Wegovy - A weight loss drug that is proven effective (with side effects) hits the markets, starts philosophical debate

[Belize]

 

[katt_goddess]

Since this thread got bumped up and is active again, I do have an honest question for those on the boards that have admitted to being part of this weight loss experiment. IF they feel like answering naturally.

There's been some reports that people on wegovy have actually experienced eating disorders while on the drug. It works but they end up suffering from variations of anorexia or bulimia. Has anyone here felt they've experienced any issues like that? 

I'm asking out of psychological curiosity. 

[Blackrose321]

On 10/4/2024 at 4:16 PM, katt_goddess said:

Since this thread got bumped up and is active again, I do have an honest question for those on the boards that have admitted to being part of this weight loss experiment. IF they feel like answering naturally.

There's been some reports that people on wegovy have actually experienced eating disorders while on the drug. It works but they end up suffering from variations of anorexia or bulimia. Has anyone here felt they've experienced any issues like that? 

I'm asking out of psychological curiosity. 

I know several people who are on it now and none of them have reported having this issue, or any issue for that matter. One has been on it for over a year and has type 2, the other has been on it for nearly a year and has PCOS. Both have only positive things to say about it.

[Belize]

On 10/4/2024 at 4:16 PM, katt_goddess said:

Since this thread got bumped up and is active again, I do have an honest question for those on the boards that have admitted to being part of this weight loss experiment. IF they feel like answering naturally.

There's been some reports that people on wegovy have actually experienced eating disorders while on the drug. It works but they end up suffering from variations of anorexia or bulimia. Has anyone here felt they've experienced any issues like that? 

I'm asking out of psychological curiosity. 

 

I find the drugs to be subtle. It's actually NOT the miracle drug that people make it out to be. People are wrong to assume if you start the drug, then it alone will cause significant weight loss. Actually, if you just take the drug and do nothing else, it's likely to be ineffective. You have to make an effort to reduce your caloric intake. 

That's why the "it's cheating" take does not make sense. It does not replace dieting but rather makes dieting a lot easier. 

 

I've never heard of it causing anorexia or bulimia. I *have* heard it being experimented on to see if it can be used as a treatment for binge eating disorder. There's some potential there for it to be a treatment for certain eating disorders. 

Edited October 7 by Belize

[katt_goddess]

9 hours ago, Blackrose321 said:

I know several people who are on it now and none of them have reported having this issue, or any issue for that matter. One has been on it for over a year and has type 2, the other has been on it for nearly a year and has PCOS. Both have only positive things to say about it.

 

4 hours ago, Belize said:

 

I find the drugs to be subtle. It's actually NOT the miracle drug that people make it out to be. People are wrong to assume if you start the drug, then it alone will cause significant weight loss. Actually, if you just take the drug and do nothing else, it's likely to be ineffective. You have to make an effort to reduce your caloric intake. 

That's why the "it's cheating" take does not make sense. It does not replace dieting but rather makes dieting a lot easier. 

 

I've never heard of it causing anorexia or bulimia. I *have* heard it being experimented on to see if it can be used as a treatment for binge eating disorder. There's some potential there for it to be a treatment for certain eating disorders. 

It was a brief news story on the world news a few weeks ago about some people claiming to have experienced a complete change in how they looked at food and not in a good way. But it was said that it appeared to be a relatively rare thing. Since I know there are people on the boards that are either taking it themselves or know people who are, I figured I'd ask if anyone here had noticed any sort of significant changes in their mental health regarding food. We'd be too small of a group to actually be significant but I was curious just the same. 

My absolutely unproven hypothesis is that for those that did experience anorexia specifically, they may have already had underlying OCD that got triggered by the combination of the drug interacting on their own brain chemicals and the need to watch/reduce calories. 

[scoobdog]

42 minutes ago, katt_goddess said:

 

It was a brief news story on the world news a few weeks ago about some people claiming to have experienced a complete change in how they looked at food and not in a good way. But it was said that it appeared to be a relatively rare thing. Since I know there are people on the boards that are either taking it themselves or know people who are, I figured I'd ask if anyone here had noticed any sort of significant changes in their mental health regarding food. We'd be too small of a group to actually be significant but I was curious just the same. 

My absolutely unproven hypothesis is that for those that did experience anorexia specifically, they may have already had underlying OCD that got triggered by the combination of the drug interacting on their own brain chemicals and the need to watch/reduce calories. 

Is this perhaps related to the stories of gastroparesis that have been circulating for about a year and a half now?  It isn't an eating disorder, per se, but it is a known side effect of the semaglutide family of drugs.

[katt_goddess]

1 hour ago, scoobdog said:

Is this perhaps related to the stories of gastroparesis that have been circulating for about a year and a half now?  It isn't an eating disorder, per se, but it is a known side effect of the semaglutide family of drugs.

Reading that, the part about bulimia may actually be related to that rather than any psycho/chemical interaction. But not the ones that claimed they went totally non-food time. 

[scoobdog]

47 minutes ago, katt_goddess said:

Reading that, the part about bulimia may actually be related to that rather than any psycho/chemical interaction. But not the ones that claimed they went totally non-food time. 

I’m not too sure about the latter; I haven’t heard those claims so they’re not widespread enough to generate a correlation.

[Blackrose321]

16 hours ago, katt_goddess said:

It was a brief news story on the world news a few weeks ago about some people claiming to have experienced a complete change in how they looked at food and not in a good way. But it was said that it appeared to be a relatively rare thing. Since I know there are people on the boards that are either taking it themselves or know people who are, I figured I'd ask if anyone here had noticed any sort of significant changes in their mental health regarding food. We'd be too small of a group to actually be significant but I was curious just the same. 

My absolutely unproven hypothesis is that for those that did experience anorexia specifically, they may have already had underlying OCD that got triggered by the combination of the drug interacting on their own brain chemicals and the need to watch/reduce calories. 

It's important to note that you probably shouldn't be on these shots if you have an ED, whether it's been diagnosed or not. Even if you have no official diagnosis, you would already know if your eating habits are, at the very least, disordered. But without a diagnosis, it would naturally be easier to lie when asked about your medical history in order to get what you want. Outside known issues that we can test for (PCOS, hypothyroidism, etc.), it's hard to identify the cause of obesity - did this patient gain weight because they binge/purge, or because they experienced a trauma and put on weight afterward? Did they make nutritional mistakes that compounded over the years or have they been binging?

This is unfortunately the case with a lot of things. My dad, for example, was put on Vicodin 10+ years ago but he's been an alcoholic since his teens. He really shouldn't have been a candidate for any hard drugs unless they exhausted other avenues first, which didn't happen with him because they didn't know about his past alcohol abuse. I guarantee you that he lies every time this question is asked on a medical form so they didn't hesitate when writing the script. So yeah, I could see someone lying to get put on these shots and consequently experiencing worsening symptoms of a pre-existing condition of some sort.

I've also read that some people who previously suffered from "food noise" have experienced improvement in that area. There definitely seems to be a wide range in reactions.

[Sodakandy]

The few people I know who's on it had not said  they experienced problems. 

I don't think it's wrong to use it because it's never one reason why people use it. It's usually for a variety of reasons.