Yawn - the Panorama programme on Wegovy

[BrainInAJar]

Was interested to see this after they were sniffing around on here looking for victims, sorry, participants for their programme.

Well as predicted, the vibe of the programme is scare-mongering over the drug. Because it makes you feel sick (so?! no-one died of a little nausea) and you lose lean weight as well as fat (so the same as every other weight loss method then?) If you look at the potential side effects of paracetemol or basically ANY prescription drugs, you would never take anything!

I think people are scared because they assume all drugs you buy on the internet are dodgy and also because it's an injection rather than say a tablet or liquid.

This drug is a miracle for a lot of people and some side-effects pale into insignificance in comparison to an unhealthy, unhappy life and an early death due to obesity.

Hilariously they had a section recommending cutting carbs as a way to lose weight instead of taking these drugs. So that'll be those low carb diets that Panorama and other media vilified and scare-mongered over 20 years ago then and which are now mainstream, just like Wegovy will be in a few years!

At least the programme stopped short of painting folk buying the drug online as evil fat lazy folk stealing drugs from poor sufferers of diabetes as Ch4 did recently.

I’ve been on it for coming up to a year and I love it, I never want to go off it! My dose has never been higher than 0.5 mg and that has been enough for me. Lost 10kg, food noise is gone, life changed. Anxiety so much better, I’m much happier in myself. I still need to loose 4kg to be in normal bmi but have been eating and drinking as a normal person would (i think) since nov and not gained anything but not lost either.

Yes it is on them @usernother I agree the information is widely available for those that seek it out. However, lots of people just won’t do any reading around it as is evident from the Wegovy & Ozempic threads. Maybe they don’t like reading because they seem to know Zero about Wegovy. That being the case, a TV programme about it may actually be ureful in reaching more people. I hope Panorama was balanced re the pros & cons, I didn’t see it.

I'll give it a watch later. I remember the early ozempic threads, when ozempic was NOT licensed for weight loss, only diabetes, and anyone questioning long term effects or success was vilified and driven off the threads by some very aggressive and defensive posters. Any mention of the psychological aspects of obesity were shot down at high speed and denied vehemently. Some posters were very honest about the issues leading them to be obese but those early threads were not for the faint hearted. @Twiglets1 was always the voice of reason with the patience of a saint! The ignorance on those threads from those who said they had followed the threads for ages was scary. Posts like "I took my first dose an hour ago but I still feel hungry" and as a pp mentioned the regular comments on later threads where there is a real fear of ever feeling hungry plus no plan or idea of how to eat once they stop taking it. Some still believe it's a magical drug that will fix everything with no effort required except paying out a lot of money and injections themselves with the drug. Some say they will stay on it forever but as a relatively new drug this hasn't been researched yet. Then there were the ones with a bmi of 26-27 who blagged their way to a prescription and ate McDonald's on a weekly basis.
For some it's been amazing but long term it will be interesting to see what the research shows.

Thanks all, I appreciate your comments.

There is a potential for any drug to be misused. Against - paracetemol - used for overdoses.

How many people have died or had say amputations/heart attacks/strokes from obesity-related illnesses since I started the thread? And how many from using Wegovy?

Just sick of people who struggle with their weight always being the easy target for a bit of scaremongering and a TV ratings-grab.

Frankly, those that invented this drug should be getting some sort of prize (in addition to the major profits of the drug company!). It's by far the most important weapon we have developed against obesity. And yes used in conjunction with a lower-carb diet and perhaps a bit of intermittent fasting and a touch of exercise, that probably is the holy grail.

I'm talking mostly, by the way, about people like myself who just have a bit of a bigger appetite and a low tolerance of hunger. Who don't have deep-seated "reasons why we overeat" needing handwringing and psychiatrists, we just need a wee bit of help taking the edge off said hunger so that we can focus on eating right and getting out of any bad habits.

As I said, low-carb diets are mainstream now and all the Drs who maligned them and prescribed baked potatoes and salad look mighty foolish. The NHS will be forced to sort out their bloody food pyramid one day I hope. Same will be for this drug, we will look back and wonder what all the fuss was about.

@BrainInAJar i happen to disagree with you on many points. Science has not saved us from the weapon of obesity they created for us in the first place. They have created a drug alongside keeping the chemically created foods we are all addicted to. It’s easier to treat the end user than the cause.

people do have reasons why they overeat like all of us do, and it is disingenuous to pretend otherwise. Many of us are busy working parents who are time poor and convenience and fast foods have completely dominated our lives. We have stressful pressured jobs and relationships. We live in a consumer driven society. The stressful life, job, children, no time and difficult relationships will still be present if you are thin unless you sort those out as well.

Agree with pp who said folk want fat people to suffer in order to lose the weight. Indeed I actually think a lot of thin people WANT fat people to stay fat so they can stay thin, smug and superior about their willpower.

