10 ms·

>The share of U.S. households reporting at least one user rose from about 11% in late 2023 to more than 16% by mid-2024. I was wondering how you could get such

by carlmr 9mo ago

>The share of U.S. households reporting at least one user rose from about 11% in late 2023 to more than 16% by mid-2024. I was wondering how you could get such a high impact overall. But it seems one in 6 households are on GLP-1 drugs in the US. In my friend circle in Germany I don't even know one single person on this stuff. It's insane to me that so many people need these to get off the processed foods killing them in the US.

Kreutzer 9mo ago
Perhaps they are less forthcoming about taking it. I wasn't aware my father was on it until I saw his medicine cabinet.
ChromaticPanic 9mo ago
Maybe it's just not as talked about. Why would anyone bring it up. I can already sense the condescension in your statement.
Raed667 9mo ago
in europe there is a social stigma around GLP-1 drugs, a lot of people considered it cheating and lazy, so a lot of people don't dare talk about their usage
- carlmr 9mo ago
  There may be, but I haven't seen anyone lose significant weight either since this started.
- raverbashing 9mo ago
  Or, you know, just less obese people
  - carlmr 9mo ago
    We have quite a few obese people. Not as many as the US, but not few either.
    - Raed667 9mo ago
      > France [...] 2020 [...] excess weight was 47.3%, with 17% of subjects being obese https://presse.inserm.fr/en/obesite-et-surpoids-pres-dun-francais-sur-deux-concerne-etat-des-lieux-prevention-et-solutions-therapeutiques/66621/ https://presse.inserm.fr/en/obesite-et-surpoids-pres-dun-fra...
  - tiborsaas 9mo ago
    Many of my not obese friends started using it out of pure laziness. But in general I believe that obese factor too :)
- u_sama 9mo ago
  You also forget it is expensive and in many cases not taking charge by the respective healthcare autority of the country, so it leads to less consumption.
  - sffddfsdsf 9mo ago
    And its for life. Unless you are doing it for Instagram only... "The Insta Diet" as it is called also.. When the diet finishes, you will gain the fat instantly also (just as with any diet obviously).
  - Raed667 9mo ago
    It is for sure expensive (~300€ / month) but from my understanding nothing like the prices you see in the US (+2'000 $)
    - devilbunny 9mo ago
      I've known several users of GLP1's. None ever paid more than $600/mo for them once the "patient assistance" programs started, and even in the very earliest days the prices I heard were never more than about $1100 if paid in cash. So, while they are very expensive, your understanding is not reflective of the situation on the ground.
      - Raed667 9mo ago
        that's good to hear, the sticker prices are insane
      - jrockway 9mo ago
        Yeah, Zepbound is $499 now. Out of reach of many, but an improvement from $549 last year. The terms and conditions are confusing. You can only use the half-off coupon they provide if you have prescription drug insurance. Even if insurance doesn't cover it, they still require the processing pharmacy to check that you have some sort of valid insurance and only process the coupon if so. If you fall into that bucket, it's $1200 or something. (Had to pay that amount one month because Amazon Pharmacy was very confused about my gender marker changing on my insurance. Many, many support tickets later, and it got fixed.) There is also some price difference between the autoinjector and the single-use vial + provide your own needle and syringe. I haven't looked into that because it's the same with the coupon, but if you can't get the coupon to work, it's an option to just inject it yourself. Honestly I prefer not using the autoinjectors (I inject other medications), but it's the path of least resistance. Finally, the coupon claims it only works for 7 fills, but I've been taking the medication for a couple years and all my fills have been covered. I don't really understand it. I have a feeling that I'm the only person in the world that read the fine print, including the pharmacies and manufacturer :/
- Traubenfuchs 9mo ago
  In Austria I have noticed a massive social stigma. I think that's embarrassing and backwards. As someone who is very athletic and takes nothing extraordinary besides creatine and whey protein I fully support anyone who wants to become healthier, with or without medication.
  - m0llusk 9mo ago
    In my experience this is not healthy. People who had problems with weight are very quickly losing excess weight and displaying a range of symptoms related to that including sunken and starved looking faces and significant loss of lean muscle mass. Changes made to the face with rapid weight loss may become permanent and especially for older people the loss of lean muscle mass can become a major health problem. Sudden extreme changes in body composition are often neither healthy nor stable.
    - benmmurphy 9mo ago
      There might be health problems associated with these drugs but they need to be compared to the next best option. I think for a lot of people on these drugs the next best option is continuing the status quo which has a lot of negative health outcomes as well.
- Foivos 9mo ago
  The social stigma in Europe exists, because these drugs are in limited supply. So, if a person who does not really need them is using them, the people who actually need them to stay alive might have difficulty accessing them.
  - Raed667 9mo ago
    that's actually not true, Mounjaro and Wegovy are pretty much meant for weight loss and there is no competition over them for people with diabetes
    - derektank 9mo ago
      Mounjaro is the tirzepatide equivalent to Ozempic (semaglutide) in that it’s prescribed for type 2 diabetes. Wegovy (semaglutide) and Zepbound (tirzepatide) are prescribed for obesity. Otherwise you’re spot on.
    - dboreham 9mo ago
      There is until they're packaged because they're the same drug. Only the label is different.
  - laurentiurad 9mo ago
    you can just order them to your home on any of the websites selling GLP-1. Stop the propaganda inferring that the public healthcare is bad and doesn't allow people to get their medicine.
    - blell 9mo ago
      In Spain you can't. You need to be authorised by a doctor to buy those drugs.
      - bigfishrunning 9mo ago
        This is also true in the US -- these are prescription drugs.
- blell 9mo ago
  I read this online, I don't know where it was, so I can't give a source, it probably was on twitter: "People really want these things - exercise, weight - to be important moral objectives for others, when they're not that important in the grand scheme of things. Now you'll just have to find another easy visual marker for ranking people by moral superiority."
  - deleted 9mo ago
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  - hare2eternity 9mo ago
    I would imagine we'll see a greater emphasis on muscularity. Already 'skinny fat' has long been a pejorative for slim people that hadn't 'earned' it (whatever 'it' is). Like just about everything, supply and demand will determine desirability. In a world where no-one is overweight being slim is no longer a desirable differentiator.
u_sama 9mo ago
For artificial problems, artificial solutions. I think the state of food in the US is really bad, and one cannot compare such products to the superior EU food quality standards and eating habits (and city designs) which render the incentives really perverse
- mistahenry 9mo ago
  I lived in Germany and Indonesia. It’s easier for me now back in the US than ever to eat healthy. I can buy pre-chopped Cole slaw, diced peppers / onions, etc. Whole Foods is best in class (Alnatura doesn’t come close) While to me, the layman, it seems health regulation in general in Europe is more conservative about what can be put on the body / be consumed, I think it’s mostly Americans don’t want to eat healthy. And the portion sizes here are insane (just look at the evolution dinner plate. 1960s plates at an antique sale only pass for salad plates)
  - juujian 9mo ago
    Yes, whole foods is great, but if you look are they locations, name Americans don't have access to one and or cannot afford it.
    - stinkbeetle 9mo ago
      Cause and effect is backward. The locations indicate where people are buying it. And cheap doesn't really add up either because if somebody wants the cheapest possible calories they would be buying rice, flour/pasta, potato... I don't know why the problem is shied away from. It is because people are addicted to fast food and to their sedentary lifestyles. It's not the price or availability of good food, not the first order effect anyway. You'll never be able to force "whole foods" sellers into unprofitable places and if you did by some miracle, you'll never be able to force people to buy it no matter how much money you gave them. Vegetables and grains and basics could be free and many obese food addicts will go buy a burger from a drive thru.
      - bluGill 9mo ago
blitzar 9mo ago
Your friend circle in Germany probably doesn't have many members who were a proud big boned 5"7' 300lbs (~140kg).
- wongarsu 9mo ago
  For good reason. That'd be a BMI of 47. There isn't a lot of statistical data for such high BMIs, but [1] lists prevalence of BMI>40. In Germany 1.2% of men and 2.8% of women had a BMI over 40 in 2011, in the US it was 5.6% and 9.7% respectively in 2016. That's nearly four times as many as in Germany. 1: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7078951/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7078951/
  - tom_ 9mo ago
    The US population (~350m) is about 4 times that of Germany (~85m)...
    - wongarsu 9mo ago
      Which has to be a pure coincidence, since the reported numbers are relative to population size. We could conclude that there are 4x4=16 times as many people with such high BMIs in the US, but that is not that useful
      - blitzar 9mo ago
        Several studies conducted during the last 50 years have shown that lower intelligence is associated with a higher body mass index.
        rootusrootus 9mo ago
        So this is why SE Asia is kicking the crap out of the US and Europe?
  - rootusrootus 9mo ago
    > In Germany 1.2% of men and 2.8% of women had a BMI over 40 in 2011 How does that compare to, say, Japan? Why is Germany so much fatter?
seedless-sensat 9mo ago
I am not American, but I think you are unfairly dismissing the massive benefits GLP-1s have for people who struggle to maintain a healthy diet. It really feels like a miracle drug. > It's insane to me that so many people need these to get off the processed foods killing them in the US. Your comparison of your friends in Germany vs "insanity" in the US doesn't feel relevant
- carlmr 9mo ago
  I didn't dismiss any benefits. But so many people needing an anti-addiction drug to get off addictive foods IMO should raise alarm bells. The food producers need to be sanctioned. It's unsustainable for a whole nation to be on these expensive drugs. If you think an outside perspective is irrelevant I'm also not sure why you don't just move on and not comment.
  - wjnc 9mo ago
