Has anyone started WL injections with a ‘normal’ BMI?

[Kettlewithyourmetal]

Just that really

my BMI has always been around 22-24 but it’s been a lifelong battle of eating vigilance and massive efforts of daily exercise.

Since my 50s it’s just such a huge effort to fight to slow drift into weight gain and I’m not winning.

Im exhausted by it and honestly would love to shut out the food noise and just be able to eat small portions with satiety and not constant mental restriction.

I don’t think this would meet the current prescribing guidelines but I feel like I would hugely benefit mentally. I would love to see if a few months of shutting out the relentless appetite and 24:7 battle against the drive to eat would reset me a bit.

I could easily lose a stone and not look underweight or suffer from it so if that happened too it wouldn’t matter iyswim.

Has anyone started WLI for this reason and how did you access it/ how did you get on?

I wouldn’t be surprised if in the future there may be some type of GLP drug that may be available as a preventative drug, that you take to prevent you becoming obese.
There is a very interesting Zoe podcast that talk about WLI and the pros and cons, I think the main issue is no proper trials have been done on people with a healthy BMI so at the moment they aren’t approved for such use.
However I’m certainly seeing a rise in people who seem under the BMI criteria talking about taking them.
I do get why people question the whole maintenance issue, I’m in maintenance with a BMI of 22, I have no desire to come off the jabs yet as I don’t want to put the weight back on, so I intend to make sure I can maintain at this weight for at least a year, I’ve read to much about your body trying to get you back to your previous weight, so I will I do not intend to risk coming off just yet.
I started with. BMI of 32 but haven’t had a life of yo yo diets, I just slowly gained weight over about 15 years, not helped by menopause, just kept on upping my clothes size, I was miserable but didn’t really think of myself as obese, it wasn’t till I got hormone (HRT) help that my doctor said I should try to reduce my BMI.
I suppose clinically speaking I was obese but that wasn’t something I identified with, but it allowed me to legitimately purchase the drug.

I did OP, I went on at 24.9bmi, I just shoved a pillow down my Tshirt and took a particularly unflattering picture.

I am now BMI 20 and feel fine. I diet every spring so nothing new there, just this time it was much easier and I didn’t feel hungry. I still exercised, prioritised protein and ate sensibly.

I think that people are thinking about GLP-1 family medications the wrong way.
They are metabolic reset medications which have a common side effect of weight loss, because whilst on the medication the patient experiences satiety, hunger, cravings, dopamine response differently (actually: normally) due to better management of metabolic disorders.

Diabetes and pre-diabetes, PCOS, sleep apnea, insulin response, hypothyroidism, chronic obesity (which can be caused by multiple factors including post natal/pre-menopausal/peri/menopausal hormone levels, well as trauma, genetics, family history, living in an obsesogenic environment are all conditions that respond well to GLP-1 family meds.

There are also encouraging signs that these drugs help with other dopamine/reward seeking behaviours such as excessive alcohol use, vaping, gambling, doom scrolling, online shopping etc.

Much is written about side effects but many users have minimal/easily manageable side effects and say these meds are “life changing”.

Many people who are on them have struggled for years - decades - trying to manage their weight. I have read stories of people who tracked every bite, tried fasting, keto, weight watchers, slimming world, extreme exercise, gastric surgery, have lost weight over and over and then out it back on. They describe getting hundreds of messages from their body daily telling them to eat, headaches, nausea, shaking, waking up at night, insomnia, mental health problems compounded by the endless 24/7 war with their bodies signals. Meanwhile their partners or friends eat more, move less, and do not put on weight nor are they tormented by hunger.

We are at the very beginning of understanding what these meds can do (and they have been around for over fifteen years).

I hope that people will be soon be able to access them safely and easily to manage pre-obesity and exhausting “food noise” and hunger, as well as for pre-diabetes, PCOS, addiction and other health problems.

And I hope the judgement about them fades, just as it has for people using nicotine patches or statins or any other medical intervention that they need, because nobody should have to live on the hamster wheel of relentlessly fighting with their body, I mean, what a sad wash to live when they desperately want to just get on and live a healthy life.

OP just do it, I have and it's been a game changer, I won't expand because my post got deleted yesterday, I am in the best shape I've ever been mentally and physically, without getting obese in the first place, I got told I was pushing you into an eating disorder for wanting to maintain a healthy weight, like I am doing by micro dosing, I presume thats what you are proposing rather than losing weight? There's plenty of info out there, but mn becomes hysterical over this subject, your argument stacks up, and I'm the proof, that several months in I'm doing fantastic,thanks,this planet I'm on is just great.

‘Worthy’.

What the fuck.

For her, last time I spoke to her about it, she was on 5mg and taking something like 20 clicks every 4 or 5 days or something.

i have another friend who went on Wegovy right at the start who jabs every 2 weeks. She’s been looking amazing for 18 months now. Just knows she can’t ever go back to food noise having dieted so much through her life.

You need to justify this. When people reach their target weight, how are they allowed to stay on a maintenance dose. Why is it not dangerous for them? If it’s not, then there is your answer.

I’m kind of with you OP. The licensing reason is that these drugs come with side effects and risks, and the benefits do not outweigh the risks at lower BMIs. Plus of course the risk of feeding into eating disorders and unhealthily low BMI. I get that. But as more data comes in about the risks and benefits long term I do hope they are considered from a mental health perspective as well as pure physical.

