5 ms·

Ozempic Melted Away Weight–and the Idea of 'Body Positivity'

38 points by RickJWagner 10mo ago

billy99k 10mo ago
"People no longer feel obliged to pretend there’s something shameful about wanting to be thinner." Or the notion that being morbidly obese is healthy.
- gadders 10mo ago
  I didn't mind "body positivity" too much, it was more "healthy at any size" that I found objectionable. If you as an adult want to eat to excess (or drink, or smoke), feel free (within reason - don't encroach on my economy airline seat) and happily accepts that they might shorten their life by doing so, then have at it. Just don't pretend it's a healthy lifestyle choice.
  - mikkupikku 10mo ago
    Even body positivity goes way too far for me. If it were only adults in play that would be different, but the rise of "body positivity" coincided with a massive increase in child obesity, and there's a strong connection between the eating/health habits of parents and the health outcomes of their children.
    - martythemaniak 10mo ago
      body positivity was a very much needed reaction to the mass media starvation-chic obsession of the 2000s. Kate Winslet in Titanic, Jessica Simpson and Britney Spears in the mid 2000s were all widely mocked and panned for being fat whales despite being completely normal looking.
      - spiderfarmer 10mo ago
        Exactly. It was never about 200-400 pound behemoths guilt tripping you for having an opinion about the health of their diets.
      - mikkupikku 10mo ago
        I don't think there is continuity there. Body positivity was a movement of extremely obese people trying to normalize obesity, not a movement of healthy people trying to denormalized anorexia.
        Izkata 10mo ago
        The very earliest versions weren't like that. For example, "healthy at every size" was originally "health at every size" - it was supposed to be encouragement that you are succeeding in improving your health by eating better and exercising even if you don't lose weight.
    - TimorousBestie 10mo ago
      > the rise of "body positivity" coincided with a massive increase in child obesity The obesity epidemic is yet another instance of “What changed in America in 1971?” that can’t be attributed to body positivity, a movement that didn’t really get nationwide traction until the 90s. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10815706/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10815706/
  - nijave 10mo ago
    >If you as an adult want to eat to excess In fairness, there are plenty of conditions and imbalances that can cause weight gain besides "eating in excess" >don't encroach on my economy airline seat The things are so damn small that's going to happen regardless. They're not designed for big people (even healthy weighted ones)
    - lagniappe 10mo ago
      Thermodynamics is undefeated, people cannot just manifest mass. It must enter through the mouth.
      - javcasas 10mo ago
        The mouth. That magical orifice where the cake enters and the excuses exit.
        ceejayoz 10mo ago
        Believe it or not, it's also largely where the weight exits, as the C part in CO2. Something like 85% of it.
        javcasas 10mo ago
        > An adult typically removes approximately 0.8 to 0.9 kilograms (840 to 900 grams) of CO2 from the body each day. https://biologyinsights.com/how-much-carbon-dioxide-do-we-exhale/ https://biologyinsights.com/how-much-carbon-dioxide-do-we-ex... Ok, that is way more than the dozen grams per day I thought it was.
        phantasmish 10mo ago
        It's one of those initially unintuitive things that makes perfect sense when you consider that "burning calories" is... pretty literally burning calories. Of course CO2 is how most of the mass goes away. Similar to the "trees are mostly made from air" thing.
  - smeej 10mo ago
    What got to me was when my own doctor was telling me I was "healthy at any size" when I was telling her about things like plantar fasciitis in my feet that clearly got worse as I gained weight. Like, it would be one thing if I told her I felt like a million bucks and my labs were excellent and I was a little bit big. But I was in there explicitly telling her that I was NOT healthy at my size. I eventually got a better doctor and a dietitian and lost 50 lbs by changing my macros to focus on getting enough protein, fat, and fiber, which finally curbed my hunger, and wouldn't you know it, my feet feel better.
- thisisauserid 10mo ago
  The cynic in me can imagine that the body positivity "movement" was secretly funded by the ABCD* companies. How about "Plant Based!" Let's get some more grain into soup and milk! I'm honestly surprised that sawdust is so far only in shredded cheese. No "tree milk" yet for my coffee? * ADM Bunge Cargill Dreyfus
ecshafer 10mo ago