    True, but what would sanctioning producers do? I think it's not even the availability of fresh products in the supermarket, but the willingness of customers to prepare food themselves? I agree it's postmodern funny that you need to continually buy something (a medicine) to not buy somethings (fast food) that are bad for you. I've got co-workers who only eat out. Guess what? What I think are salt and fat related health issues. Sugar, salt and fat are too easy and too nice not to be everywhere. We used to make baby food ourselves. That was like twenty portions of baby food in ten minutes, for pretty much no cost (all basis fresh staples are pretty much free: fresh carrots, potatoes, rice, onions, pumpkin). Chop some vegetables and perhaps add little leftover meat, steam it, blend it, freeze it. Philips had a great machine for that. But we were somewhat 'out there' here too. Most people give babies food from glass pots. Then I see [1]. Got healthy teens now who eat pretty much everything. We still cook most of the stuff ourselves, although time constraints are a bit harder now than a decade ago. Same as for walking. That is the most basic instrument for health. But if you cannot go out for a good walk because your environment is car only, what can you do? You can sanction the car makers for not making us walk. But that's a bit silly? (You are not saying that, trying to make an analogy with the food producers.) I'm blessed with lots of forests nearby, with separate paths for walking, cycling, MTB-ing and horseriding. Going outdoors is trivial here. Point I'm trying to make is that an unhealthy and sedentary lifestyle is a lot of factors working combined. That's why international comparisons are so hard (or impossible). I think the 'Boulder, Colorado'-lifestyle is comparable with my local EU-lifestyle. But all environments are different on many vectors. [1] Nearly two-thirds of baby foods in US supermarkets are unhealthy, study finds - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXyVJpTe8NQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXyVJpTe8NQ
only-one1701 9mo ago
I’d advise folks to consider a) the relationship between poverty, stress, and obesity Nd b) the income inequality of the United States relative to Germany
- kayo_20211030 9mo ago
  ... and that "bad" food in the US is frequently cheaper and easier to find than "good" food.
- temp8830 9mo ago
  Absolutely. The American way of life traps people in a zoo. There is nothing to do other than work (if you are lucky), eat, and consume junk media. For ones who are poor the only difference is the degree to which the food is also junk.
  - deleted 9mo ago
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  - bigfishrunning 9mo ago
    This is patently false -- there is plenty to do besides consume junk media; the fact that our population is addicted to the dopamine associated with short-form video doesn't mean that there aren't other options. I've made a concerted effort to consume less "junk media" in the last couple of years. In that time I've gotten an Amateur radio licence, I've built a couple of keyboards and speakers, I've started golfing (after a 20 year hiatus), I've learned to bake bread (from scratch, including grinding wheat!), I've read a lot of novels, and I'm happier for all of it. Everyone has to work -- this is not unique to the United States. But outside of that, eating and living healthier is absolutely possible, it just takes some effort. Get a hobby (or several!)
    - napkinartist 9mo ago
      I don't think you understand the situation the parent is describing. Golf is a luxury. Baking one's own bread is a huge luxury. For a lot of people, finding the time to do either (let alone the financial outlay) is impossible. You want to tell single parent working two jobs in an apartment that's moldy to "try playing golf. Read more!"?
conception 9mo ago
An astonishing number of people are type two diabetic in this country due to poor health and poor access to healthcare. But glp1 is covered as a diabetic treatment so a tremendous number of folks can get it at a reasonable cost.
kristopolous 9mo ago
The supermarket "super user" category of people who bought a lot of food and people who are using it is likely not a small crossover
vovavili 9mo ago
Nothing surprising for me. Unless you're in the top percentiles in terms of self-discipline, becoming obese is usually a one-way road. GLP-1 is a lazy solution for a problem that primarily stems from laziness.
- TaupeRanger 9mo ago
  "Lazy" is a pejorative term, which makes your comment sound denigrating to users of GLP-1s. If that is your intent, then your issue with people using medicine to help them avoid diabetes and heart disease is that....it's too easy?
  - vovavili 9mo ago
    There is no way approximately one-sixth of a population are taking GLP-1 strictly for legitimate health issues.
    - c0nducktr 9mo ago
      Obesity is a legitimate health issue.
      - vovavili 9mo ago
        I would rephrase it as "lacking high sense of self-control leads to legitimate health issues".
    - napkinartist 9mo ago
      [dead]
- carlosjobim 9mo ago
  So what? Why does that bother you? Is the (European) hatred towards your fellow brothers and sisters so strong that you prefer them to be chronically unhealthy, when there is a solution for them?
  - 9mo ago
kuttel2 9mo ago
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- Tepix 9mo ago
  Germany is at 24% obesity rate and the US is about 10% higher. But the trend is the same worldwide. Obesity is on the rise. I don't think demographics has as big of an influence as you assume.
  - maxerickson 9mo ago
    Germany is simply further from the origin of the Maize incident.
pjc50 9mo ago
Obesity is not evenly distributed by age or demographic. If you're a relatively young person in the workforce, you probably don't know such people. But it is true that obesity is much less prevalent in most of Europe. Even the places with less "healthy" diets, suprisingly.
- amanaplanacanal 9mo ago
  But obesity rates are going up there, too, they are just lagging behind the Anglo world.
- rootusrootus 9mo ago
  > But it is true that obesity is much less prevalent in most of Europe Let's put this into perspective. On average, the US has about twice the obesity rate as Europe (though in both cases there is a fairly wide variation regionally). And Europe has 4 or 5 times the obesity rate of Japan. So relatively speaking, Europe is not in a position to argue that their regulations or lifestyles are the answer.
tyjen 9mo ago
The overall food quality in Germany is significantly higher than in the US. Visit an Aldi or Lidl in Germany, then visit one in the US; night and day difference in food quality. You can tell Germany cares for its population via food regulation and from what's offered; whereas, it's a toxic trash heap in America solved with drugs or paying a higher premium for healthier items. The healthier items in America should be a baseline instead of pricing out people. Feels like Americans are paying for a premium upfront or downstream via pharmaceutical/healthcare solutions.
- bryanrasmussen 9mo ago
  >The healthier items in America should be a baseline instead of pricing out people. what percentage of people on Ozempic etc. are poor enough that they would be priced out by healthier food?
- 1123581321 9mo ago
  I haven’t seen that difference between German Aldi/Lidl and American Aldi; are you thinking of any particular items? Americans just buy more food.
  - deleted 9mo ago
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  - nasmorn 9mo ago
    Probably 95% of Germans live 15min from an Aldi. There are no Dollar General food wastes because the country is much denser and poor people have access to much better public transport
    - 1123581321 9mo ago
      True. Population density differs by about 2.5x, and the US has some truly depopulated areas that essentially don't exist on the European contintent. Although, rural Americans are also used to driving longer distances than rural Germans. I would venture that a 30-40 minute trip is not thought of as significant, especially if only done 1-2 times per week. Rural grocery shopping (real food, not snacks), is typically done at Walmart or a smaller grocery brand or independent. For quick errands, DG does get a lot of it. You're starting to see grocery store logistics push in to what were traditionally gas-and-convenience-store corners, including Aldi, so the commutes for groceries are getting shorter. It will be interesting to see what happens in the US with the price war over GLP-1 weight loss pills. Unlike Ozempic injections, they're going to penetrate into low income and rural households.
brianpbeau 9mo ago
It's not just processed foods, there is also a genetic struggle as well. Looking at my family living in the US and in the EU, being overweight is a thing for a large portion of us. Even in my grandparents generation of family had issues as well, and they were all blue collar manual workers that lived before processed foods. This is not to say you are wrong. The food supply in the US is not healthy. The bad news is that the same greed that destroyed our food will find ways to get around the ways GLP-1s work.
- xenospn 9mo ago
  I’m sure in 5 years all processed microwave meals and fast food will be “fortified with GLP-1”.
  - smileysteve 9mo ago
    Historically, this is called "fiber", and has already been regulated to be required in European breads
    - patentatt 9mo ago
      I find this humorous but I’m also genuinely curious what the analogy is between fiber and GLPs?
      - mminer237 9mo ago
        Fiber is essentially mass with little to no nutrition in it. So it makes you feel fuller without adding calories, like GLP-1 drugs. I do think there's a strong argument that lack of fiber and protein are huge contributors to the world's obesity problems.
        array_key_first 9mo ago
        In most developed countries people eat lots of fiber. Like just unbelievable amounts of meat, more than ever before in human history and prehistory.
RobinL 9mo ago
I was curious for a UK comparison so I looked it up. At the start of 2025, about 3% of adults in UK had used GLP-1 drugs in past year in the UK. And "most GLP-1 for weight loss in the UK is from private, rather than NHS provision" [1]. [1] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12781702/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12781702/
- esperent 9mo ago
  I assume that translates to it being really hard to get in the NHS so people are resorting to buying it themselves. I wonder what the percentage would be if it was easy to get from the NHS?
- Aurornis 9mo ago
  UK numbers are always interesting because the NHS leans conservative about access to many types of care and medication. For another example, rates of COVID-19 vaccination are significantly lower in the UK not because people there don’t want vaccines, but because the NHS only makes them narrowly available to people above a certain age or with a strict set of conditions.
arghwhat 9mo ago
I think it's a bit more popular outside the US than you make it out to be. As an anecdote, I know a handful of people on it in Denmark - and that's despite the local Danish price being higher than the German one and Denmark having notably lower obesity and diabetes rates than Germany. I imagine you'll find that people of certain lifestyles tend to cluster together a bit, with those with more active lifestyles and healthy diets likely to have their friends and family be of active lifestyles and healthy diets, and in turn less likely to be in need of such drugs. Lifestyle changes are difficult to implement by nature. Although, the term "processed food" is awful as it covers so many unrelated things. The problem is ultra-addictive, ultra-high glycemic index foods consumed in large amounts partly due to their addictive qualities - a quality some processed foods have. For reference, Danish sausage sandwich toppings are highly processed foods, but it won't drive anyone to obesity or diabetes. Elevated blood pressure, perhaps. Junk takeaway, candy and sugary cereals on the other hand...
- amelius 9mo ago
  Processed foods are easier to modify. Hence, given corporate greed, they are addictive and unhealthy.
  - arghwhat 9mo ago
