Why are you NOT taking a weight loss drug?

[Carowe]

I’ve lost nearly 20 pounds by intermittent fasting and cutting calories right down to 1300. Plus I’ve upped the exercise.

I made the decision not to use a weight loss drug as the side effects of nausea,
abdomen pain, vomiting and diarrhoea sound horrific. I had a friend who said she shot the bed. That is just not something I could tolerate or risk as a germphobe.

Plus there have been a few people who said it made their anxiety worse which is not something I can play around with due to generalised anxiety disorder.

However, I have my weak moments like now where my brain is just obsessing over food (god I want a jam doughnut). And my goal seems so far away.

What are your reasons?

You asked about feeling lightheaded. Absolutely not.

You know that feeling when you're on a diet and you're always thinking about what to eat and when you're going to eat it and what you did eat and what you shouldn't eat and what you should eat - all of that goes away. it disappears almost immediately. Every last bit of it. You just don't even think about it. It's something to do with it affecting the reward system in your brain.

It's not just food and alcohol. It's stopping people wanting cigarettes as well.

For years I would have a couple of drinks every night and on most days I would have something sweet, I have chocolate or biscuits etc. I have wine in my house and I haven't given it a second thought, even when I've looked at the bottles. I've got biscuits in my house and I have had one every afternoon. I don't want any more. Sometimes I don't eat the whole biscuit and an hour later I just throw it away.

It's not like the old diet drugs that speed you up and make you feel spaced out. It's not like anti-depressants. I was on those for awhile years ago and it was a very different feeling.

I don't feel anything actually, I just don't think about eating all the time. That then means that when you want something to eat you can choose more wisely.

I think those people who have never had a problem with food will not understand this.

Because I'm not fat.

Because I already lost weight in a different way, and have kept it off.
I used food as a kind of instant self-gratification and then when I started losing weight that became the gratification instead.
For me, I think if I hadn't done it the slow old-fashioned way then I probably would've ended up back at square one. I need to get the kick out of denying myself something.

I’m not fat

For me I would love to lose 7lbs really quick but my bmi is 22 no one will prescribe it and I think all the internet sites are just shady. I have a real fear we are going to see very serious issues with gastroparesis and celiac disease in users. I’m old enough to remember phen phen lawsuits and then alle’ users pooping their pants at work
for my coworker…she is a brca daughter and her brother died of pancreatic cancer and there is a link
for my cousin a nurse anesthetist… so many surgeries cancelled because they drop a scope and the patient has days old food in their gut and the risk of aspiration is too high. Pull the scope out cancel surgery quit the wygovi see you in 4 weeks.

I didn’t get dizzy from low blood sugar but I had very bad sleep for months, felt sick almost all the time and had reflux every time I ate or drank. My constipation was pretty bad and sometimes I would feel like I was all swollen up with food and liquid that wasn’t moving through my system. I had low energy and just didn’t feel good, I then got the gallbladder pains so I stopped completely. I agree it’s a saviour from having to think about food, as you could forget but when I stopped taking it, it was like I came out of this grey Bleugh cloud and got my energy back, it was really motivating. Food tasted nice and was enjoyable again, I could go to the toilet regularly. I slept at night all the way through. The drug isn’t cheating, it has its own side effects and some people get them worse than others but you do not know what you will get from it so you have to take that leap of faith. I understand why to some it’s not worth taking a risk of the unknown

I tried it but as I’m not a snacker and only eat twice a day it made me miserable as I look fwd to eating

After I stopped my appetite was ravenous for about 3 months

Never will I ever again!

Exactly this. I also like that my healthy eating is now a habit that I’ve consistently stuck to for nearly 3 years. The side effects may well strip
any enjoyment out of my weight loss journey.

OP, I still have cravings, I have a real sweet tooth but I always find a little bowl of Greek yogurt and honey (or with fruit) really takes the edge off! The doughnut tastes better, but the healthier option feels better.

You describe it so well. I’m only 3.5 weeks in but the mental relief is incredible. It’s so hard to explain to someone who hasn’t taken it what a difference it makes. The research is key for me - the outcomes seem to be very good.

I tried mounjaro and the first week it gave me awful panic attacks, inability to sleep, and nausea.
So I halved the dose and injected into my thigh the following week and the side effects reduced but my resting heart rate was still up and I had no appetite suppression.
The third week I was wondering about doing a 3/4 dose and I was sat with it in my hand when I thought "I don't want to do this. I don't want to feel ill and frightened". So I threw it away.

I wish I had had zero side effects. I could have coped with just nausea. But waves of anxiety and inability to sleep were just too much for me.

That sense of achievement is very rare in dieting. Much much more common is its opposite, a sense of intense failure..

Do you just hang around the weight loss boards for fun?

It is very hard due to the very obesogenic environment that we live in. There is no way for us to have evolved a mechanism to protect against the damage caused by overconsumption of hyperpalatable food-like substances.
A species is only able to survive if it has the drive to pursue food at all costs, even if not especially nice to eat food. The downside of that is the tendency to be unable to resist food which has been engineered to be as addictive as possible. Furthermore the hyperpalatable food-like substances are affordable and widely available.
Thats broadly how I see it, a trap which is very hard to avoid.

