Why are so many people anti WLI

[Mumble12]

I just don’t understand it!

Mounjaro has literally changed my life overnight. It’s dealt with things that I didn’t even know were fixable. Why are so many people (presumably those that haven’t tried them and really have no intention to) so dead against it.

Do people misunderstand how it works? So many people perceive it as cheating…but I can’t fathom the logic - even if it was cheating…so what?! Why do they want people to be miserable and struggle with obesity?

Im not against them, I considered them but the studies to what happens after you stop taking them makes me question them and what it will do to peoples mental health and physical health when they gain weight back some or all of it.

Or…more likely…something that many, many people have struggled with for years but there hasn’t been the recognition/people haven’t felt able to admit it as they’ve just thought they must be greedy/lack willpower?

Many women start off trying for a natural birth, but end up with an emergency C-section because natural doesn't work out.

Similarly, there won't be a single obese person on MJ who hasn't tried to lose weight the 'natural' way. Not one. So sensible diet and exercise is clearly not the answer. If it were, there would be no obese people. There would be no issue.

MJ, like epidurals and C-sections, are there because natural doesn't work for everyone.

Respecting people less for medical interventions must be a miserable mindset to carry.

As I say, I’m not disputing that - I have had times (usually during a period of restriction or right afterwards) when I get preoccupied. It’s just the term “food noise” that grates. Because we have to eat! And having a fluctuating appetite is normal! But “food noise” now makes it sound like ANY time spent thinking about food is wrong/bad/warped/crisis point. I seriously worry at the message “food noise” is sending our kids and particularly impressionable teenage girls.

The same as every other time obese people have lost a load of weight in slimming world or weight watchers or Atkins or keto or Cambridge diet or New You plan or Fast800……….. and then gained it all back.

I’ve done all of those and just calorie counting using MyFitnessPal. Each time I lose 2-3 stone then put it all back in when the constant unending relentless hunger took back over.

turns out if my body is stimulated to make more insulin I am able to not feel starving all the time.

Are these the long term side-effects pp are worried about?

https://news.sky.com/story/obesity-drug-shows-significant-weight-loss-for-at-least-four-years-with-fewer-serious-events-study-finds-13135288

I am not against injections for other people, but the end game of coming off the injections is problematic in the long term, that needs attention/ otherwise the manufacturer are going to gain significantly from profiteering on the long term failure.

i agree its changed peoples life’s, don’t see it as cheating, any more than wearing a plaster cast on a broken leg - but there needs to be some more development

Loving the bingo going on here!

I must give credit to @1clavdivs! I think we’ve hit most of them on this thread now

I wonder how many of those studies are funded by the Big Pharma companies making WLI?

Edited to add: it's right there in the copy!

A team led by Professor John Deanfield, of University College London (UCL), used data from the Select trial, which was conducted by semaglutide manufacturer Novo Nordisk.

Companies make money from developing and selling products which improve people’s lives. Why is this a problem in this case?

Are you saying you think the results are fraudulent? Do you believe Professor John Deanfield, of University College London (UCL) has been duped?

I'm saying the results of the original study will have been selectively skewed to paint only a positive picture. It's what Big Pharma does! Just look at the OxyContin scandal.

that's not what it is though. You say you occasionally get preoccupied. My DH says yes sure he thinks about food, when it's close to mealtimes and he is getting hungry. I have never seen anybody stating that thinking about food occasionally is somehow abnormal.
But some people think about food obsessively all the time. From the morning we wake up until we go to bed, we have to fight the compulsion to eat everything. 'Normal' people simply don't get how exhausting this is, and how 'oh just eat less' is the same as telling an alcoholic to just have a couple of drinks, what's the problem?

I'm a recovering bulimic. I'm not a normal eater.

Actually, editing to change it to I'm a bulimic in recovery. I'll never not be bulimic.

Are you saying that all drug trials are fraudulent because of one (uncovered and prosecuted) scandal by a particularly unpleasant company in the USA?

Do you believe Professor John Deanfield is wrong to state there are cardiovascular benefits to WLI?

Nope, not saying ALL drug trials are fraudulent. But do I reserve the right to be suspicious of studies funded by Big Pharma to paint their products in a positive light. Of course.

And no, Prof Deanfield isn't wrong to state those benefits because that's the area he was specifically looking at. If he was looking at pancreatitis or gallstones his assessment would probably be different.

I prefer to be guided by independent studies.

https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/clinical/viral-weight-loss-drug-linked-to-pancreatitis

See that’s the bit I can’t understand. My diet on WLI is far more balanced, “sensible” and healthy than it was when I was losing weight naturally. The WLI’s role is just stopping me wanting other foods that are bad for me, or stopping me obsessing over every calorie that goes in my mouth. Much in the same way nicotine patches would work for a smoker I presume?

My exercise is the same both on mounjaro and on a natural weight loss journey.

I think this is a misconception that can only be cured by trying the WLI, which not everyone will do so may never understand.

Before I took them, I read about food noise & appetite suppression and thought that won’t affect me, I don’t eat because I’m hungry, I eat because I’m greedy and can’t stop myself. I thought if I took them, I’d just eat my way through the reduced appetite because I have such a reliance on food. But from a couple of hours in and the noise literally vanishing and me giving no more thought to food than I do to going to the toilet (go when I need to, leave when I’m finished), I realise now it really is true. And there must be people that have it and people that don’t because there is no way people like me who have it, are just ignoring it. It’s not like an mmm I really fancy cake today. It’s like what am I eating next, stock piling snacks and 2nd dinners for after the kids are in bed cos I know I won’t be able to leave the house and god forbid I’ve got nothing to nibble on. It’s waking up in the night and remembering I bought crisps that I haven’t eaten so trotting downstairs to get them at 3am. Things that seem literally insane to me now (and repulse me if I’m honest) but things I just couldn’t snap out of without help.

As with all medicines, it’s a matter of weighing up risks and benefits. Personally I’ll take an increased risk of pancreatitis and arthritis for a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer (and of course the ability to lose weight so that I feel myself again) but not everyone will feel the same.

https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/heart-matters-magazine/news/behind-the-headlines/weight-loss-injections

For me, the interesting thing is that you rarely see similar discussions about other kinds of medication. For example, how many people are on antidepressants just in the UK? Millions. Do they have side effects - sure, some severe. But you rarely see discussions how this is cheating, what happens if you stop taking them and how people should just make the effort and be happy naturally. What's the difference?

Yes exactly this! Years ago my husband took Champix to quit smoking, he actually became suicidal and was taken off it. There was never a consideration from anyone in our lives that it was cheating, it was just accepted he would need help to stop and everyone supported that.

With weight loss, it never really feels supported. People bring in cake at work for example and you get "oh just one piece is fine, can't live off salad" or whatever. I can't imagine the same reception with smoking or drugs...just one is fine, you can't live off no heroin!

I think that's the crux of it. People see obesity as a moral failing, rather than an illness.

Attitudes will change. It wasn't so long ago many people viewed depression similarly.

I think people still are a bit funny about mental illness and taking tablets for it. That's the only slight equivalent I can think of.

Alongside clean water, immunisation has saved more lives than any other intervention.