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How long til we're all on Ozempic?

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Re: How long til we're all on Ozempic?

#381

I've been on tirzepatide (Mounjaro) for 4 months now. I'm down 13% of my body weight. I realized that frequent cannabis consumption interferes with the weight loss, so I've kicked the habit from daily to occasionally on weekends. I've started walking 2-3 miles a day, 2-3 days a week regularly, in addition to eating less and being more motivated to calorie count. All this to say, this drug has been life changing for m…

My view about obesity has shifted dramatically since Ozempic came out. Before this, I didn't think about it too much (I am not obese myself).

I notice now that there is a LOT of judgement, bias(?), around obesity, that people, obese or not, carry with them [1]. I certainly carried that bias, and the reason I noticed it was because Ozempic is literally an external substance that you take that simply makes obesity go away. So if you believe (like most of us unconsciously do) that obesity is a personal failing or an issue of willpower, an issue of personal merit -- HOW is it possible that a chemical pill, an external chemical process, can SO effectively resolve it? When no amount of hectoring and moralizing and willpower can? My inability to square that circle really changed my thinking about obesity in a fundamental way.

Already there is a reaction to Ozempic -- like people thinking that taking Ozempic is a personal failing, or judging celebrities, for taking it, thinking it's the "easy way out" -- I think the origin of that is this very deep unconscious bias that we all have about what obesity actually is fundamentally.

My view: It is a health condition, that people do not choose. Not unlike diabetes, celiac, or clinical depression. We should be focused on how to improve the lives of people who suffer with that health condition. We all agree insulin is unequivocally a good thing; that it's not a "personal failure" or "cheating" to take insulin; that it really is simple as, diabetes is a health condition and insulin is used to treat it. Ozempic? Same. Exact. Thing.

It's really heartening to hear your experience. Your post really struck me, I felt exactly the same way after getting on a CGM + Insulin Pump for my Type 1 Diabetes. Nobody EVER thought I had a lack of "personal responsibility" or an "issue of willpower" for going low or high on shots of Humilin and NPH.

Thank fucking god for Novo Nordisk.

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[1] see: this thread!

Re: How long til we're all on Ozempic?

#382
post #13

There's some evidence that Ozempic improves general impulse control, e.g decreasing alcohol consumption [0], which the article mentions. Also, as Tyler Cowen writes [1], this is probably going to translate into big improvements for animal welfare: > People lose weight on these drugs because they eat less, and eating less usually means eating less meat. And less meat consumption results in less factory farming. This s…

This matches experience with dieting and impulse control, without these drugs even. Two days of junk food and the food brain is SCREAMING in my head. So I just don't do it. It's also way more obvious when I mess up, that it makes my body feel bad.

But when I say food brain, it's everything. I want to vape, I want to have more coffee, then more beer, then some cannabis to go to sleep. Wake up and hit the dopamine cycle again. I have to take care of myself and ask "why am I doing this, could I just not, and if so I must not".

Re: How long til we're all on Ozempic?

#383

I've been on tirzepatide (Mounjaro) for 4 months now. I'm down 13% of my body weight. I realized that frequent cannabis consumption interferes with the weight loss, so I've kicked the habit from daily to occasionally on weekends. I've started walking 2-3 miles a day, 2-3 days a week regularly, in addition to eating less and being more motivated to calorie count. All this to say, this drug has been life changing for m…

[flagged]

[deleted]

Re: How long til we're all on Ozempic?

#384

I don’t want this to come out insensitive or from under the rock, but why is taking a drug a novel & cool idea (all of a sudden/recently) as opposed to good old fashioned working out and not eating more than what you need? okay, this drug is all kinds of great and it’s the next best thing since green grapes, still not eating more and workout is better than taking drugs that effect your brain right? Are doctors requir…

Why are we bothering with contraception and STD vaccines when people should just not have sex unless they're trying to get pregnant?

Re: How long til we're all on Ozempic?