Don't want to spoil your fun but a recent Zoe podcast had an expert in who explained a clear link between Alzheimer's and the kind of poor diet that also leads to cardivascular diseases and diabetes. Something to do with clogged and hardened arteries restricting blood flow to the brain.

Back to the OP - my priority is getting super duper healthy and trying to avoid all those preventable lifestyle diseases. If I succeed, weight loss should be a happy side effect but it's not the main goal. I wouldn't want medication that took away my energy for exercise or my appetite for the vegies and other nutritious things I want to eat.

I already have IBS and various intolerances. I don't need to add to my stomach trouble.

Well done to all the people popping into weight loss chat to let us know they're not fat. Happy for you 👏 👏

Losing weight anyway due to having to have a low-fat diet. I have gallstones (common after pregnancy) and I am waiting for surgery. It’s shit and I miss chocolate and cheese and takeaways.

Because I think using drugs to solve problems is a lazy way to reach your goals.

There are millions of people who have gone from obese to healthy without using drugs. How? They exercised more and ate less.

Those popping pills to lose weight won’t be able to take them forever and in a few years - maybe even ten or twenty - they’ll pile the weight back on because they never learnt self control.

I’ll be lambasted for thinking it - so I’m sure people will come at me - but it is lazy. Just as watching the movie and not reading the book is lazy. Just as driving down to the shops instead of walking is lazy.

I don't qualify otherwise I would. Apparently you have to be quite overweight to be able to have it prescribed.

I've recently lost over a stone doing low carb. Once you get into the habit, it's very easy and the weight drops off. It also has an appetite suppressant effect, as you digest fat slowly, which means you can go for 5 hours and not feel hungry. It took discipline, planning and willpower, but I'm so glad I've done it. I'm now eating some carbs and using intermittent fasting to maintain my weight.

I've read the Mounjaro support thread as I was curious to see how it was affecting people. Some of the side effects are quite unpleasant and the idea of food sitting in your gut for days seems profoundly unhealthy. I think if you're morbidly obese and use it as a way to kick start your weight loss and, more importantly, get into good habits, then it may be a good thing, but for me, it seems so unnatural and I'd be worried of creating further health problems down the line.

Being able to switch off “food noise” sounds genuinely wonderful! But it’s surely going to come back at full volume when you stop?

I've stopped and not yet.
I had 7 months where I did not overeat and I did not snack. I really focused on building a routine that I could maintain for life. Yes I feel hungry sometimes now but it's perfectly manageable and I stick to my routine.
It was the reset that I needed to snap me out of the bad habits I was struggling to break. If you use your time on it thinking about how you're going to maintain then it can be a very effective tool.
I struggled for years to try and make progress with my weight and failed over and over again. For me it's been absolutely wonderful, finally I feel good about how I look.

Lots of people saying there’s no long term information. This class of drugs has been in the market for 15 years (preceded by years of clinical trials) and there is now a lot of information on side effects etc. They may seem new because the weight loss aspect (originally an unexpected side effect, as these drugs were designed for type 2 diabetes) has provided a new market - particularly the private market. The next area of research, as some have mentioned, is their effect on addiction to other substances like alcohol.

I did take injectables and couldn't deal with the nausea and vomiting, in addition I felt tired and weak through lack of calories.

I changed tack to try and gradually body recomposition to build muscle and lose fat within a moderate but manageable calories deficit.

I've lost 20 pounds of fat but gained approx seven pounds of muscle. 💪

My weight has consequently dropped by just one stone, but my shape has totally changed and I have strength and energy

It really did help give me a kickstart too, I was morbidly obese but agree, I am more motivated when I can enjoy food and have energy to move around.

The hunger did come back, I had just used the time to build new habits so I wasn’t about to slide back into my old ones.

@Killingoffmyflowersonebyone I just don’t believe in self control anymore, not in the basic sense - it’s not that simple. You don’t just wake up and have self control, or lose self control for no reason. People only practice self control when they are in control of their emotions and feelings, and they have to be motivated to do so.

humans are all lazy to a degree, they will always find the fastest route or way to do something. Why do you think we all use route maps to drive the best route and have made robots to help us? We are intelligent beings. We also have complex emotions. Someone who over eats might be doing so to cope with difficult emotions or filling a void, or simply just a habit that feels overwhelming. The drugs do allow headspace to address these issues. The risk is just not using the time to change and understand yourself. You can’t put all your blind faith into any diet or medication to do all the work, the work comes from you to succeed long term, and that requires sustained motivation to change.

my partner is the best example of this. He doesn’t like being overweight in the summer but he doesn’t care in the winter. So he will go on a mad restriction diet for a few months getting up the warm weather, slim down then just eat his way back to a heavier weight until the next spring., repeat repeat. He isn’t motivated to do it long term because his motivation to eat foods is far stronger than his motivation to stay slimmer, so he can only manage to be motivated for a very short period of time to lose the weight before he regains it. This drives me insane personally but I try to understand he doesn’t want to change long term he wants to change short term, for a holiday or because it’s going to be hot. Once it gets cold his motivation completely vanishes so he goes back to his old habits