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?

@xanthomelanaagain another interesting insight thank you

@Allseeingallknowingthats what I mean! But apparently I’m just bitter and jealous! Any size can be obese depending on your height! But it can also not be obese! We have such a distorted view of what a healthy body is and it’s down to the obsession to keep women skinny! I fall into this trap too!

To be fair it is on some people and isn't on others. I'm short and a petite frame (narrow hips and shoulders) I'm a size 10 at the upper end of a healthy BMI, I'm pretty sure if I was a size 14/16 I'd be in the obese range. It depends a lot on your height and how you carry your weight, eg hourglass compared to apple.

@Birdsongisangry I don’t consider a tiny fraction under BMI 25 to be a sensible point to switch to a maintenance dose, whatever that means, as a maintenance dose could be the dose I’m on right now, so it seems a bit odd to insist that this must only be for maintenance and I must not attempt to lose any more weight! And if I do, it must be due to vanity. Which if you knew me would be hilarious.

Well I was obese at a size 12 (as I’m short)

Are you a 90s kid? I hear there was an obsession with being skinny in the 90s, I was a child/teen back then but the skinny craze clearly went over my head. I wasnt interested or aware in the pressure for that body .

Perhaps because I went to an all girls school where many of the popular girls were far from skinny. And in my local neighbourhood the girl who was sadly bullied the most for her weight was a friend of mine who was skinny.

Additionally I was into rnb hip-hop music where the culture promoted curvy “slim-thick” women. When I started going to clubs and mixing with men at age 17 the men there were not for the most part white British and they came from cultural backgrounds which celebrated curves.

I am so sorry for all the women brainwashed into the skinny obsession.

It sucks and I get it about the ads. I used to get bombarded with Juniper ads and no idea why! It didn’t bother me apart from
the fact I found it irritating but it had zero impact on my body image.

But the best thing is to try and actively reject the narrative that society pushes. Follow women online who are not all skinny, using cosmetic surgery etc remind yourself each time the narrative is promoted that you’re being slowly brainwashed.

i do find it unsettling now I’m older noticing how much certain men seem to be obsessed with women being as skinny as possible which explains why many are attracted to teenage girls.

I fell exactly the same as you. I know I am jealous but I can’t help it.

@SilenceInside I know no one is going to be able to answer this, I struggle to understand why it's not a sensible BMI point for someone in your situation to stay at, but that BMI, or indeed a higher one, is considered perfectly fine and healthy for anyone else who hasn't taken WLI. Because the message that I always hear on Mumsnet is that below the prescribing threshold is perfectly healthy and no real need to lose, so why is it fine for person A to sit at that level, who could also be a yo-yo dieter, or have temporarily got there through more traditional means, but not for person B, who has got there through WLI.
For what it's worth I'm not advocating for WLI to be more widely available (at least, not without them being offered alongside proper monitoring and support) I just find it a weird double standard.

The drugs make money got the manufacturers and suppliers. It’s big business. Thats why they are pushed. 🤷‍♀️

Im trying to convince DH to take a low dose of them as they have shown signs that they can reduce the risk of alzheimers and arthritis. The research is still being done but from the current information available, I would take it if predisposed to these conditions, which he is. He won't take it as he loves his food (despite being annoying in the perfect weight bracket) and doesn't want to suddenly have no appetite but I honestly think they are a bit of a wonder drug.

@Birdsongisangry Some misunderstanding here. A BMI over 25 is not considered healthy, it’s considered overweight and if you wanted to lose weight your GP or other HCP would support you in that. You could privately access WLI if you want to at that weight, there are a few providers who offer that, off licence. Or you could access all the other options for losing weight too, just as you could do if your BMI is in the healthy range too. Just not prescription medication.

It’s not sensible for me to maintain at an overweight BMI as that’s not a healthy weight. So that’s a hard no from me. It’s not sensible to try to maintain on the cusp of BMI25 as it gives me no leeway and I am a gnats whisker away from being overweight again. The criteria for accessing WLI are the starting criteria not the continuing criteria. I know it doesn’t make sense to you and seems terribly unfair, weird and some kind of double standard, but that’s what the current criteria are. The MHRA in the UK studied all the evidence and came up with those criteria, for the health benefits these medications offer to those who meet the starting criteria. They may have been wrong to create this apparent unfair double standard, perhaps the evidence didn’t warrant it and they should have made the decision to offer them to anyone who isn’t actually underweight.

I also don’t really understand what you mean by saying I should be on a maintenance dose? Can you explain? Do you just mean that I should be cut off immediately if I go below BMI 25/27 or whatever number, irrespective of what dose I’m actually on? Or do you mean that I would be forced to move down a dose if I lost weight? How much leeway would I be allowed before you’d stop or reduce someone’s dose?