I started taking them at a BMI of 31, which I reached after cancer treatment and medical menopause. I’ve struggled lifelong to control my weight and managed up to that point, but it’s never been easy. I fully intend to make sure I stay on my pharmacy books as a maintenance patient so that I can use a low dose long term. For me it’s been a complete game changer in terms of helping me to stick to a healthy diet, has massively reduced the cravings for alcohol and chocolate (I’ve gone from drinking almost every day to once or twice a week, and when I do drink it’s 2 or 3 glasses and not a bottle), and has taken so much of the emotional negativity out of eating. I enjoy a meal out so much more now knowing I can eat what I enjoy and then stop, rather than alternating between looking for the highest calories to fill me up or the lowest calories to be “good”. I’m not convinced that reaching a magic number on a very scientifically flawed BMI scale is what differentiates someone who can benefit or not.

Layering up? In medexpress you need to be in underwear or bikini for the pictures.

Well the regulators are starting to tighten the screws with pharmacies in respect to WLIs.

Apparently a number of uk pharmacies have been supplying people outside of the uk so they benefit from lower prices - this has annoyed the regulators and pissed off Eli Lilly.

No wonder a crack down is now in progress with checks being made.

WLI prescriptions are like a pharma version of the Wild West.

I'm now officially not overweight and on the full monty 15mg to try to get down to BMI 23 and have some breathing space. I started legitimately on BMI 29 with PCOS and Superdrug have my current accurate weight and height so it's all above board. My GP is very pleased with my progress. I'm sure some people do knock a couple of inches off their height etc but I wouldn't recommend it.

Someone already has. It’s to do with the way after being obese your body can continue to be bad at insulin and hormone release around satiety.

And it’s also about clinical trials. We just don’t have the data for normal BMI (rather than formally obese). I’m sure they are doing trials or will if they can get approval.

Most providers are much stricter now. You wouldn’t get away with layers etc. a lot make you do live weigh ins and height checks.

I sincerely hope not! Good grief.

Interesting. My friend who has had type 2 diabetes has been on MJ courtesy of the NHS. She has done really well and lost enough to reverse her diabetes. But they allowed her to go back on it as she was struggling with maintaining her weight.

Well people got away with a lot by trimming off inches and adding a few pounds which is why the regulator is playing catch up. Once the current ‘pendemic’ is over and all pharmacies have their knuckles wrapped for supplying too many pens to current and new customers, tighter prescribing checks will be on the cards no doubt

This. Don’t take unnecessary medication.

I can see why it is tempting. I started my diet with a BMI of 29.9 and possibly rather stupidly didn’t try to get WLI’s, just went for it with intermittent fasting and although it’s been hard, the weight has come off and my BMI is now 21.6 and the money I would have spent on injections went on gym membership.

I feel like it would be easier if ‘food noise’ was reduced but then I remember I hate taking medications so I guess I am grateful I’ve been able to do it without. I have been overweight most of my adult life and haven’t been this slim for at least a decade since I had to stop running.

I think if I’d had to pay for injections I might have struggled to afford my gym membership which has transformed my health and body shape so that’s another win.

It will be interesting to see how things develop over the next few years.

Most places say tight fitting clothing so it would be easy to pad out leggings and a long sleeved top

No you don't. I'm with MedExpress and they've never asked me for a photo in underwear/bikini. Fortunately for them 🙈

They did to me, maybe they are stricter now or because of my height/weight no idea.

Yeah maybe it depends on your BMI. They probably took one look at me fully clothed and thought "Christ don't ask her for an underwear shot!" 😂

I had one supplier, I think it was Zava, ask for a photograph in tight fitting clothes but exposing my stomach - presumably to work out who had a cushion down their pants 😀

Yes, I’ve done it. Lost about two stone, about one pound a week, I’m at ‘goal’ which is a size ten/twelve. I’m planning to stay on maintaining dose forever at the moment. The weightloss isn’t the main effect for me, it’s the mental relief after a lifetime of yo-yo dieting. For the first time in my life I am free of the burden of food/eating/not eating being the most important message in my brain. I have ADHD (medicated) and with this drug on-top of my usual meds I can finally concentrate at work and other things in my life. I believe this drug (or its descendants) will be licensed for ADHD/addiction. I’ve never had an eating disorder but trying to keep my weight stable has been a lifetime of work and I’m tired. I’m gutted about the price increase, but I’d give up pretty much every other discretionary spend in my life to be able to have a stable healthy weight. My BMI is about 22 I think, I don’t actually weigh myself very often, because if I had the choice (which thanks to the jab I now do) I’d never weigh myself again or feel shit about numbers on a scale or the size label in a dress. I just want to never think about dieting ever again. I’m done. If that makes some of you angry, I don’t care, you have no idea how it feels.

This is exactly the kind of info someone who is anorexic would be looking for. Probably best not to go down that road. If you have a normal BMI you shouldn’t be on WLIs. They aren’t sweets FFS. They come with side effects including some serious ones like acute pancreatitis, gallbladder disease and kidney complications.

Maybe it depends how you look. I reordered from them recently and they accepted a photo in leggings and a t-shirt. But there is no denying I'm overweight in them unfortunately.