3 ms·

New Drugs Could Help Treat Obesity. Could They End the Stigma, Too?

4 points by uptown 5y ago

fullstop 5y ago
> Obesity has stalked Marleen Greenleaf, 58, all of her life. Like most people with obesity, she tried diet after diet. But the weight always came back. Every body is different, I get that. In the end, though, it usually comes down to calories in vs calories out. Even this drug appears to suppress appetite. This is easy for me, a skinny person, to say. I've also seen how inactive some of my co-workers are and what they eat for lunch. Drugs for this are forcing the person to eat less instead of being more active, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. If activity was painful because of excessive weight before, then this is a fantastic thing if they increase their activity after losing some weight.
- fasteo 5y ago
  I wholeheartedly recommend "The hungry brain" [1] for a fascinating view on obesity, brain and genes. This is not to say that your post suggest that obesity is just "laziness". On the contrary, I wouldn't have recommended the book if that were the case. [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29243729-the-hungry-brain https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29243729-the-hungry-brai...
  - fullstop 5y ago
    Hey, thanks, I'll check it out! I'm not suggesting that obesity is primarily caused by people being lazy, and I'm glad that this point was clear. It's a touchy subject for a lot of people, and there are some medical legit conditions which can make weight loss extremely difficult. I know a few people who had extremely active life styles, and their diet matched accordingly. Because of injury or a change in career, they were suddenly no longer active but their diet did not change and their weight shot up very quickly, to the point where I didn't recognize one of them after not seeing them for a few years. Your intake has to match or be less than you expend. The tricky part is measuring this, and I know that I'm lucky that my body says "hey, you've eaten enough" and, for me, this changes based on how active I am. Not everyone has this feature.

4 points by uptown 5y ago

> Obesity has stalked Marleen Greenleaf, 58, all of her life. Like most people with obesity, she tried diet after diet. But the weight always came back. Every body is different, I get that. In the end, though, it usually comes down to calories in vs calories out. Even this drug appears to suppress appetite. This is easy for me, a skinny person, to say. I've also seen how inactive some of my co-workers are and what they eat for lunch. Drugs for this are forcing the person to eat less instead of being more active, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. If activity was painful because of excessive weight before, then this is a fantastic thing if they increase their activity after losing some weight.

fasteo 5y ago
I wholeheartedly recommend "The hungry brain" [1] for a fascinating view on obesity, brain and genes. This is not to say that your post suggest that obesity is just "laziness". On the contrary, I wouldn't have recommended the book if that were the case. [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29243729-the-hungry-brain https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29243729-the-hungry-brai...
- fullstop 5y ago
  Hey, thanks, I'll check it out! I'm not suggesting that obesity is primarily caused by people being lazy, and I'm glad that this point was clear. It's a touchy subject for a lot of people, and there are some medical legit conditions which can make weight loss extremely difficult. I know a few people who had extremely active life styles, and their diet matched accordingly. Because of injury or a change in career, they were suddenly no longer active but their diet did not change and their weight shot up very quickly, to the point where I didn't recognize one of them after not seeing them for a few years. Your intake has to match or be less than you expend. The tricky part is measuring this, and I know that I'm lucky that my body says "hey, you've eaten enough" and, for me, this changes based on how active I am. Not everyone has this feature.