The body positivity movement when it was more about people not being ashamed for having conditions (amputations, eczema, vitiligo, etc.) was a good movement. It was about accepting people for their body that they had no control of. It was a bit tumblr-y but it had its heart in the right place at the start. It was kind of hijacked by these fat activists that wanted to convince people that being 400 pounds was not just okay, it was good. Then social graces forced people to go along nod politely despite everyone disagreeing.
- newsclues 10mo ago
  [flagged]
  - euroderf 10mo ago
    AFAICT shame can usefully & productively (& affordably) replace incarceration. Bring back stocks in the public square ?
    - andrewinardeer 10mo ago
      Shunning, too. It strikes the fear of God into Amish.
      - ceejayoz 10mo ago
        The same argument can be made in favor of child abuse.
  - senordevnyc 10mo ago
    I don't belive you can make a logical and humanitarian case for shaming people for who they're attracted to, whether it's children, animals, etc. They didn't choose it, and from the outside it looks like a horrible fate that I wouldn't wish on anyone. Our society would be much better off with compassion for those people, and it would likely result in fewer actual victimizations than our current approach. Conflating attraction with actually doing bad things is sloppy reasoning.
LurkandComment 10mo ago
Ozempic is another quick fix. You're going to be thin, but if you don't put in the work lifting weights and eating protien you're just a younger old person with advanced sarcopenia. One fall and your hip shatters. It won't address any other inactivity related illnesses and comes with its own issues. Ex. Bladder not being able to handle bile etc. I get it for advance stage diabetics who have enough nerve issues to be at risk for sepsis and amputation, I don't think it's great for average joe who just wants an easy way to lose weight.
- asah 10mo ago
  GLP-1s have dramatic impact on diabetes and a number of other life threatening diseases, that wildly outweigh the side effects.
  - zingababba 10mo ago
    In general I agree. However I know someone who, since they have gone on GLP-1 burp, hiccup and do this strange 'gasp' with regularity. Probably related to the delayed gastric emptying. Adjusting dose hasn't helped. To them its a good trade because they had always struggled with weight loss. When I observe them sure they look better but now it seems like they are in a different type of constant discomfort.
- watwut 10mo ago
  You dont need to weight lift and eat some kind of huge amount of protein to be healthy. Do not be ridiculous. The bulky aesthetic is just that, men liking when men are bulky. And if your goal is to be thin, you should pick different sport then weight lifting.
  - glanzwulf 10mo ago
    just because you lift weights and eat protein doesn't mean you'll be bulky, do not be ridiculous.
    - swat535 10mo ago
NickC25 10mo ago
I've no problem with body positivity. Celebrating a skinny person gaining a few pounds of muscle after dedicating themselves to working out intensely or a fat person making notable progress on their weight loss journey is what we should do. Celebrate those who set goals and work their asses off to achieve them. What I have a problem with, is the "healthy at any size" bullshit. Especially those who use extreme outliers as their rationale - like if you see someone who says that they are healthy at 350 pounds because there's a lineman in the NFL who is their same height and weight. It's like, that person is deliberately carrying extra weight due to their job, and they can likely put up absurd numbers in the weight room, like a 600+ pound squat or a 400+ pound bench press.
alecco 10mo ago
https://archive.ph/MkOyJ https://archive.ph/MkOyJ And now the pendulum swings to the other extreme with very popular female celebrities being openly anorexic, normalizing the terminal cancer patient look. Just pay a few thousand per year and you can effortlessly look almost dead, too.
deleted 10mo ago
[deleted]
systems 10mo ago
I cant read the article (paywall) , but does it talk about any side effects , I am just worried we are celebrating a drug, that might have serious side effects I am sure at some point a drug will be perfected, but the promotion of this drugs goes way beyond spreading the awareness that excess weight is a health risk, it feels political, and used as an excuse to attack leftist ideas balance is everything, your body, your choice, move, eat healthy .. and only use proven drugs, and preferably use drugs as a last resort So last word talk to your doctor about ozempic, if you are considering using it
scoofy 10mo ago
What changed is that it’s effectively impossible not to pretend there was ever a fair playing field for obesity. A pill suddenly fixes obesity in a huge number of people. No need a cultural coping mechanism when the disease can be effectively cured for the vast majority of folks who have suffered from it.

