A surprise amount of Brits say they would take anti-obesity drugs if they were given to them for free on the NHS.
Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonist are a family of medications that help manage blood sugar in patients with type 2 diabetes, but have also been found to help obese people lose weight.
The drugs include Mounjaro, also known as tirzepatide, and semaglutide, which is sold under the brand names Wegovy, Ozempic and Rybelsus.
The survey of 1,078 adults, carried out by Ipsos, found 24% of people would use weight-loss jabs if they were provided for free by the health service.
When asked about their own body image, four in 10 told the survey they think they are overweight or obese.
This is a good thing, I’m glad the public is accepting of this.
It’s time we move away from the Christian work ethic view of obesity as a personal and moral failing and follow the science - if you are fat, it’s mostly genetic because you are simply wired to be hungry more than your friends and these drugs fix that.
https://www.healthline.com/health/obesity/is-obesity-genetic-or-environmental#genetics
According to a 2022 clinical reviewTrusted Source, more than 500 obesity-related genes have been identified in humans.
These genes can affect body weight in many ways. They can create changesTrusted Source in insulin metabolism, inflammatory responses, blood pressure, fat deposition, and the level of circulating fat in the bloodstream. They can cause you to want to consume more energy (i.e., food) but can prevent you from using it effectively.
Without them your choice is to be miserable (with all the MH outcomes that follow this long-term like depression) and hungry all the time, or to be fat and miserable due to obesity related illness like heart disease etc.
Instead of all that, we can simply block excess hunger, a trait once probably evolutionarily crucial yet no longer useful in the world of excess.
I’m someone who was overweight all my life until I started vaping, nicotine appetite suppression changed my life, I’m now skinny and by many of my ex-partners’ description pretty fit, to be treated not as some fat slob but as a human being that’s actually pleasant and even attractive is life-changing to my mental health and self-esteem, no longer is my body some wreck beyond salvation out of the gate but something I care about and for.
I hope for the same feeling for many others may come thanks to these exciting developments.
And not to get too soapboxy, but as usual, it turns out that blaming the “sick” for the “disease” was wrong and telling people to “eat less” or “exercise more” is as nonsensical as telling someone with ADHD to simply “focus” and “create habits” instead of giving them the amphetamine they need to make up for the low levels of dopamine they have so they can do these things - or even this country’s favourite passtime of denying gender dysphoria exists and that puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries fix it with non-existant regret ratss, as if simply fixing a patient’s problem with treatment is a crime.
Poll reveals surprising number of editors don’t know how to use the word ‘amount’.
Right?!
When asked about their own body image, four in 10 told the survey they think they are overweight or obese.
Government stats from January 12th, 2023:
26% of adults in England are obese and a further 38% are overweight. This briefing covers statistics on obesity among adults and children in the UK
So about the number of people who are overweight think they are?
40% think they are overweight or obese, 64% actually are.
This is using BMI, which while the vast majority of these people are at the very least overweight it will be missing all the unhealthy skinny fat people.
I wish they would switch to a system that takes account of waist/hip ratio as if you do not have a narrower waist than hips (with a bigger differential if you are a woman) you are carrying more fat than you should be and are also at a risk of a variety of “fat” people illnesses such as heart attacks, diabetes, etc. despite your weight being in a normal range as you lack the muscle mass and/or skeletal mass for your height
The actual number of people who need to sort out their diet and exercise is just shocking.
“Idiopathic obesity”
The sort of diet that makes you overweight or obese causes loads of other problems. This might keep people out of the doctors in the morning for weight problems but they’ll be there after lunch for heart disease or cancer.
I don’t think it’s the same as weight loss pills in the '80s
This seems to be you crave age rather than simply increasing the rate at which you burn fat.
Many users describe an end to cravings and a reduction of consumption too.
Mind this only persists while using the drug, but it may actually keep you from eating the “sort of diet”
I wonder how much it would cost to fund a nation wide programme of heavily subsidised gym usage. Bring the price right down to say £20 a month per user. Provide an allocation of personal trainers and physiotherapists. Create a vocational qualification if they don’t exist. Expand the availability of gyms so that they are convenient.
