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?

What I have seen with people who have lost lots of weight the nasolabial folds are more prominent. They makes them look older.

Sorry, but you've only got to look at the threads on the new board, that used to be on this one, to know that many people ARE fixated just on the quick loss. I've read comments from people admitting they've used fake photos to get a prescription because they already have a normal BMI.

I'm not demonising them either. A lot of the user experience I've read about does that job for them.

Plus, this is a thread about why people won't use them and asking for reasons. I don't think OP was aiming for it to become a promo for taking them.

I have never even taken the contraceptive pill. I don't drink or smoke. I don't even have tea or coffee and I take a lemsip or head ache pill about once a year or 2 years at most. I am just not a pills person. I also have only seen a doctor twice in about 15 years and don't seem to get ill so feel like the healthiest person in the UK and luckiest although I would like to lose a stone or two but I would not have injections to do it as that is just not what I like. Obviously if there is a life saving pill I would need to take I would take it but I try to take nothing ever.

I had to look that up to check which folds you were talking about! 😂

@Bringbackthebeaver this isn’t exactly correct. Ok if you go with Juniper or a company that sends you motivational emails, you pay a bit more. No one is obliged to read them, you don’t have to have any 1:1 coaching with most pharmacies, there is no mental health support. I got mine from a pharmacy having never spoken to a human person. I think the only thing I saw was a line saying ‘use as part of a balanced diet’ and that was it. People are even using old photos and standing on scales holding heavy items to lie to pharmacies to stockpile or get it when they have lower BMi’s. There is only so much due diligence they can do. It’s the Wild West out there. Even someone with a low BMI can get hold of it if they really tried it’s not that hard

It’s not the drug, it’s never the actual drug it’s the application, access and users of it that create this perception of there being a lot of people still eating junk food. I’ve seen it over and over, even gastric sleeves, people posting about their daily food intakes and it’s still a lot of processed rubbish and cheat days with booze and little exercise

The risk which should be explained is loss of muscle mass and the importance of diet and exercise for your overall health. In trials a lot of the weight lost was from muscle mass, not fat

But they have a healthier body and have improved their health, you can have filler in your folds if you really are bothered

I'm not overweight enough to qualify for it on the NHS and I'm not about to start injecting myself with random stuff I've bought over the internet.

Also it's all too new and no-one knows enough about the long term effects yet.

@Menora I am improving my health doing loads of exercise. Muscles grow and use more energy. BP and cholesterol go lower.

Yes there's something about the drugs that take more fat from everywhere than through normal weight loss. My cousin got hold of some and he aged 10 years and was so skinny, it took all his fat. He reversed it though when he stopped taking it

This is a really interesting thread. I'm hovering around a decision on Mounjaro - which seems better in terms of side effects and also more effective than wegovy from what I have read - but I am cautious regarding side effects and apprehensive about the cost.

The health implications of being obese balanced against side effects of the drug seem to tip in favour of taking it, but I want to speak to a GP about that first and I hope I can get good advice from them. The comments about pancreatisis on here are worrying as pancreatic issues exist in my immediate family.

I, like many people on the thread, have lost weight in other ways. Since pre-pubesence I have been obsessed with dieting and weight loss and the effect of trying every imaginable diet, 'way of eating', 'healthy lifestyle choices', every fad, every trend, every intervention short of surgery has only seen me ultimately fatter over thirty years later. I have a ruined metabolism, a wardrobe of clothes in every possible size for all the weights I have ever been. I disassociate when I eat - I can't keep a food diary - because of the decades of obsession that have ruled my entire life from childhood. I have known the thrill and the buzz of achievement from low-carbing, Slimming World, keto, VLCDs, Weight Watchers, eating less and moving more, living off shakes, going to the gym, hiring personal trainers; I have lost the weight and changed my life and watched it all come back again time after time. My body and brain are broken in a way that cannot be repaired (yes I've tried therapy too). So I wonder if injectables would be right for me. I am concerned about diarrhoea or fatigue or anxiety, but then I'm tired and anxious anyway.

I'm not sure how I will afford it, but I don't believe I have any chance of success at losing and maintaining a healthy weight in any other way - whether this will work or not, I don't know. I probably should try it though. I definitely need to find out what the issues around the pancreas could be first.

