Why are we not being vocal about the miracle of weight loss jabs. ?

[AboutVattime]

I started Mountjaro in April at 15 stone 10
I am now 11 stone . Which is my goal weight for my 5'10 frame. I have maintained that for 2 months having started regular exercise that I really enjoy - as well as ZOE healthy eating /cooking which I enjoy equally.

When people say to me 'Wow ! You look amazing (I'm not daft - they mean you don't look fat anymore) .. how have you done it . I am truthful and say 'fat jabs' .. and expand if they don't understand.

However , I have noticed on all the gazillion threads in here about weight loss injections, people are reticent to be honest . .. "my DH knows but haven't told anyone else " .. is a common remark . But WHY ???

Obesity is a life threatening condition. Like Dementia , cancer , liver failure etc etc .. if anyone had one of those conditions and found a drug to help , would they keep quiet or shout it from the bloody roof tops . ?

Or is the old adage true . Fat is a feminist (female) issue ? and we need to pretend it isn't ?

My main concern is that we should be looking at the root cause of the issue which is the food engineering to make it more moreish and less satiable. Yes there is personal responsibility, yes, we live more sedentary lifestyles but also that the food industry now depends on us eating more to keep them in business.

Mounjaro has helped me in many many ways. My DH cheated on me last year and I'm now a single parent with young children and have struggled with my weight for many years. I also have a very stressful Job. My problem is I struggle to be consistent because I don't get immediate results however I can maintain fairly well.

I have been on MJ for 4 months losing just over 2 stone and I have stayed on a low dose this whole time so that I still feel hunger and learn better habits.

What has MJ done for me

• I feel in control of my life, able to focus better on my children and work.
• more energy for my children and have been able to go back into the Gym again and more physically active with my children.
• due to the above I've coped better with kicking my DH out and more positive about the future.
• my mental health has stabilised, I feel happier than I have for years. It has cleared my mind.
• I am able to consistently maintain a calorie deficit whilst still feeling hungry.
• I have been able to focus on eating better and have no cravings for chocolate, sugary things and Diet Coke. Which is better for my teeth also.
• my skin is better
• my improved confidence is helping me make friends and consider new healthier hobbies.

Worth every penny of privately pay for this.

Just to add I have minimal if nearly no side effects on my consistent low dose.

Hormone imbalance? Stress of external factors you have no control over spiking cortisol and adrenalin as your fight or flight mode is regularly triggered? Exhaustion so eating something non-nutritious and quick before crashing?

I don't take moujanaro or weight loss jabs, but I am overweight and I don't even feel I eat that much and I'd say 6/7 dinners are using whole foods ingredients for the most part. On a budget so can't even afford that much food in the first place...but I'm consistently stressed which basically fcks up progesterone. But I can't stop being stressed as I can't control certain factors and need to endure the cards life has dealt me.

But that's just me. I'm watching these weight loss jab threads with interest. I was initially a bit of a nay sayer but the more I read the more open minded I am.

I think that PP has a circle of people who have lost eating disorders and/or narcissism as theyve admitted themselves to having had eating disorders, so this PPs circle of friends are exactly the people who shouldn't be on the medication, however this PP is also refusing to acknowledge their own bias.

This is all so interesting. Do you have any article/ books etc. you can recommend to learn more about this?

@AmICrazyToEvenBother congratulations on missing the entire point of my post, which is that when you're constantly told you're disgusting (as so many posters on this thread have done, to women they don't even know!), you're constantly preoccupied with your weight, your body and food.

@Bluedabadeeba "Why We Eat (Too Much)" by Andrew Jenkinson is excellent.

The fact that it seems to reduce desire for alcohol and even gambling opens up an interesting question re. Overeating and understanding why it’s harder for some people to restrict food, in the same way that some people find it v easy to restrict alcohol while others struggle.

And... what is that question?

OP, you are right, it is a miracle vax.

According to this thread, it suppresses the appetite, puts you off gambling, deters you from alcohol, makes you a amateur nutritionist over night, a sudden healthy eating freak, and turns you into a gym bunny.

Ok to start with a very simple calories in less than calories out, low impact daily exercise such as walking, making sure your calories are "good" and with plenty of protein. That will help everyone lose a bit of weight, if it's not then there's something not happening or being accounted for

The 'lifestyle change' is eating less

Thats literally what someone is doing when they lose weight, they are eating less food, the medication allows you do do that and lose the compulsion to eat

Perhaps some people wil need them for like, just like my OH. Some people are on methadone for life, decades

@Flopsy145 you're just showing how ignorant you are at this point. If it was that easy, everyone would do it.

GLP-1s are showing there's more to obesity than us just being lazy people.

I actually said in my earlier post " I'm fully aware this is a narrow and biased view but it's the only one I have first hand experience of"

@Flopsy145 do you genuinely think that I or anyone else here doesn't already bloody well know that? JFC. That's your "education". I've known that since I was an overweight child being put on diets by my parents.

@FasterMichelin If you want to know how these drugs actually work, here's a literature review.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10159347/

They are not the same as an artificial appetite suppressant like, for example, phen-fen when that was around.

