How long til we're all on Ozempic? • Hacker News Board

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

#781

Post by hirvi74 » Sat, Oct 12, 2024, 2:27 AM UTC

mort96 wrote: post #556

globular-toast wrote: post #529

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there's a few factors at play: 1. People might want to help, but they don't think taking a pill every day for the rest of your life is a proper solution. I'm not aware of any such things for other addictions you mention, 2. People don't want other people to have it easier than they did. "I had to diet and exercise etc, you should too", 3. People don't want to help. They want other people to be fat because it…

re: 1, there are plenty of people who take some medication at some interval for most of their life. People with ADHD, people with type 1 diabetes, most women, ... why do we find that totally unproblematic, but as soon as it's medication to help with obesity (which is a serious medical condition in its own right) it's suddenly such a big problem? EDIT: And to be clear, there may be specifics with these particular drug…

> People with ADHD, people with type 1 diabetes, most women, ... why do we find that totally unproblematic

ADHD medicine is highly problematic. The medications are controlled to ridiculous levels, and there are strong social stigmas against both the condition and the disorder.

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

#782

Post by dmead » Sat, Oct 12, 2024, 2:28 AM UTC

dfxm12 wrote: post #170

Instead of a system that makes these drug available for purchase, I'd rather live in a system that promotes healthy food and active behavior. Unfortunately, I have to drive everywhere, work too many hours to have free time for recreation and have no idea which government subsidy is going to help big ag likely at the expense of my health. All things being equal, I'd prefer to spend less money on prescriptions and have…

You'd prefer that. Great. Meanwhile we live in this reality.

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

#783

Post by throwaway743950 » Sat, Oct 12, 2024, 2:34 AM UTC

gcanyon wrote: post #774

To anyone thinking that exercise will fix anything: I've owned a Concept 2 rowing machine since 2005. In that time I've done an average of 100 workouts per year, for a total of over 35 days of rowing. Some workouts were relatively easy 120bpm heart rate; some were at a relatively brutal 160bpm. Concept 2 estimates I've burned just over 600,000 calories, or about 1,000 Big Macs. Could I have eaten 1,000 Big Macs in 19…

"You can't outrun a bad diet."

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

#784

Post by tiffanyh » Sat, Oct 12, 2024, 2:37 AM UTC

WFH & being sedentary

Since WFH, it’s scary to me how sedentary I have become.

It wouldn’t surprise me if I now walk I can easily go a couple of days and never even leave the house.

My waistline shows it. And I’m actually eating less than I did when I went into office.

I guess its basic thermodynamics.

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

#785

Post by 0x1ceb00da » Sat, Oct 12, 2024, 2:41 AM UTC

jncfhnb wrote: post #266

gcr wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can understand this perspective. You're looking at it with healthy eyes. But for fat people, the calculus looks different. A decision to take semaglutides is a decision between the long-term negative effects of obesity *now*, or the possibility of long-term negative effects *later.* Anecdotally, trans people have a similar calculus. Going unmedicated/unsupported brings significant mental health risk now [1], wherea…

I was curious and a bit skeptical that sex change operations materially affected suicide rates for trans people but available papers tended to find significant effect sizes of about 50% reduction

Did that study account for the socioeconomic status of the participants? Common sense suggests that people who can afford to undergo such surgeries would tend to be richer, more supported, and from better neighborhoods.

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

#786

Post by l2silver » Sat, Oct 12, 2024, 2:44 AM UTC

mrshadowgoose wrote: post #544

OptionOfT wrote: post #420

As someone who struggled with their weight his whole life, this medication is a god send. My wife and I cook every evening. We never eat food made in a factory. We buy raw products and spend a good amount of time every day cooking them. Every morning I wake up and go on a 5 mile hike. And still weight kept on coming on. Worse yet, I am on ADHD medication, which are amphetamines and actually make you lose weight. Yet.…

> Why do we find it acceptable to help people who struggle with alcohol abuse, or nicotine addiction, or opioid addiction, but not to help people who struggle with food abuse? "Getting fit and staying fit" is a form of social capital, because it's extremely hard and only within reach of a small portion of the population. "Being fit" is strongly aligned with "being attractive" which confers all sorts of cross-cutting…

> Some people feel cheated when medication allows others to "effortlessly" join this social club, and then become vile and hateful in response.

I don't think this is just about a social club. Battling weight loss and habits is foundational to the human experience from the most recent centuries. Be it drugs, or anything else really that changes the nature of these challenges, people are going to feel discomfort because it's an attack on their understanding of the world, and in some ways, their beliefs.