38 points by RickJWagner 10mo ago

"People no longer feel obliged to pretend there’s something shameful about wanting to be thinner." Or the notion that being morbidly obese is healthy.

gadders 10mo ago
I didn't mind "body positivity" too much, it was more "healthy at any size" that I found objectionable. If you as an adult want to eat to excess (or drink, or smoke), feel free (within reason - don't encroach on my economy airline seat) and happily accepts that they might shorten their life by doing so, then have at it. Just don't pretend it's a healthy lifestyle choice.
- mikkupikku 10mo ago
  Even body positivity goes way too far for me. If it were only adults in play that would be different, but the rise of "body positivity" coincided with a massive increase in child obesity, and there's a strong connection between the eating/health habits of parents and the health outcomes of their children.
  - martythemaniak 10mo ago
    body positivity was a very much needed reaction to the mass media starvation-chic obsession of the 2000s. Kate Winslet in Titanic, Jessica Simpson and Britney Spears in the mid 2000s were all widely mocked and panned for being fat whales despite being completely normal looking.
    - spiderfarmer 10mo ago
      Exactly. It was never about 200-400 pound behemoths guilt tripping you for having an opinion about the health of their diets.
    - mikkupikku 10mo ago
      I don't think there is continuity there. Body positivity was a movement of extremely obese people trying to normalize obesity, not a movement of healthy people trying to denormalized anorexia.
      - Izkata 10mo ago
        The very earliest versions weren't like that. For example, "healthy at every size" was originally "health at every size" - it was supposed to be encouragement that you are succeeding in improving your health by eating better and exercising even if you don't lose weight.
  - TimorousBestie 10mo ago
    > the rise of "body positivity" coincided with a massive increase in child obesity The obesity epidemic is yet another instance of “What changed in America in 1971?” that can’t be attributed to body positivity, a movement that didn’t really get nationwide traction until the 90s. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10815706/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10815706/
- nijave 10mo ago
  >If you as an adult want to eat to excess In fairness, there are plenty of conditions and imbalances that can cause weight gain besides "eating in excess" >don't encroach on my economy airline seat The things are so damn small that's going to happen regardless. They're not designed for big people (even healthy weighted ones)
  - lagniappe 10mo ago
    Thermodynamics is undefeated, people cannot just manifest mass. It must enter through the mouth.
    - javcasas 10mo ago
      The mouth. That magical orifice where the cake enters and the excuses exit.
      - ceejayoz 10mo ago
        Believe it or not, it's also largely where the weight exits, as the C part in CO2. Something like 85% of it.
        javcasas 10mo ago
        > An adult typically removes approximately 0.8 to 0.9 kilograms (840 to 900 grams) of CO2 from the body each day. https://biologyinsights.com/how-much-carbon-dioxide-do-we-exhale/ https://biologyinsights.com/how-much-carbon-dioxide-do-we-ex... Ok, that is way more than the dozen grams per day I thought it was.
        phantasmish 10mo ago
        It's one of those initially unintuitive things that makes perfect sense when you consider that "burning calories" is... pretty literally burning calories. Of course CO2 is how most of the mass goes away. Similar to the "trees are mostly made from air" thing.
- smeej 10mo ago
  What got to me was when my own doctor was telling me I was "healthy at any size" when I was telling her about things like plantar fasciitis in my feet that clearly got worse as I gained weight. Like, it would be one thing if I told her I felt like a million bucks and my labs were excellent and I was a little bit big. But I was in there explicitly telling her that I was NOT healthy at my size. I eventually got a better doctor and a dietitian and lost 50 lbs by changing my macros to focus on getting enough protein, fat, and fiber, which finally curbed my hunger, and wouldn't you know it, my feet feel better.
thisisauserid 10mo ago
The cynic in me can imagine that the body positivity "movement" was secretly funded by the ABCD* companies. How about "Plant Based!" Let's get some more grain into soup and milk! I'm honestly surprised that sawdust is so far only in shredded cheese. No "tree milk" yet for my coffee? * ADM Bunge Cargill Dreyfus

ecshafer 10mo ago

The body positivity movement when it was more about people not being ashamed for having conditions (amputations, eczema, vitiligo, etc.) was a good movement. It was about accepting people for their body that they had no control of. It was a bit tumblr-y but it had its heart in the right place at the start. It was kind of hijacked by these fat activists that wanted to convince people that being 400 pounds was not just okay, it was good. Then social graces forced people to go along nod politely despite everyone disagreeing.

