Can you get weight loss injections if you're not very overweight?

[TR888]

Just wonder how it works. I'm a stone heavier than I'd like to be, but still within the normal weight BMI. I've tried diets but nothing seems to shift things now I'm over 50.

It's be good to be able to have some help and would love to try the injections. Any advice?

The only additional issue she has, after reaching a healthy weight, is that her fat cells are probably still distended. If she's been using the medication correctly, she has now learned how to maintain a healthy diet.

Her hunger triggers will likely go back off-kilter if she stops the injections. That would make her normal - fighting against "food noise" to maintain, or to lose the final few kilograms. Nearly everyone has to fight this (I smoke, others do wiser things like drinking gallons of water or shoving carrot sticks in their face).

There's little clear logic to "regardless of whether or not it would make it easier for you to maintain a healthy weight". Why should it be regarded for people who used to be obese and not for the rest of us?

People who were obese are likely to regain the weight and become obese again. People who have never been obese or even overweight do not have as high a risk of becoming obese in the future. Losing and then regaining large amounts of weight is also itself a health risk that should be avoided.

You know the answer to this. Google, The Daily Mail and every online clinic that markets this medication will have already told you that no, you can’t get it if you are only a stone over weight.

So, I assume this is an intentionally inflammatory post to get the anti-jabbers out to bicker with those using them?

Ie a bait post?

I don't find it baffling at all, if mostly women people (who are struggling to lose weight) can see it is effective and looks like an easy way to lose weight, why would they not be attracted to it?

Because it could kill them?

Counting calories, unless you are predisposed to ED, has 0 potential to kill you.

People are so resentful of obese people being able to take these drugs, and get slim, and then keep taking them and stay slim, because they want them,

it just shows how many people are not naturally slim.

the only odd thing is many of these people were not like the poster complaining, as she struggled with the treat table and was honest, most folks were just giving it this is how you do it. Shouts of but it’s so hard and I’m so miserable staying a healthy weight were few and far between.

Because it's prescription medication but it's being co considered in the same way haemorrhoid cream was to treat wrinkles a few years back, as a novel solution!
I looked at the risks like pancreatitis against the risks that my weight was already presenting, like the massively increased risk of various cancers and of T2 diabetes. The potential for life changing side effects is scary but was overall worth it given the risks of not taking it. But to weigh those risks against wanting to be a BMI of 23 rather than 24 is really nuts.

Sorry LentilWeaver, I'm not sure if this post was aimed at me.

I've been similar to you, in that as I am Asian with a strong family history of Diabetes,
had a BMI of 27.5 and I was just in the range of prediabetic so I was eligible and decided against.

I did have food noise but have never really been a big eater. Because of my family history I'd become insulin resistant.

As I say, I didn't want the jabs. I read about Michael Mosley reversing his prediabetes and the research at Newcastle University and to cut a long story short...tried the recommended ways of eating, lost the weight, reversed the prediabetes and haven't had any bother since. It only took 6 weeks for it to turn everything round for me. The first 5ish days were rough but after that it was easy...since then I just count my macros and as long as I don't regularly go over 130/140 g of carbs it's fine. If you don't have food noise or sugar addiction, I'd say it's totally doable without the jabs.
Relatives recently diagnoses in the diabetic or prediabetic range have been offered Metformin or Emflagalozin (think I've spelled that wrong, it's a medicine that makes you wee out sugar) as a starting point despite being over BMI 30. They've also had loads of nasty side effects...none of them have changed their diet much.

I think if you can do it with diet alone, it's a much better approach, though I appreciate not everyone can. Touch wood, I may be the only one of my family to avoid Diabetes and medication for it altogether according to the HCPs I've seen recently. That's a big deal considering how many of them are on Insulin or have needed amputations/have sight loss etc.

I am pretty evangelical about the Fast800/Newcastle Diet

Well no not really because she'd have to get to an obese BMI first not just overweight.

Thanks @MyDeepZebra it was just a question for anyone but I appreciate your very useful reply.

Don't have a sugar addiction or food noise but definitely struggle with reducing carbs. Find it very hard to give up rice.

