Really depressed I didn’t just go on Ozempic - only maintained for a year

[Neade]

I don’t know I really need a rant.

I feel really angry and upset at myself. To the point i just want to scream/cry.

Last year i lost 55 pounds without glp 1s. I totally cut out carbs (well I’d eat sweet potatoes if absolutely necessary). And just made an effort not to use food as a crutch. It worked fairly well as the weight came off.

I decided I needed more moderation. The no carb thing was just making me have cravings. So I started eating jackets, pasta salads etc. Not ideal as I have pcos but I try to be sensible. Ie having cooled down pasta to make it resistant or whatever. Not smothering pasta in cheese etc.

Its meant my weight loss has completely stalled. I’m happy that I’ve not gained all the weight back. But still. I’ve been eating in moderation for a year and not lost weight! I can’t deny this anger is compounded by the fact I saw my friend for lunch today. She’s lost 5 stone in 5 months using Mounjaro.

I just want to weep. I wish I just started on Ozempic or similar. I’m at my goal weight but to be honest I’d love another stone off. I don’t know why I didn’t go
on a glp 1. I just knew in my heart that my weight was not “inexplicable”. I was eating far too much out of boredom.

Just another sunny day wasted hating myself even though I’ve tried 😢

I’ve been going to the gym too. How pathetic to be this mindful and to not have lost any weight.

You do know absolutely every photo you see online is filtered? Celebrities don’t even consider liposuction as “plastic surgery,” just “maintenance”. Every EVERY woman over 20 has wobbly bits unless they’re a super gym goer. You lost 55 pounds, you’re at your goal weight, and you’re a healthy weight. You’re making an effort at the gym. Drink absolute shitloads of water. Maybe take that GLP-1 money and get in therapy to stop hating your body. I don’t mean it as an insult at all - I absolutely HATED my body, and I was unkind to it.

When you let go of that hate, you’ll treat yourself more kindly. You’ll go to the gym for the endorphins and your shape will change if that’s what you want. But the self-hatred is holding you back, not lack of GLp-1 access for a healthy weight individual.

You will never be thin enough to find happiness because it is clear from your negative feelings over a really big achievement that this is a psychological problem and food is just the symptom. This is why weight loss jabs aren’t the answer, even if you started on them and lost even more it is no substitute for exploring why you feel so negatively about yourself in the first place.

How tall are you? I’m 5ft4 and definitely skinny (size 8 in most places) and I’m between 120 and 125lb.

Until I turned 30 I was consistently between 115 and 120lb, but I have accepted the extra 5lb are here to stay now my metabolism is a bit older.

Is the 120lb you’ve set as a target possibly just unrealistic? I would need to radically diet to stick at 120lb and not waver between there and 125lb - and as I say, I’d be described as skinny/slender/thin.

I know everyone is giving you loads of advice but please listen to the people saying to take up proper strength training - get a bit of coaching then lift heavy!

Even if you halved your gym going time, doing heavy weights rather than cardio would make a real difference in how your body looks

It also gives you something to be proud of about yourself as the weights you can lift get bigger, instead of your body image being based on the mirror and which bits wobble

Eventually you might end up looking at your skinny friends and instead of wishing for WLI, thinking jeez I could snap her like a twig 😉

Don’t go on it. The food noise comes back worse as does the weight.

I’d cut out carbs completely if you want to lose weight, but when you reintroduce them don’t go for pasta and spuds - go for small portions of brown rice, quinoa etc.

You’ve done amazingly OP and maintaining that level of weight loss is also a huge achievement.
Actually, you don’t need to think about your friend’s situation. You have changed the way you eat and kept the weight off for a year, that is far more healthy and sustainable (and cheaper!) than weight loss jabs. What she did is not material to you and your situation.
Just an idea, but could you halve your portions of carbs just to nudge yourself back into calorie deficit? I bet it wouldn’t take much.
Lots of people on here will have huge respect for you and lots of respect for your position..

PCOS is considered a health condition so you can go on the injections with a healthy bmi and PCOS

You're being ridiculous. More weight loss wont get rid of your flabby skin.

As soon as you stop Ozempic you'd gain the weight back.

Losing 55lbs and keeping it off for a year is amazing! Congratulations! At least in the way you're doing it your learning moderation and self discipline.

Maintenance is so much harder than weight loss! You’ve done a great job! Now you can focus on losing another stone. And you won’t have any glp-1 side effects!

Funnily enough that's also what happens with a GLP1. No need to lift someone up by shitting on others

Don't worry about preparing yourself for deadlifts etc, just start! Be bad, have crap form etc, you will feel the benefits mentally and physically and it will motivate you even more. Personally I got myself a PT in the local gym because I was self conscious in the weights section with all the muscly people but I soon didn't give a crap cuz I gained the confidence to go in by myself.

