WLI - what do they actually do?

[Ilovemyshed]

I see various posts about these and hear they are effective. Then i see people are then exercising more and being careful what they eat WHILE on the injections.

Surely that’s how you lose the weight, so what do the injections do?

Hmm. WLI make it possible to stick to a calorie deficit, and then to exercise as well, because they make you feel fuller for longer and feel full more quickly. They also work to stabilise your blood sugars so you don’t feel ravenously hungry whilst on a low cal diet.

If I could have managed to stick to a calorie deficit diet for a year or more, as I have done with Mounjaro, then I would have. But I couldn’t manage that on my own.

On a calorie controlled diet, I would have breakfast (Greek yogurt, raspberries, chia and pumpkin seeds). Than an hour later would start being hungry, and thinking about food.

I used to constantly think about food, what I was going to eat, what I should eat, what I could get away with eating.

Now I eat u til I’m full, and I’m much more aware of when that is. And I’m not hungry again until the next meal time. It has switched off the food noise that used to make me search for snacks.

Yes ultimately it's the reduction in food intake which makes the difference.

People aren't overweight because they don't know this fact though, they are overweight because they are driven to emotionally eat, are addicted to sugar, or they are insulin resistant or any other number of other physiological and mental reasons. We know 'how' to lose weight but our body fights us doing so.

For example. The only way I can successfully lose weight is to eat one or one and a half meals per day. Very healthy meals too. Mostly vegetables, low carb, no processed, scratch cooking. I eat a single square of dark chocolate in the evening, I only drink, tea, coffee and water.

Doing this I can lose 2-6lb per month but it's really an exercise in endurance and suffering and stalls and headaches and feeling sluggish, but nothing else works, I've tried everything. With all the above it's so easy for your mind to play tricks on you and make you fall off the wagon.

Mj made it soooo much easier. The times I fell off the wagon were fewer, the binge eating lasted a few mouthfuls before I physically couldn't/didn't want more. The physical pleasure and relief of eating was absent so there was less incentive to fall off anyway.

I'm also convinced that there is something in mj that makes the body give up the fat faster too as there were no stalls or slowing down as there would be usually.

Unfortunately I had to stop taking it as I started getting an allergic reaction after each injection so I'm back on my slow path but I have no regrets.

OP, I started WLIs a year ago at age 40. I had thirty years of dieting experience behind me (yes, I started dieting aged 10).

In those thirty years, do you think I never tried eating healthier and taking exercise? I tried EVERYTHING. From skipping meals (now called intermittent fasting, but in my teens it was just not eating all day and pretending I wasn't lightheaded and dizzy), to Slimming World, Weightwatchers, getting a personal trainer, low calorie, low carb, Herbalife, shakes, the Fast 800, all sorts of fad diets and so-called 'lifestyle changes' and habit resets. I've had gym membership and various personal trainers since I was 16.

I had a BMI of just under 42 last June. I started taking Mounjaro and I've lost over five stone in a year. My BMI is 29.

In that year, I have continued with the personal trainer I signed up with two years ago so yes I have been exercising but I already had been. I have eaten very healthily on the jabs, but I have also tried healthy eating (and not so healthy restriction and bonkers regimes) many, many times before.

The jabs have made the impossible possible. It wasn't for want of trying. I tried so hard all my life to lose weight and keep it off. Nothing has ever worked the way the jabs have, and the more diets I did, the less they worked. Yes, I have lost weight countless times in my life before regaining plus extra, but it has never been so straightforward and consistent and effective as the jabs. It felt like Mounjaro turned a dial and set my body onto 'normal'. I can't really explain it any better than that.

The injections increase the amount of insulin you produce in response to excess sugar, and also make you more sensitive to the insulin that you are producing so it can more effectively break down the glucose. This prevents excess blood sugar levels which cause feelings of hunger, sugar crashes and also reduces the amount of excess sugar being converted to fat.

in addition it slows your digestion so you feel fuller for longer.

It's a modified version of the peptide that tells you that you are full up. In humans, this peptide usually breaks down very quickly after eating, but this modified peptide (derived from a lizard version!) doesn't break down as quickly, so you stay feeling fuller for a lot longer.

There's other stuff, but that's the core of it. Imagine you ate a banana and felt like you'd just had Christmas dinner. You wouldn't eat two.

It makes you fuller, takes away food noise so you stop thinking of food all the time or immediately what your next meal will be, reduces cravings for unhealthy food like carbs and junk, reduces systemic inflammation so great for bloating, water retention, metabolic conditions and aching joints and muscles, research has shown it has proven reductions in cancer amd heart disease, it also helps with insulin sensitivity as mentioned above and increases metabolism.

