You shouldn't take weight loss drugs. Learn about healthy eating, eat less and exercise more.

[GapTshirtsAreShitQualityTheseDays]

This is like telling an insomniac "don't take tablets, just get more sleep"

I'm 41.
I have tried.

I KNOW all about healthy eating. Probably more than most slim people.
I don't have an emotional/binge eating disorder, I just have a bigger appetite than most people. I can only control it so long via willpower or low-carb diets. The drive to eat is the most powerful instinct known to man (except maybe breathing)

It's the weight loss medication that takes the edge of said appetite and ALLOWS me the space to make sensible decisions on food.

I've gone from 15 stone to 9 stone (I'm short). If these drugs had been invented 20 years ago, my life would have been much better.

And no, I didn't steal the drugs off a diabetic. I got private prescriptions for Wegovy and then Mounjaro which are only marketed for weightloss.

And yes I am quite prepared to take the drug forever if necessary.

And no, I don't care about the "potential unknown long term side effects" because they can hardly be worse than what I was facing with obesity.

And although exercise is beneficial for many reasons, it is a fairly trivial factor in weightloss.

So? Then you can take the drugs again.

Just like when my depression comes back, i take the drugs again.

No you’re right. Let all bypass eating healthily to put the very best food into our bodies and take pills for the rest of our lives. Sounds like a fabulous way forward for the human race.

@WhiteLily1 there we have it. You have a problematic rship with food yourself. Well I'm sorry to hear that. It's very common and very hard. But it's wrong for you to want others to suffer like you have. Perhaps this thread is not helpful to you. I hope you can find a solution that works for you.

Aaah and now we get to the crux of the matter. You've struggled and battled your weight all your life, and you're angry that other people are now able to choose a different way.

Do you think people got this pissed off when penicillin was invented?

Oh, you're really not very good at this are you? Since taking Mounjaro I have eaten more healthily than I have in years. My craving for sweet junk food has just...gone. I'm much more indifferent to UPFs now too. It's so easy for me to choose the healthier meals options now and not bother with treats or snacks.

I am putting the best, healthy food in my body now, thank you.

But don’t you worry about your health? What’s all the processed food doing to you longer term? Or don’t you care?
I don’t care what the OP does, but I find it worrying how quickly these drugs are replacing eating a diet of unprocessed nutritious foods.

It feels to me like pop a pill and eat what you want (in terms of which foods) and you too can still lose weight. Personally I think that’s totally wrong.

@WhiteLily1 I will explain it once more just in case there actually is a flicker of wit in you.
mJ is literally what enables me to eat healthily. I don't take it instead of eating healthily.

Well that’s great. And what about when you come off? Do you think your new eating habits will stick with you?

Everyone, it might be kinder to leave @WhiteLily1 to it. This thread might not be helping her already troubled mindset. There is none so blind as those that will not see.

In an ideal world, we would all eat nothing but whole, unprocessed foods and have the time and energy to have a high level of NEET and other activity but this is not an ideal world.

We have fast food companies and food manufacturers constantly marketing us shit that is literally designed to make us want to eat it to excess and they are cheaper than whole foods. We are working longer hours than ever before, in jobs that are for the most part sedentary, and there is also the CoL crisis.

We can therefore only do our best and the best is what works for us, as individuals be that drugs or Atkins. It is better than remaining obese or constantly yo-yoing because you don't have the time/money/motivation or mental or physical energy to resist the plethora of energy-dense, nutritionally void foods being constantly forced down our throats.

Ah, now it becomes clear. You have a unhealthy relationship with food and you struggle with it every single day. You find it very hard and it's a battle for you. And you're bitter and resentful that others don't have to struggle like you do, anymore.

I get it.

I don't think there's any such thing as 'naturally slim', especially as we get older. Almost all slim people exercise self denial on some level. Some have trained themselves a la Kate Moss - nothing tastes as good as skinny feels - that once they're not hungry anymore, they don't want to keep eating, but I think most slim people don't eat what they want, when they want, and especially not when they just feel a bit 'peckish'.