They will also give you a diet plan suitable for you. It sounds like you're good at sticking to a diet plan so when you start to see results with the training added on you'll have it down.

Just take the leap OP! 💐

You have achieved weight loss through sustainable life style changes. That's amazing.

Your friend has chosen an option that isn't sustainable. She will either have to spend her life having the injections or put it all back on when she stops.

A friend of mine has done similar to you but cut out processed foods and lost a huge amount.

Just make a small change and play the long game. The weight will keep dropping slowly.

What's important is having a sustainable routine.

What absolute nonsense. Do you know anything about GLP1 or obesity
Am utterly sick of everyone on the Internet preaching nonsense just because they believe/want it to be so.
DOI I am an experienced GP with a postgraduate qualification who works in diabetes and obesity. AND has been using a GLP1 personally for 18m. Not because I want to be tiny/flabby skin/ jealousy but because of significant obesity related issues. I have worked bloody hard. Changed my life and habits completely and no less sustainably than the OP.

OP doesn’t need to lose another stone. She’s already in the healthy weight range. Like others have suggested doing some weights at the gym rather than pure cardio will help. If you’re nervous about it Body Pump classes are a good to place to start.

Loosing 5 stone in 5 months is not healthy weight loss. The people who loose fast are more likely to experience malnutrition, hair loss, muscle loss, loose skin etc.

I lost almost 4 stone in a year on MJ and then have only lost a few more pounds in over the next few months. Not everyone responds the same. I am mostly maintaining and still spending loads of money which isn't great! I have just over a stone to go and am not ready to give up. It is coming off but at less than 0.5lb a week. I am trying to do more exercise now to see if that helps.

You have done amazingly to get this far on your own. I couldn't do it. Everyone has wobbly bits and not everyone is weary skimpy tops! Give yourself a break.

It’s so much better to lose weight through your own control and effort than through medication because now you know you can do it and you can keep it off. You need to try and think more logically!

So you have stopped the jabs and the weight has stayed off due to your lifestyle changes?

Why does it matter if she’s still on or not, it is advisable for many to stay on. Obesity is a relapse disease. We know this. It doesn’t mean she hasn’t worked hard and made huge lifestyle changes.

It’s like an alternate universe on here, so many people just don’t understand the medication, or even obesity.

obesoty is a relapse disease, 80 percent of people regain it all back within 5 years, for many complex reasons, be it physiological or physcological.

you need to make the same lifestyle changes on the meds, they are simply a tool to enable it. Some will be able to come off and maintain, some won’t, like anyone else who stops dieting. Howver staying on gives multiple health benefits and avoids the risk of regain,

there is nothing to say the op can keep it off. Sadly. Because we know 80 percent of people regain..

Because that was the whole point of my post.

The OP had made sustainable lifestyle changes without the need for continuous WLIs to maintain a healthy weight. What she has done is brilliant.

Her friend will have to stay on WLI for life or risk putting the weight back on.

Obesity being a disease is massively disagreed upon. A third of Americans cannot possibly have a disease. Even the WHO who define it as a "disease" go on to say about it mostly being caused by diet and lifestyle with some (small minority) genetic causes. Basically countries who have high amounts of processed foods.

People like having something to blame to make it not their fault.

When you refer to genetics, you're missing the point about epigenetics and the environment. The environment that someone is born into - eg in America with high volumes of food available - can cause changes to how the genes in the body work. And 'lifestyle' isn't as much of a choice as you think it is if you live somewhere that it isn't possible to walk, and if you're dependent on a job that doesn't give you the opportunity for movement.
It only takes a couple of hundred calories a day consistently to gain weight gradually but keep gaining. That could be as little as the Mumsnet lore of 'a couple of squares of dark chocolate'.

But again this makes no logical sense. Both the op and her friend need to maintain it for life, there is no difference here, and no reason someone who took wli should be less successful than those who didn’t. It’s 80 percent who fail through tradional methods. Obesity has been a problem long before the drugs were approved. We have the data , obesity and losing weight without injections is something we know a huge amount about,as for decades that’s all there was

you’re posting like you think if someone loses weight without medication it means they keep it off or have a better chance of doing so. This is factually incorrect.

not only is it incorrect but real life data coming out of the USA, is showing people keeping it off longer after stopping that traditional methods, contrary to what was seen in trials. Likely as those people didn’t suffer deprivation throughout the weight loss phase.

Again nonsense. And ignorance. Weight gain without medication still has a huge regain. Obesity is a chronic disease.