newsclues 10mo ago
[flagged]
- euroderf 10mo ago
  AFAICT shame can usefully & productively (& affordably) replace incarceration. Bring back stocks in the public square ?
  - andrewinardeer 10mo ago
    Shunning, too. It strikes the fear of God into Amish.
    - ceejayoz 10mo ago
      The same argument can be made in favor of child abuse.
- senordevnyc 10mo ago
  I don't belive you can make a logical and humanitarian case for shaming people for who they're attracted to, whether it's children, animals, etc. They didn't choose it, and from the outside it looks like a horrible fate that I wouldn't wish on anyone. Our society would be much better off with compassion for those people, and it would likely result in fewer actual victimizations than our current approach. Conflating attraction with actually doing bad things is sloppy reasoning.

LurkandComment 10mo ago

Ozempic is another quick fix. You're going to be thin, but if you don't put in the work lifting weights and eating protien you're just a younger old person with advanced sarcopenia. One fall and your hip shatters. It won't address any other inactivity related illnesses and comes with its own issues. Ex. Bladder not being able to handle bile etc. I get it for advance stage diabetics who have enough nerve issues to be at risk for sepsis and amputation, I don't think it's great for average joe who just wants an easy way to lose weight.

asah 10mo ago
GLP-1s have dramatic impact on diabetes and a number of other life threatening diseases, that wildly outweigh the side effects.
- zingababba 10mo ago
  In general I agree. However I know someone who, since they have gone on GLP-1 burp, hiccup and do this strange 'gasp' with regularity. Probably related to the delayed gastric emptying. Adjusting dose hasn't helped. To them its a good trade because they had always struggled with weight loss. When I observe them sure they look better but now it seems like they are in a different type of constant discomfort.
watwut 10mo ago
You dont need to weight lift and eat some kind of huge amount of protein to be healthy. Do not be ridiculous. The bulky aesthetic is just that, men liking when men are bulky. And if your goal is to be thin, you should pick different sport then weight lifting.
- glanzwulf 10mo ago
  just because you lift weights and eat protein doesn't mean you'll be bulky, do not be ridiculous.
  - swat535 10mo ago

NickC25 10mo ago

I've no problem with body positivity. Celebrating a skinny person gaining a few pounds of muscle after dedicating themselves to working out intensely or a fat person making notable progress on their weight loss journey is what we should do. Celebrate those who set goals and work their asses off to achieve them. What I have a problem with, is the "healthy at any size" bullshit. Especially those who use extreme outliers as their rationale - like if you see someone who says that they are healthy at 350 pounds because there's a lineman in the NFL who is their same height and weight. It's like, that person is deliberately carrying extra weight due to their job, and they can likely put up absurd numbers in the weight room, like a 600+ pound squat or a 400+ pound bench press.

alecco 10mo ago

https://archive.ph/MkOyJ https://archive.ph/MkOyJ And now the pendulum swings to the other extreme with very popular female celebrities being openly anorexic, normalizing the terminal cancer patient look. Just pay a few thousand per year and you can effortlessly look almost dead, too.

deleted 10mo ago

[deleted]

systems 10mo ago

I cant read the article (paywall) , but does it talk about any side effects , I am just worried we are celebrating a drug, that might have serious side effects I am sure at some point a drug will be perfected, but the promotion of this drugs goes way beyond spreading the awareness that excess weight is a health risk, it feels political, and used as an excuse to attack leftist ideas balance is everything, your body, your choice, move, eat healthy .. and only use proven drugs, and preferably use drugs as a last resort So last word talk to your doctor about ozempic, if you are considering using it

scoofy 10mo ago

What changed is that it’s effectively impossible not to pretend there was ever a fair playing field for obesity. A pill suddenly fixes obesity in a huge number of people. No need a cultural coping mechanism when the disease can be effectively cured for the vast majority of folks who have suffered from it.