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?

It assumes that choosing WLI automatically means someone has fully thought everything through and that anyone asking questions must be judging or criticising

nope…

I used the word most…not all

i used the word some repeatedly which means ‘not all’

i also used a real life example of people i know being genuinely curious…..so loads of people not being judgy at all

youve completely turned my post around to mean the opposite of what I said

It is fascinating though about how people react

yes…agreed

Come on. The massive difference here is - you don't have to pay for statins. A huge number of people who benefit from WLI have to pay for them privately. It's hard to keep that up. A better rquation would be ADHD drugs. People can get along with out them, just as people can exist without WLI but life and health are better with them, and yet they are not considered of primary importance to health.

Incientally - I would say that about statins. They are not necessarily viable long term. After a year or so they can cause awful side effects, including deep bone aches. I know a lot of people who have come off them because the side effects caused them to need strong painkillers. A lot of people take NHS funded drugs to ward off the side effects of other NHS funded drugs. In the end, the benefits of statins are not always valuable enough to offset the side effects.

Agree.

There’s a lot of whataboutery in this thread. Every time WLIs are mentioned, someone jumps in with “well what about this other drug?” or “what about that medication?”.

This thread is about WLIs. Not every medication that’s ever existed. Different meds do different things, come with different risk and are prescribed for different reasons.

What sort of cure do you think might work? This is important, because all of our failed attempts to curb obesity thus far have hugely enriched pharmaceutical countries, what with them not working.

Theres no cure for human nature

Fat people have always existed and do exist throughout the world at different levels and for different social and cultural reasons. Obesity lives with us, and always will.

If WLI are bad because of the natural limitations of payment, having to remain on them, industrial waste, skinny people using them, well so be it. So what.

I didn't know that about statins, thanks for the information. Makes me even gladder that WLIs have reduced my risk of needing them!

I am on statins…glad I don’t have those side effects!!!

My late husband did, my late mother didn't. Both on the same statin.

godmum

yeah its funny how the same thing can affect someone differently

at least now GP's accept that it happens!

Deffo agree

I am looking forward to your statin thread! I am sure you will be able to discuss the adverse effects of statins and what happens when you do stop taking them, and are there any lifestyle changes you have made that work as well - without a group leaping on to ask in querulous tones, "Why are you so concerned about statins? You're just jealous and bitter because I have statins!"

Love your use of the word querulous. It is absolutely spot on!

It’d be a very quiet thread, I imagine, because unlike weight loss medication, nobody gives a fuck about statins. I wonder why that might be?

You won't be able to recreate the stylistic effect OP has managed to achieve here either, sadly. It's a type of insouciance only really available to people who don't know what they don't know. The energy OP has exuded in this thread isn't great for looking like you know what you're talking about, but it is does motivate people to engage. But it's not available to everyone, you have to be authentically not very well informed!

Suspect she maybe also authentically uninformed on statins, but I too look forward to that thread,where she informs all the statin users how uneasy she feels about their medication.

😄

Well, it might be because statins have been on the market since the 90s and the longterm and adverse effects and most downsides are now well known.

Nobody is trying to source statins on the black market, or shooting themselves up with compounds made in some suburban kitchen or garage that they bought online. And people who don't actually need statins are not trying to find loopholes to secure them.

Also, the law suits have mostly been settled (17 million dollar payout from Pfizer and Ranbaxy); unlike the currently pending lawsuits around GLP-1s, expected to cost manufacturers around 2 billion dollars.

But I do still look forward to reading an interesting thread talking about statins. Or paracetamol.

No, it’s because nobody cares about medications other people are taking, unless it’s related to weight loss.

If we're honest with ourselves, it's worth acknowledging that WLI medication doesn't just relate to health but also allows people to access something that has previously had rarity as well as social value. There aren't really comparable examples of other medicines.

To that end, it would be surprising if it didn't elicit a different set of responses to other medications. People's pile cream and inhalers don't have anything like the same wider importance, because we don't attach social significance to them like we do to body size and shape. It's pretty obvious why someone like OP feels the level of familiarity and ownership over the issue that she clearly does, and it's broadly the same thing that led the BBC to pick that headline. She has plenty of company.

And I actually think all this is only to be expected.

No, it's because it is a new and hugely popular weight loss "wonder drug". There hasn't been a huge new popular weight loss wonder drug since the 90s.

I care about what medications other people are taking. I find it interesting.

It's pretty obvious why someone like OP feels the level of familiarity and ownership over the issue that she clearly does

Jesus Christ.

What, is he involved as well now?

Well he did turn water into that well known, 'wonder drug' - wine.

Good on him

People were up in arms with their concerns of course. He was a very naughty boy.

It's the projection. It's mindboggling. The only posters showing ownership of the topic are the ones who insist it must not be discussed.