    Foods, full stop, is easy to modify. More generally, a producer can arbitrary control any product composition according to their own goals. Nothing to do with "processed foods" in general, despite a good portion of the affected foods being under that label. It's simply a matter of malicious companies combined with unknowing, unempowered consumers. By trying to single out something as massively generic as "processed foods", you're just making it easy for companies to avoid the problem: Using and manipulating official definitions to be removed from it as a "solution", justifying the whole thing in the basis of numerous good things being in the same category, drawing attention to other foods in the same category that are more commonly associated with the term despite theirs being way worse, etc. If you want to fix the problem, you need to attack the problem. That is not processing - it is addiction and glycemic value. Going for the underlying attributes means you cannot redefine your way out of it, and gives consumers a better chance to learn what to actually avoid.
1123581321 9mo ago
Mintel (market data company) claims 8% of Germans have tried a weight-loss drug in the last year and a further 15% are interested. https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2025/08/11/glp-1-affect-on-consumption-in-europe/ https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2025/08/11/glp-1-affec...
omgJustTest 9mo ago
i considered it, but the gym was a much better option. for everyone who says "i've tried etc doesnt work" all i would say is, possibly if you dont have the time due to kids etc. Otherwise, get to it!
- aucisson_masque 9mo ago
  Even easier than the gym, and cheaper ! Eat less shit. Simply. If you eat only vegetable and meat, you’re going to have a hard time gaining weight.
- thw_9a83c 9mo ago
  > but the gym was a much better option. If you live in a suitable city, there is an even simpler solution. Just walk to wherever place you need to go. Unfortunately, the century of individual automobile ownership has made most cities unsuitable for this natural mode of transportation.
- yourusername 9mo ago
  You can't out excercise a bad diet. You can hit the weights for 2 hours straight every day and eat those calories back with a single bad dietary choice (like a handful of peanuts or a single large cookie).
  - yunwal 9mo ago
    I must’ve missed when peanuts became a bad dietary choice. What’s the evidence for this?
    - EA 9mo ago
      OP isn't saying peanuts are a poor source of nutrition. OP is saying a few peanuts are calorically dense and it is easy to consume hundreds of calories through seemingly inconsequential amounts of snacks and drinks.
      - johnyzee 9mo ago
nwienert 9mo ago
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iM103vKdI5E https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iM103vKdI5E
lumost 9mo ago
Eh, the drugs work. A great many people in the US struggle with weight despite shifting to high quality foods, fad diets, exercise etc. I'd honestly attribute the root cause to high general stress levels in daily life.
SecretDreams 9mo ago
> It's insane to me that so many people need these to get off the processed foods killing them in the US. Completely agreed. That said, I've been to Germany a handful of times but not in the last 7 years (sadly) and two things always stuck out to me: * There's way more attractive/healthy looking people. * There's wayyyy more young attractive people that smoke (wtf!). Not sure if the smoking has subsided, but it was far more prominent than in NA since I've last visited.
heraldgeezer 9mo ago
Americans (and increasingly us Europeans) are pigs. The society is built to sit in a chair 8h, get in your car and drive 1h home and sit in a chair. Then repeat. Also "eating 3 meals a day" I eat 3 full meals, I blow up like a balloon. I don't get it. It's like they have to constantly eat. When I was a teen or in my 20s yes. Now in my 30s its game over. It is also the way society, public transport, cities are designed. I walk 4km to work when its nice out here in Europe. Could I do that in the USA?
- xenospn 9mo ago
  The entire world eats 3 meals a day. Even if you eat 6 meals a day you can easily lose weight. It’s about the contents of the meal, not the frequency.
  - lm28469 9mo ago
    I eat one meal a day for as far as I can remember. Fatties love to tell me it's unhealthy, my doctor hasn't figure out yet though so I imagine it really isn't that unhealthy. Eating three meals a day is a very very very recent thing if you account for human history, or even modern human history
    - tayo42 9mo ago
      You need to include more info about your one meal, height and your actual weight. If your 5'2 this is alot less interesting
      - lm28469 9mo ago
        180cm, 75kg, leanish, I optimise for rock climbing and do kettlebell workouts 2 to 3 times a week. I do close to the bare minimum of what is available to stay in decent shape, it takes me less than 4 hours a week total. Not counting the time I save cooking/eating
  - heraldgeezer 9mo ago
    Okay, you are correct but not realistic. 3 realistic meals in USA and Western Europe then. Cofee/toast or cereal/musli for breakfast, bought lunch Yea I can down a familiy pizza if its all I eat for the day. Also, the rise of zero/light drinks have actually helped.
infecto 9mo ago
I don’t think it’s any more insane than 40% of Germans believing in the efficacy of homeopathic remedies. Different cultures and different problems. The obesity problem is a lot lower in Germany compared to the US. As all things I am sure it’s a combination of factors. I don’t think it’s fair to call purely a processed food problem but I am sure it does not help.
deleted 9mo ago
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rib3ye 9mo ago
Overeating doesn’t just happen in a bubble - there is a confluence of issues creating anxiety and stress in Americans’s daily lives leading to the obesity issue.
- infecto 9mo ago
  I agree with this take too. Culture influences it but I don’t think anyone can be singled out being immune. We are stressed and overworked. Simple food takes work. We no longer have a village. If you have kids so many are just stuck at home. I compare it to my childhood which was a while ago but not that far and I would go out in the middle of the day with instructions to come back home before dark. I would be running all over town on my bicycle. Now parents in the US are obsessing over travel sports and keeping booked calendars for their kids. Both parents will be working. There is nobody around put a meal together.
Aurornis 9mo ago
> In my friend circle in Germany I don't even know one single person on this stuff. Most people don’t announce when they’re taking a new medication. GLP-1 drugs are popular in Germany, too. Not quite to the level of some other countries but a quick search shows about 1 in 12 individuals in Germany. Note that the US number quoted above was for households not individuals, so the numbers of households in Germany with at least one member on a GLP-1 is higher. This isn’t a uniquely American phenomenon, despite attempts to turn this into another America-bad comment thread. > It's insane to me that so many people need these to get off the processed foods killing them in the US. GLP-1 drugs don’t make people stop eating processed food. They reduce food intake and cravings. It’s still up to the user to make healthy choices about what to eat. Also it’s been about a decade since I visited family friends in Germany but there was plenty of processed food to be had when I was there, too.
- deleted 9mo ago
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- nwienert 9mo ago
  Well said, to add though they do make you crave certain foods differently - fruit more, processed foods less.
- CGMthrowaway 9mo ago
  >I was wondering how you could get such a high impact overall. But it seems one in 6 households are on GLP-1 drugs in the US. I had the same question and did some back of the envelope math. The data I have seen says the average American eats 400-700 excess daily calories, and 3600 daily calories total. That means 10-20% excess per person. If everyone started eating the right amount overnight, grocery spend would drop 10-20%. But since it's 16% on these drugs, and figure since they are Losing Weight (not maintaining), safe to say those 16% of Americans are eating 20-30% less... 20-30% times 16% = 3-5% decrease in spend. So it tracks, roughly. And we are not at the bottom yet.
  - _alternator_ 9mo ago
    The decrease in spend was at the household level, not aggregate, so it’s a 5% decrease across 16% of households, or a bit less than 1% overall. The overall weight loss seems to be because the spending decreases most heavily in calorie dense foods like savory snacks; yogurt and fresh fruit spending goes up a bit.
fullstop 9mo ago
I don't know a single person on it either (USA), but it's not exactly something that people talk about. I am naturally quite thin, as is the rest of my family, but there's certainly no shortage of hefty people here.
- elictronic 9mo ago
  It’s not just hefty people. Swimsuit season is a thing. A interesting metric would be gym memberships during the run up to summer. I expect they will be going down over time.
weird-eye-issue 9mo ago
They are probably still eating processed food just less of it...
zelos 9mo ago
It's not just a US thing. Obesity rates in the UK and Germany are similar and I know plenty of people on GLP-1 drugs in the UK.
nvarsj 9mo ago
Why is it insane? You sound like someone who says to depressed people “just be happy”. I’m on tirzepatide but not for obesity. It completely cures my life long IBS. These are miracle drugs imo and should be as cheap and widely available as possible.
- jacobthesnakob 9mo ago
  Do you seriously think that you’re not in a minority of people taking GLP-1 drugs for IBS and not weight loss?
  - jrockway 9mo ago
    Why is taking it for weight loss such a bad thing? It improves quality of life, health, reduces risk when surgery is needed, etc., etc. Why create a new account just to litigate how statistically relevant the grandparent comment's anecdote is?
    - jacobthesnakob 9mo ago
      >It improves quality of life, health, reduces risk when surgery is needed, And as pointed out elsewhere in this thread, needs to be taken forever as the vast majority of patients regain most or all of the weight they lose after taking GLP-1s. >Why create a new account just to litigate how statistically relevant the grandparent comment's anecdote is? Red herring. My account was not created today, I’ve participated in numerous other threads prior to this one, and it’s irrelevant to the content of my comment.
      - rootusrootus 9mo ago
        > needs to be taken forever Oh well. I'll be taking my omeprazole medication for the rest of my life, too. Sometimes the body has a chronic issue that needs lifetime management, frequently with medication. Only with GLP1 does this suddenly seem like a moral issue for some.
semiquaver 9mo ago
> such a high impact overall The 5.3% figure is on a per-household basis and only applies to households with at least one GLP-1 user.
inglor_cz 9mo ago
I am 47, Czech, slightly overweight (183 cm / 87 kg at the beginning), but with a lot of this fat concentrating on my belly. I don't eat horrible processed food and I exercise quite a lot, but I still wasn't satisfied, so I decided to try Mounjaro on the lowest dose (2,5 mg). I don't think that I told anyone in my friend circle, so if you were my friend, you would not know. 4 kg down in 2 months, effortlessly, plus many metabolic parameters improved. My blood results are now similar to what I had when I was half that age. What is more interesting is the general feeling of being better. Something subtle shifted in my overall bodily feeling, in a positive direction. I am more optimistic, sleep better, I like to go to the gym more. They opened a brand new gym right next to where I live and I didn't omit a single day since January 2, because I enjoy it.
