Well this is depressing!

[Puppylucky]

New research published by the Guardian - so not a notable scare monger. Makes my MJ journey feel a bit pointless unfortunately. Edit : it's not letting me share the link for the article which is annoying but the upshot is that studies now show all the weight loss from MJ is regained within a year - much quicker than previously thought. Hey ho.

I will be very happy to stay on a maintenance dose for my whole life

unfortunately I have a very low calorie amount as I’m very small (maintenance will be 1000 if I’m lucky) so I’m going to need the drug to not put on weight

there is no ‘willpower’ or healthy eating plan that can keep a person satisfied without constant hunger and preoccupation with food (what we call food noise) on 1000 calories for the rest of their life !

for my health I will need to stay on it

I have never eaten over 1400 calories a day in my life which is why it took me the best part of 35 years to put on the weight. I HAVE willpower, I was ALWAYS hungry.

I put on less than half a stone a year as I fought my body so hard.

Mounjaro means I don’t have to fight, I can just eat what I’ve always done but now be satisfied with about half a sandwich less.

I encourage you to educate yourself on the reasons why so many people struggle with their weight nowadays. It is an extremely complex, nuanced issue that doctors don't entirely understand, but pretty much everyone who is an expert in the field agrees that it's a lot more than just a "lifestyle choice." I know it's more convenient to assume that fat people are lazy and gluttonous, unlike your virtuous self. Everyone loves a "people getting what they deserve" narrative but it only works if you know what you're talking about.

If you don't change your habits then you'll regain weight no matter what diet you've been on. I've lost 2st 4lbs so far on MJ after trying every diet under the sun without success. When I reach goal I'll be weighing myself every week. It's a lot easier to lose 5lbs after a splurgy week than 5 stone!

Isn't the study saying that people are likely to put the weight back on if they haven't made any steps to change their life-style - not that there is no hope for anyone who loses weight using WLI. WLI are a good tool to help people reset their eating habits and exercise regime. As with any diet if you restrict eating to a non sustainable degree and start binging again once you stop the diet, of course you will put back the weight.

Actually there are few disease that are solely genetic ( meaning not affected by enviroment). Of all of the diseases listed environment and lifestyle are contributing factors to disease and disease severity to varying degrees. Below are a few links explaining how each is influenced.

statins, antihypertensive

According to the cdc the biggest risk factor for hypertension is

• Physical inactivity, an unhealthy diet, and some medical conditions, including diabetes, can increase your risk for high blood pressure.

https://www.cdc.gov/high-blood-pressure/risk-factors/index.html#:~:text=Physical%20inactivity%2C%20an%20unhealthy%20diet,risk%20for%20high%20blood%20pressure.

insulin - type 2 diabetes is far far more prevalent then type 1 and has a huge lifestyle input.

antipsychotics,
There is a strong correlation between lack of self care and severity of symptoms in schizophrenia
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7796511/

antidepressants,

Lifestyle plays a key role in the development and severity of depression
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36992617/

To be clear I am not blaming any patients for this and I do not believe this would be any sort of reason to either stigmatise these disorders or not treat them. But your disagreement with the WHO classification of obesity as a chronic disorder is wrong.

Yet they posted this 11/04/2025

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/apr/11/people-using-drug-mounjaro-sustain-weight-loss-over-three-years-trial-finds

That was what you wrote about why use of them long term shouldn't be encouraged as realistic or reasonable though. Obviously no-one should do anything for life that they can't afford, that would be financially reckless, but that doesn't make it an unrealistic or unreasonable plan for anyone who can afford it.

Read the post before this where I was responding to you. I said ‘I guess for some there will be financial constraints’ where you then replied to
me that why should you stop taking it because others can’t afford it.

I was saying that it probably can’t be long term for those who can’t afford it. That is all.

It is more than odd that the Guardian posted those two totally contradictory articles within a month. Also, in the recent one, there is no information about what percentage of people regained all the weight. It cannot be everyone.

Yes I read it. I still don't understand your thinking re 'but some other people might not be able to afford it' but it's not that deep!

This. For people who have struggled with weight their whole lives we should accept it as the norm to use mounjaro etc as ‘for-life’ medications. It’s the food noise that’s the issue for those that have struggled long term, not that people have ‘no control’.

Interesting, i’d never thought about this. It’s such a hot topic atm, the more research the better.

It's a very small study. There is evidence that people who are fat are so because they have different food signals to people who are naturally a "normal" weight. You know how people in the MJ groups talk about "food noise" - people who don't struggle with their weight don't have that! I'm anticipating that I'll be on MJ at a lower dose long term and I'm fine with that. It's no different to any other medication that helps with my health - hell, I take blood thinners cos I've got a genetic blood disorder so should I be embarrassed or shamed for having to take that? Fatphobia is so gross.

I don’t think it’s depressing.

Medication is taken for a reason. Either on a temporary basis to help the body heal itself (e.g. antibiotics) or on a long-term basis to compensate for a function the body is not able to do for itself (e.g. insulin injections for type 1 diabetics).

All this research shows is that the medication needs to be taken long term unless the patient is one of the few for whom the medication allows a permanent reset in the brain.

They aren't contradictory, the article you've posted is about people who stayed on WLI, the article being discussed in this thread is about people who stopped taking the medication.

Stay on the medication, the evidence shows you keep the weight off. Stop the medication and the evidence shows you are likely to regain, and regain faster than those who lost weight without WLI.

@PinkArti was just giving an example of why some people may not stay on it long term as you questioned why people wouldn’t stay on it long term. That was all.

The body will always try to return to its 'set weight'. Explanation

The good news is that you can alter that set weight but you need to maintain at the new weight for a period of time which could be anywhere from 1 - 6 years.

Rushing off these meds is not the answer and given the study periods, we could assume none of the participants have maintained for a sufficient time period.

Yeah, I think it is a reasonable hypothesis than people will need to stay on them for a long period whilst the weight set point adjusts. It might mean years on WLI rather than whole life.

Ah, OK, I hadn't realised the other article is about people who are still on the medication. That makes sense.

Agree

I think, as a PP said, it depends how much you've lost too. I've lost over 5 stone, and would be really surprised to put all of this back on in a year ,though I suppose it's not unfeasible.

But then I wouldn't let my BMI get to 40 again without going back on the injections as soon as I was eligible again. Isn't there a middle ground between 'stop taking the meds all together' and 'take them for life', which will be to take them intermittently as needed for some people?