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 know 5 people on the jabs - all look amazing so far. My neighbour looks years younger actually, the weight seemed to make her look older. No sign of ozempic face or whatever, just looking healthier with a slimmer face & loss of the double chins. Me & my neighbour have both lost between 4-5 stone each - so perhaps loose skin isn't too much a problem with that loss. I have some loose skin on my stomach, but tbh that's probably as much to do with 3 pregnancies as MJ.

I do think people that are against the WLI have a bit of bitterness, that we're losing weight too easily or something - we should suffer more. Some of it's just bitchy, "oh she's lost the weight but she looks so old now - like people aren't allowed a win and just to be happy, there just HAS to be a downside. It's judgy - women are always being judged for something, not thin enough, no that's too thin now! Not young enough...

Yes this is where I take issue as well, the WHO issued an edict and said all countries with a functioning health care system should make them available to their populations and to tackle the cost issue, but of course it’s not that simple.

in the uk we don’t have the money in the nhs to pay for them, the government needs people to pay privately. Get healthier, thus using less nhs resource and freeing it up to be spent elsewhere.they estimated it would cost 9 billion a year to treat everyone eligible with the meds. However the nhs plan to prescribe to 200k people in 3 years is shockingly low.

the price will come down, there are many other meds in final stages now.and of course the pharma companies need to not just recoup the billions they spent on development and testing but infrastructure, they need to make a return on that investment, whilst continuing to develop the next round of meds, which will arguably sell for less due to competition. It will become a crowded market but s few years to go. Right now two players have a global stranglehold.

trump did try but all he succeeded in doing is increasing the uk price and a marginal reduction in the USA. Governments can’t dictate what private companies sell for. The manufacturers need to balance between affordability and making a return. As well as the value of the product, it is not priced on a cost plus model. But a market value one.

in a decade it will be widely available at a much lower cost. Maybe even in 5 years, with prices slowly coming down. But it’s a shame so so many now would benefit from the medication and can’t access it. And so many of those will die or have life altering impacts due to their obesity.

thr nhs spends over 14 billion a year on obesity and obesity related illnesses. 14 billion. But that will reduce the more people use the meds. But it will take time. The USA is only now seeing obesity rates reverse, and they have had it longer than us and more widely available due to the insurance structure there.

I’ve noticed that, I know 7 people on tnem, they all look much healthier, sort of glowy, I assume it’s as their bodies are healthier. It’s a mix of men and women.

me, I lost over 6 stone and when I hit goal I did look like I’d lost weight, not on my face, but my body when I was naked, or in under wear/swimwear.

i didn’t really have much loose skin as such, but crepey upper arms, some minor folds under my backside and some loose skin on my tummy if I twisted, but I went straight into body recomp, and it’s all gone. I’ve been this weight for over 18 months, you’d never look at me and know I have lost weight now , you’d think I was always this weight.

my daughter is very blunt with me, and when I hit goal she commented I looked thin and you could see I lost weight, a few months ago she proactively commented and said you can’t tell any more, you just look normal 😂

my face I think looked younger when I hit goal , but I then had some filler into my nasio labial fold and marionette lines, and wow what a difference, she restored lost volume and did a fantastic job, it’s completely natural looking. However I would have had that ageing anyway due to age,

I never ever thought my double chin, or puffy face or matronly bust on a big belly was youthful and I never met anyone who looks at someone’s face in isolation, more they look at the overall package. And for my money, being a healthy weight is always more youthful on people than under or over weight. And I see that in my friends, for myself, we are our own harshest critics.

but I do think when you hit goal it’s important to do body recomp. Rebuild any lost muscle and give your body time for the skin to shrink back naturally . I’m off on holiday in a few weeks and I look very different in my swimwear now than I did a year ago. Fat goes soft as it shrinks, but when you stop losing weight it firms up, giving a much firmer appearance, and then when you combine it with increased muscle, and skin which has tightened over time. It can alter someone’s appearance noticeably

My DH has type 2 diabetes and was put on the jabs in January. He’s in chronic heart failure and has severe peripheral arterial disease resulting in the loss of both legs. Since he’s been on Mounjaro not only has his blood sugar been brought down to pretty much normal levels but his heart, liver and kidney function have all improved and his overall health is much better. His diabetes nurse told me confidentially that she hopes eventually Mounjaro will be available to everyone in controlled doses because it seems to improve overall health

Yes totally agree - exercise to curb muscle loss is very important, especially as we age.
I do have some Marionette lines, which I've been thinking about getting filler in, but this is just age combined with weight loss, not specifically due to WLIs.
I had what my sister calls "carb face" before - sort of doughy, fat face where the fat smoothed out all the lines, but not in a remotely attractive way!

Yeah me too, I took a selfie of my daughter and I before I lost weight and I couldn’t work out whay was wrong with my face, it was so puffy and well fat. It wasn’t remotely attractive, or youthful,

Me too I wish people wouldn't post such nonsense. I've lost 5 and half stone over 2 years on mounjaro. I look 10 years younger. My blotchy bloated (sad) face is now healthy ! I walk loads and play sport once a week. My health has improved 100 fold.
Its bitterness and loss of their skinny moral superiority they just cant bear it.

Anyone else with an underactive thyroid and PMOS lost no weight on this and had just fatigue / tiredness increasing at higher doeses? Gone back to 7.5 and fatigue lifted and I eat less but didn’t eat much anyway and lost no weight.

Surely its an individual cost benefit analysis? I can't envisage myself using them but I've never had an issue with putting on excess weight. If I were morbidly obese, I might well decide to use them, despite the cost and side effects.