#385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s been studied pretty well. Possible effective solutions to the US obesity epidemic are pretty much limited to: 1) Radically alter aspects of food culture, work culture, social policy, and business regulation. 2) Magic pill (/injection) There appears to be no imminent progress on the many parts of #1 that need serious work, so if we want a big turn-around in the next half-century, #2 has suddenly and surprisingly…

But is it time to give up just because there hasn't been much progress yet? It seems now that we have #2 there's little incentive for #1, whereas there was plenty incentive for #1 before even if little action.

Yes. Looking out 30, 50, 100 years science will further resolve the obesity problem that has plagued the US since the 1980s. There is no scenario where you radically alter such a gigantic, disconnected, complex culture such as the US has. The old joke was that the US would solve this with pills (so to speak), and that's what is going to happen.

If you have a tiny, homogeneous culture it is still very difficult to radically alter it in the span of a couple decades (think: Sweden, Finland). For something the scale of the US, with the diversity of the US, there is no possibility. Anything suggested as comprehensive would be fantasy. There are only small changes that could be done, eg relating to sugar consumption limits in drinks and food; some would have a meaningful impact, however you still won't fundamentally change the culture's calorie problem.

Getting thinner will do extraordinary things for rebooting the malfunctioning US. Obesity does a lot of harmful things to work ethic, longevity, quality of longevity, productivity, mental capabilities, to say nothing of course diabetes and cancer and so on.

Re: How long til we're all on Ozempic?

#386

I've been on tirzepatide (Mounjaro) for 4 months now. I'm down 13% of my body weight. I realized that frequent cannabis consumption interferes with the weight loss, so I've kicked the habit from daily to occasionally on weekends. I've started walking 2-3 miles a day, 2-3 days a week regularly, in addition to eating less and being more motivated to calorie count. All this to say, this drug has been life changing for m…

Is the official recommendation that you continue to take it for the rest of your life? Or, is there a schedule to "wean" people off of it?

Most weight management programs recommend you wean off - and also recommend other drugs if needed (metformin) to for maintenance.

The method of these programs is to use the GLP-1 medications to allow you to change your habits significantly while also reducing your weight. The goal being, you keep the new habits and your reduced metabolic requirements which allows you to keep the lower weight.

Re: How long til we're all on Ozempic?

#387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cost of someone being on Ozempic is going to be miles less than treating fatties for all the related obesity problems.

Yeah, right now the cost of the drug itself is high, but as that comes down and/or once the patents expire, it's a no brainer for insurance companies to fund it, in the same way that even the worst health insurance plans usually allow for cheap office visits and free flu vaccinations.

I agree if the cost becomes negligible or whenever it becomes cost effective (I'm sure the insurance companies will be tracking the data closely) - until then though?

Re: How long til we're all on Ozempic?

#389
post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GP isn't talking about self-control, they're talking about the fact we've created a system that requires obscene amounts of self-control if you wish to maintain physical health. People in the 50s weren't slimmer because they had ironclad determination to stay such.

Exactly, good systems do not rely on willpower. They rather make obvious habits effortless. Deviating from the mean is hard. Bad food and sedentarism are the norm.

> They rather make obvious habits effortless.

I wouldn’t call taking the stairs in a pre-elevator world “effortless”, rather it was just the only option.

I also think better food handling/storage/treatment/blah means we absorb & retain more of the calories that we consume.

Re: How long til we're all on Ozempic?

#390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GP isn't talking about self-control, they're talking about the fact we've created a system that requires obscene amounts of self-control if you wish to maintain physical health. People in the 50s weren't slimmer because they had ironclad determination to stay such.

> a system that requires obscene amounts of self-control if you wish to maintain physical health That's million years of evolution with food scarcity and modern capitalist world which created unprecedented abundance of food (and other things). And before you compare it to Europe — europeans still smoke much more than americans. Tobacco is also just a chemical that decreases effects of obesity, just in a different for…

So that's your explanation ? European are slimmer because they smoke more ??
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