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I know someone who (is trim, and managed to lose 10KG on their own) responded to Ozempic and other such drugs saying "It's not fair". Think about it.

pavel_lishin 2y ago
I wonder how they feel about people whose genetics naturally let them be slim without needing to exercise.
- tstrimple 2y ago
  I exploded in size as soon as I hit puberty and have never been able to take off the weight. I ate the same foods as my brother and we did roughly the same activities. Puberty was a night and day switch from scrawny kid to fat kid and it’s been a constant challenge since. My son is desperately trying to gain weight for a dirty bulk. He’ll put down a full pizza by himself in a night and has to force himself to keep eating more calories. When we go out to eat he picks meals based on what has the most calories. He’s still a rail and can’t keep on weight. And apart from lifting 2-3 times a week for roughly half an hour he’s completely sedentary so he’s no expending a tremendous amount of calories through other activity. For some people, staying thin is just their normal and not some diligent attention to what they consume.
TeMPOraL 2y ago
I know people who are slim and have roughly similar sentiment about the drug. Then again I also know people who'd happily deny stimulant medication to people with ADHD, because "it's not fair". Crabs in a bucket, I'd say. It doesn't help that in general, our culture still operates on the assumption that being fat is one's own fault and entirely under control of an average person, except for "legitimate medical excuses" like type 1 diabetes, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary. We've made progress on getting rid of such notions in case of depression, autism and ADHD, so maybe we'll do that with obesity too, in some distant future. Until then, people on Ozempic will hear plenty of "that's not fair", and "if you were a better person, you wouldn't need this". EDIT: Maybe we'll get obesity to be seen more like smoking: something that's easy to walk into, but beyond average person's ability to walk out of without help.
- andrewstuart 2y ago
  >> I know people who are slim and have roughly similar sentiment about the drug. It reveals that for some trim people, their underlying feelings all along have been a sense of personal value and positivity around the fact that they are trim and others fat. They feel unhappy that other might be admitted to the trim club.
- akira2501 2y ago
  > I know people who are slim Do you know that they were _always_ slim? > Crabs in a bucket My attitude has nothing to do with your consumption. I have a negative opinion of the drug. I don't have a negative opinion of people who feel desperate enough to use it. I mean, turn your thinking around, why is being thin so important to them that they would take a very powerful class of drug just to achieve it? Why then would they waste a minute of their time afterwards being worried about external opinions of how they achieved it? What's actually important here? Their health and appearance or the opinions of their peers? Are they altering their appearance solely for the opinion of their peers? > and "if you were a better person, you wouldn't need this". I think you've accidentally encoded that precise understanding here.
petesergeant 2y ago
I have had to work very, very, very hard to not be obese. Runs in the family, and I am literally always hungry. A slice of pizza sets off a reaction in my brain like cigarettes used to, and I get a huge buzz. Anything sweet makes me crave something else sweet 10x more. I've had periods of being bigger and periods of being smaller, but I think most people who'd meet me didn't immediately peg me as fat -- I have literally 20 years of weight measurements showing me bouncing between being in great shape and being a little bigger, the same 15kgs being gained and lost over and over. These drugs are a god-send for me, because I am no longer constantly thinking about food all the fucking time, and I can easily eat normal people portions without having to burn huge amounts of self control on it. The idea that the drugs are not "fair" is very strange thinking.

pavel_lishin 2y ago

I wonder how they feel about people whose genetics naturally let them be slim without needing to exercise.

tstrimple 2y ago
I exploded in size as soon as I hit puberty and have never been able to take off the weight. I ate the same foods as my brother and we did roughly the same activities. Puberty was a night and day switch from scrawny kid to fat kid and it’s been a constant challenge since. My son is desperately trying to gain weight for a dirty bulk. He’ll put down a full pizza by himself in a night and has to force himself to keep eating more calories. When we go out to eat he picks meals based on what has the most calories. He’s still a rail and can’t keep on weight. And apart from lifting 2-3 times a week for roughly half an hour he’s completely sedentary so he’s no expending a tremendous amount of calories through other activity. For some people, staying thin is just their normal and not some diligent attention to what they consume.

TeMPOraL 2y ago

I know people who are slim and have roughly similar sentiment about the drug. Then again I also know people who'd happily deny stimulant medication to people with ADHD, because "it's not fair". Crabs in a bucket, I'd say. It doesn't help that in general, our culture still operates on the assumption that being fat is one's own fault and entirely under control of an average person, except for "legitimate medical excuses" like type 1 diabetes, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary. We've made progress on getting rid of such notions in case of depression, autism and ADHD, so maybe we'll do that with obesity too, in some distant future. Until then, people on Ozempic will hear plenty of "that's not fair", and "if you were a better person, you wouldn't need this". EDIT: Maybe we'll get obesity to be seen more like smoking: something that's easy to walk into, but beyond average person's ability to walk out of without help.

andrewstuart 2y ago
>> I know people who are slim and have roughly similar sentiment about the drug. It reveals that for some trim people, their underlying feelings all along have been a sense of personal value and positivity around the fact that they are trim and others fat. They feel unhappy that other might be admitted to the trim club.
akira2501 2y ago
> I know people who are slim Do you know that they were _always_ slim? > Crabs in a bucket My attitude has nothing to do with your consumption. I have a negative opinion of the drug. I don't have a negative opinion of people who feel desperate enough to use it. I mean, turn your thinking around, why is being thin so important to them that they would take a very powerful class of drug just to achieve it? Why then would they waste a minute of their time afterwards being worried about external opinions of how they achieved it? What's actually important here? Their health and appearance or the opinions of their peers? Are they altering their appearance solely for the opinion of their peers? > and "if you were a better person, you wouldn't need this". I think you've accidentally encoded that precise understanding here.

petesergeant 2y ago

I have had to work very, very, very hard to not be obese. Runs in the family, and I am literally always hungry. A slice of pizza sets off a reaction in my brain like cigarettes used to, and I get a huge buzz. Anything sweet makes me crave something else sweet 10x more. I've had periods of being bigger and periods of being smaller, but I think most people who'd meet me didn't immediately peg me as fat -- I have literally 20 years of weight measurements showing me bouncing between being in great shape and being a little bigger, the same 15kgs being gained and lost over and over. These drugs are a god-send for me, because I am no longer constantly thinking about food all the fucking time, and I can easily eat normal people portions without having to burn huge amounts of self control on it. The idea that the drugs are not "fair" is very strange thinking.