To be fed up with the barrage of weight loss drug content I am exposed to

[pinkpeonytuesday]

I am on Instagram and Facebook and am constantly bombarded with weight loss drug content. I followed a great influencer who I never thought was overweight and now have seen her post she can fit into a size 8 in Zara and her life is infinitely better, I read post after post that these drugs not only made people lose weight - they cured heart disease, IBS etc etc! I see it everywhere, women are just turning into clones of each other - Botox, fillers, the same beige legging combo and now super skinny. How has this drug been allowed to be advertised so widely without any consideration to the damage this is doing to women and young girl’s mental health? Surely people are only being cured of these conditions because they’re not eating all the unhealthy stuff (which can only be a good thing) but this lifetime living in a state of malnutrition (the post I read the other day had user after user saying how they felt dizzy when they stood up) is not healthy! Even if you do exercise - you won’t be getting nutrients. Or is it all sunbeams and moonbeams and should I think about going on it to lose the last stone I want (the fact I am a size 12 and wouldn’t be allowed to go on it because my BMI is normal yet a friend used it to loose weight and now will stay on it until to maintain her size 6-8 frame seems wild. Yet I would love to be a size 8 and I wouldn’t be allowed it) the whole thing seems a joke to me. Am I unreasonable? Is it the unicorn of drugs? And if it’s that safe why can’t I go on it?

Remember when viagra became a thing. This isn’t a world away.

@pinkpeonytuesday "I see many people on these drugs eating the most horrendous diets but just much smaller portions!" - if they are obese or overweight then that is still better for them than eating a horrendous diet in large portions, and they have changed one habit at least. So still a net health benefit for them. And it gives them the chance to consider changing their diet, once they get used to smaller portions they may be able to consider changing what they eat too. Some people are starting from so far off a healthy diet that it might take small steps and a long time.

Who is flaunting, most folks are just going about their day, what would you like us to do, hide away?

and you do a shit ton more than just inject, firstly you need to diet to lose it, yes, clearly easier on the drugs, and then you need to eat a clean and healthy diet to maintain. Personally I’m in the gym 6 days a week, and do 45 mins to an hour.

im just going about my business, I’m not flaunting I’m a size 8 to you or anyone else.

What exercise do you do @OP?

I find running and swimming leave me starving, but strength training not so much.

I have to be very careful to plan my food around my runs i.e make sure I am eating food I know will keep me feeling satiated for a long time, and time my run so it ends just before a planned mealtime; otherwise, I am eating all of the snacks, all of them.

"If the rest of you who have taken them are flaunting about as a size 8 whilst doing nothing but inject yourself, why can’t I?"

I certainly won't be a size 8 and I don't know anyone in real life who is doing jabs and aiming to be.

@Frequencyi do strength training! I love it! And am so much stronger than a year ago. Amazing non scale victories. It’s my diet (combo of solo parent and working from home - serial snacker)! I loved swimming but can’t go anymore but remember that insane hunger afterwards - but the sleep was always next level!

Genuine question, how many calories are you eating a day on it? If it’s all giving a calorie deficit you must be eating minimal. I calorie track and takes a long time to lose a lb! But I’ve seen people lose stones in a matter of months! So essentially the hard work is still the same but it cuts out the food noise (which to me is the hardest part)

@Velvetandleathershe means why can’t someone like me get the drug (even if I paid for it) on a lower BMI when people who were obese and have lost weight and are now on lower BMIs are still given it? Doesn’t make sense!

@pinkpeonytuesday not everyone tracks calories. Some do other ways of reducing the amount of food they consume.

Also, people who are overweight or obese will have a higher TDEE than someone who is a healthy weight. So what calories people will eat and be in a deficit will vary a lot. When I started my TDEE was 2450 whilst being sedentary. Now it’s 1800 ish, so I need to eat less to maintain the same deficit.

@SilenceInside thanks for explaining but what dos TDee mean is it calories?

Yes thanks..I'm 11 stone down ..I'm very tall ,so I'm not massively of a normalish BMI ..I'm hoping to be of them by the end of the year and upping my exercise to offset not using them

@pinkpeonytuesday Total Daily Energy Expenditure. An estimate or approximation of how many calories you need each day to maintain your current weight. It's calculated based on your height, weight, and exercise levels. There are different formulas that give slightly different results.

If you are short and light, you don't need as many calories each day as someone much taller and heavier.

To lose around a pound a week you need to be in a 500 cal deficit each day. So my TDEE at the moment is 1800 calories, so I would be looking at around 1300 cals a day to lose a pound that week, on average.

