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‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

nature.com

271–280 of 1001 posts

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#271

> In the past, scientists and the public often thought that those with obesity simply lacked the willpower to lose weight. But evidence is growing that most people’s bodies have a natural size that can be hard to change. In the context where we have gone from obesity rates of 13 percent to 40, to suggest that people have a natural weight and that's the cause of this seems absurd to me.

people previously just couldnt grow to their natural size

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#272

> “I’m really hesitant to be excited about something that I think is potentially harmful from a weight stigma perspective,” says Sarah Nutter, a psychologist at the University of Victoria in Canada, who specializes in weight stigma and body image. Putting the word "stigma" on things is a sure sign of a grifter. Instead of helping solve it, they're trying to make it a social science problem. Being overweight is unheal…

The new idea (mostly in the West) that being obese is/can be a healthy lifestyle is absolutely maddening. People being obese (and I don't mean a few pounds overweight) raises everyone's healthcare cost, because it is incredibly unhealthy and obese people tend to have more complications which requires more treatment, workers and subsidizing. It's not just an individual problem, it's a societal problem. There's a new "…

Telling people what they want to hear is not a novel way to collect cash or votes. It would be bizzarro if there were people who wanted to hear it but nobody willing to tell it to them.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#273

I’m currently taking one of these drugs and it has been no less than a miracle in my life. I became obese when I was around 5, topping out around a 34 BMI. When I was 20 I lost a substantial amount of weight the old fashioned way (diet and exercise), and within 8 months I was BMI 23. Losing weight was extremely challenging and socially isolating. 7 years later, I had a bad ankle injury and regained weight to about 29…

Have the side effects stopped? Or have you only been on it 3 months? My wife has been on Ozempic for longer than three months and the side effects haven't stopped. The nausea is typically bad for a few days after taking each dose but some of the others linger most of the cycle. For some I can see that tradeoff being okay but I can't see non-obese, non-diabetic folks making that trade-off for longevity. I know I would…

could you elaborate on the trade-off for longevity? is this based on the supposition that dieting is good for longevity?

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#274

> “I’m really hesitant to be excited about something that I think is potentially harmful from a weight stigma perspective,” says Sarah Nutter, a psychologist at the University of Victoria in Canada, who specializes in weight stigma and body image. Putting the word "stigma" on things is a sure sign of a grifter. Instead of helping solve it, they're trying to make it a social science problem. Being overweight is unheal…

The new idea (mostly in the West) that being obese is/can be a healthy lifestyle is absolutely maddening. People being obese (and I don't mean a few pounds overweight) raises everyone's healthcare cost, because it is incredibly unhealthy and obese people tend to have more complications which requires more treatment, workers and subsidizing. It's not just an individual problem, it's a societal problem. There's a new "…

> "Gatorade Fit"

1 gram of sugar per half liter https://www.gatorade.com/fuel/hydration/gatorade-fit/16-ounc...

At least it's almost sugar free, relative to normal gatorade anyway. I think advertising regular sugary gatorade to fat people as a fitness product would be tantamount to stochastic murder.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#275
Petro Dobromylskyj is one of the foremost experts of fat metabolism. He has a blog called Hyperlipid where he's been blogging about fat metabolism and interpreting research for close to 10 years.

He thinks the GLP-1 inhibitor drugs will be a disaster in the long term because they 1) cause weight loss but also 2) cause the body to create lots of new adipocyte (fat cells). Increasing the number of adipocytes is very unusual after puberty. As long as you are taking the GLP-1 inhibitor drugs you will lose or maintain weight, but as soon as you stop you will gain a lot of weight back.

Here is the blog post: https://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/2023/01/glp-1-agonis...

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#276

I’m currently taking one of these drugs and it has been no less than a miracle in my life. I became obese when I was around 5, topping out around a 34 BMI. When I was 20 I lost a substantial amount of weight the old fashioned way (diet and exercise), and within 8 months I was BMI 23. Losing weight was extremely challenging and socially isolating. 7 years later, I had a bad ankle injury and regained weight to about 29…

[flagged]

Hey, just curious if you noticed that they did exactly what you're suggesting, and then chose a different path the second time?

FWIW, I've found fasting to be pretty straightforward

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, if you have perfect bloodwork and a marvel movie body probably not necessary but otherwise yes. Heart disease, hypertension, high cholesterol, colon cancer rates are rising amongst everyone, even thin people. These drugs positively impact indicators of these things in everyone. Longevity makers have been betting on metformin for a long time and these drugs are like a supercharged metformin

I think I will wait for some version that does not cause "strong nausea, extreme fatigue, brain fog, and constipation".

despite that wouldn't just undernourishing the body lead to shorter lifespans not longer?

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#278

> “I’m really hesitant to be excited about something that I think is potentially harmful from a weight stigma perspective,” says Sarah Nutter, a psychologist at the University of Victoria in Canada, who specializes in weight stigma and body image. Putting the word "stigma" on things is a sure sign of a grifter. Instead of helping solve it, they're trying to make it a social science problem. Being overweight is unheal…

The new idea (mostly in the West) that being obese is/can be a healthy lifestyle is absolutely maddening. People being obese (and I don't mean a few pounds overweight) raises everyone's healthcare cost, because it is incredibly unhealthy and obese people tend to have more complications which requires more treatment, workers and subsidizing. It's not just an individual problem, it's a societal problem. There's a new "…

Japan taxes obesity through a payroll tax, which to my understanding is especially effective because of the peer pressure exerted by your colleagues and even manager. Being fat is seen as letting the team down since you're causing their costs to go up, not just your own.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The new idea (mostly in the West) that being obese is/can be a healthy lifestyle is absolutely maddening. People being obese (and I don't mean a few pounds overweight) raises everyone's healthcare cost, because it is incredibly unhealthy and obese people tend to have more complications which requires more treatment, workers and subsidizing. It's not just an individual problem, it's a societal problem. There's a new "…

Is the woman being shown as fit? Or as someone who would like the product with a goal to become more fit?

She is wearing fitness clothing and doing what appears to be yoga.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPgOCWbqjgo

Advertisements used to be aspirational. They either still are and people's aspirations have changed, or they are not and there's some other more current explanation for why this ad and others act as a mirror showing a person who they already are (fat) rather than who they aspire to be (not fat).

Said another way, there's nothing explicitly stating that the woman has a goal of becoming thinner. She is shown as well as two other thinner people. They're all doing their own form of exercising while clothed in activewear. The implication could be that the fat woman's goal is to become less fat or that she is comfortable as she is and fits in as part of Team Gatorade™. I suspect the message they're trying to convey is the latter.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#280

(From a position of significant ignorance) It seems there is not a strong consensus on what has caused the great increase in obesity of the past fifty years, perhaps throwing greater effort in that direction would be a better long term solution ? To my mind it's strange that there seems to be a circular argument which starts with sedentary life style and "bad" foods cause obesity so exercise and diet control seems li…

> If my summary is reasonably correct it seems to me what's needed is more understanding of the outcome before using drugs to "fix it". The likely reason is the changes in lifestyle thanks to the changes in technology. Is "let's just get rid of the past 70 years of technological advancement" something that we'll seriously consider?

| The likely reason is the changes in lifestyle

Agreed, that's the commonly held reason but when one attempts to reverse what the changes seem to have been, by exercising more and eating less, that doesn't seem to work. My point is that perhaps we need to better understand what the changes have been, that perhaps they are more subtle than they are commonly held to be.

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