A "celebrity" injection to help with weight loss on the way?

[Retro]

It's funny how being rich and perhaps famous helps so much with weight loss and keeping fit and healthy, doesn't it? Well, it looks like part of the reason could be a weekly injection to suppress appetite that's popular with celebrities. No wonder. Well, it looks like us great unwashed are going to have access to it soon. Hopefully it will make weight loss efforts significantly more successful than the 95% failure rate we currently see.

Weekly weight-loss jabs that are popular with celebrities will soon be made available through high street chemists in England, despite controversy over their use.

Many people struggle to tackle obesity through diet and exercise alone as they often find they regain the weight that they lose.
Woman with a disgusted facial expression looks at the greasy hamburger.

However a range of drugs, initially used for people with type 2 diabetes, has shown promise in treating obesity, with trials revealing that when combined with supervised weight-loss coaching they help people lose significant amounts of weight.

These drugs, known as GLP-1 analogues, work by mimicking hormones that help people feel full after consuming food.

Weight loss jabs to be sold via high street chemists in England

Appetite suppressant Wegovy, popular with celebrities, seen as breakthrough treatment but not permanent remedy

www.theguardian.com

New diabetes drugs do not tackle root causes of obesity, experts warn

Doctors say preventing obesity by avoiding unhealthy food is better than trying to reverse its effects

www.theguardian.com

 

[Arizona]

What it’s like to take the blockbuster drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, from severe side effects to losing 50 pounds

Ten people taking Ozempic and other medications for weight loss or diabetes describe a wide variety of experiences.

www.yahoo.com

"Experts said they consider Ozempic and Wegovy to be lifelong medications."

What happens when you stop taking a weight loss drug? Many people gain the weight back

Drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic lower a person's appetite to help with weight loss, but experts say the weight can come back if they’re no longer used.

www.nbcnews.com

"Rubino led a 2021 study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, that found that people who took Wegovy regained two-thirds of the weight they had lost when they went off the drug."

 

[Retro]

And Wegovy has now been approved for use by the NHS. Let's hope it helps all those millions struggling with their weight.

Weight loss drug semaglutide approved for NHS use

The appetite suppressing drug, favoured by Hollywood celebrities, makes people feel fuller.

www.bbc.co.uk

Also, check out related thread:

The real reason why thin people are not fat: genetic advantage

This one's so important and central to people struggles with weight gain that I'm pinning this thread. Annoying how some people can just stuff their faces with all the tasty, unhealthy junk food that we love and crave, yet never get fat, isn't it?* Yet, for so many people, doing all the diet...

nerdzone.uk

 

[Retro]

More on this in short video form.

BBC Radio 4 - AntiSocial, Body positivity and fat, What are weight loss injections and why are they in the news?

AntiSocial finds out why more people are searching for terms like 'Ozempic' online

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Arizona]

We won't have generally affordable Ozempic or Wegovy in the US until generics become available many years from now.

And more primary care doctors/practitioners in the US need to specialize in weight loss/management. But the doctors are out there in decent numbers and relatively easy to find with a Google search.

I've been taking a low dose of metformin to help prevent a recurrence of prediabetes (along with exercising more, eating more sensible portions, etc). But I mostly take metformin because it seems to help with my hunger cravings to some degree. And the good thing about metformin is that it is dirt cheap even though it is a prescription medication -- cheaper than most weight loss supplements that are marketed to help regulate blood sugar.

Metformin doesn't cause major weight loss, but it can help prevent weight gain (which is arguably the most important aspect of weight management).

 

[Arizona]

I’m a nutritionist - here's 5 foods that mimic the effects of weight-loss jabs

A REVOLUTIONARY new fat-busting jab used by Hollywood stars is coming to a high street near you. The drug, known as Wegovy, will be available on prescription in Boots pharmacies, off…

www.thesun.co.uk

...An ingredient found in the fat-busting drug, known as Semaglutide, mimics the role of a natural hormone, called GLP-1.

"This hormone is normally produced in response to detecting nutrients when we eat," Emma wrote in the Conversation.

GLP-1 is part of the signalling pathway that tells your body you have eaten, and prepare it to use the energy that comes from your food...

Foods that help GLP-1 levels:

1. Avocados
2. Nuts
3. Lean protein sources like eggs
4. Vegetables
5. Whole grains

Ozempic helps weight loss by making you feel full. But certain foods can do the same thing – without the side-effects

Ozempic uses semaglutide to mimic the role of a hormone naturally produced by the body to create feelings of fullness. Certain foods can do the same thing.

theconversation.com

A healthy diet, high in GLP-1 stimulating nutrients can increase GLP-1 levels. This could be foods with good fats, like avocado or nuts, or lean protein sources like eggs. And foods high in fermentable fibres, like vegetables and whole grains, feed our gut bacteria, which then produce short chain fatty acids able to trigger GLP-1 secretion.

This is why high fat, high fibre and high protein diets can all help you feel fuller for longer. It’s also why diet change is part of both weight and type 2 diabetes management.

 

[Arizona]

And from a dopamine point of view, avocado or baked beans on whole wheat toast is usually less "addictive" than pizza or pastries.

On the more extreme side:

Donuts, chips and pizza should be redefined as DRUGS, scientist say

Researchers from Michigan and Virginia found that highly processed foods match the same definitions of addictions set by US health officials for nicotine in the 1980s.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Dr Gearhardt and Dr DiFeliceantonio applied the standards used to determine nicotine was an addictive substance to highly-processed food as well.

The first was compulsive use, which they described as a person wanting to eat the foods even when they were aware how unhealthy they are.

'People want to cut down, people go on diets and a vast majority of people fail,' Dr Gearhardt told DailyMail.com.

'They find it difficult to do so even when they know its going to kill them.'

She blamed the fat and sugar contents of the foods for triggering an addictive response in the brain.

But BMI would have to be very high (40+) to be comparable to the effects of cigarette smoking:

Body-mass index and cause-specific mortality in 900 000 adults: collaborative analyses of 57 prospective studies - PubMed

Although other anthropometric measures (eg, waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio) could well add extra information to BMI, and BMI to them, BMI is in itself a strong predictor of overall mortality both above and below the apparent optimum of about 22.5-25 kg/m(2). The progressive excess...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

At 30-35 kg/m(2), median survival is reduced by 2-4 years; at 40-45 kg/m(2), it is reduced by 8-10 years (which is comparable with the effects of smoking). The definite excess mortality below 22.5 kg/m(2) is due mainly to smoking-related diseases, and is not fully explained.

(This is why the research continues to show that cigarette smoking is worse than obesity for individuals, though the effect of obesity on the healthcare system is greater given the greater prevalence of obesity than smoking.)