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.

But @WhiteLily1 you're making a massive assumption that there are people on this who haven't tried anything else. Like we've all gorged for 40 odd years and now can take an injection to melt it all away.

That's insulting. And ignorant.

The majority of people on these threads are self funding, after a long time (some it's been a lifetime and for others less so).

Everyone has taken time to review the side effects, weigh up the pros and cons.

Myself and others who are taking this, can't understand why no one has ever started a thread about diabetes and this drug (or similar versions) but the moment it's used for another medical issue (weight loss), there's a thread popping up most weeks, with outrage on side effects, long term issues, cheating etc.

It's bizarre.

If you read about the weight loss drugs and how they work, you'll understand that they work with the hormone that most overweight people have issues with. It affects appetite. I looked into weight loss surgery and decided against it due to risks. I tried metformin and I was amazed by the change in my hunger signals. I unfortunately didn't stay on it due to side effects. I'd like to try the injections but at the cost of $1000/month in the US, I'll just keep focused on diet and excercise. I've made good choices, etc., but I've lost maybe 25 pounds in 4 years. A person is not necessarily at "fault" for their weight issues. I also take medication that does cause weight gain so it's a double edged sword.

@WhiteLily1 one thing I learnt from the early Ozempic threads is that those taking it are VERY defensive of their decision to take it even when admitting to lying about their weight to get it and continuing to eat McDonald's. They also seem very angry at anyone asking anything that doesn't sit nicely with their narrative that they had no part in becoming obese. Any emotional issues are often vehemently denied and their obesity is because of the availability of unhealthy food and their insatiable appetite. Anyone who has lost weight by eating less and moving more is shot down in flames for even thinking they might achieve the same result because they are a medical miracle who wouldn't lose any weight despite drastically cutting calories until you suggest a controlled environment then they say of course they would lose weight Slimmer people just don't understand and neither do those who have been successful at changing their diet and lifestyle. For some people there are medical issues or disabilities at play that mean they can't diet in the same way. The obesity has caused some medical issues that makes losing weight harder yet it is said time and time again that the medical issues caused the weight gain. There are many factors at play but in my own experience I was making excuses and just needed to eat less and stop fooling myself that there must be something wrong with me that meant I couldn't lose weight. You will never get anywhere with this argument though.

The irony just keeps coming.

Op didn't directly call you names. You didn't directly call fat people lazy. And yet here we are. I guess it's possible to say things without directly saying it. Like you saying op "sounds like" a personal attack here, is absolutely you calling her that.

The thing is, if any single part of you was the least bit genuinely concerned about the health of people who take this drug, you'd want to learn more about the reasons why people are overweight.

But you don't - you're just of the ilk that think because you suffered to lose weight, everyone should and if they can't do it, it just means they're not as dedicated and motivated as you are.

I’m not making assumptions about any one particular person on this thread. Yes they may well have tried everything and I’m sure that these drugs are useful for some people.
But 65% of the population in the UK has weight to lose to be a healthily weight. Should everyone be on these drugs? And for how long? The OP says for life. So half the population of adults injecting for life? And if not for life, then what happens when you come off after being on them for a few years?
If these drugs work well and you can simply buy them for £200 a month then they going to be taken up by millions. People very unlike the people you describe will be taking them as a first option, before trying anything else.
Prehaps they will just been seen as a good option to take after going on holiday or after a longer Christmas blow out. i shudder to think of the billions someone will be making too.

Not at all. You have read my threads wrongly. I am all about the reasons people are over weight and finding the root cause of that. When I spoke about it in earlier posts I was shut down by being told my views were like something from weight watchers 1999.

im afraid you are only reading what you want and ignoring the rest. I was told I have a low IQ, thick and didn’t go to school. Which has nothing to do with weight loss or drugs and is personal to my posts. Those words were written. I never ever typed lazy because that’s not what I meant in my posts.

put someone in a place they can’t access unhealthy food for a few months and boom. They are ‘cured’

I used to watch the survival show - naked and afraid. People have to survive in a jungle (or whatever) for 21 days. As a rule, people lose a couple of stone doing it.

Except I remember one tiny woman - same height as me. Had the normal diet of the people on there - what they can catch - which I seem to remember was a couple of lizards and some grubs. She lost 3lb. Her body took so little to run, that even eating basically nothing, in that 3 weeks, she lost 3lb.

Imagine how hard it is for someone to lose weight with a body like that. Imagine how easy it is to put on weight. Imagine the miracle it feels if with an injection, suddenly your body starts telling you when to stop eating on its own.

Life isn't some game, we don't get points at the end if we do things the hard way.

Couldn’t agree more. Also as so many have pointed out we don’t live in a controlled environment. Yes if you lock me in a cell for six weeks with meagre rations I will lose weight. I won’t sustain that in the real world though will I so what’s the point of making that argument? So much wilful
ignorance on this thread.

Er no I didn't say that a really. Please go back and read my post more carefully. I asked if you 'struggled at school'. I didn't say you hadn't been to school. And the reason I asked this was because you seem to have poor comprehension skills - something you have just proved, yet again, by not reading my post accurately and misinterpreting what I have written (again).

I honestly don't see the point in any further conversation with you about this because it's simply going nowhere.