matwood 9mo ago
> In my friend circle in Germany I don't even know one single person on this stuff. It's my understanding in the EU that it's generally harder to get. Generic GPL-1s in the US are pretty easy to get shipped direct with very little doctor interaction.
Aunche 9mo ago
This is one of the major reasons why Americans are stuck with expensive private healthcare that never gets talked about. People who are used treating their insurance as an all-you-can eat buffet will feel like their health coverage is getting worse under a socialized healthcare system that is pressured to keep costs down. No government is going to foot the bill for a costly drug under patent when they can do perfectly fine with cheaper older generics a fraction of the price.
micromacrofoot 9mo ago
> It's insane to me that so many people need these to get off the processed foods killing them in the US. hah, they're not using them to get off of processed foods... they're using them to reduce the impact of processed foods
- dboreham 9mo ago
  That's not how these drugs work. Think of it in terms of there being a programmable neural network in the gut (and associated brain I/O areas). This network is designed to get the animal to eat appropriately. But food makers figured out ways (by thousands of years of machine learning) to tweak its weights such that it tells the animal to eat too much. GLP-1 works by un-tweaking those weights (not quite: more like it clamps some of the inputs to the network but the result is the same). So it does indeed work by stopping the consumer from eating as much.
  - micromacrofoot 9mo ago
    Yes, they don't eat as much — but it does not change the habits of what they eat. > to get off the processed foods killing them so this isn't really happening, they're not getting off of processed foods, they're just consuming less food overall
Mountain_Skies 9mo ago
16% is a huge number. Really hope this doesn't end up being one of those cases where a hidden negative isn't known until years later because that's a really large chunk of the population that would be impacted. That said, lots of people do seem to be getting a better life now because of the drugs.
brightball 9mo ago
There are so many things going on in the US impacting our health. Nobody's been more passionate about fixing it than RFK Jr but there are so many entrenched financial interests it's a long road.
kingkawn 9mo ago
Nobody telling you because you have only judgements about it instead of empathy
DVassallo 9mo ago
The rate of type 2 diabetes in Germany is almost the same as the USA at 9.8% vs 10.7%. Ozempic is a T2D drug.
jjtheblunt 9mo ago
I'm in the US and have a large friend circle across multiple states (from having moved for work over the years) and also do not know one single person using them. However my friends tend to be quite active. The Added Sugars (that's how they are listed on labels in the US) are _insanely_ and insidiously pervasive in US food. it's truly nefarious.
- elictronic 9mo ago
  A close family member and myself are both on them. They get very upset if I ever mention them using them while I happily tell anyone about myself. Wanting to lose weight is shameful to many. Wait for swimsuit season and I have a feeling your even active friends might start without telling anyone.
paul7986 9mo ago
We all drive to where we’re going we do not walk or bike daily like most Europeans do. When in Europe for my ten day trips I always come back five to ten pounds lighter. Myself I count calories (1500 to 1800 a day for middle aged dude) and lol drive to do my daily five mile walks on a rail trail. Foods here if ur lazy and just buy whatever indeed are lasted with preservatives but you can put some effort into ur health to maintain a European look :)
- blell 9mo ago
  Because you are on vacation. That’s why you walk. Europe is much bigger than Amsterdam and Berlin. People drive everywhere here too. You should look up average steps per day by country and you will see the difference between the US and European countries is practically inconsequential, especially taking into account how few calories walking burns.
  - lostlogin 9mo ago
    Do you have a source for that? I can only find crappy data and it doesn’t show what you are saying. It also gives what seems like very low numbers across the board. https://www.healthline.com/health/average-steps-per-day#occupation https://www.healthline.com/health/average-steps-per-day#occu...
- doug_durham 9mo ago
  Most Europeans do not bike daily. Most drive cars where they need to go. You are not losing 5 to 10 pounds in 10 days (unless you are dehydrating yourself). 5 pounds would be a 17,500 calorie deficit or 1,750 per day. The base metabolism for a male is around 1800 calories. That means that you'd be eating 1/10th of a banana every day to get that type of loss. For me a century bike ride (100 miles with 5,000ft of climbing) consumes about 2,900 calories. Are you doing century bike rides every day while only eating 1,200 calories while in Europe?
  - rkomorn 9mo ago
    Math checks out. I'm someone whose weight easily oscillates by 2kg (1kg up/down from my average trend line), and it took a while to accept only the trend line over several weeks matters.
rconti 9mo ago
It's household spending, not nationwide. Presumably you'd see similar findings among German households on "this stuff". > Within six months of starting a GLP-1 medication, households reduce grocery spending by an average of 5.3%.
case540 9mo ago
Title is misleading, it’s “[Among households with an ozempic user], grocery spending reduced by 5.3% on average. It’s not overall
thatfrenchguy 9mo ago
I mean, 75% of americans are overweight or obese right? It's wild that the richest / least obese counties in the US still have 15% of people who are obese ( https://datacommons.techsoup.org/ranking/Percent_Person_Obesity/CensusZipCodeTabulationArea/country/USA?h=zip%2F68301&unit=%25&bottom= https://datacommons.techsoup.org/ranking/Percent_Person_Obes... )
BeetleB 9mo ago
I live in the US and I don't know of anyone taking this drug. But if they were, why would I know?
- rootusrootus 9mo ago
  Indeed, aside from online, where I don't feel consequences from admitting it, very few people know I've taken a GLP1. None of their business, and I don't need to waste seconds of my finite lifespan nurturing their need to feel morally superior. Let everyone worry about their own problems, I'll worry about mine. And I wish they were all as easily solved with GLP1s...
- cthalupa 9mo ago
  I'm quite open about my usage in real life because I want to be honest about how I achieved my weight loss - I'll also show some pride in all of the lifestyle changes I made, but I don't hesitate to mention the GLP-1 use and impact it has had. I'm not ashamed of it and if me being open helps normalize it, all the better. But most people on the internet that I speak to that are on them have had specifically negative encounters from people learning - lots of moralizing, lots of denigration. A whole lot of them now specifically don't bring it up unless explicitly asked.
aidenn0 9mo ago
I live in the US. If those numbers are true, then it seems likely that I know at least one person on it. I however don't know that I know someone one it, since people (at least in the US) don't usually announce "Hi everybody, I'm taking weight loss drugs." Being overweight is seen as shameful, and losing weight through any means other than diet and exercise is an admission of failure.
- rootusrootus 9mo ago
  The best part is feeling the judgement from someone who thinks taking GLP1s is a moral failure when they are carrying an extra 50+ pounds themselves. I have met many people who seem to believe that being fat is actually the higher moral ground than using medication to help solve it. And these are religious people, too! Don't they know about gluttony?
sgwizdak 9mo ago
I started a GLP-1 in October. I've been eating healthy and exercising for a decade, but I was still in the obese category and blood sugar tests indicated I was at the edge of pre-diabetes. If I pushed hard on calorie reduction or exercise, I could gain 10-20% improvement, but it seemed like that would always reverse itself when I'd hit an injury or got sick. I'm hitting my mid-40s and decided it was time for a drastic change. I could have continued yo-yo dieting or opt for a solution that gets me to a healthy BMI within a year. I gained a lot of weight during puberty, coupled with a less healthy diet in my youth. I suspect many folks are in the same boat - by the time they realize they need to eat/exercise, it's too late. Their metabolic system has been compromised by either diet, hormones, genetics, whatever. In four months on a GLP-1, I've dropped about 18kg and since I coupled resistance training, I've increased on various strength parameters. The sudden reduction in weight has benefited my activity level substantially. There tends to be two classes of folks - those who need to stay on this drug forever and those who don't - I'm hoping in the end I fall into the don't, but I'm going to let the data from my continuous glucose monitor decide that. I highly recommend the book "Ozempic Revolution" if you're considering the pros/cons of this path.
- 93po 9mo ago
  > it's too late. Their metabolic system has been compromised by either diet, hormones, genetics, whatever. I do want to be clear to anyone reading: there is no "too late". One's system does not become somehow damaged at some cliff of weight and eating habits. It doesn't become irreparably meaningfully physically more difficult to lose weight. What can happen is a shift in many systems that effectively make one feel hungry all the time and psychologically react very strongly to those hunger cues, which makes people eat more. Outside rare circumstances, if you eat less, you will lose weight. I do have a lot of compassion for the psychological side of things being extremely difficult, though.
  - sgwizdak 9mo ago
    Sorry - I think there's complexity with insulin at play that you're overlooking. When I did caloric restriction, I was constantly battling hypoglycemic events that made me not want to exercise. I don't get that with the GLP-1s. In online discussions, people tend to conflate GLP-1 with appetite suppressants - but there's also insulin stabilization that occurs.
skywhopper 9mo ago
You really don’t know what you’re talking about and should not make inflammatory comments.
seanmcdirmid 9mo ago
There are vast differences in obesity rates between rural and urban areas, and red states vs blue states. Someone in San Francisco California is going to see a lot less obesity than someone in Plano Texas. I’m sure it is similar in Europe, with the caveat that Europeans are healthier than Americans in general.
viccis 9mo ago
>It's insane to me that so many people need these to get off the processed foods killing them in the US. If you understood how super stimulants work, then you wouldn't have found it "insane."
NeutralCrane 9mo ago
It’s not just the processed foods. It’s the sedentary lifestyle. US cities are so car centric that actually getting a minimal baseline of healthy activity requires working into one’s schedule. When I lived in Japan, everything is so walkable/bikable that it makes a significant difference in the base activity level of average individual. I imagine Europe is similar.
Drupon 9mo ago
Look he's doing the "we are not like that in Germany" meme
MagicMoonlight 9mo ago
They wouldn’t tell you that they are on it
mgraczyk 9mo ago
Over 50% of the German population is overweight, and over 20% is obese I think many Germans will start using these drugs once they become cheaper
IAmGraydon 9mo ago
I got the poison, I got the remedy.