Have you tried any form of counselling for your diet/weight/body issues? I would worry that you haven't unpacked the psychological causes/impact of your obsession and disassociation with food and losing weight before starting injectables and that those issues would still persist, possibly to an even greater extent, when you stopped.

Argh, sorry, just saw the line that you've had therapy. Apologies.

No worries! No, I have not unpacked the issues and they will always recur. I honestly don’t believe I will ever unpack them or be able to resolve them. Which is why I wonder if medication is the only way. I have relapsed and failed so many times I can't ever do it again, and reading about these injections seems like it could be potentially life changing for people like me. Though I imagine I would have to do it long-term, maybe forever. I think that's why I'm hovering around the decision and reading threads like this!

@LikeSoManyWrecks I had CBT. I really do think this helped me. It wasn’t really about unlocking years of trauma but managing my reactions to things. I only opened up as far as I felt comfortable to but I really wanted to change my reactions to things like stress, or stop talking badly to myself. Now I don’t dislike myself and I value myself more, I am far kinder to myself

Because I can lose it on my own and am doing so.

Maybe I do naturally carry a bit more weight and do particularly enjoy food but, let's be real, I had shit habits too and had been unwilling to adapt my lifestyle until a few months ago.

To the PP who asked re. depression. I didn't take meds. I did all the self-management things recommended and when things were at their worst I had CBT.

I guess it's down to what works for ya

Oprah has just been hospitalised with stomach issues. She was a great proponent of taking Oyzempic. Not suggesting the two things are linked. Again though, the pancreas is not something I would fuck with.

Me neither.

If it is true thatOprah is ill because of it, it’s finished. Ball burst, game over. That’s why it won’t be true. (Even if it is true)

That’s why it won’t be true. (Even if it is true)
@3luckystars I see your point but this is Oprah!
Will the pharma companies who are profiting from these products be able to get her to keep quiet?
I can't see her being easy to pay off!!

What really gets me is that type 2 diabetics can't be prescribed drugs that were made to treat diabetes. And the people taking them from source are justifying it by saying that they are saving the NHS future costs from their obesity and diabetes. And are desperate to remove "food noise" like hunger isn't a natural urge to eat. Cravings on the other hand soon disappear when you stop shovelling in the fats, carbs and sugars that drive them.

If it was a cancer drug that people were injecting, there would be national outrage. But diabetics can go to fuck.

I'll be honest I feel a huge sense of achievement in the 3 stone I've lost through Mounjaro. I still had to do the work; exercise, healthy diet, mindful eating.

Can I ask how Mounjaro aided your weight loss? I was hoping it was miracle drug but a previous poster said they still had to be mindful when eating (around 1500 calories I think).

Im jut curious what the benefits would be for me because now I’m motivated I can roughly stick to around 1500 calories. I’m in that annoying but helpful place where I’ve lost too much to go back to eating plates of pasta almost too heavy to hold.

Don’t be fat and don’t be thin, don’t have loose skin but you must lose the weight, fat people are unmotivated and lazy but if they do something to address their weight they will be judged if it’s not the exact current right way, if you lose weight you will look old and gaunt and need fillers but if you stay fat you will be frumpy and undesirable.

There are so many judgmental comments on this thread. So many people who want to feel superior to others. We are fed so many contradictory statements by the media, we digest them, then we spew them out as this hideous bile. We should be supporting each other not judging in this way. It’s all part of the problem.

You must be reading a different thread to me based on your pseudo Barbie speech, because no one is being judgemental. We talking about why we are reluctant to use injectables based on our bodies, our experiences of struggling to lose weight, our low self esteem that means saggy skin is a real worry. Posters aren't damning those who are using injectables, and there's no superiority at play, because every single one of us understands how bloody hard it is being obese. That's why we're on Weight Loss Chat!

If you're going to criticise anyone, criticise a society that puts more stock in how women look than what they achieve.

I did criticise society as well as the people I feel who are being judgmental. Society doesn’t exist without the people it’s made up from.

Though I did laugh that you said nobody was being judgmental when you swiftly followed it up with ‘pseudo Barbie speech.’

Bless you.

Dictionary definition of pseudo is imitation. No judgement in that.