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

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

#791

Post by CydeWeys » Sat, Oct 12, 2024, 2:57 AM UTC

makeitdouble wrote: post #779

itsoktocry wrote: post #760

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, personally, it's that we don't really know the long term effects of these drugs ie are you actually "healthier". But we do know that diet and exercise work.

> we do know that diet and exercise work. Stricly speaking we don't. This is "common sense" and the official recommendation, but fundamentally we don't have solid long term reproductible experiments[0], and due to the nature of the problem (humans living their life in a complex society) we'll probably never have a good answer. I've read many many studies spanning a few months and calling it a day (did the subjects re…

Everyone who's obese has been prescribed exercise and a better diet. It's the quintessential doctor cliche, and yet it indeed hasn't worked for them. GLP1 agonists do.

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

#792

Post by mixmastamyk » Sat, Oct 12, 2024, 3:05 AM UTC

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.…

Try a very low carb diet. Only eat until 80% full at mealtime. Get down to two meals a day, with a goal of only one. Fast the other times. This sounds hard but once you get to ketosis it is not that hard at all. Not hungry naturally, like the drug response.

Truth is, we really don't need more than one meal a day (maybe a snack) when we get older and our metabolism slows.

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

#793

Post by onionisafruit » Sat, Oct 12, 2024, 3:32 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…

Are you saying that us fatties should move to those other countries where our “behavior” will be kept in check?

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

#794

Post by naming_the_user » Sat, Oct 12, 2024, 3:45 AM UTC

The headline here seems like an extremely baity one.

A ton of people don’t have this issue at all. I hesitate to say “most” because both in the US and UK it seems the majority do.

But it still feels like a hack to me. The issue seems like it’s that most people are now basically sedentary. So we can solve the excess hunger via drugs, but is that really what we should be doing?

It feels to me that if we must have a wonder drug - it’d be one that gets people up and about and enjoying exercise. It seems really sad to me that so many feel that their physical form and embodiment is an annoyance rather than the gift it truly is.

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

#795

Post by amatecha » Sat, Oct 12, 2024, 3:57 AM UTC

lostmsu wrote: post #48

amatecha wrote: post #19

This article seems to frame things in such a strange way. Maybe instead of trying to get everyone obesity medication, we can instead educate society so we all understand nutrition and diet and can combat the ever-persistent forces of corporations pushing unhealthy food on us?

Educating people will hardly work. Bans on junk foods at government level might.

If educating people didn't work, we'd all be drinking cocaine soda and burning leaded fuel. I mean, there's a reason things have generally greatly improved over time for most of humanity. We know more things and act upon that knowledge. This applies to basically every single thing humans do. Maybe one day we won't be drinking sugar water and adulterating ~every piece of food on the shelf with high-fructose corn syrup?

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

#796

Post by llamaLord » Sat, Oct 12, 2024, 3:58 AM UTC

I find it fascinating how many things like this just completely gloss over the fact that some people have side-effects to these drugs that make them completely non-useable, and often it's some of the people who could most benefit.

I have ADHD, and have tried all the current generation of these drugs and absolutely CANNOT take them, they basically prevent my ADHD medication from working and I end up depressed and wanting to kill myself.

This idea of these drugs being a "cure-all" that we'll all just be taking one day proactively scares the shit out of me, because I worry it will mean that medical science will stall (as far as it relates to these types of conditions) for those of us who simply can't take these drugs.

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

#797

Post by seer » Sat, Oct 12, 2024, 4:14 AM UTC

mlsu wrote: post #381

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…

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…

This is a very American way of thinking about it - not invented here vibes all over.

Of course people don’t choose to be obese, but the culture and environment inevitably pushes you to it. A proof of that is that there are places in the world, with similar genes, that don’t have the same problem in the degree that US does.

I don’t think it is a personal failing, more a collective one - the society itself has chosen a set of environmental factors as desirable (car centric, hectic, individualistic, processed cheap food etc) and it just results in more obese people.

Loose the cars (change to walk / cycle / public transport), spend on food as much as the rest of the world do (adjusted to PPP) and suddenly you don’t need ozempic.

It is still weird to me how US choose unironically to develop a drug for reducing addiction, and not putting societal pressure to fix the environmental issues. It’s a democracy, people do choose all of that and can’t really blame it on the government.

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

#798

Post by DavidPiper » Sat, Oct 12, 2024, 4:17 AM UTC

hilux wrote: post #434

Living a healthy lifestyle, so that you won't need Ozempic, is possible - even surrounded by all the drugs and booze and carbs. I do it. Lots of people do it. The information is freely available, now more than ever. From all I've read, Ozempic isn't a silver bullet, and has many side effects. It just helps people stave off the inevitable for a while.

> The information is freely available, now more than ever.

Given the progress of the threads here, do you have any recommendations for cutting through the noise and finding good scientific information on weight loss, healthy eating, lifestyle, etc?

I agree with you that all the information is out there, but there seems to be an enormous amount of resistance in the threads here to threads to even simple things like:

- Fresh fruits and vegetables

- Lean proteins

- Cut out processed foods

- Cut out smoking, rec. drugs, and booze

- Eat less in general

- Stay hydrated - water is the only drink you really need

- Find ways to move more, esp. for people with sedentary jobs / lifestyles

- Sleep more

- Reduce stress

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

#799

Post by refurb » Sat, Oct 12, 2024, 4:41 AM UTC

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.…

> And you know what it is? It's volume. I eat too much.

100% this.

I lived in Asia for a few years and obesity is rare (though increasing for youth). It's not like they get more exercise (most people don't) or eat healthy (it's mostly carbs), but 100% portion sizes.

I see people who work manual labor jobs eat lunch that is a bowl of noddles, a few thin slices of chicken or pork, and a few veggies. I highly doubt it exceeds 500 kcalories. It's probably half the portion size you'd get in the US.

Mystery solved. If you're only eating 1500 to 1800 kcal per day as an adult male doing manual labor, it's pretty obvious why you're at 10% body fat.

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

#800

Post by cashsterling » Sat, Oct 12, 2024, 4:51 AM UTC

If you are on a weight loss drug like Ozempic, make sure you are doing resistance training. Ozempic reduces your appetite and help you go into a calorie deficit. Bone mass, muscle mass, ligament and tendon mass can all suffer on a calorie deficit unless your body is get regular stimulus that 'muscle, bone, and connective tissue strength are still important.'

Also, changing your diet while on Ozempic to (1) cut down carbohydrate intake and (2) include more healthy protein (meat, eggs, fish, etc.), fats (nuts, olive oil, etc.) and fruits/veggie will supercharge your weight loss and your overall health gains.