To wonder if there will be any fall out from skinny jabs?

[TheLemonGuide]

Everyone I know is now suddenly very slim. Okay, im exaggerating slightly, but genuinely, most of my friends who were previously overweight are all now slim thanks to skinny jabs. I am delighted for them! It seems unbelievable to think that a jab can cure this obesity crisis, but I am so pleased my friends and a couple of family members are able to live a healthier life thanks to this.

My only slight concern is, is this something that is going to be too good to be true? Do you think there will be any long term repercussions, or are we right to just celebrate this medication as a cure for something that so many have been battling for so long?

What if the root cause is just that we evolved for a world where starvation was an ever present threat, so eating a lot whenever we got chance was an advantage for most of human history, and then all of a sudden that stopped?

I'm not suggesting there's nothing that could be done. UPFs probably make some people obese who might not be otherwise, or more obese anyway. But there isn't actually a single example of a society that got rich enough to feed everyone and didn't ultimately go on to develop increasing obesity rates. Even Japan is going that way. There was a few decades where the richest societies arrested this process at a time when lots of the population smoked, but once that stops the pattern is pretty clear.

Unless you have a crystal ball to see into the future I fail to see the ignorance.

I'm not criticising peoples choices; I have looked into it for myself more than once. Peri-menopause and all that fun stuff.

What I agree with is whether maybe in 10 years time or whatever they will realise that it causes issues or harm in some way, or contributes, for example. It's so readily available and people are so hugely varied in their health conditions, that the lack of regulation/supervision could potentially be exploited, for what is essentially long term medication.

I’m worried about the many women who lose loads of weight without doing any weight bearing exercise and end up with poor bone density. I predict a huge increase in hip fractures in 10 years.

Agree. Vast vast majority of the population can afford to eat as much as they want and has easy access to food. This is a good thing.

OK.

You don't need any training to turn the end of a pen, jab yourself and push. It couldn't be simpler. What training do you think anyone needs? Actually, now I have said that, I am remembering the many halfwits I have seen on this forum somehow manage to inject themselves with the whole bloody pen. So maybe you have a point!

You do have to provide proof although I admit, people seem to get around it easily.

It's getting more expensive, not cheaper.

It wasn't 'rushed to market' it's been used for years for other reasons.

It is quite conceivable that we see an increase in frailty related conditions due to WLIs, as people who go from obese to healthy BMI die later and therefore live long enough to develop them.

Simplified, someone who goes from say 35 to 23 BMI and maintains thanks to long term WLI use is now much less likely to die at 65 of complications from their obesity. They'll still die of something, and in living longer will have time to develop more conditions. In the same way that cancer rates increase when people are no longer dying younger of heart attacks.

A a friend of mine did the jabs but got very very tiny. She’s lovely and I was genuinely concerned (size 16 down to a 6) so I just carefully opened up a conversation about it. She was scared to stop as she felt she’d out all the weight back on. She stopped the jabs in January and has put on a little weight but I’d say that she looks very healthy now, maybe a size 8-10. It took a while but she said she is getting all the food noise back and she’s scared of getting bigger again but she is talking about joining the gym too which I think can help if you start eating more again.

Calm yourself and don’t worry about the “many women”.

Not the case when there are now pharmacies prescribing them for BMI of 25 and under, and when there are numerous posts popping up every day of how to access those prescriptions, or even how to obtain them by stealth.

Honestly no I don't think long term health issues if used correctly as it's been used before for different reasons and is deemed safe.

I see other repercussions - I think it's awful that's it's being normalised. I don't want my kids growing up thinking health and exercise don't matter and there is an easy way out.

I get it's a complex picture but it's made me even more determined to stay fit and eat well to show my children it's doable to eat yummy pizza and exercise and be fit without injecting ourselves

I've a few friends who have had them, all really struggled with their weight and been obese and now are getting close to healthy weight range and feeling so much better about themselves. I really hope it doesn't have many side effects but obviously there will be some as with any widely used medication. But if I were my friends I would have weighed the health risks of obesity (plus the cosmetic appeal) and probably taken the same small risk.

