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Are they the solution to obesity? I'm curious as to whether the weight stays off long term. 10 or more years at least or else it's just another bandaid. What

Are they the solution to obesity? I'm curious as to whether the weight stays off long term. 10 or more years at least or else it's just another bandaid. What we need is better access to nutritious food that doesn't take up so much of folk's scant downtime and tight income. I understand there's lots of reasons people are obese that aren't just laziness, but the drug doesn't solve those either. They're still not getting the nutrition they need. It's an improvement having poor nutrition with a lower BMI rather than poor nutrition and their current BMI, but not any kind of solution in my opinion.

icelancer 4y ago
People saying that you have to be on X drug forever to solve your problem as if it's some silver bullet argument think.... what exactly about Type I diabetics who need to inject insulin every day, forever, to solve their problem?
- msrenee 4y ago
  I get where you're coming from and want to clarify that my issue is not that you may have to stay on it for the rest of your life. I'm concerned that even while on the drug, your body could get accustomed to it, and you'd end up eating the same as before taking the drug. This happens a lot with bariatric surgery. I realize that that's due to the elasticity of the stomach, but the body adapts and with many medications that have weight loss as a side effect, your body eventually sorts itself out and you start gaining weight again.
HDThoreaun 4y ago
Depressed people take ssri’s their entire life. People with ADHD take adderal or the like. I don’t see any reason to think of obesity as a different type of disease. Some people just find it extremely difficult to keep off weight, it doesn’t matter what kind of food they’re eating. Yes they could eat less, just like I could keep my thermostat at 45 in the winter to save on my heating bill. But that’s not a realistic solution for most obese people.
- DangitBobby 4y ago
  It 100% matters what food you are eating, no matter who you are or what conditions you may have.
- lm28469 4y ago
  > I don’t see any reason to think of obesity as a different type of disease. Because it's man made and completely avoidable. Look at tobacco for example, it was the exact same thing until it wasn't because we woke up and decided to act on the issue Helping currently obese people to get out of the loop is good, breaking the system we built that make more and more people obese would be better. Also, being obese is only a part of the complications of eating shit and not exercising, the rest of the symptoms will catch up eventually, there are no magic pills
  - HDThoreaun 4y ago
    > breaking the system we built that make more and more people obese would be better. The system exists because people like it. I don't think it's possible to break it at this point considering how people normally react to having their life made worse. You can't stop people from eating what they want, but these drugs make it possible to change what they want.
    - lm28469 4y ago
      > You can't stop people from eating what they want, You can certainly stop advertising junk food to kids, that would be a good start. You can also regulate things you know, like not having your entire daily sugar requirement in a single can of soda Btw if you still eat the same garbage you'll still absolutely wreck your body, obese or not, you'll need a diabetes pill, a cardiovascular disease pill, a blood pressure pill, a kidney boosting pill, &c. You are what you eat, quite literally.
      - HDThoreaun 4y ago
        > You can also regulate things you know, like not having your entire daily sugar requirement in a single can of soda This will never happen in the US. I wouldn't mind, by anyone who votes for this would be dead in the water politically.
hansvm 4y ago
Not less nutritious food? Or is the argument that the [everything else] to calorie ratio should be higher?
- azdle 4y ago
  > Or is the argument that the [everything else] to calorie ratio should be higher? Yep, that. My understanding of this argument (which for the record, I'm loosely convinced is probably true, but probably isn't the only, and maybe not the main, factor) is that your body's hungry signal is it needs non-calorie nutrients, but our food is less nutrient dense so you get a lot more calories than your body is prepared to handle for a given quantity of nutrients.
  - sjfidsfkds 4y ago
    If this were right, you could cure your obesity by mixing the right multivitamin into your food? It seems like if fixing some nutrient deficiency were all it took, we’d have figured it out ages ago.
drewbug01 4y ago
> 10 or more years at least or else it's just another bandaid. I wonder what the long-term health outcomes would be between two groups: one group that was obese the whole time, and another group whose obesity was delayed by ten years. I suspect the latter group would end up having fewer negative health outcomes over the course of their life - 10 years of essentially “reduced wear and tear” on different systems in their bodies. That is to say - even if it’s a bandaid, it may still be really useful for public health.
- msrenee 4y ago
  I expect they would as well. However, I was replying to a comment that claimed this drug or something similar could be the solution to obesity and I have serious doubts about that. An improvement in health and longevity, even if it's substantial, is not the same as a solution. For example, if we discovered a drug that delayed severe illness/death from cancer for 5 years, it certainly wouldn't be called a solution to cancer. It would be amazing for sure, but that doesn't solve the cancer problem.

