What opinion about WLI would you not normally admit to?

[LittleMissContrari]

Do you have an unpopular or unpalatable opinion?

Mine is that if you can't do the maths, you probably shouldn't be messing about with the dosage.

If only we all had your great insight and wisdom.

Well, quite, then you would all be less judgy

Yes, and this is why I think long term maintenance use needs to be stopped. People need to learn how to change their eating habits (me included). And the risks from the drug when you are at normal bmi are too big. I roll my eyes when people snarl at people with a bmi under 30 that want to take WLI, but also expect to stay on it themselves when they get to a bmi below 25.

Can you link to further info on skyrocketing waiting lists, and the issues with insurance pls.

The food noise you are describing is healthy. Since you're underweight it's your body telling you it needs fuel. Nothing to do with food noise- it's actually called natural hunger which is normal when you starve yourself.

That people who take WLI for a while lose all their weight and become evangelical about eating clean and tell everyone else they are doing it wrong and carbs are the devil are annoying.

That anyone who goes into the overweight category should be able to get WLI as a preventative measure.

The whole point of this thread is to be judgy and voice opinions you wouldn’t say in real life though 🤷🏻‍♀️

Hmm. Im 58 and am losing weight, very slowly on WLI despite eating between 800 and 1000 calories a day, with two days a week at 1200 to make sure im fuelling properly. I'm losing 1 to 2 lbs a week and I have a lot to lose. I intend to stay on a maintainance dose as it is impossible to stay on this amount of calories without drugs.

My unpopular opinions:

1. People taking breaks for holidays! It's a medication and not designed to stop and start willy nilly. If eating is the main focus of your holiday then you need to change your focus!
2. So many people messing about with doses, coming on and off it, lying to get a prescription - again, it's a medication and studies have not been done on the impact of abusing it. Follow the prescription guidance or, if not, at least fully understand it so that any deviance is risk assessed.
3. I believe it's a drug for life and will take it for as long as I'm able to.
4. I 100% support the stricter checks of online pharmacies to avoid mis-use.
5. Can't stand the discount code practice and think the medication should be priced the same across all pharmacies with "additional services" like support, needles, admin fees etc being what makes a difference. That way you can choose to go with a provider with more or less additional extras.
6. People who don't eat / eat very little just because they can. I don't get hungry on this medication but still make sure I eat a healthy diet and around 1500 calories. Yes, my weight loss is slower (ca 1lb per week) but I am using this time to adopt sustainable habits that will serve me if I reduce my dose in maintenance.

I could go on but will leave it there. 😊

My opinion, although I'm happy to admit to it, is that it is ludicrous that the starting and therapeutic dose is the same for men and women when we know that metabolically we are different and size wise women are on average significantly smaller. A 5ft women should never be starting on the same dose as a 6ft man.

But this is an issue that is pervasive across medicine historically, with a lack of clinical trials properly including women, if at all.

I'd love to see data on side effects, including severe side effects and fatalities and whether they are more common in women.

I started myself on 1.25mg and lost 16lb in the first 4 weeks, I'm now on week 5 and weight loss has slowed a bit, but appetite suppression and sugar aversion is still strong, so I'm holding off a little longer before increasing to 2.5mg.

@Gingercar
Despite what I've written, I don't think maintenance prescribing should be stopped, just closely monitored with, at the very least, proper weight verification by all online pharmacies (there's still plenty who don't do even the most rudimentary checks). I'm on this for life if possible, partly to maintain my weight loss but also for the other health benefits related to ageing.

I don’t think it should be available for “maintenance” once you reach a healthy BMI

I'd say this actually qualifies as a popular opinion, but only because too many people allow themselves very wishful thinking when it comes to obesity. Including some obese and formerly obese people.

Not only do people not need to change their eating habits, but we have absolutely zero basis to believe they will. That is not how human bodies work, especially not formerly obese ones. You're confusing should with is, and in this case its making you advocate for the more risky option.

It would be lovely if people just eating better was a realistic method to avoid widespread obesity in an environment of abundance. But it isn't.

This belief would suggest that you don't understand metabolic syndrome.

