Can using weight loss injections be kept private from family?

[Darkcafedays]

After a fair amount of thought/research,I’ve decided to start on WLIs. I don’t have masses to lose - but it’s creeping up, and I also have high blood pressure.

My question is - I would like to keep this private from my DH and two teenage kids! Is this possible? I generally eat less than them anyway at meals - but do most people find they can barely manage to eat at all?!

A friend of mine was on them and she couldn’t manage more than a few bites of anything at a time.

I am alone working from home during the day so that’s fine, but hoping for our evening family meal I’d be able to eat a small healthy portion? How did others find it?

Well you'll lose a stone in month easily,I did,so likely you'll only need one pen ,no one will notice or care,just get on with it.

I could still eat decent portions until my dose was too high. Noone would have been able to tell i was on MJ due to my food. I did tell my DH though, i don't keep secrets from him, and if i had side effects i wanted him to know why. I didnt have any side effects (been on MJ since Feb 25) but when i was rushed to hospital last year i was glad my DH was able to explain what meds i was on because i was too ill to say.

I only told DH because he is so bloody nosy he would have sussed me out. Other than that it’s a topic I discuss on Mumsnet only. It’s my decision and my business.

I think the medical risks need to be considered proportionately. Not telling your DH doesn’t make any more or less likely that you will experience side effects, and fortunately, serious side effects are very rare. If you needed medical help, you would presumably be responsible enough to tell the professionals at the time. In the knocked over by a bus and unconscious scenario, WLI would be irrelevant to your emergency treatment. Any required medication & fluids would be given intravenously or via a non-oral route, so wouldn’t be affected by delayed gastric emptying.

My only advice would be to do it safely and steadily rather than race up the doses to lose weight quickly. You are more likely to avoid the worst side effects and keep the weight off afterwards if you eat a healthy diet at no less than 500 calories under your TDEE. Gallstones for example, are generally a side effect of rapid weightloss, rather than WLI themselves.

Oh and the results are brilliant!

It is a personal decision re medical emergencies, I don't have any other health conditions and I'm only going to be using them at a low dose for a short time, appreciate would be different for others.
Though, in all honesty, I can't imagine my DH would be able to tell a medic much about my medical history if the worst happened this afternoon, jabs or no jabs!

And yes as @HereIGoOnceMore the most serious side effects are side effects of rapid weight loss not WLI specifically. People who are morbidly obese have the potential to lose a large amount of weight each week and that does come with risks, though for them of course those risks are balanced against obesity related health conditions. The same issues can be seen eg when people are put on VLCD prior to surgery.

If you can barely eat you’re on too high a dose or it doesn’t work for you. You should be able to eat healthy means, in recommended portion sizes, get hungry for meals, and have no desire to snack.

of course you can keep it secret if you’ve someplace to hide it, it’s a shame your home life is such you need to,

Thanks for all the responses. I am considering starting on the lowest dose of wegovy. Also keen on the effect it has on turning people off alcohol - I have little willpower around wine (and the associated snacking that comes with it) - definitely looking forward to a break from the booze!

@Wickedlittledancer - yes I think my friend was a bit too extreme on it. She lost so much weight very quickly and her hair fell out too. Definitely aiming for slow and steady….

@Faroutin - that’s the kind of story I want to hear! 😂

Will you be keeping your blood pressure tablets secret too?

You either believe that WLI are indicated, evidenced and a balanced risk or you don't, in which case don't take them.

Own your decision and don't be ashamed.

I talk completely openly about take mounjaro and have had far far more positive responses than the one or two negative ones, and have even had a couple of people thank me for being so open about it. My new partner started on them after meeting me, he'd wanted to for ages but is needle phobic and has limited medical knowledge and just needed a handhold, he's lost a stone in the first month, all because i talked about it like it's the most normal and acceptable thing in the world.

@Periperi2025 - well I can own my decision to keep it private too, can’t I? We’re all different. It’s my body and my business.

Of course you can, but do you?
Do you hide all your other medication/ medical conditions from your immediate family. If you do then this is just a practical question of hiding/ storing medical equipment, if you don't, then this is more about considering something about WLI shameful, and please don't do that.

I'm a secret jabber (mainly because I feel embarrassed that I haven't been successful without the jabs... I know, I know).

Btw @Darkcafedays I love your username! Blue is one of my all-time favourite albums.