icelancer 4y ago

People saying that you have to be on X drug forever to solve your problem as if it's some silver bullet argument think.... what exactly about Type I diabetics who need to inject insulin every day, forever, to solve their problem?

msrenee 4y ago
I get where you're coming from and want to clarify that my issue is not that you may have to stay on it for the rest of your life. I'm concerned that even while on the drug, your body could get accustomed to it, and you'd end up eating the same as before taking the drug. This happens a lot with bariatric surgery. I realize that that's due to the elasticity of the stomach, but the body adapts and with many medications that have weight loss as a side effect, your body eventually sorts itself out and you start gaining weight again.

HDThoreaun 4y ago

Depressed people take ssri’s their entire life. People with ADHD take adderal or the like. I don’t see any reason to think of obesity as a different type of disease. Some people just find it extremely difficult to keep off weight, it doesn’t matter what kind of food they’re eating. Yes they could eat less, just like I could keep my thermostat at 45 in the winter to save on my heating bill. But that’s not a realistic solution for most obese people.

DangitBobby 4y ago
It 100% matters what food you are eating, no matter who you are or what conditions you may have.
lm28469 4y ago
> I don’t see any reason to think of obesity as a different type of disease. Because it's man made and completely avoidable. Look at tobacco for example, it was the exact same thing until it wasn't because we woke up and decided to act on the issue Helping currently obese people to get out of the loop is good, breaking the system we built that make more and more people obese would be better. Also, being obese is only a part of the complications of eating shit and not exercising, the rest of the symptoms will catch up eventually, there are no magic pills
- HDThoreaun 4y ago
  > breaking the system we built that make more and more people obese would be better. The system exists because people like it. I don't think it's possible to break it at this point considering how people normally react to having their life made worse. You can't stop people from eating what they want, but these drugs make it possible to change what they want.
  - lm28469 4y ago
    > You can't stop people from eating what they want, You can certainly stop advertising junk food to kids, that would be a good start. You can also regulate things you know, like not having your entire daily sugar requirement in a single can of soda Btw if you still eat the same garbage you'll still absolutely wreck your body, obese or not, you'll need a diabetes pill, a cardiovascular disease pill, a blood pressure pill, a kidney boosting pill, &c. You are what you eat, quite literally.
    - HDThoreaun 4y ago
      > You can also regulate things you know, like not having your entire daily sugar requirement in a single can of soda This will never happen in the US. I wouldn't mind, by anyone who votes for this would be dead in the water politically.

hansvm 4y ago

Not less nutritious food? Or is the argument that the [everything else] to calorie ratio should be higher?

azdle 4y ago
> Or is the argument that the [everything else] to calorie ratio should be higher? Yep, that. My understanding of this argument (which for the record, I'm loosely convinced is probably true, but probably isn't the only, and maybe not the main, factor) is that your body's hungry signal is it needs non-calorie nutrients, but our food is less nutrient dense so you get a lot more calories than your body is prepared to handle for a given quantity of nutrients.
- sjfidsfkds 4y ago
  If this were right, you could cure your obesity by mixing the right multivitamin into your food? It seems like if fixing some nutrient deficiency were all it took, we’d have figured it out ages ago.

drewbug01 4y ago

> 10 or more years at least or else it's just another bandaid. I wonder what the long-term health outcomes would be between two groups: one group that was obese the whole time, and another group whose obesity was delayed by ten years. I suspect the latter group would end up having fewer negative health outcomes over the course of their life - 10 years of essentially “reduced wear and tear” on different systems in their bodies. That is to say - even if it’s a bandaid, it may still be really useful for public health.

msrenee 4y ago
I expect they would as well. However, I was replying to a comment that claimed this drug or something similar could be the solution to obesity and I have serious doubts about that. An improvement in health and longevity, even if it's substantial, is not the same as a solution. For example, if we discovered a drug that delayed severe illness/death from cancer for 5 years, it certainly wouldn't be called a solution to cancer. It would be amazing for sure, but that doesn't solve the cancer problem.