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Welcome to weight loss discussion on HN, where any rational point like "eat less" or "calories in, calories out" gets downvoted and discussed to death. Apparen

by thefz 3y ago

Welcome to weight loss discussion on HN, where any rational point like "eat less" or "calories in, calories out" gets downvoted and discussed to death. Apparently for this crowd taking medicines is better than stopping stuffing yourself, because you know, if you take a medicine you can keep stuffing yourself. Oh, and also "it's more complicated than that" is always a nice escape from the harsh reality of thermodynamics.

Dagger2 3y ago
It gets downvoted because it's stupid and unhelpful. If your body has the wrong idea of how much fat it should store, it'll do its best to force you to eat more to get that fat, even if it makes you unhealthily overweight. Medication can fix the body's idea of how much fat it should have. Taking that medication doesn't mean you can keep stuffing yourself, it means you can finally _stop_ stuffing yourself, without your body incorrectly reporting that it's starving. The point of the medication is to make it possible to do the right thing.
petesergeant 3y ago
> if you take a medicine you can keep stuffing yourself That’s not at all how these new medicines work. You can’t (well, don’t) keep stuffing yourself on Wegovy (Ozempic) and Zepbound (Mounjaro), because you no longer spend all your time wanting to. These drugs work by switching off your desire to stuff yourself, not by allowing you to stuff yourself without weight gain. When you eat a big meal on these medicines, you feel satisfied and over-full, rather than like an addict who just got a partial hit and wants to ride it. I take an immensely helpful SSRI for GAD, that no amount of mindfulness, therapy, or healthy living seemed to touch. I take a GLP-1 agonist for a food compulsion I’ve had for 25 years and couldn’t shake. I never got properly fat, but fighting a desire to EAT ALL THE FOOD no longer occupies 50% of my mental energy. Have you ever come off nicotine? If so, you’ll know the little voice in your head that is continually telling you that you should have a cigarette for the first few days. You can’t shut it up. Hey, have a cigarette. You know what’s be good right now? A cigarette. Oh you just woke up? Have a cigarette. It fades eventually for nicotine. In my experience, and, in that of many/most fat people, you have that constantly for food, that food noise. GLP-1 agonists turn the food noise off.
- SV_BubbleTime 3y ago
  > I take an immensely helpful SSRI You and almost the rest of HN. I’m uninterested in users of a drug that alters your thinking telling me about other new drugs. No offense of of course. My point is you are already conditioned that “pills solve problems”.
agos 3y ago
it gets downvoted because there are tons of research telling it's more complicated than that. it's also a very poor point because it's presented as a solution without addressing the fact that it's really, really, really hard for people to eat less.
- SV_BubbleTime 3y ago
  Lots of things are really hard. We all know it’s easier to eat garbage than to exercise and eat healthy. We all know it’s more expensive. We all know it takes some degree of knowledge of what and when to eat. That isn’t the point. It’s that HARD and UNKNOWN is not faultless.

by thefz 3y ago

Dagger2 3y ago

It gets downvoted because it's stupid and unhelpful. If your body has the wrong idea of how much fat it should store, it'll do its best to force you to eat more to get that fat, even if it makes you unhealthily overweight. Medication can fix the body's idea of how much fat it should have. Taking that medication doesn't mean you can keep stuffing yourself, it means you can finally _stop_ stuffing yourself, without your body incorrectly reporting that it's starving. The point of the medication is to make it possible to do the right thing.

petesergeant 3y ago

> if you take a medicine you can keep stuffing yourself That’s not at all how these new medicines work. You can’t (well, don’t) keep stuffing yourself on Wegovy (Ozempic) and Zepbound (Mounjaro), because you no longer spend all your time wanting to. These drugs work by switching off your desire to stuff yourself, not by allowing you to stuff yourself without weight gain. When you eat a big meal on these medicines, you feel satisfied and over-full, rather than like an addict who just got a partial hit and wants to ride it. I take an immensely helpful SSRI for GAD, that no amount of mindfulness, therapy, or healthy living seemed to touch. I take a GLP-1 agonist for a food compulsion I’ve had for 25 years and couldn’t shake. I never got properly fat, but fighting a desire to EAT ALL THE FOOD no longer occupies 50% of my mental energy. Have you ever come off nicotine? If so, you’ll know the little voice in your head that is continually telling you that you should have a cigarette for the first few days. You can’t shut it up. Hey, have a cigarette. You know what’s be good right now? A cigarette. Oh you just woke up? Have a cigarette. It fades eventually for nicotine. In my experience, and, in that of many/most fat people, you have that constantly for food, that food noise. GLP-1 agonists turn the food noise off.

SV_BubbleTime 3y ago
> I take an immensely helpful SSRI You and almost the rest of HN. I’m uninterested in users of a drug that alters your thinking telling me about other new drugs. No offense of of course. My point is you are already conditioned that “pills solve problems”.

agos 3y ago

it gets downvoted because there are tons of research telling it's more complicated than that. it's also a very poor point because it's presented as a solution without addressing the fact that it's really, really, really hard for people to eat less.

SV_BubbleTime 3y ago
Lots of things are really hard. We all know it’s easier to eat garbage than to exercise and eat healthy. We all know it’s more expensive. We all know it takes some degree of knowledge of what and when to eat. That isn’t the point. It’s that HARD and UNKNOWN is not faultless.