Of course, but it’s from your own immediate family. Which makes me think you’re in a bad marriage where you’d feel a lot of judgment, or your family really can’t afford them, so want to hide it,

@Periperi2025 - tbh, I don’t discuss my BP meds with my teens, no. My BP has been on the high side even when I wasn’t at all overweight- it’s actually genetic (both parents had heart conditions), and I wouldn’t want to worry them that I could also die young from a heart attack like their granny did! It’s not secret, but it’s not something I feel the need to openly discuss.

DH knows re BP meds, but equally it’s not like we sit around chatting about it. On this, I just don’t need the discussion about how he thinks I don’t need to lose weight and ‘you’re perfect as you are’ etc. It’s very nice of him, but I don’t really want/need the input!

@Wickedlittledancer - definitely not the case. Happy supportive marriage, but we don’t need to discuss all personal decisions at length. I can afford it but I think DH would view it as slightly frivolous spending from my personal savings, just as I might view a football season ticket as ‘unnecessary’ from his!

I don't think I've ever told my DH what medications I take, other than letting him know if there's something he needs to be aware of for a specific reason, eg if I've changed contraception. It isn't necessarily a sign of anything, and certainly not something anyone else could tell from a few internet posts.

Wow, it's hardly frivolous to spend on reducing you cardiac risk factors when you have a strong family history like you do.
So if you don't want to tell your DH fine, but you do need to reframe your opinions of WLI and the importance of your health.
Stop feeling ashamed about it.

You'd be surprised how little notice people notice other's eating habits. Anyway - it's your private medical business so up to you who you tell.

I didn't confess to DH until 6 months I to using WLI. I hid mine in the veg draw of the fridge.

You'd be surprised how little notice people notice other's eating habits. Anyway - it's your private medical business so up to you who you tell.

I didn't confess to DH until 6 months I to using WLI. I hid mine in the veg draw of the fridge.

You'd be surprised how little notice people notice other's eating habits. Anyway - it's your private medical business so up to you who you tell.

I didn't confess to DH until 6 months I to using WLI. I hid mine in the veg draw of the fridge.

Sorry about the triple post - phone network kept cutting out.

And this is where it gets interesting. I am approaching my first anniversary, hit my goal weight in January and have maintained on a low dose ever since. I’d planned to stop over the summer and see how I got on without the support. And then they went and did some research that found they are cardioprotective, which is great, but leaves me with a dilemma. Do I consider my family history and previously raised cholesterol to stay on a low dose long term, but at the cost of £ hundreds each year, or save the money and try without.

If you managed to lose weight and reduce your BP medication, do you think you’d also want to keep going? I only ask because it wasn’t something I had considered before starting, but my reasons for taking WLI were always about my health rather than just vanity.

I've been on it for a couple of years and have lost almost 5 stone. For the last year my weight has been stable at about 70 kg. I take half doses every three weeks now as it stops me wanting to have a drink and stops me from eating in the evenings.

I couldn't eat anything really at first. I'd avoid bread as that is incredibly filling on Mounjaro. (I wouldn't use Wegovy - I've heard that the craving is still there but you feel sick if you overeat.)

Having said all this I would never recommend someone does it to lose a stone. There are far better ways of losing it.

We are staying on for the health benefits.

so cardio vascular health, reduced cancers, reduced Inflammarion etc, as well as the fact if means we will not regain, don’t have to struggle to do so and all that entails. And retain the health benefits of being a healthy weight. Plus the mental health benefits of being slim, feeling good in your body, dressing in clothes you like not what you think hides the fat, the mental health boost of not feeling constantly deprived or guilty, over food choices.

I was on max of two types of bp med when I started this, now the only med I take is mounjaro, and the bp meds were brutal, to the extent they had to keep giving me blood tests to see if my kidneys were being damaged by them.

i don’t know of any other drug you use to alleviate a health condition then say well not it’s now alleviated so I shall stop. Because the condition isn’t cured, it is simply managed. And if we could maintain a healthy weight endlessly. We would not have needed the drugs in the first place.

I didn’t tell my partner or children for about 10 days then I confessed lol. I wanted to know that I could take them as I’m needle phobic. It was quite hard keeping it a secret as I felt very under the weather for the first couple of weeks. I very much doubt you will lose a stone on the first jab especially as you are so close to target. And depending on your age too. I lost 8 lb in first couple of weeks then it’s plateaued a bit. I’ve got about 2 stone to lose.