They are hormone agonists. They mimic the action of either one or two hormones (GLP1 and GLP2) that act upon the release of insulin in response to consuming food, which in turn affects sensitivity to insulin. Many people who live with obesity also have insulin resistance, which means their bodies do not respond to insulin as efficiently and the pancreas has to produce more in order to remove sugar from the blood. This leads to poor blood sugar control, prediabetes and Type 2 diabetes if left unchecked. Insulin resistance can also cause increased hunger and even change your tastes, making sweet foods more appetising. Vicious cycle.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3894001/

The hormones GLP1 and GLP2 also slow gastric emptying. This is why there are some risks associated with gastroparesis.

When people take these drugs, the weight loss comes through the changes in the response to insulin, which reduces the need/drive to overeat, and the slower gastric emptying means they feel fuller on less food. And also why they can help T2 diabetics control blood sugar.

This gives people an opportunity to change both their diet and tastes while using the drug, and also the stomach reduces in size when you no longer overeat regularly. Patients choose different foods when on the drug as well as eating less because your body is not being driven to crave sugar and carbohydrates. So it makes it possible to actually implement a diet that will control your blood sugar better, where dieting alone may have failed - because your body is literally saying it's not got enough glucose available and sending out strong signals to tell you to put more in.

The kicker, of course, is maintaining the same diet and regime when you're off the drugs. You cannot return to your previous way of eating, and a decent prescriber should be clearly telling people that.

@Flopsy145 I’ve been overweight the whole of my life. My brother is stick thin and always has been, despite eating an appallingly unhealthy diet. I eat a wide variety of unprocessed food, dislike sugar, enjoy exercise and understand nutrition. I don’t snack, and have been repeatedly told off for not eating enough.

Since I was at primary school I have been on some sort of diet:

WeightWatchers
Slimming World
Jenny Craig
Low fat
Low carb
VLC diets
Whole 30
Blood sugar
Zoe

I’ve done weight training, exercise classes, running, gym sessions.

I have symptoms of PCOS, which means I may well have insulin resistance but the NHS won’t investigate or treat without fertility problems. I have had a lot of stress in my life. I had disordered eating as a teenager owing to trauma. I am perimenopausal and my GP told me nothing could be done about my sudden excessive weight gain

I’m not remotely untypical of the people using Mounjaro. We’ve tried and tried and tried to lose weight in the past, many of us successfully for periods. We get the basics. They’re not working for us.

Thalidomide was the event that sparked the incredibly stringent criteria and regulations we have for conducting clinical trials these days, so that’s kind of a straw man argument. And I think the point that a lot of people are missing is that people on the injections do have to “work hard”, to keep within a calorie deficit, make good food choices, and exercise. The drug just takes away the food “noise” and if you don’t know or understand how strong that can be, then count yourself lucky.

I'm exactly the same, but I'm 25.

I was bullied relentlessly for my weight which created a horribly complex relationship with food. This drug has taken all of it away and I can fix my relationship with food without any of the external factors. For the first time in my life I'm actually getting somewhere.

I do understand the food noise, I’ve had my own battles with my weight over the last 20 years. But I’m not willing to risk taking a drug purely for my own vanity. Much like the people getting plastic surgery in Turkey, I see it as a risk that I’d never forgive myself for if it ended up taking me away from my child

@berksandbeyond how many people have died?

The only reported stories of people being unwell are those that have lied about their weight to obtain it. Yes some people will get side effects, but that's the same for any medicine.

It's not as if these drugs were only invented this year. They've been around for decades, and they're now being licensed for use for weight loss. If they were deadly, we'd know by now.

I don’t think that’s necessarily true. We don’t know of long term affects on weight loss. We also don’t know (because it’s too early to) whether people can use it for a year then maintain that loss. Do you want to pay £200 a month for the rest of your life? £50000 for 20 years of being thin? I suppose everyone has a price! Maybe that is worth it to you. The risks, and the cost, are not worth it to many of us and that doesn’t make us stupid for not taking the ‘miracle’ cure!

https://diabetesjournals.org/diabetes/article/64/7/2513/19197/GLP-1-Response-to-Oral-Glucose-Is-Reduced-in

If you don’t want to read it - the studies show a 20% decreased GLP-1 response in those with obesity- so they are hungrier than you are by 20%. It’s genetic biology. So yes - it’s calories in calories out in theory - but very hard to achieve when your sister would feel starving all day every day at a lower calorie level while you may not. Most of the studies show that once weight loss has been achieved - maintenance is either a low dose of the drug OR a diet of low carb/very low carb, due to the satiating effects of these diets - alongside exercise of course.
A lot of people will experience what those of us with this biology have had all our lives once they hit the menopause. Being hungry and denying yourself food all day every day is exhausting. This drug is incredible and puts my body in the same state a naturally thin persons body is. Those people don’t have better will power than me…they just have better biology (and in some cases…a sanctimonious lack of empathy bordering on cruelty)

Anyway, I need to take some paracetamol now as I dont feel well, that I can buy easily over the counter and that hospitals see every night with countless people having taken overdoses of (and other painkillers/sedatives that are easily available)

Thats medicines for you.