More benefits revealed

[AmythestBangle]

Esp for those people who say oh, they dont know the long term effects of these drugs yet. Yes "they" do.

www.theguardian.com/society/2025/aug/31/weight-loss-drugs-can-halve-heart-patients-risk-of-early-death-study-finds?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Wow.

Fantastic, yet another reason to try and stay on it long term I guess.

Thanks op, I hadn’t seen that though my doctor did say the results were very good.

its hard to explain to people who have never tried the drugs, but the only way I can describe it is I feel like I found the elixir of youth, (I’m mid 50s) , everything just works better and I’m so much healthier, my blood test results are testamount to it, and it’s clearly not just weight related, there was a noticeable difference in my inflammation and my stomach started to shrink back, within days, I never had an apron belly, more it was like I had a beach ball up my top and looked heavily pregnant, literally I had lost about 3 or 4 lbs and everyone started commenting I looked like I’d lost weight, it was unbelievable.

I used to also not be able to fully kneel down, and rest my backside on my heels , I could do it within a a couple of weeks, much to my astonishment, and my ankles worked in the morning,

this is just a synthetic peptide we produce naturally, and clearly having a bit more of it, makes a huge difference to us, as said, for me, it feels like the elixir of youth, and I think that’s because our own production of glp 1 reduces as we age, it also reduces with obesity and other issues like gut health, so if your glp 1 secretions are reduced and you boost that back up, it fixes all those metabolic disorders we develop as the years go on, which in turn has multiple knock on health benefits.

So the key to a long healthier life is to become obese so you can qualify for WLD, and remain on them for life?

do you think they’ll be prescribed at lower weights at any point?

I lost three stone “naturally” to take me from obese to the upper “overweight” limit. I can’t lose any more and am still 3 stone overweight. Only now I am not overweight enough to qualify for wld.

the more I hear about the positives the more tempted I am to gain that 2-3 st back so I qualify. I’d also get my life back as it currently a cycle of thinking about food, planning food, and guilt at not being down the gym every spare second. I’m 50, I don’t want to live out my remaining years this miserable over food and weight.

@Mustbethat I think the time will come when they are more widely available, yes. For example to people with a strong family/personal history of cardiovascular disease, even if not obese/overweight. I think that is a way off though. There are so many factors related to these drugs and not all of them scientific. It's a bit analogous to alcohol and drugs. Alcohol is much more dangerous than illicit drugs and yet it is freely available and they are not, that is because of feelings/culture, not science. Restricting/denigrating/wilfully misunderstanding WLIs is related to the culture of simultaneous fat phobia and blame/shame around food and weight.

I know what you mean about considering getting fatter so you qualify! I only just qualified when I started, and now my BMI is 21 and I intend to keep it that way. Like @Wildfairy I feel like a different person in terms of general health, mobility, flexibility etc etc. I am (atm at least) being allowed to carry on with MJ at a 2.5mg dose, and my provider has not yet said anything about stopping. I find myself feeling thankful that I have (had?) hypertension, or I would not have qualified at my starting weight. Which is a rather f-ed up way to think about things.

If you are still 3 stone overweight you should qualify, with a BMI of 27, and then find a medical condition you can claim to have… perhaps you can tick the pcos box or some of them even allow for peri menopause / menopause if you look around.

i took recently with a BMI of 27 (72kg) and by 65kg my BMI was normal. So only just over one stone overweight. I have PCOS high and high cholesterol.

The article is quite clear they are now looking at the dosage to prescribe for patients in heart failure or risk of it, and the benefit is not due to weight loss, but you’re right, at the moment you need to be obese or diabetic to qualify. However I also agree with the op that I think over the next 5 years the landscape for these drugs will change hugely, as will the criteria for the nhs, particularly with wegovy active ingredient coming out of trademark and 8 new drugs in final trials,

edit to add are yoy sure you don’t qualify if you’re 3 stone over weight? What’s your height and weight?

If you are ethnic minority or have a qualifying health condition, you can get it prescribed at bmi 27 and above. Don't know if this helps you?