Have a watch of the Diary of a CEO podcast with Dr Will Bulsiewicz. Really interesting discussion of the mechanism of action and why it can be problematic. It's to with the hormone pathways but I'm too menopausal to remember exactly what!

All drugs are a trade-off in benefits and issues.

I agree fat is used to beat us obese people with a stick but in this case, it's worth a deep dive into the mechanisms.

@BrainInAJar This is fat acceptance talk and it’s not true. thin people are not trying to keep people fat. I am still fat I’m just not looking to being thin to solve all my problems. No one who is thin has any investment in your weight or keeping you fat just to feel superior?!!

big food companies want to use cheap chemicals to make us buy more food and obesity is a huge commodity. So the people who want us to be fat are the ones making money from us.

I believe they are saying that many people can and will stay on the drug for life. So I don't see an issue. Especially if the cost comes down which it will.

Getting to the root of the reason why people overeat would, amongst other things, demolishing the Western lifestyle including banning UPF and sugar. That's not going to happen.

We live in the real world, not utopia. This drug may not be a perfect solution but it's by far the best thing going right now. I'm glad I have the choice to take it. Others will choose differently and that's fine. But for me, I wish it had been around 20 years ago.

Thank you for your kind comment @JustACountryMusicGirlInCowboyBoots It's hard to have any kind of sensible discussion around Wegovy or Ozempic because people are so defensive and that can make the discussion turn nasty quickly (hopefully won't happen on this thread).

It's not a miracle cure for obesity, though it is helpful to some. But people questioning whether it has hidden drawbacks shouldn't immediately be dismissed as being negative, unhelpful, jealous, scaremongering skinnies who have never known what it is to crave unhealthy food.

I think there's a bit of a misapprehension on those threads that Wegovy/Ozempic allows us to feel how "normal" people feel about food. But it is normal to crave fatty, sugary food - they taste good! It is normal to feel hungry and think about food a lot. Some people have more self control than others and I say that as an overweight person myself. Wegovy won't change your attitude to food or ability to cope with the feeling of being hungry/craving what you crave and that is the problem when people stop taking it.

How can people stay on the drug for life @BrainInAJar if eventually they are so slim they don't qualify for it or it stops working & I have seen people on the threads say it has stopped working for them. What then? Plus it hasn't been tested as a lifelong drug for obese people so no one really knows how long it should normally continue working for them.

The NHS have not used the food pyramid since 2011. Glad to see you have done your research.

@BrainInAJar I do understand why you feel so passionately about this but I think that you could do some more research as many of your posts are quite subjective and emotionally led, such as thin people keeping us fat to feel superior and it’s going to be easy to stay on this drug for life. It was just last year there was a global shortage and people resorted to buying vials of liquid from TikTok. You can’t know it will be that easy or is going to be possible at all.

Also there is a lot of research around why people get addicted to food and become scared of being hungry and they are mostly psychological, and can be helped by psychological support - it’s just not widely available and that’s something to shout about, for sure. If people with binge eating disorders were able to get diagnosed and treated on the NHS that really would be life changing.

Then there is lack of access to being able to cook (poverty) keeping people fat, there is poor education in childhood, it’s the massive global companies keeping you fat.

did you know that in Mexico to tackle alarming obesity they completely banned all mascots from children’s cereals? All of their products look completely different even soft drinks. They have come down very harshly on the global corps for their advertising methods which target small kids to get addicted to sugar at a young age. Why aren’t other countries doing this? Instead they are marketing an expensive weight loss drug?

These drugs are just another way for the pharma industry to make a lot of money without caring about the long term health consequences. Given their side effect profile which persists even after discontinuation they need to be a last ditch solution to deal with severe obesity where all other methods have failed. Also it needs to be recognised that you will be on them for the long term as the weight will be regained when you stop.

I'm one of the people who had to stop taking it due to severe side effects. I was vomiting all the time, and it absolutely trashed my gallbladder and now I'm awaiting surgery. It wasn't a side effect of rapid weight loss - after all the suffering I barely lost any weight. It was a direct side effect of the medication itself.

Clearly this is something you feel passionate about,@BrainInAJar, but your attitude that the efficacy and dangers of the drug should never be challenged by critics is naive. Weygovy might be regulated now for weight loss, but tens of thousands of people, if not more, have been using unlicensed semaglutides to shed lbs without serious consideration to what it might be doing to their bodies. No one wants it to end up being the next big health scandal, so it's right that the drugs and their manufacturers and those websites dishing it out like sweeties are held to account. If it turns out to be the silver bullet that cures obesity, great. But if it turns out to be damaging to people's health, we should be aware.

I personally think history will put it somewhere in the middle, but what I am definitely expecting to see in the coming years is a new obesity crisis caused by people coming off it because they can't afford to continue and regaining all the weight they lost and more.

Just sick of people who struggle with their weight always being the easy target for a bit of scaremongering and a TV ratings-grab.

