What do we REALLY think about the weight loss jabs?

[Newbabynewhouse]

I've put this on AIBU rather than weight loss jab because I want a neutral audience rather than people who are all using the jab.
What are peoples thoughts on the jab? I'd love to hear from someone educated in the medical field about whether these are actually safe for people without diabetes.
I'm obese and I have lost a stone so far by dieting although it's taking me a long time! I know if I keep trying hard I can lose what I need to. Lots of people I know have started dropping weight from using the jabs and I am tempted however, can't shake a feeling that there's something not quite right.
What I mean by this is... these jabs have been around for years for diabetic people, so why have they only just been 'released' to people despite obesity effecting the NHS for years?
I know a woman who fainted in work the other day with gallbladder issues, she's on the jab.
Also, I'm going to sound a little conspiracy theorist now, but, isn't it odd these jabs became popular straight after people starting refusing to have more covid jabs..?.. I'd love to hear from people with a bit of background info or medical professionals to tell me whether I'm overthinking or if I'm onto something?

I am not a scientist and I'm not taking the jabs but I know they have helped a lot of people. They have been licensed and gone through all the tests. I am sure that they are as safe as any other medication if they are used properly.
I don't understand your comment about the Covid vaccine it doesn't make any sense.

40 years ago people smoked, another way of suppressing appetite

I don't either because I don't know how it works or which company she's using but it is 100% true that she was on the maximum dose for a long period of time and she was worrying about being told she couldn't continue.

I know the reasons why it isn't face to face but it absolutely requires more regulation. Just because something is difficult to put into practice it doesn't mean that a poor alternative that obviously has major flaws is acceptable.

I don't know much about it at all, I just recounted my experience from work. Oddly I work in a very male dominated industry and 80% of those who have had issues are men 🤷‍♀️

I can understand why people take them and I know it can be really, really hard to lose weight if you’re obese. But i don’t like how people who are slightly
overweight are using them, it feels like misuse of a medication if just simply used to drop a dress size or to look a little bit thinner in their wedding photos. Totally understand that with obesity the risks of being so overweight are worse than the jabs, so I get it. But I really don’t like the idea that it reduces appetite and stops people from tuning into something we need to survive. Nor do I like that now there is a “shortcut” to being thin, the body positivity movement has gotten awfully quiet, as if people weren’t genuine or sincere about embracing different body types or loving themselves as they were. I’m a size 14 who works out several times a week, walks the dog a few km a day and eats a relatively balanced diet - I’m healthy but not small, and I worry that people with healthy bodies who aren’t naturally slender are going to feel the pressure to lose weight when they don’t need to just because being skinny is the norm. Or maybe once anyone can be skinny and it isn’t seen as a difficult thing to achieve, perhaps the curvier figures will start to be fashionable again. I don’t know, I’m just thinking all of this as I write!! So no, I’m not a fan for those reasons, but I understand why people take it and know we live in a culture where being skinny is desirable - those messages, now they are hard to ignore! Invent a jab for that!

I use them. I have lost 31lbs since the end of April, gone from BMI of 36.6 to 30.6. The endless food noise has gone, the need to finish everything in sight then forage in the cupboards for something vaguely edible just to feel satisfied disappeared overnight.
I so, so badly wish that everyone who wanted/needed could afford to take them and deeply feel for those who just can't explain what food noise is to their loved ones; my fiance could never truly understand it but luckily accepted (when I finally crumbled) what I was telling him as truth. But he sees the difference now - I'm not hiding evidence of food, not nipping into Greggs on the way to work - all the 'good' habits I displayed in front of him were blatantly a lie!
I feel better from the inside out, my skin is healthier, my face is no longer puffy, my libido is back, my confidence is so much better in all aspects of my life.

I feel very lucky that I can afford to fund this, but I do agree it seems too easy to be prescribed - I used Asda in the end primarily because they just wanted photos (not a video) and they provide a maintenence dose if wanted once a healthier BMI is met. But I could have so easily lopped off a couple of inches from my height, added a couple of kilos to my first prescription. Even now I could lie and not put in my new weight for a repeat. That concerns me for those who are already at or close to a healthy weight.

I already lost my gallbladder a couple of years back, well before I started the jabs. But on that - again I know I'm probably fortunate but it has had absolutely no impact on the way I eat/my digestive system (that I can detect!). Hence still being able to eat a Greggs cheese and bacon wrap and a sausage roll before 9am...