Surely the long term health benefits (in addition to the benefits for your mental health) are going to be cheaper than jabbing yourself with drugs?
Gym doesn’t help the weight issue. You gain weight in the gym, you lose it in the kitchen.
It depends on how you work out. Although I agree pairing with a healthy diet is a must.
No it really doesn’t. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSSkDos2hzo
The YouTube cartoon must be right then 👍. Glad it helped you to eat less.
I’m just speaking for myself here, so not saying this is true for everyone or even many people, but the cost of the gym isn’t the biggest barrier for me.
I like what you say about expanding availability - there isn’t a gym within (reasonable) walking distance of me. I think facilities being in communities makes a difference.
However, one of the biggest barriers to me is childcare. Somewhere where I could take them to do their own activities while I worked out would make it far more likely that I use it, and I suspect this is the case for others. My partner works long, unpredictable hours, so I can’t sign up for the weekly classes (that I did before having children) as I don’t know that he’ll be around to look after them.
I also have chronic health issues, which don’t prevent me exercising all the time, but there are days where I cannot leave my bed because of migraine, so again, committing to something regular is difficult. (Again, persoal to me, but I’m not alone in having a chronic condition.)
I tend to walk everywhere I can as accessing formal exercise has too many barriers for me, so I do have an acceptable level of fitness, but I miss doing classes as I found these really motivating.
Sorry for the long reply - I don’t disagree that price and access are issues, but there are more besides that I think need to be addressed. Stress and available time being factors in additional to the others I mentioned.
I also think there are issues with the weight loss drugs besides cost, one of those being the need to stay on them longterm. That’s not even getting into using weight as the sole metric of health.
As someone who has kids, the only time I can get my workout in is after they’re asleep (or before they wake up, but I’m NOT a morning person). I set up a gym in my garage because at that point, driving to a gym and back adds too much time so close to bedtime and also I’d feel weird about leaving my wife and kids alone at night.
After Covid, I got really out of shape, and one day, I just couldn’t take it anymore and took some steps to getting back into a routine. I have a bench press I got off nextdoor for cheap, adjustable dumbbells (not so cheap but also got off nextdoor practically new for much cheaper than retail) and a treadmill I got for free. I got some gym flooring mats from Ross for ~$60. All in all maybe a $500-$600 investment. It’s been well worth it though. I feel much better and for the first time in a long time, I can stand to look at myself in the mirror. Finding the time especially as a parent is never easy, but you’ve gotta find something that works for you. We need to move our bodies. We weren’t meant to sit around all day, and frankly, I don’t think injecting yourself with these drugs is the answer to weight gain.
Very good points. I walk to our gym and I suppose that is a luxury. Even better if everyone had a place they could easily walk to. And also +1 on the child care point.
Recently there’s a lot of research about weight lost, and some of them found exercising isn’t a great way to lose weight, because when you do it regularly your body learn to adapt to the energy required for that activity. They found controlling what you eat is the better way, but i do know some people can’t lose weight that way either, no matter how hard they try. So this solution could be specifically aimed for that. Still, exercise is good for health though, pretty sure these jab will not have the benefits from exercising, and someone could very well rebound if they eat the same way that make them gain weight.
Also i don’t think the accessibility of gym is the key, exercise cost nothing if you go out and jog or ride a bike.
The trick is to fit exercise into a routine. Work + sleep + family + study can add up to all of the available hours. Subsidised gym won’t help with that.
Eating well: that also takes time. And planning. This is where we should be focusing our attention if we want to improve our country’s health. Not weight loss jabs and not subsidising gyms.
The trick is to fit exercise into a routine.
That’s not true, again he said literally the opposite - routinely exercising makes you lose less weight, not more. If anything this would suggest that exercising at random would probably make you lose weight more, just as an unfit person taking a run gets more tired faster than someone who does it every day.
Please actually read what the comment you’re replying to says.
Exercise does not make you lose weight, only eating less does, and the reason some people eat more is because they are genetically more hungry, these meds fix this, it’s that simple.
but the gobmint isnt allowed to compete with the free market!!! its not fair!!!
or something
yankee peanut gallery here and these things seem like a miracle but as a needlephobe. nope. nope. nope.
