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Gaining weight and keeping it is a choice. There are a myriad of solutions some simple like diet and exercise, some more complex like TRT and glp-1 drugs. I ga

Gaining weight and keeping it is a choice. There are a myriad of solutions some simple like diet and exercise, some more complex like TRT and glp-1 drugs. I gained a good amount of weight since I had kids, went from a healthy weight of 210lbs at 6'1 to 240lbs at 45 years old. I always worked out so I had good muscle mass but my diet was terrible, often consuming a pint of ice cream at night once the kids went to sleep. I got on TRT and compound semaglutide and now I am 215lbs with abs and in the best shape of my life. I recently benched 405lbs at 46 years old. Prior to this I could do 2 pull ups if I was lucky I can rep 10 - 15 now. My stress levels are down, my blood pressure is in a healthy range for the first time in decades. I go to the gym 5 days a week, sometimes 6 and I love it. There are always solutions, we don't have to accept a slow decay.

j3s 1y ago
> Gaining weight and keeping it is a choice for many people, it is not. you have enough free time, energy, and money to fix your weight issue - many people are missing at least one of these factors, oftentimes more. there are more complicating factors here too - try telling someone taking lithium that gaining weight is a choice. or birth control, or SSRIs... the list goes on. yeah, it's pretty easy for you - a middle aged wealthy guy - with enough free time to go to the gym 5-6 days a week - to maintain your weight. most people aren't in that situation.
- wonderwonder 1y ago
  There are always excuses. Everything is too hard until you actually do it. Your argument is akin to being told that on average Women are shorter than men and then you say, well I know a tall woman. There are exceptions but the vast majority of us can accomplish this, we just don't prioritize it. You get what you prioritize.
  - tidbits 1y ago
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias
    - AstroBen 1y ago
      Your weight is 100% within your control. There is no luck like there is in business, a career, investments or overall health Survivorship bias is irrelevant
      - const_cast 1y ago
        Choice isn't binary, it's a continuous distribution. There are thousands of factors influencing the power you have over your weight. That's why I'm thin and I don't try at all, and other people are overweight and cry from trying so hard.
        AstroBen 1y ago
        Are we in agreement that for someone without specific medical issues, gaining weight is caused by eating excess calories? What other factors influence that outside of you making the choice to eat something?
        TFYS 1y ago
        Can you just make the choice to solve P versus NP? Or climb K2? There's a lot of factors that affect a persons ability to make any choice. Willpower, knowledge and experiences, time, intelligence, etc.
        const_cast 1y ago
        There's thousands of factors that influence you making that choice, some factors in your blood, some from your childhood, and some from how your day went. I'm very lucky that the stars aligned, so I don't have to try at all. Really, zero effort. Others have to try very, very hard every day of their life. They need to think about what they're eating constantly. Do you know when I think about what I'm eating? Never. I just eat whatever I want, whenever I want.
    - wonderwonder 1y ago
      Respectfully, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationalization_(psychology) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationalization_(psychology)
  - j3s 1y ago
    > we just don't prioritize it it's a lot easier to prioritize it when you have time, money, and energy. that's my whole point. you are in a position that enables you to manage your weight effectively. many people are not.
- AstroBen 1y ago
  I've spent years at a healthy BMI when the pandemic was ongoing while getting no exercise. Didn't gain a pound. Weight is all diet. You don't need free time, energy, or money to fix it
  - j3s 1y ago
