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What Ozempic does to the gut-brain axis

psychologytoday.com

161–170 of 555 posts

Re: What Ozempic does to the gut-brain axis

#161

Hasn't done jack shit for my depression. Also worth mentioning GLP1's are known to cause anhedonia. So there's that...

Known to who? I just did a quick search didn't see anything that like a scientist or physician said about this. Someone who describes himself as a 'biohacking educator' said it without citing sources though.

Re: What Ozempic does to the gut-brain axis

#162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've gained and lost 10kg twice in my life. Maintaining the weight loss isn't that hard once you've a rhythm dialed in. In my case I just weight myself daily, track the weight and scale my food consumption with the current trend. If I'm gaining weight I'll skip a meal. It takes a while to figure out what works for you but I can tell you that making small lifestyle changes to maintain your weight is fairly easy compar…

When I was lifting weights I went from 170lbs to 210, and back to 170. Doing that isn’t technically hard, and maintaining is even easier. But I had to think about it _all_ the time. Maybe it’s because I’m older now, but I just don’t want to spend that much effort thinking about food.

lifting weight isn't efficient for weight loss.

Without calorie deficit, you'll not lose much weight by lifting alone.

Re: What Ozempic does to the gut-brain axis

#163

What’s the downside to this magical drug. There has to be a downside…

Even if there are zero effects other than the advertised weight reduction, one downside is obvious from the comments here - some people will stop exercising. While exercise has many positive effects, which I'd argue are more important than the weight loss, the latter is the primary reason many people exercise and likely to stop when given the weight loss by other means.

We should stop telling people that exercise is a primary driver of weight loss.

That said, exercise has a direct impact on metabolic health which is pretty necessary to maintain a healthy weight.

Re: What Ozempic does to the gut-brain axis

#164
post #150
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not? People take depression meds, blood pressure meds, all kinds of meds for their whole life. I'll be on omeprazole for reflux my whole life. It doesn't solve the underlying problem of my gut being prone to overpumping acid into my stomach. So omeprazole is problematic? The underlying issue is being treated, it's treated by taking the drug. It works. It's doing its job. I'd be curious as to how you came to this…

No, the symptom is being treated, not the underlying issue. And that's ok, but treating the underlying issue, when possible, is better, as the problem ceases to exist.

> No, the symptom is being treated, not the underlying issue.

That's a semantic argument. The "issue", medically, to most people viewing this as a health problem, is excess body fat and not eating behavior.

I mean, you're not wrong, but this seems silly. YES, it would be better to have developed a cure for disordered and unrestrained eating. We didn't. And we don't really even know how. Oops, as it were. But we do have a treatment that avoids the most significant impacts of those problems.

Medicine is harder than software engineering. Not all bugs are shallow even with all the eyes in the world.

Re: What Ozempic does to the gut-brain axis

#165

What’s the downside to this magical drug. There has to be a downside…

Why does there have to be a downside? What was the downside of washing hands before surgery?

One argument would be that Ozempic doesn't give your body any additional resources. It just triggers your body to behave in a different way. But if the changes it causes are universally good, why didn't evolution already make your body work that way?

I suppose the counterargument would be that modern life is different from the evolutionary environment, and so it's possible for a change to be beneficial now that wasn't beneficial then. But it would still be good to understand better the mechanism of the effect of Ozempic on things like addiction.

Re: What Ozempic does to the gut-brain axis

#166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For many people, the "underlying issue" is fundamentally just being too hungry for how they live. GLP-1s absolutely treat that.

for many people the underlying issue is serious lack of education when it comes to nutrition. Not understanding calorie balance, not understanding calorie density of the food they eat. How many people know 1kg fat = 7700kcal that if they could create deficit of 7700kcal they could potentially lose 1kg bodyfat? Ofc, i know the relationship isn't that simple but for most people this roughly holds true. If you are eatin…

Being aware that there are deceptively calorie-dense foods doesn't help the basic equation there. Anecdotes are not data, but my anecdotal experience is that if I ate nothing but bulk vegetables whenever my hindbrain wanted food, I would still be eating over my maintenance calories every day.

Re: What Ozempic does to the gut-brain axis

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course they aren't genetically pre-ordained to lack willpower. That's why they could stop being fat, if only they chose to. The issue is cultural, not genetic. You don't go from 12% obesity to 40% obesity in 40 years due to a genetic shift, but rather a cultural one.

What evidence do you have that it is a cultural shift, rather than, say, a chemical in the environment that wasn't there before, or a difference in the food supply?

Are food options today not more calorie-dense than they were back in time? More easily accessible? Calories have become increasingly cheap and dense to come by. You've lots of processed food being engineered to be highly palatable and calorie dense at an industrial scale.

Plus, cars and all "comforts" eating into your physical activities?

Re: What Ozempic does to the gut-brain axis

#168
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The evidence of where their fat stores came from?

> evidence of where their fat stores came from? Yes. Specifically, how basal metabolism is not a consciously-controlled rate that modifies itself against diet and exercise to the point that in some people with serious metabolic syndrome it may be impossible for them to lose weight through diet and exercise without suffering nutritional shortfalls. Also, the clinical evidence around what works for people losing weight…

Third party private healthcare decisions are almost non-existant in the US due to the payment systems. People are on the hook for the decisions of others either through their premium, taxes, or both. Of course, this is non-central and rarely the concern people present.

That said, 2026 US GLP-1 healthcare sales projections run between 60 and 100 billion [1]. it will be interesting to see if these miricle drugs can really provide that much benefit/offset that much cost.

For comparison, Medicare part D is ~150 billion in its entirety. https://evolvancemarketresearch.com/reports/glp-1-weight-los...

Re: What Ozempic does to the gut-brain axis

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

for many people the underlying issue is serious lack of education when it comes to nutrition. Not understanding calorie balance, not understanding calorie density of the food they eat. How many people know 1kg fat = 7700kcal that if they could create deficit of 7700kcal they could potentially lose 1kg bodyfat? Ofc, i know the relationship isn't that simple but for most people this roughly holds true. If you are eatin…

Being aware that there are deceptively calorie-dense foods doesn't help the basic equation there. Anecdotes are not data, but my anecdotal experience is that if I ate nothing but bulk vegetables whenever my hindbrain wanted food, I would still be eating over my maintenance calories every day.

What's your maintenance calories and how did you calculate it? Most people calculate it wrong.

Re: What Ozempic does to the gut-brain axis

#170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For many people, the "underlying issue" is fundamentally just being too hungry for how they live. GLP-1s absolutely treat that.

for many people the underlying issue is serious lack of education when it comes to nutrition. Not understanding calorie balance, not understanding calorie density of the food they eat. How many people know 1kg fat = 7700kcal that if they could create deficit of 7700kcal they could potentially lose 1kg bodyfat? Ofc, i know the relationship isn't that simple but for most people this roughly holds true. If you are eatin…

I understand calorie balance. I've been on a diet since I was 12 years old, and am now approaching 50. I've lost and regained the same 60lbs about 4 times now. I have logged every bite that goes into my mouth, and lived with a constant hunger for as long as I could take it. Then I ate until I felt satisfied and gained it all back. I know how many calories are in anything, and I can eyeball any serving size. I've been doing it for decades. When I take GLP-1s, I can just stop. My appetite and body maintains itself at a healthy weight, and I don't cry myself to sleep from either hunger or shame.

I think I'm not the ignorant one.

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