Panorama wasn’t “scare mongering” - it was pointing out that buying drugs online from potentially dodgy companies with no proper medical oversight or dietician input or help to address the psychological reasons for overeating has pitfalls.

I believe they are saying that many people can and will stay on the drug for life. So I don't see an issue. Especially if the cost comes down which it will.

The patent doesn’t expire for a number of years, and until it does there is little incentive for manufacturers to make it cheaper - it is quite the cash cow.

Yes its equally concerning about what happens when people stop a faddy diet as when people stop a faddy supplement or medication. They are both situations where people pay hundreds to thousands of pounds only to put it all back on, plus more in a lot of cases.

You can go round and round, I am a prime example of failing SW long term and gaining weight back but this only cost me a few hundred pounds not a few thousand. You can also keep going to SW for FREE if you reach your goal, but people never bother? Why? I lost weight to go to a wedding then gained back 5st. Was I happier thin? Temporarily. Why do I want to lose weight now? For my health, forever. Not for a holiday or event or to find a partner. Not because I think people judge me for being fat.

There is a narrative that ‘concerns’ me that people think all your problems will go away once you are no longer fat and that’s not true. You may still be in a bad marriage or still a single parent. You may still be struggling for money. You may still have a physical or mental health condition. Until you truly address the root cause of your unhappiness and examine what has led to your weight gain and try address it, this is why things fail be it a drug or a club. Clubs are just less potentially harmful to your health. You might be better to spend your money on some counselling and look at your lifestyle rather than go straight to ozempic and I am happy to tell people to consider doing that! So many people post they have mental health problems and think losing weight will solve them. It might help but it’s not necessarily going to solve everything. Losing weight is one part of moving towards a healthy lifestyle but it’s not going to solve things unrelated to your weight.

If all else fails and you are simply a happy contented stress free, time rich person who just eats too much then perhaps weight loss drugs can help you get to your goal but I don’t think people should place all their money and mental wellbeing into a drug in this way. I’m glad it is helping people and that is a good thing, I’m allowed to be concerned though

@Menora you make so much sense and are very candid about your own experiences. Your posts are invaluable in looking at a more balanced view.

I'm just watching now.,

I have been tempted to try it, but put off by a family member who got severe diverticulitis after taking it.

I thought the programme was kind of good in parts and bad in others. I have never tried Ozempic/wegovy but I have had most success on daily Saxenda and am currently steadily plodding along on Trulicity weekly. I have only ever brought from a recognised chemist and wouldn't trust buying from the likes of a beautician or the black market, sorry, I think that is to much of a step into non regulation.

The risk is on me with regards unknown longer term side effects. Never really suffered any short term side effects.

It was interesting to know resistance training should be done as I only do walking and swimming and the bit about how the in depth scan showed fat.

Bad parts were it seems they want to stop the private market (sick of hearing how only skinny people want to buy it and the criticism that people want a miracle as I resonate these pens do stop people waking up and first thought being what can I eat next! although it is up to the person to eat the right things) yet the programme then go on to admit also it is postcode lotto if on the nhs.

Hats off to the GP who got the diabetic male patient to lose all the weight naturally.

They're not 'faddy' diets!!! A faddy diet is something like the cabbage soup diet.

They are simply a way of eating that enables you to eat less during a weight loss phase and then maintain after. If you want to stick to that way of eating.

And the reality is, and its really brutal to have admitted this over the last couple of years (and people dont really want to accept this) is that I think the vast majority of people who are very overweight dont actually have deep seated psychological reasons, we're just eating too much because we can.
Its hard to admit that because its easier to say its emotional eating, it gives some legitimacy to it, everyone says it. I used to say it too.

Big Pharma at its finest

although I can't disagree wegovy is attractive

yiu can only have it for 2 years though ( I think) and tbh the years fly past and what will happen to them after that?

@soupfiend fundamentally someone who like me who was 5 stone overweight did not just so happen get there by just eating the odd chocolate biscuits every day. It is because you become psychologically attracted to the dopamine your brain produces from eating far too many of certain foods (salty, fat, sugar) on a regular basis. Being too full up is actually a horrible sickly feeling physically in reality, but yeah, that nice feeling you get from food? It’s a chemical to make you feel good. It triggers an emotion. There are studies that question if ozempic is working with dampening dopamine. So you are modulating an emotional response. I’m sure you have done more research though…

A lot of studies I have read say that stress alone contributes to weight gain considerably as does all the socio economic issues such as poverty, education and support. Many of us have stressful lives and struggle to manage stress and turn to eating, getting a dopamine hit. I just don’t think people want to really look that in depth as it’s more overwhelming to change your life than it is to try to change your body. It’s an ever vicious circle - you are stressed, you eat more to get a dopamine hit, you then come down from it, feel awful about yourself and more stressed, so eat more

maybe we are all in some kind of denial