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‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

nature.com

541–550 of 1001 posts

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#541
post #20

At a risk of being ignorant: Isn’t obesity a function of calories intake and calories burn rate? If so, why do we even need a drug for that? What should a possible drug target here? Assuming no changes in behaviour and thus a continued steady daily caloric surplus, would it even work?

These drugs modulate your hormones to reduce appetite and cravings for unhealthy foods. When people lose weight the normal way, their endocrine system sends out a “you are starving, eat” hormone response that is extremely difficult to overcome and success requires 100% compliance for the rest of your life.

I think people who think it's "just that simple" have never seriously tried to starve their body. It's truly incredible how far the human brain will go to get food into your mouth when it thinks you're trying to starve it.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#542
post #79

> I believe that everyone, even the skinny folks, should be on GLP1 drugs for the longevity effects. Are you for real? Serious question.

Those that haven’t heard of Chesterton’s fence might jump at the opportunity to live like no humans in the history of the universe.

All of us already are -- that condition is unavoidable. You just choose your flavor.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#543

Convincing people to not fool around never worked so the birth control pill was invented to allow people to indulge with less consequences. I recall someone (I forget who) said that things that prevent you from eating will never work and the only solution is something that allows you to indulge without the consequences. Does this drug allow you to indulge without consequences or does it make you not want to eat? If i…

There exists a drug like that called DNP, but it is extremely easy to overdose and die, so it's been banned for almost a century now

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#544

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…

> I expect to be on this drug long term

This is a feature, not a bug.

If this drug produced some kind of permanent physical change, that would be a pretty scary thing.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#545
post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

s/weak-willed/addicted/ There. Fixed it for you :) Yes, to me it seems like capitalism creates a society where most people get addicted just trying to cope with everyday life. For some it's alcohol, for some it's OxyContin, for some it's food, for some it's all-nighters in World of Warcraft. "59.3 million (21.4%) people over age 12 used illicit drugs in the past year." "Underage [..] 29% reported drinking alcohol" ht…

So before mass capitalism people didn't drink? Can I ask that you read a large number of history books across any number of cultures on addictive behaviors throughout history, because you'll find that anytime a society had an excess of time and labor/production that people find addictive behaviors to enjoy. This is not recent. This is not capitalism. This is humanity. What capitalism has done is given everybody enoug…

Aren't there claims commonly made (I haven't reviewed the literature to know if it's compelling or not) that the medieval serf worked less than the modern worker?

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#546

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because if you want to lose quickly, and once you get the discipline to lose you do want it to be quick, you have to restrict your calories A LOT. I'm not OP but when I was losing, as a 6"2 male, I was eating between 1200 and 1400 calories a day. This does not allow you to eat anything outside of small meals and drink anything outside of water or diet sodas. I was still going sometimes to the restaurant with friends…

I would love to know what sort of healthy cut has a 6"2 male eating that low a calorie count. That is approaching weight class athlete cutting numbers which is near uniformly considered very bad for you.

If he’s not exercising and is largely sedentary then 1400 calories for an adult male is a serious deficit, but not extreme. If he added in an hour of high intensity interval training or something that would be extreme and potentially hazardous.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#547

> 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.

Highly palatable caloric dense food means that people are more incline to gain weight without even trying. 100+ years ago you had to make a more an effort to overeat.

And extremely sedentary lifestyle in US

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#548

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 un…

I don't know if I'd call a veterinary anaesthetist a foremost expert on fat metabolism. His thoughts on insulin signaling are not consistent with the consensus among obesity researchers. He thinks glp-1 works through uncoupling or fat browning which is just not true.

The consensus among most obesity researchers is the cause of obesity is primarily neurological, not metabolic. Basically the brain can't properly regulate weight in the current obesogenic environment. When you look at GWAS most of the genes related to obesity are active in the brain, (as opposed to genes for diabetes which are more closely related to fat/metabolism etc...).

I'd describe Petro Dobromylskyj as a smart hobbyist with an outsiders views of obesity, not a foremost expert on fat metabolism.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#549

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because if you want to lose quickly, and once you get the discipline to lose you do want it to be quick, you have to restrict your calories A LOT. I'm not OP but when I was losing, as a 6"2 male, I was eating between 1200 and 1400 calories a day. This does not allow you to eat anything outside of small meals and drink anything outside of water or diet sodas. I was still going sometimes to the restaurant with friends…

I would love to know what sort of healthy cut has a 6"2 male eating that low a calorie count. That is approaching weight class athlete cutting numbers which is near uniformly considered very bad for you.

This amount of calorie would be without taking into account any exercise. Then on top of that, if you exercise (I didn't), you would just eat back the calories you consume via exercising to not be at an unhealthy level.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#550
post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it makes more logical sense to you that everyone is just weak-willed?

s/weak-willed/addicted/ There. Fixed it for you :) Yes, to me it seems like capitalism creates a society where most people get addicted just trying to cope with everyday life. For some it's alcohol, for some it's OxyContin, for some it's food, for some it's all-nighters in World of Warcraft. "59.3 million (21.4%) people over age 12 used illicit drugs in the past year." "Underage [..] 29% reported drinking alcohol" ht…

The fact you're trying to tie obesity to alcohol (Existed for thousands of years) and weed is bizarre, considering the far more natural and obvious link is copious amounts of sugar and hfcs (In drinks, spreads, processed food, etc). A 5 years old kid is not obese because of drugs. He's obese because his parents feed him absolute garbage due to preference, price, eduction, etc. Most modern/western people are hopelessly addicted to sweet
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