    i have always maintained a slightly underweight body, well into my 30s, despite limited exercise and unrestricted eating. i personally know many people who struggle immensely, despite eating far less than me. for me, it takes exactly 0 effort to remain thin. zero. i literally don't even think about it. other people count every single calorie they eat, exercise religiously, take weight loss medication, and still have trouble managing their weight. but hunger is a primal thing - some people are far hungrier far more often than other people, for many reasons - and yes, it takes energy to resist hunger. money and free time aren't required, no, but it definitely helps your odds.
    - AstroBen 1y ago
      > i have always maintained a slightly underweight body, well into my 30s, despite limited exercise and unrestricted eating I'm the same, but not because my bodies special. I can very easily gain weight and actually have really bad self control around food.. especially snacks I pretty recently moved to the US and it infuriates me that so many stores only have 200g+ family-size packs of chips/crisps/whatever you call them.. I want them, but not a huge pack, so I just don't buy them. I know if I keep them at home I'll eat the whole bag in a day I eat mostly nutritionally dense, unprocessed food because even though I hate cooking I found ways to bulk cook tasty meals and keep them in the fridge/freezer for when I'm lazy and would otherwise order shit I have breakfast at 1-2pm.. which makes it really hard to overeat in such a short time window before bed. Not for any specific reason I just have coffee before then and it blunts my hunger I don't think about it either.. but so many of my habits I've built up, if I look at it, make it really hard for me to get fat. I'm guessing you have similar things "choices" are as much lifestyle design (whether you meant to do it or not) as they are pure willpower. They're all things in your control that can make it so you don't rely on just resisting hunger
  - 1y ago
derektank 1y ago
>I got on TRT and compound semaglutide >There are always solutions, we don't have to accept a slow decay. I find it funny that you say there are always solutions when two of the solutions (or if you bristle at referring to them as solutions in themselves, certainly pieces of a solution) you mention have only really existed for the last twenty years. Semaglutide obviously was only approved by the FDA recently, but the first transdermal/non-injectable Testosterone (which I'm guessing is the form you're taking) replacement therapy was only approved in the late 90's. Most people today, even in developed countries, still can't afford Semaglutide. I agree with your broader message that people shouldn't give up and should seek to leverage every resource available to them, but there's a faint whiff of moralizing in your comment that seems unearned when it's based upon the happy fortune of living in an era of medical marvels.
- wonderwonder 1y ago
  Perhaps I should have said: "There are always solutions now" Of course these are new medications but they are widely available. I am not referring to history I am talking about the present. Would think that was relatively obvious, I may have been wrong, which, fair enough. I'm on injectable testosterone, give myself a shot every week. Semaglutide (compounded not name brand) is relatively affordable. I spend $120 a month on it. If I did the work I could probably get it for cheaper. Edit: I took a look, appears I can get it for ~$40 a month if I want.
thor24 1y ago
How were you able to find time for gym consistenly with kids + work? Is this because work is relatively stable? Right now at age 32, I haven't been able to go to gym consistently mainly because work takes so much out of my life/time.
- nataliste 1y ago
  Create a home gym if you're wealthy; buy a set of resistance bands (total cost: $30) and run if you're not (or just frugal and utilitarian). Wake up an hour or two earlier than when your kids do and do your cardio/lifting then. It takes about two weeks to adjust to the decrease in sleep, but the well-being that exercise provides in my experience more than offsets it.
blackjack_ 1y ago
