Judgement from others...

[AlwaysTimeForWine]

I had an interesting experience at work today. Eating lunch with my colleagues, one of whom commented on my recent weight loss - they know I have been 'dieting' as I've been losing weight since September. They don't know I have been on Mounjaro since November (8 weeks) - I have lost 16 lbs on MJ, and an additional 7 lbs before I started. But they see me eating healthily at lunch and know I pay sport.

Two of the colleagues are very slim and probably always have been - I only mention this because weight-loss injections and the associated information isn't really on their radar.

One of them suddenly said "OMG, one of my friends has started taking Ozempic, I don't know how I feel about that". I asked in what way, and she said she was worried about the side effects, and what would happen when she comes off it. At this stage I should have just got my bingo card out and kept silent.....

Obviously that wasn't going to happen. So I ended up in a situation of trying to defend weight-loss injections, putting them straight on some misconceptions, all the while still pretending that I wasn't on them and didn't really know much. 😂

I asked whether she had ever expressed worry about the side effects of her friend being over-weight? Like increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure etc.. because no one had ever worried about that with me. And that you can put weight on after any diet, but no one seems to worry about that if they go to Weight Watchers, or lose weight another way. You would have all been very proud of me!!

She said that she had seen an awful documentary where people were dying from taking them, and that people are getting them on the black market etc.

I was so surprised that this is still the perception out there. I had to explain that they are fully approved for use for weight-loss in the country, it's just that the NHS can only prescribe over a certain weight, and the majority of people aren't getting them on the black market.

Luckily I have a friend also on them so I used her as an example and said that she had 'told' me stuff about them etc. But it was so tricky and I am sure I outed myself - well I will have done if any of them read this!!

They just think I am losing weight without help as it has been quite slow and steady, and actually there's only been a few people who have noticed. I keep saying that I've been losing weight for 4 months and it's just that no one has noticed yet!

I find myself wondering if I should have just told them, as it will only come up again as I lose more weight. But I don't want to. As there was still a quite high level of judgement and lack of understanding from them all which I wasn't expecting. They just kept quoting the news headlines and awful stuff they hear about, and didn't have many positive things to say about them at all.

Has anyone else found this and still managed to keep quiet?!

They probably guessed that you use it if you defended its use so vehemently.
It's none of their business how you use weight anyway.
Is there a reason you are keeping it a secret?

Personally I’d just have said, I don’t know much about them, but think they are safe when taken right, and left it there.

you can’t argue with stupid, and there is no point trying.

I assume due to the judgement, it’s why I am.

I wasn't vehement as such, just a bit more 'knowledgeable'. I just blamed my friend for telling me all about it.

I haven't told many people for several reasons:

• I decided that any medication I take is my business and no one else's, apart from my doctor and my husband.
• I don't want to have to spend hours of my life discussing it, dealing with uneducated concern, and defending my personal medical decisions to anyone.
• There is a lot of judgement out there - mostly from very slim friends, who think it's 'cheating' in some way.
• If it didn't work for me, or the side-effects were too difficult to manage and I had to come off it, I didn't want to have to go through all of that again with people who knew.
• I don't want to endlessly discuss it when I finally come off it.

I failed on several of those by discussing it at lunchtime, but I probably should add that it was part of a larger discussion about January food and cutting back, and how much was eaten over Christmas, that I would normally join in with, and one friend asked how I'd got on with my healthy eating over xmas. It was just the Ozempic comment that started it all off.

I wouldn't describe them as stupid, they are all highly intelligent, lovely women who are my work friends!

I think what surprised me the most was just the lack of knowledge and how the perception out there (outside the MN Mounjaro bubble) is still that these are horrible things, obtained illegally, and will see us all off!

It's amazing how negative the media is about them. Where are the positive stories that will start to change perceptions??

I’m sorry but the story you posted shows you defending vehemently and speaking to ignorant people, not lovely intelligent women.

so it’s hard for us to judge. Because what you wrote defines them as stupid.

The judgement is hard, so frustrating hearing others commenting on weight loss injections. Totally understandable why decided not to tell them!

