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‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

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Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#821

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> one of the foremost experts of fat metabolism Is it correct that the source is a veterinary anaesthesiolgist? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34252195

Yes, he is the world's leading expert on this subject because credentials aren't everything

You go with it then, but personally I wouldn't even let this person anaesthesize me.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#822

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…

How much weight did you end up losing on that stuff?

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#823

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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 will be painful.

That's probably the most important lesson you need to learn before starting.

1. log your weight everyday on a graph

2. eat very small portions, no carbs

3. when hungry force yourself to drink a large glass of water

4. drink hot tea at scheduled intervals

5. eat lots of popcorn, get the raw grains from Safeway and put them in microwave for 4 mins in a large bowl with a cover

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#824

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Disagree. People genuinely enjoy those foods, because they're tasty and flavorful. And there's zero reason to believe that they're substantially unhealthy unless consumed to the point of sustained caloric surplus. We know this because we have hunter-gatherer populations who consume 50% of their diets in sugar (e.g. the Hadza) or fats (e.g. Intuit), and they have none of the diseases of abundance found in modern popul…

Does the type of sugar, or type of fat not play a part here? HFCS is notorious for the bad effects on the body, versus something like honey. Same for the Intuit, simpler animal fats vs hydrogenated "trans" fats? I feel like the key difference in their diets is it's not overly processed and full of things we've decided to put in there for cost reasons (corn subsidies making HFCS cheaper than cane sugar, and trans fats…

There is almost no difference between sugar and HFCS. Sugar is 50/50 glucose/fructose. HFCS is maybe 45/55 glucose/fructose. Fructose can only be metabolized by your liver into inflammatory fat cells in your belly. Glucose can be metabolized by every cell in the body. HFCS would only be worse because it has more fructose but it's barely any worse than sugar. The whole hysteria over HFCS is a joke because sugar is nearly just as bad.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#825

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> 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…

[flagged]

> But it's always true that if you manage to eat fewer calories than your body needs each day you will lose weight.

No, not necessarily. Several studies have shown that different people can get different amounts of energy out of the same food, depending amongst others on their gut micro biome, though stress also seems to play a role. It’s never going to be that simple.

> the laws of thermodynamics won't fail

Conventional thermodynamics don’t work when you consider a full human, which is a very out-of-equilibrium and not-isolated system. Conservation of energy does not tell you anything about the efficiency of the energy extraction process.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#826
post #517

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set_point_theory may help > but it is thrown off hard by our modern diets. Yes. I think the dominant theory is that it has something to do with gut microbiomes, and in particular sugar and/or artificial sweeteners screw it up pretty badly.

I'm actually thinking about going serious about healing the gut microbiomes. The sugar part is the most difficult. It's very easy to eat food that helps and consume probiotics, but a life without sugar...Jesus I'd rather die. Somehow I became a sugar person from a meat person after I immigrated to Canada. Not sure what the cause was though.

I struggle with sugar cravings too. Controls that work for me are intermittent fasting, eating more fruit after meals, and most importantly, just not having sugary things around the house. The sugar cravings pass after a couple of weeks, but only take a day or two after having sugary to start again.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#827

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> 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…

> Not that hard to stop yourself from going to the store again or ordering more Well, actually... I'm fat. Like BMI 40 fat. Most of my life I have been fat. I was laughed at in school for it, as far back as I can remember. It probably wasn't all that bad when I think back. Certainly not as bad as now. But I was the fat kid in class, and I felt like the fat kid. Anyway, I have lost a lot of it at a few points. Once by…

Thanks for sharing. I didn't really understand it (though I didn't doubt it) until I read your comment. What a hard burden to carry; I completely understand the state of watching myself do something unwanted (though not with food).

One thing that's helped me: I just make a rule to myself, 'go from one healthy thing to another'. I just try to find more and more relatively healthy (or at least harmless) and appealing outlets and tell myself that, whatever I do, I may not do something ideal but I'm going to choose one of them.

(A healthy outlet is one where I feel better after I do it than when I start.)

I don't follow it perfectly, of course, but it has helped result in a major shift.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#828

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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 regula…

He is basically the world's leading expert, but you can only see credentials, lol.

What makes this person the world's leading expert?

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#829
post #316

Thought experiment: A drug* that reduces people's weight and massively boosts physical fitness with no negative side effects is discovered. The discoverer of that drug declines to patent it, making it a cheap generic available everywhere. What would your reaction be? Take a moment to consider what your reaction is before continuing. ... The comments I'm reading here are diverse and fascinating. Weight loss, diet, and…

> discipline and hard work (or genetic luck) Let me tell you, the number of thin people I've met who got there through discipline and hard work is vanishingly small compared to those genetically blessed. This is probably why it's such an appealing delusion -- who doesn't want the world to think they're disciplined and hardworking, instead of just lucky?

The number of fat people who consume less energy than they expend is literally zero. Nice try redefining "very fit" to mean thin, btw.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#830

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> Not that hard to stop yourself from going to the store again or ordering more Well, actually... I'm fat. Like BMI 40 fat. Most of my life I have been fat. I was laughed at in school for it, as far back as I can remember. It probably wasn't all that bad when I think back. Certainly not as bad as now. But I was the fat kid in class, and I felt like the fat kid. Anyway, I have lost a lot of it at a few points. Once by…

> And eating only candy makes me sick, so I should also buy crisps so I can alternate and keep eating. This one hit hard. If you swapped "crisps" and "candy" for "MDMA" and "ketamine", people would tell you to go to rehab. No judgment here, but a lot of your behaviour sounds like addiction underpinned by a coping mechanism. If you replaced with alcohol or drugs people would point out how your relationship with the su…

The problem with food is that you can't cut it completely like drugs or cigarettes, rehab schemes are not going to work because the temptation and use is always there, multiple times a day.
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