> Gaining weight and keeping it is a choice. You are taking an anabolic androgenic steroid. Of course it will help you have muscles and be in "better" shape that when you weren't taking it. Same with the GLP1 drug and weight. You are literally taking drugs to lower your weight and drugs improve your muscle mass. I'm glad you are happy with the way you look now, but setting the bar to "must take drugs to make your body look a specific way that most bodies do not / have not at 45+" is literally part of the problem (or transhumanist). But calling it a choice everyone can make (hundreds of dollars per month plus all the doctors / etc plus all the gym time) is a bit far fetched.
- nataliste 1y ago
  I'm not on GLP1 agonists or TRT. I eat primarily legumes, grain, and dairy. I don't go to the gym. I lift using $30 resistance bands and get my cardio from running and a rowing machine that I used my annual discretionary budget on. And I don't need the rowing machine. He's right. Humans do homeostasis very well. If you stop exercising at all ("rest days"), your brain normalizes that and creates inertia against resuming exercise. Like all good habits, the point is to make it automatic and the default rather than a choice. Once you start exercising and make it a non-negotiable daily habit, it becomes progressively harder to stop exercising than to start. Most people that fall out of exercise habits do so primarily because of injuries rather than the failure of the habit itself. You just have to prioritize it ahead of or even alongside other habits (e.g. exercise while watching TV, take the stairs) until it becomes automatic.
- wonderwonder 1y ago
  Are the people forced into taking statins, high blood pressure medications, etc. due to obesity related issues also “transhumanist”? We all have to make our own choices but obesity is a choice and the repercussions and treatments are often far worse than the treatments I have selected to avoid it. Note: You can get glp1 medication for $40 a month if you look for it
moduspol 1y ago
+1 for GLP-1s and TRT. I went from 220lbs to 160lbs with the help of a GLP-1, but then had to stop due to gallstones and pancreatitis. Now I'm on TRT (under the guidance of a physician) and trying hard to do low carb and high protein. So far so good. And energy level is much higher.
mancerayder 1y ago
Aren't there long-term side effects from TRT? You can never stop as your body ceases to produce T, increased cancer risk, hair loss ?
- wonderwonder 1y ago
  Respectfully, what are the long term side effects of being obese? Increased risk of cancer, heart disease, etc.
  - mancerayder 1y ago
    I wasn't making a statement, I was asking if that's indeed true. Obviously obesity and low T are both pretty bad from a quality of life perspective (if not life expectancy)
    - wonderwonder 1y ago
      Apologies for coming off poorly. Trt doses are generally well tolerated. Blood work is recommended though. Higher doses over time definitely can lead to very bad things including an enlarged heart. I take 1 mg of test cypionate a week. It’s been absolutely life changing. I will never come off of it and never want to. I inject myself once a week. It’s positively affected every aspect of my life from work to family to personal satisfaction. At 45 i looked 50. At 46 I look 40.
      - mancerayder 1y ago
        Energy boost alone makes it sound pretty appealing.
aagha 1y ago
Did you have low testosterone to begin with? What was it before TRT and what is it after?
- wonderwonder 1y ago
  Mid 200s before, mid 800s now
senectus1 1y ago
Its more complicated than that. I turned 50 about 6 months ago, I'm 6"2 and dont drink alcohol, dont drink soda, dont eat breakfast and do 45-60 mins of gym weights and cardio 4-5 days a week. I have never been an over eater or a non stop snacker, I do fast food maybe once or twice a week. I drink mostly water. I just cannot seem to get my gut fat down. I swing from 93-96 kg for no real discernible reasons. There is something else going on, in my teens till about 35/40 i have always been whip thin. I dont think we have the answers yet.. so statements like "Gaining weight and keeping it is a choice." is just absurd.
- wonderwonder 1y ago
  You are 50, you have low testosterone. You should get tested and then get on trt. Don’t let them tell you that you have normal testosterone for a man your age, you don’t want the testosterone levels of a 50 year old, you want the levels of a 20 year old. Get on testosterone and the weight will fall off. Your choice. Best of luck.