It's funny isn't it, no one would expect to know if you're on heart medication, or taking the pill, but people seem so entitled to know if someone is taking weight loss medication!!

Tell them to watch This Morning.. expert was on today .. and on tomorrow .
Honestly some people need to educate themselves.
Mounjaro is already saving the NHS millions.

But OP, the fact that you didn't want to admit you are using them is part of the problem here. How can you expect people to be less ignorant about them if you won't be honest about it?

She corrected their misconceptions by providing information in reference to her friend that's taking it. So I think she did absolutely fine in regards to educating them.

No one is obligated to discuss their private medical information with others, in order to provide an education service.

I don’t see the logic to saying you’re on it to educating people. She seems ro have done a good job without doing that.

This,

I had a similiar conversation at a Xmas party. Someone started talking about weightloss jabs and everyone chimed in with how they haven't even been tested on lab rats, pancreatic cancer is going to sky rocket, and that they work by making you so constipated that you don't want to eat anymore.... OK then! I didn't chime in to that conversation at all. I just couldn't be bothered. Again, these are intelligent people working in a scientific industry so I was surprised to say the least.

I had the opposite over Christmas and was presently surprised. My mum and sister are very anti any kind of medication if they can at all avoid it. My mum actually said it's prescription medication that kills people rather then you know the disease that leads to them being on a medication.

But when I discussed it my sister had already heard of it and was really impressed by what it did and had read some very inspirational stories and asked me how I found it. Talked about food noise and she was genuinely interested.

My mum is actually planning on taking it herself when I talked about it. She asked questions out of genuine interest and how are the side effects ect.

Was very presently surprised.

I work in a medical school so had no issue telling colleagues. A number of them are actually experts in GLP1 and work in diabetes research.

Okay - if that's how you feel then keep feeling like that - I've told you they aren't stupid but don't take my word for it. I'm sure you are highly interested and knowledgeable about everything.

I did say that I thought it was going to revolutionise the treatment of obesity and that people should make their own choices about how they want to lose weight. Problem is that they are at work - can't watch This Morning!

Sounds similar to my experience. And I was surprised like you because they are intelligent people. But I suppose that if all they see are headlines demonising it that's all they are going to know. They aren't necessarily going to read up on something they are not going to try themselves - two are very slim and have been for as long as I have known them.

It just highlighted to me, that on here we have taken the time to educate ourselves because it matters to us. It doesn't matter to them - so I didn't quite understand why they had opinions on it. If you're going to have opinions then read up and do your homework!!

I don't feel that I should have to provide personal medical information to educate others!

That sounds like the kind of conversation I would like to have had.

That's the tough thing about people in real life not knowing, sometimes it would be really great to have a chat about it!

My brother is someone who could benefit from it, and I wanted to talk to him about it when I saw him at xmas, as he was worrying about how much weight he had gained. But my Mum was there and she wouldn't approve. So I need to find the right moment to share my experience with him, and I'm only 8 weeks in, so want to get a bit further in my journey before I share more widely with others close to me.

The only people who know are DH, my boss (in case of any issues at work), my friend who is on it, and one other friend who works in health and fitness and is interested in it.

People are ridiculously judgemental about the jabs, aren't they? I think it's because thin people take a lot of pride in being thin and a lot of pleasure in looking down their noses at people who aren't. Now the jabs are available they're feeling cheated out of the smugness they had previously been able to enjoy and are trying to compensate by looking down on the people who take the medication!

They might just be uneducated on WLI rather than stupid, but I'd bet money the negative discussion around the friend using WLI wasn't from a place of genuine concern! If it was they would have spoken to the friend and not gossiped about it.

I would probably have gone with "as long as your friend has done their homework, is getting them correctly prescribed and know what they are doing rather than injecting unknown crap from their hairdresser, I'm sure they will be fine!"

I told a few people at work- no special reason to keep it secret- and found out that two others are on it too! Most people have been supportive apart from one woman who went off on a whole 'you're not fat' routine despite the fact that medically I am severely obese! Most negativity is some kind of projection IMO. Don't let it bother you.

I think you're right - if they were concerned they would have spoken to them!

They can on catch-up or record it

I'm planning to do that later online! Hopefully it is interesting.