My BMI is 23 at a size 8. It was 27 at a size 12, so yes at a size 14/16 I would be obese

@Blebleto be honest this time
last year I wasn’t bothered about my weight! It’s the images and constant chat about it I see! Yes I was a 90s kid and loved it! loved the music and fashion and nobody really cared too much about appearance - the weight thing went over my head too!

@Bigminnie1we can be jealous and bitter together haha xxx

It is an interesting question, it does appear that the fact people can use them to get to a bmi of 20/21 and stay there, is what’s causing the annoyance for some, but it is deemed perfectly acceptable if you do it naturally, enviable even.

i think it’s because some see that weight as enviable. So resent people can do that with the drugs, when those who want to be that size and are a healthy weight can’t access the meds and struggle to achieve it.

i think people owning their jealousy is admirable. Id much rather deal with someone who owned it, than someone who attacks and pretends they are not envious.

if I couldn’t access I’m fairly sure I’d be jealous, very, but I’d hope I’d own it. Rather than attack. And no op I don’t mean you before you go into one.

I’m not sure BMI is useful at all as it doesn’t take into muscle mass vs fat mass.

My BMI is 23 and I’m a size 8. If I got my BMI to 20 at 53kg I’d be at 8-9% bodyfat and that would not be healthy at all. I’d be a size 4 by waist size but I have big leg / back / shoulder muscles.

Clothes / waist size is a better gauge.

Clothes sizes are not standardised and I wouldn’t use those as a judge of anything.

Body measurements, sure, waist to height ratio is a useful addition to BMI as well as waist to hip. BMI is a guide, it’s useful in nearly all cases. Clearly if you feel it doesn’t accurately represent your physical condition then look to other measures. A DEXA scan would be ideal but they are not cheap nor widely available.

That’s unfortunate they’ve had that effect on you. I wish there was an opt out to avoid certain kind of medical/health ads!

I don’t know what’s changed but I have stopped getting juniper ads on YouTube for the past few months.

I agree viva the 90s - glad it’s not just me who largely unaware of the 90s heroin chic messaging at the time!

BMI 25-27 is overweight, not obese, so whilst not 'healthy' it is a level that many people on here say people should put up with and not complain about not having any support to lose weight. It is also a level that providers consider minor enough that they won't prescribe WLI. GPs do not offer help to lose weight other than telling people to lose weight. Whilst there are technically prescribers who will now prescribe at that BMI it is only a very small proportion of people who would be prescribed as it is with very specific health conditions, not based on the BMI itself.

By maintenance dose, I mean having enough of the drug to maintain a healthy weight, rather than suppressing the appetite enough to continue to lose weight. I don't understand why so many people are using WLI to get to and maintain at the lower end of a healthy BMI, if the motivation is only for health reasons. And if people are doing it because they like how it looks, fine, but I think if so they should stop criticising other people for wanting to lose weight too (not saying you have, but others on the thread have and I see it on Mumsnet a lot) And yes, it doesn't make sense to me that someone can be losing weight at say, BMI of 23 with WLIs and that's considered fine if they started at BMI 30, but it would simultaneously be wrong/dangerous/ridiculous if someone at BMI 25 wished they could take it to get to a BMI of 23.

@Velvetandleatheri have to say your last comment did raise a smile! Hope you have a good weekend. We’re all just women trying to survive in this crazy world xx

I do feel that right now, WLIs are a bit like Botox. I don't want either, and I don't feel I need either, but on a bad day I can get drawn into thinking I do, or I should. And it does feel like the standard of what is socially acceptable is changing, and not in a good way. I was around for the nineties and early 2000s and the messages then were awful, celebrities who put on a tiny bit of weight picked apart by the media for being fat, Kate Winslett being ridiculed for being huge (she was probably a curvy 12-14) I really hope it doesn't swing that far, it wasn't healthy at all.

@Birdsongisangryi think a lot of us are feeling like that. I don’t know what someone my age is meant to look like, I don’t know what a notmal
body is! It’s all a bit fucked!

@Birdsongisangry there are mainstream providers, Voy and MedExpress, who will prescribe at BMI25 plus with no health conditions needed. People who are just into the overweight category can access these medications. No need for very specific health conditions.

I am very well aware that NHS GPs don’t offer any actual help! But you aren’t being discriminated against for being a healthy weight or just a little overweight, there’s very little help for anyone.

I have told you my reason for wanting to get well into the healthy range. It’s got nothing at all to do with vanity and everything to do with my health.

I think you need to change your focus from what you look like to how you feel and how capable your body is.

Normal is bullshit, so are the opinions of others about the way you look, what matters is health and strength.

Because obesity is a serious health condition with plenty of potential comorbidities which are improved by taking these injections. Shrugs