by carlmr 9mo ago

Kreutzer 9mo ago

Perhaps they are less forthcoming about taking it. I wasn't aware my father was on it until I saw his medicine cabinet.

ChromaticPanic 9mo ago

Maybe it's just not as talked about. Why would anyone bring it up. I can already sense the condescension in your statement.

Raed667 9mo ago

in europe there is a social stigma around GLP-1 drugs, a lot of people considered it cheating and lazy, so a lot of people don't dare talk about their usage

carlmr 9mo ago
There may be, but I haven't seen anyone lose significant weight either since this started.
raverbashing 9mo ago
Or, you know, just less obese people
- carlmr 9mo ago
  We have quite a few obese people. Not as many as the US, but not few either.
  - Raed667 9mo ago
    > France [...] 2020 [...] excess weight was 47.3%, with 17% of subjects being obese https://presse.inserm.fr/en/obesite-et-surpoids-pres-dun-francais-sur-deux-concerne-etat-des-lieux-prevention-et-solutions-therapeutiques/66621/ https://presse.inserm.fr/en/obesite-et-surpoids-pres-dun-fra...
- tiborsaas 9mo ago
  Many of my not obese friends started using it out of pure laziness. But in general I believe that obese factor too :)
u_sama 9mo ago
You also forget it is expensive and in many cases not taking charge by the respective healthcare autority of the country, so it leads to less consumption.
- sffddfsdsf 9mo ago
  And its for life. Unless you are doing it for Instagram only... "The Insta Diet" as it is called also.. When the diet finishes, you will gain the fat instantly also (just as with any diet obviously).
- Raed667 9mo ago
  It is for sure expensive (~300€ / month) but from my understanding nothing like the prices you see in the US (+2'000 $)
  - devilbunny 9mo ago
    I've known several users of GLP1's. None ever paid more than $600/mo for them once the "patient assistance" programs started, and even in the very earliest days the prices I heard were never more than about $1100 if paid in cash. So, while they are very expensive, your understanding is not reflective of the situation on the ground.
    - Raed667 9mo ago
      that's good to hear, the sticker prices are insane
    - jrockway 9mo ago
      Yeah, Zepbound is $499 now. Out of reach of many, but an improvement from $549 last year. The terms and conditions are confusing. You can only use the half-off coupon they provide if you have prescription drug insurance. Even if insurance doesn't cover it, they still require the processing pharmacy to check that you have some sort of valid insurance and only process the coupon if so. If you fall into that bucket, it's $1200 or something. (Had to pay that amount one month because Amazon Pharmacy was very confused about my gender marker changing on my insurance. Many, many support tickets later, and it got fixed.) There is also some price difference between the autoinjector and the single-use vial + provide your own needle and syringe. I haven't looked into that because it's the same with the coupon, but if you can't get the coupon to work, it's an option to just inject it yourself. Honestly I prefer not using the autoinjectors (I inject other medications), but it's the path of least resistance. Finally, the coupon claims it only works for 7 fills, but I've been taking the medication for a couple years and all my fills have been covered. I don't really understand it. I have a feeling that I'm the only person in the world that read the fine print, including the pharmacies and manufacturer :/
Traubenfuchs 9mo ago
In Austria I have noticed a massive social stigma. I think that's embarrassing and backwards. As someone who is very athletic and takes nothing extraordinary besides creatine and whey protein I fully support anyone who wants to become healthier, with or without medication.
- m0llusk 9mo ago
  In my experience this is not healthy. People who had problems with weight are very quickly losing excess weight and displaying a range of symptoms related to that including sunken and starved looking faces and significant loss of lean muscle mass. Changes made to the face with rapid weight loss may become permanent and especially for older people the loss of lean muscle mass can become a major health problem. Sudden extreme changes in body composition are often neither healthy nor stable.
  - benmmurphy 9mo ago
    There might be health problems associated with these drugs but they need to be compared to the next best option. I think for a lot of people on these drugs the next best option is continuing the status quo which has a lot of negative health outcomes as well.
Foivos 9mo ago
The social stigma in Europe exists, because these drugs are in limited supply. So, if a person who does not really need them is using them, the people who actually need them to stay alive might have difficulty accessing them.
- Raed667 9mo ago
  that's actually not true, Mounjaro and Wegovy are pretty much meant for weight loss and there is no competition over them for people with diabetes
  - derektank 9mo ago
    Mounjaro is the tirzepatide equivalent to Ozempic (semaglutide) in that it’s prescribed for type 2 diabetes. Wegovy (semaglutide) and Zepbound (tirzepatide) are prescribed for obesity. Otherwise you’re spot on.
  - dboreham 9mo ago
    There is until they're packaged because they're the same drug. Only the label is different.
- laurentiurad 9mo ago
  you can just order them to your home on any of the websites selling GLP-1. Stop the propaganda inferring that the public healthcare is bad and doesn't allow people to get their medicine.
  - blell 9mo ago
    In Spain you can't. You need to be authorised by a doctor to buy those drugs.
    - bigfishrunning 9mo ago
      This is also true in the US -- these are prescription drugs.
blell 9mo ago
I read this online, I don't know where it was, so I can't give a source, it probably was on twitter: "People really want these things - exercise, weight - to be important moral objectives for others, when they're not that important in the grand scheme of things. Now you'll just have to find another easy visual marker for ranking people by moral superiority."
- deleted 9mo ago
  [deleted]
- hare2eternity 9mo ago
  I would imagine we'll see a greater emphasis on muscularity. Already 'skinny fat' has long been a pejorative for slim people that hadn't 'earned' it (whatever 'it' is). Like just about everything, supply and demand will determine desirability. In a world where no-one is overweight being slim is no longer a desirable differentiator.

u_sama 9mo ago

For artificial problems, artificial solutions. I think the state of food in the US is really bad, and one cannot compare such products to the superior EU food quality standards and eating habits (and city designs) which render the incentives really perverse

mistahenry 9mo ago
I lived in Germany and Indonesia. It’s easier for me now back in the US than ever to eat healthy. I can buy pre-chopped Cole slaw, diced peppers / onions, etc. Whole Foods is best in class (Alnatura doesn’t come close) While to me, the layman, it seems health regulation in general in Europe is more conservative about what can be put on the body / be consumed, I think it’s mostly Americans don’t want to eat healthy. And the portion sizes here are insane (just look at the evolution dinner plate. 1960s plates at an antique sale only pass for salad plates)
- juujian 9mo ago
  Yes, whole foods is great, but if you look are they locations, name Americans don't have access to one and or cannot afford it.
  - stinkbeetle 9mo ago
    Cause and effect is backward. The locations indicate where people are buying it. And cheap doesn't really add up either because if somebody wants the cheapest possible calories they would be buying rice, flour/pasta, potato... I don't know why the problem is shied away from. It is because people are addicted to fast food and to their sedentary lifestyles. It's not the price or availability of good food, not the first order effect anyway. You'll never be able to force "whole foods" sellers into unprofitable places and if you did by some miracle, you'll never be able to force people to buy it no matter how much money you gave them. Vegetables and grains and basics could be free and many obese food addicts will go buy a burger from a drive thru.
    - bluGill 9mo ago

blitzar 9mo ago

Your friend circle in Germany probably doesn't have many members who were a proud big boned 5"7' 300lbs (~140kg).

wongarsu 9mo ago
For good reason. That'd be a BMI of 47. There isn't a lot of statistical data for such high BMIs, but [1] lists prevalence of BMI>40. In Germany 1.2% of men and 2.8% of women had a BMI over 40 in 2011, in the US it was 5.6% and 9.7% respectively in 2016. That's nearly four times as many as in Germany. 1: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7078951/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7078951/
- tom_ 9mo ago
  The US population (~350m) is about 4 times that of Germany (~85m)...
  - wongarsu 9mo ago
    Which has to be a pure coincidence, since the reported numbers are relative to population size. We could conclude that there are 4x4=16 times as many people with such high BMIs in the US, but that is not that useful
    - blitzar 9mo ago
      Several studies conducted during the last 50 years have shown that lower intelligence is associated with a higher body mass index.
      - rootusrootus 9mo ago
        So this is why SE Asia is kicking the crap out of the US and Europe?
- rootusrootus 9mo ago
  > In Germany 1.2% of men and 2.8% of women had a BMI over 40 in 2011 How does that compare to, say, Japan? Why is Germany so much fatter?

