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.

@EricCatman yeah good point. There is a lot of scaremongering about medications. With Botox, people seem to think you are literally injecting your face with an active disease. (They clearly don't understand how vaccinations work either!). Or they seem to equate botox with trout pout collagen lips. (Filler and botox are completely different)

How did you get it? I was under the impression that you could only get it if you had obese BMI? Or did you have any co morbidities?

The thing that scares me is side effects and seeing videos where people say the projectile vomited for days on it (even on the 2.5mg dose). Otherwise I’d do it.

@Moier

Don't you believe in the concept of a fat friend, @WhateverMate? That goes against something that many many overweight people have direct experience of.

There are a number of issues that contribute to people gaining weight. I was a skinny child and a slim young adult. When my waist got a bit thinker I just cut back four a few days until my clothes fitted again.

then I went in a diet at 21, to go from 9st 7lb to 9st and that started me into diet culture. With every diet I went on, since then, my b relationship with food got more and more dysfunctional. Coupled with poor mental health and the stress of bringing up autistic children (or rather the stress of fighting for their needs) and my own mental health issues.

Im a stress eater. I legitimately struggle to tell the difference between anxiety and hunger. I have adhd crave the dopamine from yummy food. Ice cream for particularly stressful days and the adhd need for NOW.

I’ll not apologise for taking weight loss medication. I had high blood pressure so losing weight was necessary for my health. I exercise, regularly. I generally eat well. I KNOW about healthy eating but working full time and having 3 children with special needs isn’t always conducive.

I’ve had such success on Mounjaro that my husband takes it too now.

Speaking about GLP-1 drugs generally, there's a growing body of study that shows they have potential for a huge range of benefits and potential treatments: reduced heart attack and stroke risk for normal weight people, fatty liver disease, kidney disease, some cancers, brain disorders like Parkinson's and dementia, and substance addiction among others. So I think the weight loss thing is just tapping the surface of the potential of these medications.

@sunseaandsoundingoff 15 stone to 9 stone is nothing life changing, it's just a vanity loss

It's not just life changing, it's life saving. You do realise obesity is responsible for many serious illnesses, don't you?

I have no ‘moral’ judgement about these drugs at all. I just worry about the eventual effects of changing the basic metabolic function of the body in the way that some of them seem to do.

I Hope it all turns out okay, and that they will eventually be regarded in the same way as paracetamol or ibruprofen : very useful drugs which address pain or discomfort and are so safe ( except when taken in excess) that they can be bought without supervision in many outlets.

I’m not convinced yet, though.

You must be about 7ft tall to see a 6 stone weight loss as ‘nothing life changing’. For someone of 5’2 that’s an absolutely massive difference.

Sorry I haven't RTFT but I'm a bit confused as to why you think your opinion should override the evidence-based prescribing guidelines created by the people who have seen the clinical trial data? If the guidance is to continue on a low dose once you've reached your target weight, then that's what should be done.

The thing is though that a lot of modern food we eat is already designed to 'change the basic metabolic function of the body' - most ultra-processed food is designed to keep you eating. Even now, companies are looking into ways of creating food that will circumvent the effects of weight loss medication because it's impacting their profit margins...

But why? It hardly seems like your business what medications a stranger takes.

I do not think your prescription should continue once you reach the category Overweight.

At that point you should take your chances with the rest of us.

@Holidays4Ever , so basically you feel like being overweight is an issue if will and anyone using medication is being weak. So it’s not fair YOU have to make effort with your diet when others don’t.

Maybe instead, the reality is that being overweight isn’t just an issue of being weak (as seen by the fact many people start loosing weight changing their diet at all). Because becoming over weight is not a question of calorie in calorie out. If it was just that, we wouldn’t be where we are now (and anyone who knows a little about the body knows it’s highly complex and never as out such simplistic equation)

@Moier - I am so sorry that happened to you. There are no words. Huge hugs.

The thing is though that a lot of modern food we eat is already designed to 'change the basic metabolic function of the body' - most ultra-processed food is designed to keep you eating. Even now, companies are looking into ways of creating food that will circumvent the effects of weight loss medication because it's impacting their profit margins...

And that is precisely why people should avoid eating those sorts of foods. It is really disgusting that the food industry has been getting away with this for decades now, and it is the people consuming this "food" who are paying the price. The Governments have been complicit in all of this. It is all very well people who are able to afford these injections, but what about those who cannot? They will not be able to buy their way out of obesity. The food industry needs to be seriously looked at, as it is a danger to health imo.

Yes I read it's private prescription.

But that wasn't my question.

Well the NHS don't prescribe the drug to anyone so how can op 'expect' it at a maintenance dose
You can't 'expect' something which isn't even on offer. Daft question

We eat well - I'm a good cook, I prefer home cooked, but I've always been fat, never had an off-switch - I'm just constantly able to eat.

The only time I've ever lost weight was when I've been physically unable to eat - eg. when I had the flu once. Even when doing hours of exercise a day when I was at school or university I was still obese.

Saxenda and now Mounjaro are life-changing on their own, even before we get to the weightloss aspect - I can forget to eat now, like so many people have said they sometimes do. There's a calmness that lets me make good choices when I do eat, and my body tells me when I've eaten enough. I think unless you've experienced the two sides, you can't really understand how different it is.

Interesting thread. OP, pleased you've found something that works for you. Hope it continues to do so without issue.

Always seems to me that there's a subset of slim people - usually those who have to put in a bit of effort to stay slim - who are actually quite scared by the weight loss drugs. People who really pride themselves on their ability to stay in shape, who are worried that their skills in this area will become null and void, and there will no longer be any way to distinguish them from the "no-willpower" overweight people. A bit like the people with old-school university degrees who get worried about how many people now graduate from ex-polys. It threatens their sense of achievement.

I fibbed a bit about my weight and knocked a couple of inches off my height. In terms of BMI, I was overweight but not obese.

i have not had a single side effect.

If you don't exercise then lower your food intake... not sure why everyone throws excuses around. If you are fat- own it.

I do own it - of course, I'm 5' tall, I can maintain my weight on 1000cals a day, which does make it bloody hard, especially when you need to manually count that and balance it against your activity that day because you don't feel full until you're totally stuffed.

Perhaps you should own that some things are easier for some people than other things. I (for example) don't have any trouble touching my toes or driving or doing maths, other people find those things harder - did your parents not teach you that everyone is different and has different strengths and weaknesses?

Exactly.

With regards to the NHS saving money bit I am not (and I'm definitely no expert!) that a population level administration of the drug will actually save the NHS money. It might.

I think I would much prefer people take a drug than undergo gastric bypass.

This is really not a good thing to advertise. It would ruin it for those who're genuinely obese and honest about their numbers. If lying is how you've got it, good for you but I don't think you should be posting it like it's normal, therefore encouraging others to do so.

Having been firmly in the ..never ..it's not for me camp.
I have finally caved and got weight loss tablets today
God I feel ill.
But yes to everything you said op ,with bells on