That said, will keep trying with diet and exercise.

i stupidly did this before the big rush for these weight loss injections in 2023.. I lied on the application form for an online pharmacy. I just wanted to lose about 5lbs for my holiday. This was the biggest mistake ever. Ended up in hospital with pancreatitis, gastritis & emergency surgery to remove my gallbladder. I now have chronic stomach ulcers & am on medication for life. Never had any problems before. These issues are listed as a side effect though. I realise that this is an extreme result but my consultant did say these drugs have BMI limitations for a reason and it is likely that it can give you worse / more dangerous side effects if you are not in the right category. Please be careful - I’d do anything to not have been so foolish. x

I think it's a reasonable question OP. If celebrities can access it and you can afford it then I think plenty of people would like to explore that option. Granted, a lot of celebs have took it too far and look awful. I've also seen British influencers on Instagram who weren't big (size 14/16) who have lost a lot of weight recently (some who have admitted to using it, others who haven't). I'd love to loose a stone. If it became more accessible and common place, I could see lots of people being on it in years to come.

But you are successful in your endeavours

Whereas those of us on mounjaro have tried and failed. Endlessly. Until now

Yes if you lie, the private prescribing industry is very unregulated. You can just fill out an online form and hey presto - weight loss drugs. It’s shocking and you absolutely shouldn’t do it.

If you are a healthy BMI you shouldn’t need to lose a stone at all, unless you are about 7 feet tall.

Well you need to submit photos too and look like you’re fat in them,

I'm 5'8" and started mounjaro as a size 16. My BMI was 37. I'm a size 14 now and I'm still obese. Size 14/16 for the vast majority of people IS technically enough to make them obese according to BMI. Size 14/16 might be "average" these days but doesn't mean it's necessarily healthy.

True! I am 5"5 and was clinically obese at a Size 12. Size 14/16 is a Size Large. I would have been morbidly obese at a 16.

You were 110kg (approx) and a size 16? I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest you must have such incredibly dense musculature that you're one of the ultra-fit few whose BMI is misleading.

I'm also 5'8" (173cm) and a size 16 at Marks & Sparks. I weigh 73kg, BMI 24.4.

I tipped over into 'obese' when I was working out every single day. I weighed 90kg and wore a 12-14. Although I weigh less now, I'm fatter. I think that if I'd bulked an extra 20kg of muscle back then, it would've made my body bigger, probably size 16. Same size as now but a very different shape!

Wow it's amazing the different weights and sizes. I was clinically obese at a 16. Am now 2lb above healthy BMI (so overweight) and a comfortable 12. 5ft 6in

I don't weigh myself ever. I expected to be heavy when I weighed myself before mounjaro. But thought I'd be around 16 stone. I was shocked (and cried) when the scales said I was 17st 10lb! I guess I'm fairly strong and fit but definitely not athlete fit. Not enough to skew bmi that much. Perhaps my fat is very evenly distributed which lets me fit into smaller clothes than others of same height and weight?!

I am short so am nearly obese at size 16 (BMI 29). My "normal" size (all my life premenopause) was 10 to 12. I am on MJ as I also have high hypertension and high cholesterol. But my most important reason was something which the provider didn't even ask about, suppression of alcohol cravings (there is research abou this). I have stopped drinking completely after many years of drinking a bottle of wine a day (and repeatedly trying to give up, unsuccessfully). The health benefits for me are very worth it.

@emilysquest, it's reported to suppress nicotine cravings as well. Since cigarettes are my 'weight loss medication', I'd love to give this a test run!

I mean, stopping smoking may well make me pile on so much lard that I'd end up qualifying for the injections, but that seems an unduly complicated answer to a difficult question.

I find this too - I’m a size 10/BMI 24.8/10st 9 at 5 ft 5. I’ve friends who are a size 8/10, same height, but are 8.5-9st. I have no idea why, at 1.5-2 stone heavier, I am literally just a few inches bigger. I was very sporty when younger (real gym bunny in my 20/30s, and walked 8-10miles a day with 2 heavy kids in a double buggy), so I think I may be a muscular build? Or have dense bones (🤣). Or am very constipated!!

It is strange the way bodies work!

My Mum and I wear the same dress size and are the same height and same shaped figure but when we weigh on the same scales she's 22lbs lighter than me! I'm not physically active at all due to disability so not muscular, or big boned. I'm scared it's all internal body fat...or a huge cyst somewhere!

OP, I'd hang on. Technology is moving fast in this area. I hope a lot more people can avail of the health benefits. In the meantime please check out 5:2. I think you mught might find it useful for that pesky stone.

@QuickScroller I'm really sorry and hope you can begin to heal. Your experience is a powerful reminder that it's not to be played with or underestimated.