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‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

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Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#641

Post by danielvaughn »

windpower wrote: post #526
0xB31B1B wrote: post #21

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'm also on one of these drugs (Tirzepatide) and have been for a few months. The first time I remember knowing I was fat was when a babysitter made fun of me for it at age 6. I've been fat ever since and I'm in my late 30s now. I've lost significant amounts of weight (60+ pounds) three times in my adult life, through simple calorie restriction (intermittent fasting, including before I'd ever heard the term). Every ti…

I was just saying the exact same thing to my wife yesterday. We’re both trying to lose weight, for the millionth time in the 20 years we’ve been together. Exasperated, I just said “I don’t get it. I was an artist who had no technical background, and was able to teach myself computer science and now I’m a highly successful engineer. I did that. And yet I can’t lose 10 pounds to save my life.”

It’s so hard to eat healthy, I honestly cannot fathom how people do it.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#642

Post by species9606 »

exhilaration wrote: post #472
fswd wrote: post #379

It appears you can do the same thing with 3g of cinnamon https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19158209/ Conclusions: Ingestion of 3 g cinnamon reduced postprandial serum insulin and increased GLP-1 concentrations without significantly affecting blood glucose, GIP, the ghrelin concentration, satiety, or GER in healthy subjects.

If anyone wants to try this, make sure you're NOT using what's usually passed off as cinnamon in America (Cassia), you want the real thing (Ceylon) -- and from a vendor you can trust. That amount of cassia cinnamon is likely to cause liver damage: https://www.consumerlab.com/answers/cinnamon-coumarin-liver-...

Meta comment, I love HN for comments like this. Collectively, this website is a super-brain that’s far more impressive than any language model.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#643

Post by auganov »

windpower wrote: post #526
0xB31B1B wrote: post #21

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'm also on one of these drugs (Tirzepatide) and have been for a few months. The first time I remember knowing I was fat was when a babysitter made fun of me for it at age 6. I've been fat ever since and I'm in my late 30s now. I've lost significant amounts of weight (60+ pounds) three times in my adult life, through simple calorie restriction (intermittent fasting, including before I'd ever heard the term). Every ti…

> The thing is, I'm never full. I can eat until I physically can't eat anymore (not something I do regularly, of course), and as soon as my stomach has emptied a bit, I feel fairly hungry again. "Eat until you feel full" is literally a human experience I had never really had.

I feel exactly the way you do, and yes, I was fat, lost it in one go and never gained it back. I try to keep my BMI around 18, never went over 20 since losing weight. It's been around 15 years now. I still have the exact same unlimited appetite I have always had. If you put food I like in front of me, I'm going to eat it.

I don't do anything special. I eat the same foods I always have, just less of them. Got really good at counting and never get more food than I need. The trick is to not put yourself in a situation where you have to stop eating in the first place. It's hard to just stop eating something you want to eat. Not that hard to stop yourself from going to the store again or ordering more (especially when other people are around).

I feel like most people never get serious enough about counting, try to eat stuff they don't enjoy, waste effort on exercise or let other people interfere.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#644

Post by sarchertech »

altcognito wrote: post #586
windpower wrote: post #526

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm also on one of these drugs (Tirzepatide) and have been for a few months. The first time I remember knowing I was fat was when a babysitter made fun of me for it at age 6. I've been fat ever since and I'm in my late 30s now. I've lost significant amounts of weight (60+ pounds) three times in my adult life, through simple calorie restriction (intermittent fasting, including before I'd ever heard the term). Every ti…

I have gerd, and was like, I was wondering if this would make it easier for me to eat small amounts and not have as much heartburn... then I read this: > As for side effects: I've had some heartburn, but none of the other commonly reported side effects. And I looked up the less side effects, it is a laundry list of gerd symptoms. I can confirm, these symptoms will help you lose weight, but I mean that tounge in cheek…

I just read through the side effect information.

Gerd was reported in 5% of Wegovy users compared to 3% in the placebo arm. It’s a risk but it’s not a huge risk.

Nausea especially in the first few weeks was more common, but it was only bad enough to cause <2% of people to discontinue the trial.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#645

Post by leesec »

ravel-bar-foo wrote: post #596
jostmey wrote: post #571

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only proven way to live longer and reduce your risk of essentially every disease is to reduce caloric intake. So unless you are underweight, the benefits could outweigh any side effects. I am not advocating that everyone take these drugs--but I understand why someone might suggest it

> The only proven way to live longer and reduce your risk of essentially every disease is to reduce caloric intake. Has this been proven in humans? The last review article I read mentioned that it was true for lab mice, but resulted in a suppressed immune response, which would result in early mortality for mice not living in a sterile (specific pathogen free; SPF) labitat.

>Has this been proven in humans?

Seems like it but it still might not be worth it:

https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/12/12/acc-does-calorie-restr...

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#646

Post by serf »

moonchrome wrote: post #582
0xB31B1B wrote: post #555

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eating food and drinking alcohol is a core part of most social activities. When you're losing weight, you can't really fuck up, you really need to stick to your diet. I found it difficult to maintain my diet in social settings (going to a friends party, eating at a restaurant with friends, going to a bar to celebrate something, etc) so I just stopped doing all of those things for 8 months. Like, if you're trying to q…

Everyone is addicted to food - what you're describing sounds like a great way to set yourself up for failure. You can eat socially, you can have days you overeat and then fast the difference, etc. Pigeonholing yourself to super restrictive regimen - for what ? It's not like you have a deadline to lose the weight - and if your routine isn't easily sustainable you're just going to revert to old behavior as soon as some…

> Everyone is addicted to food - what you're describing sounds like a great way to set yourself up for failure.

as someone who has to be reminded to eat by their significant other or family lest I fall ill, from a long-line of people with the same trait, no -- not everyone is addicted to food.