It is still hard work to lose, though the food noise is taken away, everyone reacts differently so some don't get the appetite suppression at all and for some like myself, I was prediabetic so really needed above 10mg to lose weight easier and for my blood sugar symptoms to be resolved and food cravings to settle which was 6 months in for me so it was expensive and a long time to get to that point, before then it was all very low calories and strict food tracking, which resulted in hair loss and having very little energy to do anything really, my house was a mess and I wasn't getting any chores done because I was cold and tired all the time. I've now been on it 11 months and finally got to bmi 24.0 after starting at 32.4, as an ethnic minority my obese bmi is 27 and normal is 23 so I'm not even at that yet!

Yes I was 2,5 stone technically overweight and I think my bmi was 32 at the time, 3 stone over weight and not qualifying is very unusual

My BMI was only exactly 27 and TBH that was after a massive carby meal and a litre of water before the weight in 😱😀 so needless I say I lost a lot in the first week.

i ticked the PCOS box as I was previously diagnosed in my 20s when TTC and no periods but other than that no other symptoms. As it happened the company I used did blood tests and my cholesterol was borderline high. Either way I was never asked for evidence of the PCOS and as it was diagnosed privately it doesn’t seem to be on my nhs medical records.

if you are 3 stone overweight I’d work out what a BMI of 30 is and say you are that, can’t see it’s far off. Or say you have PCOS. They will ask for a photo, take it after you drank 2 litres of water so stomach distended.

@Mustbethat , also to regain 3 stone you’d then be six stone overweight, you dint need that much to qualify, for most people, women particularly, 2-3 stone over weight takes them into the obese category, as said if you give your height and weight we can help, or you can use a bmi calculator on line.its 30 with no health conditions, or 27 with health conditions, which can be menopause, history of diabetes or cardio vascular disease in family, high blood pressure, sleep apnea etc, for genuinely overweight people these drugs are available, we don’t need to be clsss 3 obese or something, that’d for the nhs.

@Mustbethat do you know your cholesterol? If not ask the GP to check it. A high cholesterol and BMI of 27 should enable you to qualify.

When people here talk bout qualifying do you mean for nhs?

Must be privately. My friend weighs 150kg - ie she needs to lose 80kg and doesn’t qualify on nhs as she only has 2 of the 5 health conditions needed.

She is pre diabetic witn PCOS but that doesn’t count as not actually diabetic.

I'd advise any overweight person to get their blood pressure and cholesterol checked. Its worth knowing anyway, but also it potentially qualifies you at 27 BMI.

And yes, qualified for a private prescription rather than NHS.

No, well not most of us, mean private, s nearly everyone is prescribed privately. And all of us responding to the poster who thinks they need to be 6 stone over weight, are talking about private prescription.

for the nhs it is for diabetics or people with a bmi over 40 and 4 of five health conditions due to weight, so it’s a tiny percentage of the population eligible. Evenif the poster got to six stone over weight, unless she also developed 4 of these five issues..high blood pressure, heart disease, high cholesterol , diabetes and sleep apnea, the nhs would still not prescribe it.

however it is available via private prescition if you meet the criteria set by the mhra, who decides what the criteria for prescriptions should be, which is 30 bmi with no health conditions, or 27 with any. The nhs simply does not prescribe to the mhra ( medical health regulatory authority) guidelines as they’ve no money,

It's possible to get a private prescription at a lot less than BMI 27 - I did but it was via an appointment with a private consultant and I have to phone every month to ask for the repeat so not quite the same as the usual.

Yes - I headd about this, but I figured it would be more expensive, so it was easier for me with a BMI of 26.5 to gain 2kg, which is pretty easy, I had to stand on the scales during an online consultation.

The very stupid thing is once you qualified for
WLI even for a day, you can use one of the maintenance pharmacies even with a BMI of 21.

Presumably though, once you have used one of these doctors, you can then try and use a maintainance online pharmacy as you have a prescription trail.

That’s really interesting, thanks for sharing the article! I think the conversation around weight loss drugs is always a bit tricky – yes, studies show benefits, but a lot of people still worry about side effects and the long-term picture. Personally, I’ve found that looking into lifestyle changes alongside all this news has been really eye-opening.
For example, I recently came across this breakdown on lizzo weight loss and how focusing on more natural, sustainable habits can actually help in the long run. It’s a completely different angle compared to the medical route, but still super relevant when we’re talking about health outcomes.
I guess the takeaway is: it’s great that there’s progress in medicine, but it’s also empowering to know there are other ways to support our health too.

WLI are not instead of lifestyle measures, they can support/supplement/kickstart the lifestyle measures. Even Lizzo used WLI for a while.