I am currently trying to lose weight myself and managing a pound to half a pound a week (with a massive stall over Easter) and I 100% get the appeal over the slog, but my BMI was only just over 25 when I started dieting and I can successfully diet it off, (if my heads in the right place), so I don't have the same barriers as my friends whether thats psychological or physical.

It’s a good argument and I agree that some of it is inevitable but I think comparing obesity rates across countries (even us/uk vs France and Italy for example) tells us something important about the additional impact of food quality, food culture, stress etc. So yes when food is so readily available we are all going to be bigger on average vs previous generations but obesity - on a scale it is currently - can probably be reduced significantly without drugs (ie through prevention most importantly)

I so agree with this. They absolutely no muscle mass, fine in your 30s and 40s to sn extent, but 55 + there will be so much oesteoporosis and hip fractures.

I think they are a slippery slope as people who go on them tend to stay on them, rather than learning healthy habits.

@HopeFor2026 I think that people stay on them whilst learning healthy habits. It’s not one or the other.

I guess it's not really about the mechanics of it - although yes, does it need to be in the fridge/do people bother?, do you change the needle after every dose/do people bother? etc... and I agree some people seem to access it that can't possibly be eligible BMI-wise, but that wasn't my initial point.

I was thinking more in the long term, as it's just blown up (in the weight loss arena) so quickly - it just seems very invasive with little supervision and quite one-size-fits-all in the first instance, it's not like a cream you're slapping on, you're injecting your body, obviously, which to me seems quite hardcore!

I'm not knocking it, and am honestly 80/20 seriously considering trying it, but these are thoughts I have had about possible long term effects putting me off - as somebody else said, I guess there isn't long term trials yet, other than maybe data from the diabetic arena?

Mostly I wonder how people are affording the jabs. Of course some can afford without issue, others have made cuts elsewhere to afford it, but I do worry some may be getting into debt (or further into debt). Especially people who intend or find they need to keep using WLIs long term.

Health wise, I reckon there may be some negative long term side effects (on muscle/bone as noted above) but these will be outweighed by the decrease in the side effects of being seriously overweight.

Latest research I could find. There are concerns about whether muscle mass returns with the weight regain or whether it is all fat cells.

The whole thing is a real time experiment

https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/patients-regain-weight-rapidly-after-stopping-weight-loss-drugs-but-still-keep-off-a-quarter-of

There's some impact, absolutely. But there also is only one example of a country that's managed to reduce obesity rates, which is the US in 2024 once WLIs became more easily available to the population. And when people hark back to a time before obesity rates started to climb, they do tend to miss out the impact of more smoking and poorer heating. France and Italy both have significantly higher smoking rates than the UK.

That said, I think there's still a case for stressing things like more positive food culture and exercise anyway. Those things can still be beneficial without meeting the extremely high hurdle of not addressing the root cause of obesity.

I would be more concerned about the long term side effects of Botox that people are filling their faces with ,the long term effects of people stooping over their laptops ,phones etc …fuck knows what their backs will be like after decades of very poor posture!

Tell me you're on WLI and this thread has touched a nerve, without telling me you're on WLI and this thread has touched a nerve.

I think the job is safe and fine.

My only worry I guess would be that the focus will move away from healthy eating and lifestyle because we now have a jab to treat obesity. I don’t think that would be good for future generations.

Anything an obese person does other than staying on WLIs long term is a slippery slope, given that 'learning healthy habits' doesn't appear to stick. Obese people who lose weight through diet and exercise are more likely than not to put it back on.

Formerly obese bodies don't behave like we wish they would. There isn't an option that involves getting your body to behave like a never obese person's.

Warfarin is not a jab but a tablet. They were probably giving themselves Innohep injections (blood thinners).

Eye roll. You’re more likely to cost the NHS money.