My Mum has been on them since they came out, her weight loss stalled a long time ago, she now can’t afford them and so has stopped and is piling the weight back on. She hasn’t changed her diet or increased her level of activity. So I think for someone like her they are completely and utterly pointless and she has just spent a small fortune on nothing.

I think aesthetically you can tell if someone has used the jab and not lost weight naturally. It seems to make people look a bit gaunt and ill, almost like a deflated balloon.

Medically, I dunno. A friend of mine lost several stone and then had a stroke but was it linked or would’ve happened anyway? I did read something about these jabs possibly causing eye issues but I’m not sure theres definitive evidence yet.

Honestly, I think in years to come we will be finding out bad things relating to the side effects of these jabs. I’m not against anyone using them, it’s their individual risk to take but I just don’t believe they are as safe as they are being made out to be. Similar to vaping, it was pushed as a save alternative to smoking, to the extend where companies were actively marketing them at young teens. It took off and became a massive industry and now we are realising that the health implications of using them are massive and nearly just as bad as smoking. I think the same will come out about these jabs too.

I know 2 people have used them with amazing success but you could argue, they needed it as the health implications if they carried on without would be enormous. The reward outweighs the risk so to speak. My concern is with the millions of people who are overweight but could quite easily loose it with a bit of hard work, and they have chosen this as the easy way out.

Are you under an endocrinologist? If these aspects are not addressed and optimal, you will not use weight, via WLI or any other method. Don’t bother with the GP, they are not experts at fine tuning this stuff.

The biggest shifts I have had have been due to my thyroxine being played around with. At one point that meant just over 20kg in 6 months (zero change to diet or exercise, I ate very little anyway and was careful with what I ate but was obese). Of course that meant my gall bladder went as is typical with any significant weight loss as has been evidenced for decades. Even at that point my endocrinologist felt WLI would do nothing without further thyroxine fine tuning, wanting to be in the ‘right space’ where WLI would be able to work as intended. That took an extra 12 months and 10kg. Then started on WLI but it’s a struggle as the effect seems dependent on my thyroxine being optimised, which for me is becoming a pretty constant battle. I’ve stayed on WLI meanwhile, not for weight loss, but it confers a host of other benefits and I can afford so we believe it’s worthwhile even if not associated with weight loss.

I've lost all the weight now but the bariatric surgeon I'm seeing said I need to stay on mounjaro for three years. It's not something you can just stop dead.
I'm currently on 5mgs and aiming for 2.5mgs in about three months time.
I've joined a gym and go swimming three times a week and do a lot of walking.
My diet has changed radically. I don't eat any processed food at all.
You can't expect to just stop the injections and carry on like you used to it's a massive life change to maintain the weight loss and you have to be really motivated.
I'd really like to stop forking out all of this money but I absolutely don't want to be fat again. I had pre-diabetes, massively high blood pressure and needed joint replacements.
The last time I lost all the weight naturally was 40 years ago and I looked just like I look now no better no worse with regards to loose skin.
You can't tell that I used mounjaro, it just depends how quickly you lose the weight, I only lost 2 lbs a week last time naturally and 2 pounds a week this time on jabs but as I got older (I'm 64) it became harder and harder to get the weight off.
I'm quite happy with my look. I do weight training though to prevent muscle wasting and at my age I need to for bone health.

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@GreggsistentialCrisis a friend of mine had eye issues and the optician said most likely due to the jabs and that he's seen a lot of these. She must have been on them for over a year now. This was enough to scare her so she is going to stop

Personally I would never use them but thankfully I also will never be in a situation where I would have to. I think we are past the point of stopping use, the genie is out of the bottle. Now we need to r move the stigma and provide supervision for all so people can get them privately if they want and be supervised taking them even if this means paying extra. Just make it as safe as possible. Alongside maybe also start working on the messaging in Society that makes people that aren't clinically obese people in ant to even consider using them in the first place.

That sounds unlikely the optician has seen many cases, the only link is to naion which is so rare it’s 1 person in every 200 000, are they diabetic maybe. It can happen in rare cases it’s just hugely unlikely any one optician is seeing a rise in it.

I think what we are starting to see is for some people, if anyone gets ill whilst taking the meds, it is the meds to blame, even though scientifically there is no link, it’s like people think you become super human on them, can’t fall ill and if you do the meds must have caused it, it’s very odd,

Exactly this. Some of the comments on this thread are quite OTT!

I haven't RTFT but have considered taking the jabs myself and done my research. I am very wary about taking them for many reasons
Firstly the side effects are very offputting, and I can't afford to take time off from work for nausea, vomiting or diarrhoea - chances are i'd probably get side effects bad as it's rare that any new medication seems to agree with me.
Secondly i've known of a couple of people who have spent a fortune, stopped and then piled a significant amount of weight back on.
Thirdly i've known of at least 3 people who became very ill on it, their blood pressure dropping, abdominal issues etc
Fourthly although there are some documented benefits, aren't these benefits just from losing weight alone? Fatty liver disease can be reversed with diet, cancer risk can be reduced with diet. So all these benefits aren't exactly benefits of the drug itself, it's as a result of losing weight.
So yes I get it that the main issue with losing weight is the willpower, hunger aspect and the jabs help with that, but what if with a little more discipline (think of saving all that money they cost) and eating clean non processed food, increasing protein, reducing sugar and crap carbs maybe combined with some intermittent fasting can produce the same results and you're not putting some substance in your body, and also changing your eating habits for life. I know it's easier said than done but it could be motivation for anyone quite rightly wary of taking jabs. Losing weight is tough

If I was obese/ significantly overweight I would take WLI in a heartbeat
My mother has been on them for two years and has lost over five stones . She feels and looks amazing .
I still maintain that many detractors are envious of the fact that others are losing weight and looking better