter how any OP is phrased on these threads, the OP is bashed, as is anyone who tries to join in who has similar considerations they'd like to discuss.

“Hot tip” - don’t quote me out of context.

Wonder if OP is also concerned about the massive trend of healthy people taking medications "off-label" to slow down aging (cholesterol, Alzheimer’s etc) and seeking prescriptions outside the NHS including for newer drugs that don’t have the length of data on safety profile.

Or is it just WLI.

Pain killers are the biggest legitimate drug which are misused.

Thread after thread after thread after thre....

Oh, wait, there isnt any threads about painkillers being abused and concern about that

Thats strange.