So they view overweight people as self indulgent. If they can manage to say no to a cake because they don't 'need' it, why can't others? But there's so much more to it, even more than just a low tolerance to hunger. My DM is a product of the 60s/70s and 22 inch waists, and has a visceral reaction to being 'too full' - and judging by the amount of food that gets her to that stage, it's not other people's perception of too full. I'm sure it's largely psychological and a link between 'too full' and 'fat'. There is a lasting cultural aspect of pain is beauty, and the deep seated belief if you want to stay slim, you can't indulge all the time.

Now these injections have exploded and that belief is being shaken. There has always been resentment for any weight loss aids. Whether it was diet pills or surgery, I've lost count of the amount of smug comments I've overheard like 'oh, but she piled it all back on'. It's spiteful, and it's women who are the perpetrators mostly.

I don't think it will ever really change. But if you're reading this and guilty of any of this resentment for what other people are doing to get healthier that doesn't affect you in any way, you should probably have a good long look in the mirror.

Difference was that a bacterial infection wouldn’t be cured by human choices. Being over weight can be. You are going to tell me otherwise but it’s just simply not true.
Most people have some kind of internal battle with making good food choices. I still don’t believe pills for life for this reason are the answer

A diabetic friend of mine was taking Trulicity, and then when that was hard to obtain, she was prescribed Mounjaro. She has ended up with an impaction in her bile duct and is awaiting an urgent cholecystectomy. I would be totally surprised if these weight loss drugs weren't responsible for either exacerbating a preexisting condition, such as gallstones, or causing it. I think we could be blindly exchanging one health crisis for another.

Yes, I think they will. But I agree with GapT that it's not appropriate to debate this with you any further because I don't think you're in a good place.

I wish you well.

But they aren't replacing a diet of unprocessed, nutritionally dense food, they are supporting it!

With ozempic I'm actually enjoying food again because I know it will fill me up and satisfy me. So I want to cook from scratch more, I want to eat high protein, vegetables and a varied diet!

Before, food was hard. I am a good cook, but constantly cooking from scratch food which wouldn't fill me up or satisfy me was frustrating so I might as well take the way route of processed food, no food was enticing to me so I might as well eat the same things day in, day out. Now I crave variety and fresh foods. Like I did before I was obese.

Did you take the covid jabs?

@BooneyBeautiful was it the weight loss drugs or the weight loss itself which may have contributed? Big difference.

And how ill would she be if she'd continued being obese or gained more?

I take your point. Everything has a risk. You can't live your life in fear. You just take the least worst option.

No you don’t get it.
most people who arn’t over weight and are over the age of 40 have a daily battle and can’t just eat what they want when they want.
You don’t get a medal and special treatment for feeling very hungry, having crap will power or struggling not to eat junk every hour as the OP seems to think.
I have a great relationship with food now and have done for
thr past 20 years since I got proper help and didn’t claim to know it all and have tried everything.
Honestly I’ve fucking thankful there was no chemical injections or pills when I was overweight to be tempted to try.

Of course, I care, but like you, I have deep-seated, lifelong issues around food and dieting. I try to offset it as much as possible by reaching for healthier processed, prepacked foods like grilled frozen chicken and frozen veg and raw fruit and nut bars.

Is it better for me than eating a home-cooked chicken and fresh veg and actual raw nuts? Of course not. But I am more likely to eat it over something equally as quick to prepare such as a frozen sausage roll when I'm tired after a long day at work and it's more affordable than whole foods.

The difference is I recognize that my view is not healthy and don't disparage others who are doing things differently to me.

I get that and it’s great that you are eating healthily.
But why was the food not as enticing to you before? Why was it not filling you up? It’s because when we eat processed foods healthier foods just don’t hit the spot. Don’t have the same feeling in the stomach. Hunger becomes non existent and we get used to these feelings and dopamine levels.

To be the devils advocate tho The covid jab is different because we were encouraged to get that to help others via herd immunity. Whereas MJ purely affects my health not those around me. So one's decision making process is different on whether to get the jab or not

The mJ etc jabs have been around for ten years. I'm afraid I'm not willing to wait for 20, 30, 40 year trials!

@BooneyBeautiful I'm assuming your friend was t2 diabetic and overweight of course.

I just think new medication en made isn’t the best route. The foods that have been introduced into our mainstream diets over the past 30 years are diabolical and have caused this obesity crisis. And now rather than tackling the root causes people are just given drugs to solve it all.

Point is with covid jabs nobody really knew what they were/side effects, but took them as they may save lives

Same as with the Weightloss injections