Aww bugger, I missed the drama!

@LegoTherapy @WhiteLily1 i highly recommend watching “Dopesick” on bbc iPlayer if you want to get an idea of how low pharmaceutical companies can stoop to promote their products. Private jabs are becoming reminiscent of a ponzi scheme in the uk as people receive financial discounts if they recruit other people to using that companies jabs….why spend millions on marketing campaigns when you can first recruit celebrities and then everyday people to widen the net for your product?

You've got an overinflated sense of the importance of your opinion. If you want to say it once, whatever. It didn't need to be said at all, but go off.

But how many times do you need to repeat yourself? If you're that convinced that you have the right of it, what do you care what everyone else thinks anyway?

Besides, no one is consulting you before making their decisions so this is just shouting into the void.

And you were using personal insults. I read your post!

Perhaps we fatties just need to drink a glass of water if we think we're hungry?

Have we all tried chewing our food 20 times before swallowing it? And putting our cutlery down between bites?

Remember to plan your meals, don't go shopping on an empty stomach and write everything down in your food diary.

And if you feel fed up/hungry, go for a nice bath, phone a friend or paint your nails! You can't binge eat a family bag of crisps if you have wet nail varnish on!

For a treat, how about a curly wurly? If you put them in the freezer first, they take longer to eat!

Are we all skinny now?!!! If not, just TRY HARDER!

Just a few examples for those that think obese people should “just eat less and exercise more”

I’ve been overweight and obese all my adult life.
This includes throughout my teen years when I was a National swimming finalist. I was training 15+ hours a week. I was still fat. This was in the era when we were weighed by coaches and they could never understand why my weight and body fat was stubbornly high.

These days I have 3 daughters. We cook from scratch most nights and it’s rare that they don’t eat the same meals. 2 are ‘normal’ weight and 1 is clearly overweight.
They are all fit and very active doing 3-4 sports outside of school.

There is something else at play that has impacted me and now my middle daughter. The NHS do no hormone/genetic testing in this area - I’ve asked!
Having lost a chunk on Mounjaro, something that I’ve never done in 30 years of dieting, I will absolutely support my middle daughter if she wants to take it when she reaches the minimum age. And yes I fully expect to be on it for life to maintain my weight!

@GapTshirtsAreShitQualityTheseDays perhaps you should stop calling yourself and other overweight people "fatties". Obese people aren't second class citizens or anything else you are saying and it's offensive to those who are overweight. You have so much anger that's coming through in your posts. It's quite sad to read how you talk about yourself.

@LegoTherapy it's facetious, HTH

Yes I AM pissed off. I've judged all my life for being tubby/overweight/fat whatever word I am permitted to use.

Finally I have a solution and that's still not good enough. I'm judged as being lazy or knowing nothing about healthy eating.

I've got 68 likes on my OP so seems I'm not the only one to feel the way that I feel.

Firstly we have the diet police, now we have the (patronising) language police.

It's still unpleasant. It's one thing to talk about yourself that way, although awful, but to generalise the name to all overweight people isn't ok.

Speaking as a "fattie" I have no issue with the use of that word as a clearly facetious description in the face of some very judgemental and sometimes ignorant posts. I can feel @GapTshirtsAreShitQualityTheseDays 's totally reasonable anger and I can absolutely empathise with how she's feeling.

@LegoTherapy may I point out that various words previously used as insults have reclaimed by the homosexual community? "Fatties" is similar. Especially when used by "one of us".

Now I don't claim to speak for all persons with a weight issue but I highly doubt, given most of us have dealt with really hurtful insults over the years, that anyone is crying over their keyboard at my use of this word.

Indeed, the idea of the joke here (can't believe I'm having to explain this but MN users are notoriously po-faced) is that I'm pretending to be some smug slim bitch who gives diet tips to "fatties".

And I really don't need the "be kind to yourself" patronising shite with a head tilt, thanks very much.

@GapTshirtsAreShitQualityTheseDays of course obesity is absolute nothing to do with laziness or lack of knowledge about food . however with weight loss becomes an endless cycle of women talking about yet another miracle solution, posting publicly how much they have lost, posting the “before “and “after” photos which is yet again inviting other people to judge you and that the previous “ you” is somehow inferior to the current “you”. Whether it’s the cabbage soup diet, slimming world or weight loss jabs it’s all part of the same circus .

@untiltheend yes, best we keep the solutions a secret. It IS a miracle solution, inconvenient to those of you who peddle diet, therapy and "loving and accepting yourself as you are" as the answer. (With great success, oh wait, no, the population is fatter than ever isn't it!)

The new me IS better than the old me. The new me did a charity walk yesterday and raised £2k. The new me can help lift my ageing and elderly mother off the sofa. The new me does not have sore knees. The new me does not worry about diabetes or heart disease. And yes, the new me looks much nicer in my clothes and is much happier.

The fact you would equate this medication to the cabbage soup diet tells me everything I need to know about your grasp of science.

Weight loss jabs are the most significant medical breakthrough in decades, they are likely to save millions of lives not to mention prevent amputations/blindness/help with all sorts of other addictions not just food and the fact that several of you would rather people did things the hard way and/or stayed fat is truly shameful. I think you should all take a very, very hard look at why you feel that way.