j3s 1y ago

> Gaining weight and keeping it is a choice for many people, it is not. you have enough free time, energy, and money to fix your weight issue - many people are missing at least one of these factors, oftentimes more. there are more complicating factors here too - try telling someone taking lithium that gaining weight is a choice. or birth control, or SSRIs... the list goes on. yeah, it's pretty easy for you - a middle aged wealthy guy - with enough free time to go to the gym 5-6 days a week - to maintain your weight. most people aren't in that situation.

wonderwonder 1y ago
There are always excuses. Everything is too hard until you actually do it. Your argument is akin to being told that on average Women are shorter than men and then you say, well I know a tall woman. There are exceptions but the vast majority of us can accomplish this, we just don't prioritize it. You get what you prioritize.
- tidbits 1y ago
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias
  - AstroBen 1y ago
    Your weight is 100% within your control. There is no luck like there is in business, a career, investments or overall health Survivorship bias is irrelevant
    - const_cast 1y ago
      Choice isn't binary, it's a continuous distribution. There are thousands of factors influencing the power you have over your weight. That's why I'm thin and I don't try at all, and other people are overweight and cry from trying so hard.
      - AstroBen 1y ago
        Are we in agreement that for someone without specific medical issues, gaining weight is caused by eating excess calories? What other factors influence that outside of you making the choice to eat something?
        TFYS 1y ago
        Can you just make the choice to solve P versus NP? Or climb K2? There's a lot of factors that affect a persons ability to make any choice. Willpower, knowledge and experiences, time, intelligence, etc.
        const_cast 1y ago
        There's thousands of factors that influence you making that choice, some factors in your blood, some from your childhood, and some from how your day went. I'm very lucky that the stars aligned, so I don't have to try at all. Really, zero effort. Others have to try very, very hard every day of their life. They need to think about what they're eating constantly. Do you know when I think about what I'm eating? Never. I just eat whatever I want, whenever I want.
  - wonderwonder 1y ago
    Respectfully, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationalization_(psychology) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationalization_(psychology)
- j3s 1y ago
  > we just don't prioritize it it's a lot easier to prioritize it when you have time, money, and energy. that's my whole point. you are in a position that enables you to manage your weight effectively. many people are not.
AstroBen 1y ago
I've spent years at a healthy BMI when the pandemic was ongoing while getting no exercise. Didn't gain a pound. Weight is all diet. You don't need free time, energy, or money to fix it
- j3s 1y ago
  i have always maintained a slightly underweight body, well into my 30s, despite limited exercise and unrestricted eating. i personally know many people who struggle immensely, despite eating far less than me. for me, it takes exactly 0 effort to remain thin. zero. i literally don't even think about it. other people count every single calorie they eat, exercise religiously, take weight loss medication, and still have trouble managing their weight. but hunger is a primal thing - some people are far hungrier far more often than other people, for many reasons - and yes, it takes energy to resist hunger. money and free time aren't required, no, but it definitely helps your odds.
  - AstroBen 1y ago
    > i have always maintained a slightly underweight body, well into my 30s, despite limited exercise and unrestricted eating I'm the same, but not because my bodies special. I can very easily gain weight and actually have really bad self control around food.. especially snacks I pretty recently moved to the US and it infuriates me that so many stores only have 200g+ family-size packs of chips/crisps/whatever you call them.. I want them, but not a huge pack, so I just don't buy them. I know if I keep them at home I'll eat the whole bag in a day I eat mostly nutritionally dense, unprocessed food because even though I hate cooking I found ways to bulk cook tasty meals and keep them in the fridge/freezer for when I'm lazy and would otherwise order shit I have breakfast at 1-2pm.. which makes it really hard to overeat in such a short time window before bed. Not for any specific reason I just have coffee before then and it blunts my hunger I don't think about it either.. but so many of my habits I've built up, if I look at it, make it really hard for me to get fat. I'm guessing you have similar things "choices" are as much lifestyle design (whether you meant to do it or not) as they are pure willpower. They're all things in your control that can make it so you don't rely on just resisting hunger
- 1y ago

derektank 1y ago

>I got on TRT and compound semaglutide >There are always solutions, we don't have to accept a slow decay. I find it funny that you say there are always solutions when two of the solutions (or if you bristle at referring to them as solutions in themselves, certainly pieces of a solution) you mention have only really existed for the last twenty years. Semaglutide obviously was only approved by the FDA recently, but the first transdermal/non-injectable Testosterone (which I'm guessing is the form you're taking) replacement therapy was only approved in the late 90's. Most people today, even in developed countries, still can't afford Semaglutide. I agree with your broader message that people shouldn't give up and should seek to leverage every resource available to them, but there's a faint whiff of moralizing in your comment that seems unearned when it's based upon the happy fortune of living in an era of medical marvels.

wonderwonder 1y ago
Perhaps I should have said: "There are always solutions now" Of course these are new medications but they are widely available. I am not referring to history I am talking about the present. Would think that was relatively obvious, I may have been wrong, which, fair enough. I'm on injectable testosterone, give myself a shot every week. Semaglutide (compounded not name brand) is relatively affordable. I spend $120 a month on it. If I did the work I could probably get it for cheaper. Edit: I took a look, appears I can get it for ~$40 a month if I want.

thor24 1y ago

How were you able to find time for gym consistenly with kids + work? Is this because work is relatively stable? Right now at age 32, I haven't been able to go to gym consistently mainly because work takes so much out of my life/time.

nataliste 1y ago
Create a home gym if you're wealthy; buy a set of resistance bands (total cost: $30) and run if you're not (or just frugal and utilitarian). Wake up an hour or two earlier than when your kids do and do your cardio/lifting then. It takes about two weeks to adjust to the decrease in sleep, but the well-being that exercise provides in my experience more than offsets it.