seedless-sensat 9mo ago

I am not American, but I think you are unfairly dismissing the massive benefits GLP-1s have for people who struggle to maintain a healthy diet. It really feels like a miracle drug. > It's insane to me that so many people need these to get off the processed foods killing them in the US. Your comparison of your friends in Germany vs "insanity" in the US doesn't feel relevant

carlmr 9mo ago
I didn't dismiss any benefits. But so many people needing an anti-addiction drug to get off addictive foods IMO should raise alarm bells. The food producers need to be sanctioned. It's unsustainable for a whole nation to be on these expensive drugs. If you think an outside perspective is irrelevant I'm also not sure why you don't just move on and not comment.
- wjnc 9mo ago
  True, but what would sanctioning producers do? I think it's not even the availability of fresh products in the supermarket, but the willingness of customers to prepare food themselves? I agree it's postmodern funny that you need to continually buy something (a medicine) to not buy somethings (fast food) that are bad for you. I've got co-workers who only eat out. Guess what? What I think are salt and fat related health issues. Sugar, salt and fat are too easy and too nice not to be everywhere. We used to make baby food ourselves. That was like twenty portions of baby food in ten minutes, for pretty much no cost (all basis fresh staples are pretty much free: fresh carrots, potatoes, rice, onions, pumpkin). Chop some vegetables and perhaps add little leftover meat, steam it, blend it, freeze it. Philips had a great machine for that. But we were somewhat 'out there' here too. Most people give babies food from glass pots. Then I see [1]. Got healthy teens now who eat pretty much everything. We still cook most of the stuff ourselves, although time constraints are a bit harder now than a decade ago. Same as for walking. That is the most basic instrument for health. But if you cannot go out for a good walk because your environment is car only, what can you do? You can sanction the car makers for not making us walk. But that's a bit silly? (You are not saying that, trying to make an analogy with the food producers.) I'm blessed with lots of forests nearby, with separate paths for walking, cycling, MTB-ing and horseriding. Going outdoors is trivial here. Point I'm trying to make is that an unhealthy and sedentary lifestyle is a lot of factors working combined. That's why international comparisons are so hard (or impossible). I think the 'Boulder, Colorado'-lifestyle is comparable with my local EU-lifestyle. But all environments are different on many vectors. [1] Nearly two-thirds of baby foods in US supermarkets are unhealthy, study finds - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXyVJpTe8NQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXyVJpTe8NQ

only-one1701 9mo ago

I’d advise folks to consider a) the relationship between poverty, stress, and obesity Nd b) the income inequality of the United States relative to Germany

kayo_20211030 9mo ago
... and that "bad" food in the US is frequently cheaper and easier to find than "good" food.
temp8830 9mo ago
Absolutely. The American way of life traps people in a zoo. There is nothing to do other than work (if you are lucky), eat, and consume junk media. For ones who are poor the only difference is the degree to which the food is also junk.
- deleted 9mo ago
  [deleted]
- bigfishrunning 9mo ago
  This is patently false -- there is plenty to do besides consume junk media; the fact that our population is addicted to the dopamine associated with short-form video doesn't mean that there aren't other options. I've made a concerted effort to consume less "junk media" in the last couple of years. In that time I've gotten an Amateur radio licence, I've built a couple of keyboards and speakers, I've started golfing (after a 20 year hiatus), I've learned to bake bread (from scratch, including grinding wheat!), I've read a lot of novels, and I'm happier for all of it. Everyone has to work -- this is not unique to the United States. But outside of that, eating and living healthier is absolutely possible, it just takes some effort. Get a hobby (or several!)
  - napkinartist 9mo ago
    I don't think you understand the situation the parent is describing. Golf is a luxury. Baking one's own bread is a huge luxury. For a lot of people, finding the time to do either (let alone the financial outlay) is impossible. You want to tell single parent working two jobs in an apartment that's moldy to "try playing golf. Read more!"?

conception 9mo ago

An astonishing number of people are type two diabetic in this country due to poor health and poor access to healthcare. But glp1 is covered as a diabetic treatment so a tremendous number of folks can get it at a reasonable cost.

kristopolous 9mo ago

The supermarket "super user" category of people who bought a lot of food and people who are using it is likely not a small crossover

vovavili 9mo ago

Nothing surprising for me. Unless you're in the top percentiles in terms of self-discipline, becoming obese is usually a one-way road. GLP-1 is a lazy solution for a problem that primarily stems from laziness.

TaupeRanger 9mo ago
"Lazy" is a pejorative term, which makes your comment sound denigrating to users of GLP-1s. If that is your intent, then your issue with people using medicine to help them avoid diabetes and heart disease is that....it's too easy?
- vovavili 9mo ago
  There is no way approximately one-sixth of a population are taking GLP-1 strictly for legitimate health issues.
  - c0nducktr 9mo ago
    Obesity is a legitimate health issue.
    - vovavili 9mo ago
      I would rephrase it as "lacking high sense of self-control leads to legitimate health issues".
  - napkinartist 9mo ago
    [dead]
carlosjobim 9mo ago
So what? Why does that bother you? Is the (European) hatred towards your fellow brothers and sisters so strong that you prefer them to be chronically unhealthy, when there is a solution for them?
- 9mo ago

kuttel2 9mo ago

[dead]

Tepix 9mo ago
Germany is at 24% obesity rate and the US is about 10% higher. But the trend is the same worldwide. Obesity is on the rise. I don't think demographics has as big of an influence as you assume.
- maxerickson 9mo ago
  Germany is simply further from the origin of the Maize incident.

pjc50 9mo ago

Obesity is not evenly distributed by age or demographic. If you're a relatively young person in the workforce, you probably don't know such people. But it is true that obesity is much less prevalent in most of Europe. Even the places with less "healthy" diets, suprisingly.

amanaplanacanal 9mo ago
But obesity rates are going up there, too, they are just lagging behind the Anglo world.
rootusrootus 9mo ago
> But it is true that obesity is much less prevalent in most of Europe Let's put this into perspective. On average, the US has about twice the obesity rate as Europe (though in both cases there is a fairly wide variation regionally). And Europe has 4 or 5 times the obesity rate of Japan. So relatively speaking, Europe is not in a position to argue that their regulations or lifestyles are the answer.

tyjen 9mo ago

The overall food quality in Germany is significantly higher than in the US. Visit an Aldi or Lidl in Germany, then visit one in the US; night and day difference in food quality. You can tell Germany cares for its population via food regulation and from what's offered; whereas, it's a toxic trash heap in America solved with drugs or paying a higher premium for healthier items. The healthier items in America should be a baseline instead of pricing out people. Feels like Americans are paying for a premium upfront or downstream via pharmaceutical/healthcare solutions.

bryanrasmussen 9mo ago
>The healthier items in America should be a baseline instead of pricing out people. what percentage of people on Ozempic etc. are poor enough that they would be priced out by healthier food?
1123581321 9mo ago
I haven’t seen that difference between German Aldi/Lidl and American Aldi; are you thinking of any particular items? Americans just buy more food.
- deleted 9mo ago
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- nasmorn 9mo ago
  Probably 95% of Germans live 15min from an Aldi. There are no Dollar General food wastes because the country is much denser and poor people have access to much better public transport
  - 1123581321 9mo ago
    True. Population density differs by about 2.5x, and the US has some truly depopulated areas that essentially don't exist on the European contintent. Although, rural Americans are also used to driving longer distances than rural Germans. I would venture that a 30-40 minute trip is not thought of as significant, especially if only done 1-2 times per week. Rural grocery shopping (real food, not snacks), is typically done at Walmart or a smaller grocery brand or independent. For quick errands, DG does get a lot of it. You're starting to see grocery store logistics push in to what were traditionally gas-and-convenience-store corners, including Aldi, so the commutes for groceries are getting shorter. It will be interesting to see what happens in the US with the price war over GLP-1 weight loss pills. Unlike Ozempic injections, they're going to penetrate into low income and rural households.

brianpbeau 9mo ago

It's not just processed foods, there is also a genetic struggle as well. Looking at my family living in the US and in the EU, being overweight is a thing for a large portion of us. Even in my grandparents generation of family had issues as well, and they were all blue collar manual workers that lived before processed foods. This is not to say you are wrong. The food supply in the US is not healthy. The bad news is that the same greed that destroyed our food will find ways to get around the ways GLP-1s work.

xenospn 9mo ago
I’m sure in 5 years all processed microwave meals and fast food will be “fortified with GLP-1”.
- smileysteve 9mo ago
  Historically, this is called "fiber", and has already been regulated to be required in European breads
  - patentatt 9mo ago
    I find this humorous but I’m also genuinely curious what the analogy is between fiber and GLPs?
    - mminer237 9mo ago
      Fiber is essentially mass with little to no nutrition in it. So it makes you feel fuller without adding calories, like GLP-1 drugs. I do think there's a strong argument that lack of fiber and protein are huge contributors to the world's obesity problems.
      - array_key_first 9mo ago
        In most developed countries people eat lots of fiber. Like just unbelievable amounts of meat, more than ever before in human history and prehistory.

RobinL 9mo ago

I was curious for a UK comparison so I looked it up. At the start of 2025, about 3% of adults in UK had used GLP-1 drugs in past year in the UK. And "most GLP-1 for weight loss in the UK is from private, rather than NHS provision" [1]. [1] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12781702/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12781702/

esperent 9mo ago
I assume that translates to it being really hard to get in the NHS so people are resorting to buying it themselves. I wonder what the percentage would be if it was easy to get from the NHS?
Aurornis 9mo ago
UK numbers are always interesting because the NHS leans conservative about access to many types of care and medication. For another example, rates of COVID-19 vaccination are significantly lower in the UK not because people there don’t want vaccines, but because the NHS only makes them narrowly available to people above a certain age or with a strict set of conditions.

arghwhat 9mo ago

I think it's a bit more popular outside the US than you make it out to be. As an anecdote, I know a handful of people on it in Denmark - and that's despite the local Danish price being higher than the German one and Denmark having notably lower obesity and diabetes rates than Germany. I imagine you'll find that people of certain lifestyles tend to cluster together a bit, with those with more active lifestyles and healthy diets likely to have their friends and family be of active lifestyles and healthy diets, and in turn less likely to be in need of such drugs. Lifestyle changes are difficult to implement by nature. Although, the term "processed food" is awful as it covers so many unrelated things. The problem is ultra-addictive, ultra-high glycemic index foods consumed in large amounts partly due to their addictive qualities - a quality some processed foods have. For reference, Danish sausage sandwich toppings are highly processed foods, but it won't drive anyone to obesity or diabetes. Elevated blood pressure, perhaps. Junk takeaway, candy and sugary cereals on the other hand...

amelius 9mo ago
Processed foods are easier to modify. Hence, given corporate greed, they are addictive and unhealthy.
- arghwhat 9mo ago
  Foods, full stop, is easy to modify. More generally, a producer can arbitrary control any product composition according to their own goals. Nothing to do with "processed foods" in general, despite a good portion of the affected foods being under that label. It's simply a matter of malicious companies combined with unknowing, unempowered consumers. By trying to single out something as massively generic as "processed foods", you're just making it easy for companies to avoid the problem: Using and manipulating official definitions to be removed from it as a "solution", justifying the whole thing in the basis of numerous good things being in the same category, drawing attention to other foods in the same category that are more commonly associated with the term despite theirs being way worse, etc. If you want to fix the problem, you need to attack the problem. That is not processing - it is addiction and glycemic value. Going for the underlying attributes means you cannot redefine your way out of it, and gives consumers a better chance to learn what to actually avoid.