I so relate to what you describe. I agree that people who don’t have food nagging find it very hard to understand. And I’ve heard many people rubbish it, thst it’s just this new phrase - an excuse a fat person uses to excuse them from personal responsibility. But stories like yours and people I know IRL say this is the magic.

Every NHS GP appointment I’ve had over the last few years has been online or by phone. It’s no different.
At no point has my Mounjaro provider pushed me to go up a dose.

Well I don’t know that’s the case but I know for a fact because it’s my experience and not a friends, that it’s not the case 🤷‍♀️

Yes, the reality is that this is what healthcare looks like now. We have an ageing population and no magic appointments tree.

People advocating for greater scrutiny for WLI prescribing never explain where this extra capacity is coming from and why WLIs specifically need it whilst other self-reporting in healthcare doesn't.

But how will you manage those behaviours when you stop using the WLIs?

Is there a a comparable medication used by millions of people based on self reporting data?

I had high blood pressure and wanted to avoid taking tablets. I eat very healthily but since menopause have found it impossible to lose weight despite doing the exact same things that had worked in the past. I don’t drink much and don’t eat junk food. I’ve been on the lowest dose for 6 months and have gone from 12 stone 6 to 10 stone. I’m going to lose about 5-7 lbs more to get to a healthy bmi. I am confident I can then maintain as I don’t have a tricky relationship with food. The blood pressure tablets have side effects and mu blood pressure is now optimal. They’re not voodoo - they’re medicine.

By the learned new habits and knowledge that being on the jab gives you space to gain!

I don't know what you'd consider comparable, but self-reporting of weight and blood pressure for assessments, conditions and meds is common. My personal experience is in relation to the contraceptive pill. My parents are asked to do this for their various blood pressure medications, and the numbers of people in the UK on blood pressure meds currently is higher than WLIs.

There's obviously plenty of potential for people to lie so they can keep accessing NHS meds they wouldn't otherwise get, and I expect that does happen, but realistically there's not a lot we can do about it.

Why would she need to stop using them, if she doesn’t want to?

Lots of people buy tretinoin or similar privately with no face to face involved. Or flu jabs, testosterone, HPV vaccine, bimatroprost...there are loads. It's just these weight loss drugs that seem to wind people up.
Most people can organise their own healthcare and access it however they want via registered professionals whether NHS or other. This is a good thing surely?

I knew what this thread would be like when I clicked it, not disappointed 😂

I’ve lost 7st in 18 months, stayed at a low dose and I’m in the best health of my life, I hiked Snowdon this summer. Prior to this I despised my body, I was mentally so low about my weight. No diet ever worked long term, I was utterly miserable. I’ve gone from a size 22 to an 8, I wake up full of energy and happier than I’ve been in my entire 37 years. Think of me as a cheater all you like, I’ll be too busy swimming, walking, jogging, doing Pilates and enjoying life to think about nay sayers at all 🤷🏻‍♀️

Don’t you come on this thread all happy and positive!? Don’t you know you’re on WLI. FOR SHAME. 😆

Yes, there's nothing in the quoted post to suggest the person plans to stop taking WLIs, and indeed she says she considered availability of maintenance doses when choosing provider. I don't understand why stopping would be viewed as a 'when' rather than an 'if'.

You can gain the same knowledge, habits, and and weight loss on a non WLI diet. It doesn’t mean you can maintain it if your appetite stops being suppressed. Why if not are there so many of us yo-yo ers, it’s not like we dont know what we should do

The nausea and stomach symptoms are only short term, and if you push your luck. For example, I had an Indian takeaway, barely any of it, but my system couldn’t handle it and spent most of that night awake and on the loo. That’s a good thing in my mind, it’s like aversion therapy, even when off the WLI I won’t be having an Indian takeaway again!

This actually genuinly made me laugh. The WHO recommends staying on for life.

do you stand outside slimming world club with a little sandwich board, saying you will need to be on for life, don’t do it, get therapy!

im so glad the educated people on this matter, who work for the global health authorities understand obesity so much better than randoms on line.

honestly, it’s genuinely funny 😂

Me too it’s great isn’t it

But these people need additional help
of the injections to be able to lose that weight!