Without ozempic my brain wanted food 24/7. I was always thinking about my next meal. To the point of not being able to concentrate. This is more than any will power can resist in the long haul. @A DiabetesTeam Member It's not as simple as you make it!! If it was that simple obesity would not be the issue it is! Many have the will power to study, keep house, go to work, go to Gym, the will power to maintain a happy demeanor in the face of adversity. Just not resist their own brain telling them they need to eat.

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A Diabete...

@A DiabetesTeam Member you nailed it

I personally could resist my cravings or whatever it is and I lost the 70 lbs myself - I could do it so "I" don't need the meds

If someone else like yourself couldn't and you know you couldn't so you took the Meds that's the way it Should work

Where the problem lies is there is some number of people who can not do it themselves but they don't want to take the meds either and they go uncontrolled until it's far too late

And that is their choice as well, but "someone" should at least tell them the truth about what their inaction is going to result in without any consideration as to how "hurtful or distressing" the information may be

And our doctors just won't do that - they won't talk straight to you because if they did we would never see question about whether "should I take this that my doctor is suggesting", because (they) already would have been given the "alternative" so the questions might instead be "is the doctor lying", not why should I take X with all the side effects

The question suggests that they have No Clue as to what happens if they don't take the Med - they seem to believe their is some easy option with nothing from them And No Meds

Because in just about every case, nobody told "them" what the Side Effects would be "if they didn't take them" so at least then they could weigh the Pro's/Con's with ALL the information they needed

You can't make an informed decision when you only know half the story

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A Diabete...

@A DiabetesTeam Member you understand and you take the meds because you know what you should be doing, but as you have stated, you aren't and you are using the meds to "assist" (or as a crutch in your words)

And that's the way things should work, you are fully informed and made the best decision for "you" knowing full well the consequences from either using or not using the meds

But too many are not willing, not capable or completely unable to do it without the medication but they also believe that not only is the medication not needed, but that "dark forces" are at work trying to force them to take something dangerous, that has no benefit other than making doctors and drug companies rich

And a big part of that reason is, nobody has sat them down and told them "this is what Will Happen" if you don't take the meds or don't lose the weight, or don't start eating healthy and impress upon them that "I am talking about YOU specifically because of your Medical Conditions and not Bob next door who has completely different circumstances"

Then if (they) want to shave years off their life and lose function at least they can't come back later and say "nobody told me"

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A Diabete...

I don’t think it’s to do with will power - at least not for most people. Trying to give up a habit using will power is like driving a car with the hand brake on.

Quite simply people must want, REALLY want to drop a habit. If they can convince themselves that they really want to drop a habit, then that’s three quarters of the battle won.

I eventually dropped the cigarette habit because I convinced myself I really wanted to. When that happened the rest was easy and to this day I don’t even get a twinge of desire to smoke. It took me 13 attempts to get there.

With alcohol I’ve not convinced myself I really want to give up although I don’t drink much now I’m still at risk of falling through that trapdoor.

Ditto with low carbs. If I really wanted to stay on very low carbs there’d be no problem. There would be no yearning for naughty food but there is and that’s because I’ve not convinced myself that I really want to go down that road.

I don’t like the narrative that we have now, where everyone is a victim and helpless and it’s not their fault - it’s biology or psychology (insert here a favourite get out clause). This sort of attitude keeps people dependent on the experts and others that are making a good income out of people’s dependencies and imo it’s slowly starving society and people of the will to do things for themselves.

I take 40mg Gliclazide (a sulfonylurea) a day and 500mg Metformin (which is not as effective as the Gliclazide but does sometimes stop the liver dumping too much glucose) and I exercise and do very low carb diet most of the time. The easy option for me would be to get the doctor to increase my meds so I could eat more carbs and not have to do the hard work.

My suggestion is to use the meds as an aid in diabetes management not as a crutch to avoid doing what we should be doing.

I won’t pretend that I’m there yet, not by a long chalk, but I’ve got my weight down from 14st 10lbs (206lbs) to where I was in my late twenties 11st 00lbs or less (154lbs) lt took a long time to get to that weight down (ie in phases) but the slower you do it (unless there’s a urgent medical reason to do it faster) the more difficult it is to put that weight back on again.

So the take away message for all of us it that we must be responsible for all our actions and not blame other people or agencies for our situation.

Being responsible can be very liberating!

Ozempic is like a cigarette patch; if you dont make the effort; it will not work. Diabetics get a smaller dose than the weight loss crowd too. It is only a miracle if you do the work.