As someone who is 43, perimenopausal and was prediabetic and tried a strict tracked diet for months and did HIIT workouts 4-5 times a week for 6weeks as well as 11hr work days 5 days a week and only lost 5lbs in that time, its been a life saver as I've now lost over 3 stones in 9 months and gone from bmi 32.4 to 24.9, through diet alone. It's resolved my ibs and unstable blood sugar symptoms of feeling faint, dizzy, shaking hands, mood swings if I didn't eat every 3-4 hrs.

Are you looking to start, OP?

Some people find it very hard to 'just eat less'. I do. I have been controlling my food intake since I was in early teens - generally successfully, but with a lot of yoyoing. Because I think about food ALL the time. I fall asleep thinking about what I can eat tomorrow, I wake up planning what I can eat not to gain. Can you imagine living like that? It's exhausting. And if I want to lose weight, it is extremely hard to restrict my food intake even further, it's like telling an alcoholic to stick to one drink only.
But with the drug, I can. I still control what I eat, but now it's manageable and not pure misery. Like 'just eating less' would be for normal people.

It makes me not think about food at all and when I’m eating I get full up much faster so eat smaller portions. I eat a meal then don’t give food another thought until it’s time for the next one. I go by the clock rather than me day dreaming about what I fancy to eat next.

Certainly not.

The information about how it works is accessible online, but here is my personal experience (have been on WLI for 7 months and lost 5 stone):

Without WLI:
I eat a healthy portion of a healthy meal, then start feeling stomach-rumblingly hungry and irritable 3 hours later. I end up with two choices:

• Either I eat five times a day (no calorie deficit, no weight loss)
• Or I try to exert willpower and endure being hangry for half my waking hours (unsustainable, and causes me to make poor food choices because food is all I can think about).

With WLI:
I eat a healthy portion of a healthy meal, then I don't feel hungry or think about food until it's nearly time for the next meal. By that point I've developed an appetite, but I haven't spent the last two hours hangry and irritable, so I'm able to choose healthy options.
This cycle repeats and I start to trust that I won't spend half the day hungry, so I stop the just-in-case eating (for those who've never done this, it's eating when you aren't hungry to prevent feeling hungry later e.g. before going out).
I'm no longer craving high-sugar UPF, so I don't eat them, so I crave them less (positive cycle).
Even before any weight has come off, the medication has reduced my joint pain and increased my exercise tolerance, so I'm able to exercise more.

Thank you for clarifying that for us.

Ah, so what was your intent in starting this thread?

I'd say judgment.

Another who thinks 'oh just eat less' As if we haven't been trying that for the past 30 years. Yawn.

@Ilovemyshedwhy the “certainly” not? We don’t know if you’re obese or not, or what your personal attitude is to WLI are if you are obese.

We get a fair amount of drive by judgement in this section.

Who are you writing for?

The OP has either come here to look down on fat people with no self-control, or perhaps gullible fools for trusting the pharmaceutical industry. Not like her of course. Not going to go down well in this section!

Personally I did feel a bit nervous about beginning Mounjaro, but I am delighted with the help it gives me. I think it's very beneficial to many people and I only wish it had been available years ago.

I’m curious to understand why people feel the need. When weighed up against the risk of pancreatitis and kidney disease, especially if your risk factors are high, it feels like snake oil to me. I know its fashionable, but so have many things been in the past and proved to be not so great.

No judgement on those that choose to take the option, I hope it doesn’t turn out to cause issues down the line.

There have been many gullible fools who have trusted the pharma industry in the past (thalidomide anyone?). This may or may not be one of those, I just didn’t understand why so many people would risk it when there are other, albeit harder, options.

I am slightly overweight. I have lost 5 stone by traditional eat less move more methods over 2 years.

It’s time for bingo!

It's funny how people were far less worried about my health when I was obese than they are now I've lost weight supported by wlis. I'm sure you'll mourn my untimely demise due to the expensive death jabs far more if it was from the heart disease, cancer or diabetes that I was at far greater risk of 9 months ago. You'll be delighted to know that I've just had very mild side effects and so far am alive, kicking and have the confidence to wear shorts in this heatwave for the first time in over a decade.

'No judgement' but parroting scaremongering headlines and then calling it snake oil. OK. 😅 I'd hate to see what judgement looks like to you.

And you've said the magic words, ELMM and talked of doing it the harder way so you're firmly on the superiority bingo card.

Well bully for you!