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

#787

Post by pizza » Sat, Oct 12, 2024, 2:50 AM UTC

unlikelytomato wrote: post #746

mrshadowgoose wrote: post #544

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why do we find it acceptable to help people who struggle with alcohol abuse, or nicotine addiction, or opioid addiction, but not to help people who struggle with food abuse? "Getting fit and staying fit" is a form of social capital, because it's extremely hard and only within reach of a small portion of the population. "Being fit" is strongly aligned with "being attractive" which confers all sorts of cross-cutting…

I would say my concerns are far more in the range of downstream effects from the medication. Specifically, I am concerned with muscle retention. Concerns aside, it's a little hard of an argument to swallow having visited many other countries where these things are simply not an issue. How can it be argued that the cause is anything other than behavior when so many others are doing just fine? There is more to this sto…

It seems the article is now behind a paywall (can only get a reddit link w/ a screenshot atm [0]) but there was a study that showed body composition after 25% weight loss in terms of fat mass and fat-free mass (and the portion of fat-free mass that was skeletal muscle mass) after traditional several interventions, and also compared the breakdown of weight lost in terms of FM and FFM for several GLP-1 medications:

- diet alone

- diet + extra protein

- diet + exercise

- retatrutide

- tirzepatide

- semaglutide

tldr is that, despite some muscle loss, muscle as a percentage of body composition is higher (~50% FFM at start, whereas weight lost with GLP-1 meds ranged from 25%-39% of muscle). It also seems like the muscles will likely function better with less insulin resistance:

> Intentional weight loss causes a greater relative decrease in body fat than FFM or SMM, so the ratio of FFM/SMM to fat mass increases. Accordingly, physical function and mobility improve after weight loss despite the decrease in FFM/SMM, even in older adults with decreased FFM and SMM at baseline. In addition, weight loss improves the “quality” of remaining muscle by decreasing intramyocellular and intermuscular triglycerides and increasing muscle insulin sensitivity

https://www.reddit.com/r/tirzepatidecompound/comments/1dtzr2...

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

#788

Post by gscott » Sat, Oct 12, 2024, 2:51 AM UTC

nessguy wrote: post #742

robohydrate wrote: post #299

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…

I'm with you on this, tirzepatide has been life changing for me. I've struggled with my weight my whole life and I can actually imagine a future where I lose enough that I'm no longer ashamed of my weight. I've been on tirzepatide for just over a year now. Before that, I managed to lose 6% of my body weight over the previous year. With tirzepatide, I've lost an additional 17% of my body weight, for a total of 23% ove…

> It makes the difference between being so hungry that I can't fall asleep and having the ability to just go to sleep.

I had this problem as well. Being on tirzepatide I went from 220 to 185 in just six months because my previous insatiable hunger went away. It feels so powerful now choosing when to eat or not.

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

#789

Post by anon84873628 » Sat, Oct 12, 2024, 2:53 AM UTC

lottin wrote: post #577

mlsu wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 a…

It's not just willpower but also lifestyle. It's rare for people who are physically active, and have a balanced diet, to suffer from obesity. I can eat A LOT without putting on a ton of weight, and it's because the types of foods I eat and because I do strength training, which means have a fair amount of muscle mass which acts as metabolic furnace. I'm a little overweight, at the moment, but it'd take a lot of effort…

It's weird for you to say that "people who have the habits for not being obese aren't obese." What's the real point?

Note that "have a balanced diet" is doing a lot of work here. Our modern environment is saturated with super calorically dense, hyper palatable food. THAT is the cause of the obesity epidemic -- it's not endocrine disruptors or seed oils or office jobs or anything else.

And the ability to refrain from eating cheap processed food, which has been specifically engineered to hack your brain, requires education, discipline, and willpower. As does hitting the gym.

It's not surprising that most people don't innately have this ability, and have ended up sick from it. That sickness is a medical issue regardless of how we got there.

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

#790

Post by claudenm » Sat, Oct 12, 2024, 2:53 AM UTC

arijo wrote: post #696

fortran77 wrote: post #675

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true, but fat people have a hell of a time cutting out all carbs. For many of them, they'll eat the "low carb" option, and then have an occasional binge and it negates any benifits of low carb, and doesn't put them in ketosis, etc. I strictly maintain my weight. If I catch it going over over 155# (I'm a 5'10" 61 year3 old male) I'll do a strict cut. And I know that either strictly counting calores OR going to…

I’m 1.78m, 50 years old, my initial weight 2 month ago before I started the keto diet was 154kg and two months later I’m almost 130kg. Eating the same amount of calories as before.

This is an extremely unhealthy rate of weight loss. All guidance centers around .5-1kg/week as both safe and sustainable.