If you're weightlifting to build muscle, TDEE is probably not the right calculator for you. You need more protein and calories for building muscle and more carbs to fuel the workouts than someone on a weight loss journey who is only looking for weight loss.

A body recomp calculator is probably what you're looking for. Your calorie deficit should be very small to ensure your body has enough energy left over to grow muscle.

https://healthyeater.com/body-recomposition-calculator

The biggest problem with weight loss injections is the sheer amount of ignorance regarding them - from both jabbers and non jabbers @Birdsongisangry

WLI are synthetic hormones that affect the hunger trigger in the brain. This turns off the constant food ‘ noise’ where the satiety button in the brain is broken. Most commonly in the morbidly obese, where they are also battling insulin resistance caused by yoyo dieting. Which the other hormone in MJ controls - removing hunger.

Given all the above and employing just a smidgen of logic, it’s pretty easy to understand that if you are prescribed a drug for a life threatening condition - such at under active thyroid, diabetes or obesity. Once your condition has stabilised with thyroxine, diabetes etc you continue to take it - to prevent that life threatening returning. WLI IS NO DIFFERENT !! @Needtoscream
If you were obese and are now healthy bmi then then your likelihood of regaining it all is 3:4. ! With those at the higher starting BMI being the most likely to put it all back on and more. That is why previously overweight people get to take it. I lost 9 stone two years ago. Now my bmi is 22.4 and I cost the NHS very little compared to my obese self but it cost me £159 pm to keep myself healthy.
I would much rather I did t have to take it but I do because obesity is truly a dreadful disease both physically and psychologically. Be glad you don’t need them

@Fishingboatbobbingnightthanks for explaining! It’s really interesting and obviously horrible to be in a position to be on it for the rest of your life, but as you say the alternative is worse. I

@Needtoscreamwow that’s bloody incredible!!! You must feel proud and so many benefits!

Honestly, the very best thing you can do is give your precious attention and energy to something more wholesome than this.

Why anyone would want to go from a strong, healthy size 12 to a size 8 by taking a drug with known side effects (muscle loss, gastrointestinal problems, possibly certain tumours) is absolutely beyond me. As well as taking away your appetite and joy in food. Give me a fit, healthy, hungry body that does not need to control their weight through drugs, just like your’s any day.

You are healthy, strong, physically active. These are wonderful gifts. Use them to feel great about yourself and to think about important things (like food, and books and dogs) not to (sorry!) piss about on stupid, vacuous social media worrying about what other people are up to. You are what you give your attention to, and you’ve only got so much time on this planet. This is a pointless waste of your precious time.

It’s “lose”!

When you “lose” weight your clothes become “loose”.

Thanks @frequencyand @SilenceInsidethis is all really helpful. To be honest if I ate properly instead of being a snacking queen I’d probably hit my goal by May! X

It's £325 a month , I'm on 15 mg ,I can't afford to stay on them for life .I don't meet the criteria for getting it on the NHS .
So I need to come of them when I'm at a healthy BMI ,
Because I've a family,and that £325 is needed elsewhere

@ThisOneLifesoz that’s my little brain again! Thanks for calling me out on my awful spelling!

. @Needtoscream you can get 15mg for significantly less than £325 - Medicine Market Place do it for £266 with no discount.

@Tuhafenithanks for a fab pep talk! You’re 100% right and I must stop doom scrolling! Weirdly I do actually love my body - so the thought behind the original post was - I’m seeing all these adverts and it’s making me not like it anymore and think there is something wrong with it xxxx thanks for taking the time to reply so positively

I think, at the moment, "skinny" is in fashion again, and I do see that being constantly smacked in the face by "skinny" influencers chatting about how much better their life is now they are skinny, how much nicer people are to them etc can be demoralising if you don't fit into the skinny asthetic.

It's worth remembering, though, that "skinny" isn't necessarily healthy. Too skinny is just as damaging as obesity. Strong and healthy should be your goal, not skinny; strong looks different on different body types. Some will look slim, some will look a bit chunkier until you see them in shorts and notice their "thick" thighs are all muscle.

If you want to doom scroll people with similar goals to yourself and a healthier attitude to food and weight than the Ozempic influencers, I can recommend HoneyBison, SamatEverySize, Michelle Mcdaniel, and Will Tennyson. You'll still have all the Voy and Juniper ads, but the content is a refreshing break from the constant stream of calories are evil, snacks are killing you, etc., that you get from "SkinnyTok".

For this comment alone it’s probably a good thing you can’t get them because you don’t just inject yourself, you also need to put in the work as many people taking them would tell you. I think you’d be disappointed to find out that they don’t magically melt fat and effort is needed.