1123581321 9mo ago

Mintel (market data company) claims 8% of Germans have tried a weight-loss drug in the last year and a further 15% are interested. https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2025/08/11/glp-1-affect-on-consumption-in-europe/ https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2025/08/11/glp-1-affec...

omgJustTest 9mo ago

i considered it, but the gym was a much better option. for everyone who says "i've tried etc doesnt work" all i would say is, possibly if you dont have the time due to kids etc. Otherwise, get to it!

aucisson_masque 9mo ago
Even easier than the gym, and cheaper ! Eat less shit. Simply. If you eat only vegetable and meat, you’re going to have a hard time gaining weight.
thw_9a83c 9mo ago
> but the gym was a much better option. If you live in a suitable city, there is an even simpler solution. Just walk to wherever place you need to go. Unfortunately, the century of individual automobile ownership has made most cities unsuitable for this natural mode of transportation.
yourusername 9mo ago
You can't out excercise a bad diet. You can hit the weights for 2 hours straight every day and eat those calories back with a single bad dietary choice (like a handful of peanuts or a single large cookie).
- yunwal 9mo ago
  I must’ve missed when peanuts became a bad dietary choice. What’s the evidence for this?
  - EA 9mo ago
    OP isn't saying peanuts are a poor source of nutrition. OP is saying a few peanuts are calorically dense and it is easy to consume hundreds of calories through seemingly inconsequential amounts of snacks and drinks.
    - johnyzee 9mo ago

nwienert 9mo ago

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iM103vKdI5E https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iM103vKdI5E

lumost 9mo ago

Eh, the drugs work. A great many people in the US struggle with weight despite shifting to high quality foods, fad diets, exercise etc. I'd honestly attribute the root cause to high general stress levels in daily life.

SecretDreams 9mo ago

> It's insane to me that so many people need these to get off the processed foods killing them in the US. Completely agreed. That said, I've been to Germany a handful of times but not in the last 7 years (sadly) and two things always stuck out to me: * There's way more attractive/healthy looking people. * There's wayyyy more young attractive people that smoke (wtf!). Not sure if the smoking has subsided, but it was far more prominent than in NA since I've last visited.

heraldgeezer 9mo ago

Americans (and increasingly us Europeans) are pigs. The society is built to sit in a chair 8h, get in your car and drive 1h home and sit in a chair. Then repeat. Also "eating 3 meals a day" I eat 3 full meals, I blow up like a balloon. I don't get it. It's like they have to constantly eat. When I was a teen or in my 20s yes. Now in my 30s its game over. It is also the way society, public transport, cities are designed. I walk 4km to work when its nice out here in Europe. Could I do that in the USA?

xenospn 9mo ago
The entire world eats 3 meals a day. Even if you eat 6 meals a day you can easily lose weight. It’s about the contents of the meal, not the frequency.
- lm28469 9mo ago
  I eat one meal a day for as far as I can remember. Fatties love to tell me it's unhealthy, my doctor hasn't figure out yet though so I imagine it really isn't that unhealthy. Eating three meals a day is a very very very recent thing if you account for human history, or even modern human history
  - tayo42 9mo ago
    You need to include more info about your one meal, height and your actual weight. If your 5'2 this is alot less interesting
    - lm28469 9mo ago
      180cm, 75kg, leanish, I optimise for rock climbing and do kettlebell workouts 2 to 3 times a week. I do close to the bare minimum of what is available to stay in decent shape, it takes me less than 4 hours a week total. Not counting the time I save cooking/eating
- heraldgeezer 9mo ago
  Okay, you are correct but not realistic. 3 realistic meals in USA and Western Europe then. Cofee/toast or cereal/musli for breakfast, bought lunch Yea I can down a familiy pizza if its all I eat for the day. Also, the rise of zero/light drinks have actually helped.

infecto 9mo ago

I don’t think it’s any more insane than 40% of Germans believing in the efficacy of homeopathic remedies. Different cultures and different problems. The obesity problem is a lot lower in Germany compared to the US. As all things I am sure it’s a combination of factors. I don’t think it’s fair to call purely a processed food problem but I am sure it does not help.

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rib3ye 9mo ago

Overeating doesn’t just happen in a bubble - there is a confluence of issues creating anxiety and stress in Americans’s daily lives leading to the obesity issue.

infecto 9mo ago
I agree with this take too. Culture influences it but I don’t think anyone can be singled out being immune. We are stressed and overworked. Simple food takes work. We no longer have a village. If you have kids so many are just stuck at home. I compare it to my childhood which was a while ago but not that far and I would go out in the middle of the day with instructions to come back home before dark. I would be running all over town on my bicycle. Now parents in the US are obsessing over travel sports and keeping booked calendars for their kids. Both parents will be working. There is nobody around put a meal together.

Aurornis 9mo ago

> In my friend circle in Germany I don't even know one single person on this stuff. Most people don’t announce when they’re taking a new medication. GLP-1 drugs are popular in Germany, too. Not quite to the level of some other countries but a quick search shows about 1 in 12 individuals in Germany. Note that the US number quoted above was for households not individuals, so the numbers of households in Germany with at least one member on a GLP-1 is higher. This isn’t a uniquely American phenomenon, despite attempts to turn this into another America-bad comment thread. > It's insane to me that so many people need these to get off the processed foods killing them in the US. GLP-1 drugs don’t make people stop eating processed food. They reduce food intake and cravings. It’s still up to the user to make healthy choices about what to eat. Also it’s been about a decade since I visited family friends in Germany but there was plenty of processed food to be had when I was there, too.

deleted 9mo ago
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nwienert 9mo ago
Well said, to add though they do make you crave certain foods differently - fruit more, processed foods less.
CGMthrowaway 9mo ago
>I was wondering how you could get such a high impact overall. But it seems one in 6 households are on GLP-1 drugs in the US. I had the same question and did some back of the envelope math. The data I have seen says the average American eats 400-700 excess daily calories, and 3600 daily calories total. That means 10-20% excess per person. If everyone started eating the right amount overnight, grocery spend would drop 10-20%. But since it's 16% on these drugs, and figure since they are Losing Weight (not maintaining), safe to say those 16% of Americans are eating 20-30% less... 20-30% times 16% = 3-5% decrease in spend. So it tracks, roughly. And we are not at the bottom yet.
- _alternator_ 9mo ago
  The decrease in spend was at the household level, not aggregate, so it’s a 5% decrease across 16% of households, or a bit less than 1% overall. The overall weight loss seems to be because the spending decreases most heavily in calorie dense foods like savory snacks; yogurt and fresh fruit spending goes up a bit.

fullstop 9mo ago

I don't know a single person on it either (USA), but it's not exactly something that people talk about. I am naturally quite thin, as is the rest of my family, but there's certainly no shortage of hefty people here.

elictronic 9mo ago
It’s not just hefty people. Swimsuit season is a thing. A interesting metric would be gym memberships during the run up to summer. I expect they will be going down over time.

weird-eye-issue 9mo ago

They are probably still eating processed food just less of it...

zelos 9mo ago

It's not just a US thing. Obesity rates in the UK and Germany are similar and I know plenty of people on GLP-1 drugs in the UK.

nvarsj 9mo ago

Why is it insane? You sound like someone who says to depressed people “just be happy”. I’m on tirzepatide but not for obesity. It completely cures my life long IBS. These are miracle drugs imo and should be as cheap and widely available as possible.

jacobthesnakob 9mo ago
Do you seriously think that you’re not in a minority of people taking GLP-1 drugs for IBS and not weight loss?
- jrockway 9mo ago
  Why is taking it for weight loss such a bad thing? It improves quality of life, health, reduces risk when surgery is needed, etc., etc. Why create a new account just to litigate how statistically relevant the grandparent comment's anecdote is?
  - jacobthesnakob 9mo ago
    >It improves quality of life, health, reduces risk when surgery is needed, And as pointed out elsewhere in this thread, needs to be taken forever as the vast majority of patients regain most or all of the weight they lose after taking GLP-1s. >Why create a new account just to litigate how statistically relevant the grandparent comment's anecdote is? Red herring. My account was not created today, I’ve participated in numerous other threads prior to this one, and it’s irrelevant to the content of my comment.
    - rootusrootus 9mo ago
      > needs to be taken forever Oh well. I'll be taking my omeprazole medication for the rest of my life, too. Sometimes the body has a chronic issue that needs lifetime management, frequently with medication. Only with GLP1 does this suddenly seem like a moral issue for some.

semiquaver 9mo ago

> such a high impact overall The 5.3% figure is on a per-household basis and only applies to households with at least one GLP-1 user.

inglor_cz 9mo ago

I am 47, Czech, slightly overweight (183 cm / 87 kg at the beginning), but with a lot of this fat concentrating on my belly. I don't eat horrible processed food and I exercise quite a lot, but I still wasn't satisfied, so I decided to try Mounjaro on the lowest dose (2,5 mg). I don't think that I told anyone in my friend circle, so if you were my friend, you would not know. 4 kg down in 2 months, effortlessly, plus many metabolic parameters improved. My blood results are now similar to what I had when I was half that age. What is more interesting is the general feeling of being better. Something subtle shifted in my overall bodily feeling, in a positive direction. I am more optimistic, sleep better, I like to go to the gym more. They opened a brand new gym right next to where I live and I didn't omit a single day since January 2, because I enjoy it.

matwood 9mo ago

> In my friend circle in Germany I don't even know one single person on this stuff. It's my understanding in the EU that it's generally harder to get. Generic GPL-1s in the US are pretty easy to get shipped direct with very little doctor interaction.