I enjoy food, I consume food, but it doesn't produce any level of compulsion like an addiction does.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#647

Post by notacoward »

windpower wrote: post #526
0xB31B1B wrote: post #21

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'm also on one of these drugs (Tirzepatide) and have been for a few months. The first time I remember knowing I was fat was when a babysitter made fun of me for it at age 6. I've been fat ever since and I'm in my late 30s now. I've lost significant amounts of weight (60+ pounds) three times in my adult life, through simple calorie restriction (intermittent fasting, including before I'd ever heard the term). Every ti…

> people that have never actually been fat. "I did it and I lost 15 pounds

Also people who have never had an older metabolism. It's different. I was also skinny despite eating a ton and hardly exercising when I was 25. Everyone I know over about 30 can identify when their metabolism suddenly changed. Diet (and to a lesser extent exercise) advice from those who haven't hit their own wall yet is worthless for those who have. Those people need to stop over-generalizing their (limited) experience as universal truth.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#648

Post by greggman3 »

bioemerl wrote: post #182

> 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.

Is it true there are plenty of places in the world that don't have an epidemic of obesity?

My belief is Japan doesn't have as much of an obesity problem.

Sure, I'd love a drug that lets me eat more calories and not get fat but I'd also love it if we some how managed to stop eating so many cookies, donuts, potato-chips, sugary sodas, giant portion meals, etc.... I'd also love it if we designed more areas to be walkable and bikeable.

I lived ~15 years in Japan. I never missed owning car because the country is designed not to need a car. I also spent a year in Europe and Singapore and again, never missed owning car for the same reasons.

Let me also add that in Japan, at least in big cities like Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, you are almost always 1-2 minutes away from junk food. You can walk to a convenience store and find whole aisles of pastries, chips, ice cream, candies, etc and yet somehow the Japanese manage not to pig out.

Similarly there are bakeries all over full of donuts, etc...

Somethings that help are the portions are often smaller. Certainly for potato chips most bags in Japan are 1/3th the size of the average bag in the USA. Similarly cookies are small and come in small portions vs the USA where pretty much any supermarket sells cookies in packages of 20 to 40 cookies and each cookie is giant 300-500 calories each.

I guess this is one of those, we're not going to get people to stop eating too much so we have to find another solution? I can just imagine once I get this drug I'll start eating more because I can and companies will ramp up the portion sizes even more.... TACO TIME!!!!!

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#649

Post by scarmig »

danielvaughn wrote: post #641
windpower wrote: post #526

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm also on one of these drugs (Tirzepatide) and have been for a few months. The first time I remember knowing I was fat was when a babysitter made fun of me for it at age 6. I've been fat ever since and I'm in my late 30s now. I've lost significant amounts of weight (60+ pounds) three times in my adult life, through simple calorie restriction (intermittent fasting, including before I'd ever heard the term). Every ti…

I was just saying the exact same thing to my wife yesterday. We’re both trying to lose weight, for the millionth time in the 20 years we’ve been together. Exasperated, I just said “I don’t get it. I was an artist who had no technical background, and was able to teach myself computer science and now I’m a highly successful engineer. I did that. And yet I can’t lose 10 pounds to save my life.” It’s so hard to eat healt…

> It’s so hard to eat healthy, I honestly cannot fathom how people do it.

When I started taking semaglutide, I finally understood it. I'd eat a salad... and be full and more than satisfied! I'd look at a muffin right after lunch, and go "eh, better things to do with my time" instead of immediately having an overriding desire to eat eat eat. Before, I could eat half a pizza and still be hungry (way out of what my body needs); now, a slice is more than sufficient and satiety lasts well into the next morning.

GLP-1 agonists makes eating healthy trivial and automatic, instead of a dieting state where you're thinking about food literally constantly throughout the day for months or years on end.

Too many people are convinced that everyone has the same subjective experiences of hunger and craving, but it's simply not the case. Some people implicitly hold this idea because it's a convenient ideology that allows people to morally congratulate themselves for having a functioning satiety circuit.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#650

Post by sarchertech »

adamrezich wrote: post #566
jfk13 wrote: post #553

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> everyone, even the skinny folks, should be on GLP1 drugs Seriously? No thanks. Think I'll give you all a few decades to see what the long-term effects are like, and let my body largely take care of itself except when specific medical issues indicate that an intervention is in order.

it's always really strange to me whenever someone enthusiastically advocates that others use experimental drugs whose long-term side effects have not yet been discovered. if you want to try em yourself then go for it I guess, but I'm good thanks. it's interesting to take a step back and realize just how much pharmaceutical corporations have got average people to think it's perfectly normal to try putting random chemi…

It’s illegal for doctors to get kickbacks in the US. The most the average doctors gets is lunch provided to go to a lecture from a drug company.

A free lunch isn’t enough to convince anyone to sit through an hour long lecture they weren’t already going to.

But if you’re worried that your doctor is one of the small percentage of doctors who is paid to give those lectures, you can look them up. All payments are publicly available. You can easily find exactly how much they were paid, when, and for what.

(The $20 in provided lunch is also required to be reported).

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