A lot of people are fat because of metabolic syndrome or have developed metabolic syndrome because they are fat.
It is metabolic syndrome that causes damage and early death not the "fat". Why do you want people to just yoyo back into that state of raised blood sugars, cholesterol, and blood pressure, surely it is better to reverse it and maintain that, or to prevent people reaching that state in the first place?

I have every intention of staying on mounjaro for ever, as i have an endocrine condition that causes metabolic syndrome (with or without weight gain).

Not everyone is taking mounjaro for the aesthetic benefit!

People who are taking it and making no changes are wasting their time and money. People still in the 'cheat day' mindset and have terms like 'back on it tomorrow' after a week long blowout are really missing the opportunities Mounjaro gives them.

But my strongest opinions though are reserved for the concern trolls frankly.

A lot of these opinions (no maintenance, no use by non obese people) are based on WLI having more risks than benefits once you are not obese. But has that actually been shown? It doesn’t seem likely given all the anti-cancer and cardiovascular benefits.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6p24dlx36no

https://www.independent.co.uk/health-and-wellbeing/weight-loss-jab-cancer-mounjaro-b2748823.html

@PutThe
'I'd say this actually qualifies as a popular opinion, but only because too many people allow themselves very wishful thinking when it comes to obesity. Including some obese and formerly obese people.'

Absolutely. My unpopular opinion is that a huge proportion of people who have lost weight on WLI, and stopped taking it, will go on to regain most of their weight within a year or two - not because they haven't 'changed their eating habits' (although many won't have or will be thoroughly miserable on a permanent restrictive diet) but due to... biology. Plenty of people claim they're keeping the weight off a month or two after coming off - come back in 2 years time and tell us how it's going.

A lot of these opinions (no maintenance, no use by non obese people) are based on WLI having more risks than benefits once you are not obese. But has that actually been shown? It doesn’t seem likely given all the anti-cancer and cardiovascular benefits

I am sure that if the WLI manufacturers could show the risks are outweighed by the benefits in non obese people, they’d shout it from the rooftops, as they would love to widen their market. I imagine they are working on proving this but the evidence is not there yet - if it ever will be.

I didnt even know that qualified as unpopular haha. It's just an unfortunate fact of life that formerly obese bodies want to become obese again. Biology is a dickhead.

And I think people who are against maintenance prescribing often don't get this. The two options we're choosing between are, broadly, maintenence so people can stay normal BMI or no maintenance and they'll become obese again. There's room for discussion on how maintenance prescribing should be managed, of course, but it needs to come with the understanding that the majority staying normal BMI without ongoing MJ is not one of the options.

I think the poster you quote is talking about formerly obese people, rather than people of the same BMI who've never been obese? There's a difference between someone with a 23 BMI who's always had that and someone with a 23 BMI who used to be 33 and required WLIs to get there. The risk and benefit profile is different even if the weight, height and BMI are exactly the same. Hence the former qualify for WLI prescription already.

To be fair, there are any number of threads wanting to hear from users of eg sertraline and other prescription drugs.

Mine is that I just can’t believe this drugs actually work like everyone says they do 😂
Ive been overweight my entire adult life and done every diet, workout etc etc and nothing has ever made me lose more that say 10lbs.
I’m going to start soon but I’m so sceptical, I cannot imagine actually losing the three stone I’ve struggled with my whole life, it seems impossible and I wonder whether there are more failures/negative stories than what we hear about.

Mine is that am disappointed with my weightloss even its amazing (i've lost 5 stone over a year and I lost more than the average shown on studies) because every bugger on here seems.to be losing 10-14lbs a month and dropped 5 stone between Jan -May while it took me over a year as I was losing 3-7lbs
pw.

I've also stalled a 1st overweight and am bitter about it even though I could just go up to 12.5

I think we hear (or pay attention to) the big losses, especially big early losses. But as an ex-skeptic it does work. I’m about 20 stubborn pounds down since March.

To me, 5 stone in a year is fast. I'm currently averaging at just below 1lb per week (0.9lbs / pw) and have been on it for 10 months. Slow and steady is not necessarily a bad thing. 😊