Aunche 9mo ago

This is one of the major reasons why Americans are stuck with expensive private healthcare that never gets talked about. People who are used treating their insurance as an all-you-can eat buffet will feel like their health coverage is getting worse under a socialized healthcare system that is pressured to keep costs down. No government is going to foot the bill for a costly drug under patent when they can do perfectly fine with cheaper older generics a fraction of the price.

micromacrofoot 9mo ago

> It's insane to me that so many people need these to get off the processed foods killing them in the US. hah, they're not using them to get off of processed foods... they're using them to reduce the impact of processed foods

dboreham 9mo ago
That's not how these drugs work. Think of it in terms of there being a programmable neural network in the gut (and associated brain I/O areas). This network is designed to get the animal to eat appropriately. But food makers figured out ways (by thousands of years of machine learning) to tweak its weights such that it tells the animal to eat too much. GLP-1 works by un-tweaking those weights (not quite: more like it clamps some of the inputs to the network but the result is the same). So it does indeed work by stopping the consumer from eating as much.
- micromacrofoot 9mo ago
  Yes, they don't eat as much — but it does not change the habits of what they eat. > to get off the processed foods killing them so this isn't really happening, they're not getting off of processed foods, they're just consuming less food overall

Mountain_Skies 9mo ago

16% is a huge number. Really hope this doesn't end up being one of those cases where a hidden negative isn't known until years later because that's a really large chunk of the population that would be impacted. That said, lots of people do seem to be getting a better life now because of the drugs.

brightball 9mo ago

There are so many things going on in the US impacting our health. Nobody's been more passionate about fixing it than RFK Jr but there are so many entrenched financial interests it's a long road.

kingkawn 9mo ago

Nobody telling you because you have only judgements about it instead of empathy

DVassallo 9mo ago

The rate of type 2 diabetes in Germany is almost the same as the USA at 9.8% vs 10.7%. Ozempic is a T2D drug.

jjtheblunt 9mo ago

I'm in the US and have a large friend circle across multiple states (from having moved for work over the years) and also do not know one single person using them. However my friends tend to be quite active. The Added Sugars (that's how they are listed on labels in the US) are _insanely_ and insidiously pervasive in US food. it's truly nefarious.

elictronic 9mo ago
A close family member and myself are both on them. They get very upset if I ever mention them using them while I happily tell anyone about myself. Wanting to lose weight is shameful to many. Wait for swimsuit season and I have a feeling your even active friends might start without telling anyone.

paul7986 9mo ago

We all drive to where we’re going we do not walk or bike daily like most Europeans do. When in Europe for my ten day trips I always come back five to ten pounds lighter. Myself I count calories (1500 to 1800 a day for middle aged dude) and lol drive to do my daily five mile walks on a rail trail. Foods here if ur lazy and just buy whatever indeed are lasted with preservatives but you can put some effort into ur health to maintain a European look :)

blell 9mo ago
Because you are on vacation. That’s why you walk. Europe is much bigger than Amsterdam and Berlin. People drive everywhere here too. You should look up average steps per day by country and you will see the difference between the US and European countries is practically inconsequential, especially taking into account how few calories walking burns.
- lostlogin 9mo ago
  Do you have a source for that? I can only find crappy data and it doesn’t show what you are saying. It also gives what seems like very low numbers across the board. https://www.healthline.com/health/average-steps-per-day#occupation https://www.healthline.com/health/average-steps-per-day#occu...
doug_durham 9mo ago
Most Europeans do not bike daily. Most drive cars where they need to go. You are not losing 5 to 10 pounds in 10 days (unless you are dehydrating yourself). 5 pounds would be a 17,500 calorie deficit or 1,750 per day. The base metabolism for a male is around 1800 calories. That means that you'd be eating 1/10th of a banana every day to get that type of loss. For me a century bike ride (100 miles with 5,000ft of climbing) consumes about 2,900 calories. Are you doing century bike rides every day while only eating 1,200 calories while in Europe?
- rkomorn 9mo ago
  Math checks out. I'm someone whose weight easily oscillates by 2kg (1kg up/down from my average trend line), and it took a while to accept only the trend line over several weeks matters.

rconti 9mo ago

It's household spending, not nationwide. Presumably you'd see similar findings among German households on "this stuff". > Within six months of starting a GLP-1 medication, households reduce grocery spending by an average of 5.3%.

case540 9mo ago

Title is misleading, it’s “[Among households with an ozempic user], grocery spending reduced by 5.3% on average. It’s not overall

thatfrenchguy 9mo ago

I mean, 75% of americans are overweight or obese right? It's wild that the richest / least obese counties in the US still have 15% of people who are obese ( https://datacommons.techsoup.org/ranking/Percent_Person_Obesity/CensusZipCodeTabulationArea/country/USA?h=zip%2F68301&unit=%25&bottom= https://datacommons.techsoup.org/ranking/Percent_Person_Obes... )

BeetleB 9mo ago

I live in the US and I don't know of anyone taking this drug. But if they were, why would I know?

rootusrootus 9mo ago
Indeed, aside from online, where I don't feel consequences from admitting it, very few people know I've taken a GLP1. None of their business, and I don't need to waste seconds of my finite lifespan nurturing their need to feel morally superior. Let everyone worry about their own problems, I'll worry about mine. And I wish they were all as easily solved with GLP1s...
cthalupa 9mo ago
I'm quite open about my usage in real life because I want to be honest about how I achieved my weight loss - I'll also show some pride in all of the lifestyle changes I made, but I don't hesitate to mention the GLP-1 use and impact it has had. I'm not ashamed of it and if me being open helps normalize it, all the better. But most people on the internet that I speak to that are on them have had specifically negative encounters from people learning - lots of moralizing, lots of denigration. A whole lot of them now specifically don't bring it up unless explicitly asked.

aidenn0 9mo ago

I live in the US. If those numbers are true, then it seems likely that I know at least one person on it. I however don't know that I know someone one it, since people (at least in the US) don't usually announce "Hi everybody, I'm taking weight loss drugs." Being overweight is seen as shameful, and losing weight through any means other than diet and exercise is an admission of failure.

rootusrootus 9mo ago
The best part is feeling the judgement from someone who thinks taking GLP1s is a moral failure when they are carrying an extra 50+ pounds themselves. I have met many people who seem to believe that being fat is actually the higher moral ground than using medication to help solve it. And these are religious people, too! Don't they know about gluttony?

sgwizdak 9mo ago

I started a GLP-1 in October. I've been eating healthy and exercising for a decade, but I was still in the obese category and blood sugar tests indicated I was at the edge of pre-diabetes. If I pushed hard on calorie reduction or exercise, I could gain 10-20% improvement, but it seemed like that would always reverse itself when I'd hit an injury or got sick. I'm hitting my mid-40s and decided it was time for a drastic change. I could have continued yo-yo dieting or opt for a solution that gets me to a healthy BMI within a year. I gained a lot of weight during puberty, coupled with a less healthy diet in my youth. I suspect many folks are in the same boat - by the time they realize they need to eat/exercise, it's too late. Their metabolic system has been compromised by either diet, hormones, genetics, whatever. In four months on a GLP-1, I've dropped about 18kg and since I coupled resistance training, I've increased on various strength parameters. The sudden reduction in weight has benefited my activity level substantially. There tends to be two classes of folks - those who need to stay on this drug forever and those who don't - I'm hoping in the end I fall into the don't, but I'm going to let the data from my continuous glucose monitor decide that. I highly recommend the book "Ozempic Revolution" if you're considering the pros/cons of this path.

93po 9mo ago
> it's too late. Their metabolic system has been compromised by either diet, hormones, genetics, whatever. I do want to be clear to anyone reading: there is no "too late". One's system does not become somehow damaged at some cliff of weight and eating habits. It doesn't become irreparably meaningfully physically more difficult to lose weight. What can happen is a shift in many systems that effectively make one feel hungry all the time and psychologically react very strongly to those hunger cues, which makes people eat more. Outside rare circumstances, if you eat less, you will lose weight. I do have a lot of compassion for the psychological side of things being extremely difficult, though.
- sgwizdak 9mo ago
  Sorry - I think there's complexity with insulin at play that you're overlooking. When I did caloric restriction, I was constantly battling hypoglycemic events that made me not want to exercise. I don't get that with the GLP-1s. In online discussions, people tend to conflate GLP-1 with appetite suppressants - but there's also insulin stabilization that occurs.

skywhopper 9mo ago

You really don’t know what you’re talking about and should not make inflammatory comments.

seanmcdirmid 9mo ago

There are vast differences in obesity rates between rural and urban areas, and red states vs blue states. Someone in San Francisco California is going to see a lot less obesity than someone in Plano Texas. I’m sure it is similar in Europe, with the caveat that Europeans are healthier than Americans in general.

viccis 9mo ago

>It's insane to me that so many people need these to get off the processed foods killing them in the US. If you understood how super stimulants work, then you wouldn't have found it "insane."

NeutralCrane 9mo ago

It’s not just the processed foods. It’s the sedentary lifestyle. US cities are so car centric that actually getting a minimal baseline of healthy activity requires working into one’s schedule. When I lived in Japan, everything is so walkable/bikable that it makes a significant difference in the base activity level of average individual. I imagine Europe is similar.

Drupon 9mo ago

Look he's doing the "we are not like that in Germany" meme

MagicMoonlight 9mo ago

They wouldn’t tell you that they are on it

mgraczyk 9mo ago

Over 50% of the German population is overweight, and over 20% is obese I think many Germans will start using these drugs once they become cheaper

IAmGraydon 9mo ago

I got the poison, I got the remedy.