Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Launch HN: Fella (YC W20) – Tackling men's obesity using medication and coaching

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 318 posts

Re: Launch HN: Fella (YC W20) – Tackling men's obesity using medication and coaching

#71

Post by rich-cartwright »

ryanSrich wrote: post #66

Do you help people account for family lifestyles and cooking for more than just themselves? I used to do 2-3 day fasts, but now that I’m married with kids I find it almost impossible to do so since I cook and prep all the meals. I tried low carb and keto. It works fine for me, but selling my wife on a breakfast that consists of 6 eggs and a pound of bacon is a hard sell. So there’s always bread and pasta in the house…

Yep really good point about the family dynamics - lots of the Fellas talk about how having teenage kids around makes the dietary side really tough.

How the coaching works in the program is that we dive in at the start to really understand the 1-3 key leverage points where we can make the most impact - then focus all our coaching time on these.

Re: Launch HN: Fella (YC W20) – Tackling men's obesity using medication and coaching

#72

Post by lharries »

vcg3rd wrote: post #69

You apparently don't let people sign-up who are willing to pay out of pocket. Shame.

It should be possible — select "Uninsured" when you try and sign up (although I realize now that we can make that clearer). Email me at luke@joinfella.com if you have any issues

Re: Launch HN: Fella (YC W20) – Tackling men's obesity using medication and coaching

#73

Post by faichai »

jimmaswell wrote: post #37
rich-cartwright wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spot on about fasting, and keto has solid evidence as well - https://www.virtahealth.com/ are a great company focused on this. The issue is we're starting to have a more nuanced understanding of the metabolic resistance people face when they undergo dietary changes - basically the body fights hard against you as you try to lose weight by dieting. So it's now industry-standard among obesity specialist doctors to see o…

> basically the body fights hard against you as you try to lose weight by dieting. I used to weigh 310lbs, now I'm 215lbs. All I did was count calories to maintain a deficit and the results were essentially the same as predicted by the math. I was a bit hungry sometimes at first as I adjusted to it but that's really it. Prioritizing protein and fat over carbs helps with that. What ways does the body tend to fight aga…

Losing weight is essentially a stress on the body, the response of which is to produce a lot of cortisol, which in turn can mess with testosterone and other hormones.

For me the caloric restriction leads to so much cortisol that I can’t really sleep properly no matter how much I try to exhaust myself.

Keto seems to be kinder (in week 3, of trying it for the 3rd time, previous times unsuccessful). But too early to say for sure.

Re: Launch HN: Fella (YC W20) – Tackling men's obesity using medication and coaching

#75

Post by rich-cartwright »

lharries wrote: post #72
vcg3rd wrote: post #69

You apparently don't let people sign-up who are willing to pay out of pocket. Shame.

It should be possible — select "Uninsured" when you try and sign up (although I realize now that we can make that clearer). Email me at luke@joinfella.com if you have any issues

haha Luke beat me to it

Re: Launch HN: Fella (YC W20) – Tackling men's obesity using medication and coaching

#76

Post by danpalmer »

rich-cartwright wrote: post #17
bambax wrote: post #11

Do you plan to open in Europe at some point?

100%. We're actually British founders so it's been a baptism of fire learning about the nuances of US healthcare! That said, the US is the focus for the moment, so we're not planning to expand to Europe for quite a while.

What was the reason for going after the US market instead of the UK market?

I'm in the UK and would love to try Fella, especially if I could get it on the NHS with a GP referral.

Re: Launch HN: Fella (YC W20) – Tackling men's obesity using medication and coaching

#77

Post by faichai »

TeeMassive wrote: post #33
criticaltinker wrote: post #15

Interesting offering, definitely an important market. > So we started researching effective, evidence-based treatments for obesity Fasting has a tremendous amount science supporting it [1], can you articulate why you're pursuing the prescribed semaglutide approach instead? [1] Fasting: Molecular Mechanisms and Clinical Applications https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S155041311...

I tried fasting and a pure keto diet. While they do work, I felt miserable. This is not sustainable for people like me who has to lose more than 100 pounds. Now I started losing weight by just balancing macro-nutrients; more protein, more vegetables, less carbs as opposed to absolutes "no" and "only" except for no sugary drinks and beer and deserts except in social occasions. Also big emphasis on weight lifting as op…

I felt miserable on Keto the first two times I tried it. I’ve found doing fasting in the month prior helped with the adaptation and a large part of the misery was loss of electrolytes.

By using electrolyte powder I only really had one or two really miserable days this time round.

Re: Launch HN: Fella (YC W20) – Tackling men's obesity using medication and coaching

#78

Post by MagicWishMonkey »

ryanSrich wrote: post #66

Do you help people account for family lifestyles and cooking for more than just themselves? I used to do 2-3 day fasts, but now that I’m married with kids I find it almost impossible to do so since I cook and prep all the meals. I tried low carb and keto. It works fine for me, but selling my wife on a breakfast that consists of 6 eggs and a pound of bacon is a hard sell. So there’s always bread and pasta in the house…

My wife is lifelong vegetarian, and I'm a big fan of keto. We've basically adapted to a "I make food for myself, she makes food for herself and we split responsibility for making food for the kids" workflow and it works out pretty well.

It helps a lot that I do the grocery shopping, I try to avoid buying stuff that I'll be too tempted by - like regular carb tortillas or plain tortilla chips.

Re: Launch HN: Fella (YC W20) – Tackling men's obesity using medication and coaching

#80

Post by rich-cartwright »

zadler wrote: post #27
rich-cartwright wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spot on about fasting, and keto has solid evidence as well - https://www.virtahealth.com/ are a great company focused on this. The issue is we're starting to have a more nuanced understanding of the metabolic resistance people face when they undergo dietary changes - basically the body fights hard against you as you try to lose weight by dieting. So it's now industry-standard among obesity specialist doctors to see o…

What’s the connection between stress eating and metabolic disease?

1. Stress causes the adrenal glands to release a hormone called cortisol, and cortisol increases appetite.

2. When stressed, we look for relief - and for a lot of people that relief comes as food, or the act of eating itself.

Both of these often lead to overeating which is a cause of metabolic disease.

Post reply on HN