blackjack_ 1y ago

> Gaining weight and keeping it is a choice. You are taking an anabolic androgenic steroid. Of course it will help you have muscles and be in "better" shape that when you weren't taking it. Same with the GLP1 drug and weight. You are literally taking drugs to lower your weight and drugs improve your muscle mass. I'm glad you are happy with the way you look now, but setting the bar to "must take drugs to make your body look a specific way that most bodies do not / have not at 45+" is literally part of the problem (or transhumanist). But calling it a choice everyone can make (hundreds of dollars per month plus all the doctors / etc plus all the gym time) is a bit far fetched.

nataliste 1y ago
I'm not on GLP1 agonists or TRT. I eat primarily legumes, grain, and dairy. I don't go to the gym. I lift using $30 resistance bands and get my cardio from running and a rowing machine that I used my annual discretionary budget on. And I don't need the rowing machine. He's right. Humans do homeostasis very well. If you stop exercising at all ("rest days"), your brain normalizes that and creates inertia against resuming exercise. Like all good habits, the point is to make it automatic and the default rather than a choice. Once you start exercising and make it a non-negotiable daily habit, it becomes progressively harder to stop exercising than to start. Most people that fall out of exercise habits do so primarily because of injuries rather than the failure of the habit itself. You just have to prioritize it ahead of or even alongside other habits (e.g. exercise while watching TV, take the stairs) until it becomes automatic.
wonderwonder 1y ago
Are the people forced into taking statins, high blood pressure medications, etc. due to obesity related issues also “transhumanist”? We all have to make our own choices but obesity is a choice and the repercussions and treatments are often far worse than the treatments I have selected to avoid it. Note: You can get glp1 medication for $40 a month if you look for it

moduspol 1y ago

+1 for GLP-1s and TRT. I went from 220lbs to 160lbs with the help of a GLP-1, but then had to stop due to gallstones and pancreatitis. Now I'm on TRT (under the guidance of a physician) and trying hard to do low carb and high protein. So far so good. And energy level is much higher.

mancerayder 1y ago

Aren't there long-term side effects from TRT? You can never stop as your body ceases to produce T, increased cancer risk, hair loss ?

wonderwonder 1y ago
Respectfully, what are the long term side effects of being obese? Increased risk of cancer, heart disease, etc.
- mancerayder 1y ago
  I wasn't making a statement, I was asking if that's indeed true. Obviously obesity and low T are both pretty bad from a quality of life perspective (if not life expectancy)
  - wonderwonder 1y ago
    Apologies for coming off poorly. Trt doses are generally well tolerated. Blood work is recommended though. Higher doses over time definitely can lead to very bad things including an enlarged heart. I take 1 mg of test cypionate a week. It’s been absolutely life changing. I will never come off of it and never want to. I inject myself once a week. It’s positively affected every aspect of my life from work to family to personal satisfaction. At 45 i looked 50. At 46 I look 40.
    - mancerayder 1y ago
      Energy boost alone makes it sound pretty appealing.

aagha 1y ago

Did you have low testosterone to begin with? What was it before TRT and what is it after?

wonderwonder 1y ago
Mid 200s before, mid 800s now

senectus1 1y ago

Its more complicated than that. I turned 50 about 6 months ago, I'm 6"2 and dont drink alcohol, dont drink soda, dont eat breakfast and do 45-60 mins of gym weights and cardio 4-5 days a week. I have never been an over eater or a non stop snacker, I do fast food maybe once or twice a week. I drink mostly water. I just cannot seem to get my gut fat down. I swing from 93-96 kg for no real discernible reasons. There is something else going on, in my teens till about 35/40 i have always been whip thin. I dont think we have the answers yet.. so statements like "Gaining weight and keeping it is a choice." is just absurd.

wonderwonder 1y ago
You are 50, you have low testosterone. You should get tested and then get on trt. Don’t let them tell you that you have normal testosterone for a man your age, you don’t want the testosterone levels of a 50 year old, you want the levels of a 20 year old. Get on testosterone and the weight will fall off. Your choice. Best of luck.