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Launch HN: Fella (YC W20) – Tackling men's obesity using medication and coaching

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Re: Launch HN: Fella (YC W20) – Tackling men's obesity using medication and coaching

#81

Post by rich-cartwright »

peteretep wrote: post #79

I had been very, very excited to start semaglutide, but about eight weeks ago I picked up a CBT-based eating book called The Beck Diet Solution and I’ve so far found it very very effective

Yep CBT (and third wave cognitive therapies in general) are very effective against emotion-based overeating (e.g. stress eating). Stress eating is widespread and addressing it is a core part of our coaching.

Important to say not everyone struggles with stress eating, which is why our coaching program goes much broader than that.

The metabolic medication aspect is also really helpful, which is why we combine the two for Fella.

Re: Launch HN: Fella (YC W20) – Tackling men's obesity using medication and coaching

#82

Post by diskzero »

I am glad to see this. I was involved in a similar startup that became bogged down due to reasons that had nothing to do with the validity of the approach you are taking.

As I am sure you are aware, obesity is a complex issue and many of the suggestions sufferers get such as eat less, exercise more, try fasting, go keto, etc. are simply not helpful in and of themselves. Neither is just prescribing the latest medications without other forms of support.

I hope your concept of telehealth, medical supervision and personal coaching is one that will get results. Obesity is a serious issue that is robbing society of people and potential.

Re: Launch HN: Fella (YC W20) – Tackling men's obesity using medication and coaching

#83

Post by rich-cartwright »

faichai wrote: post #77
TeeMassive wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried fasting and a pure keto diet. While they do work, I felt miserable. This is not sustainable for people like me who has to lose more than 100 pounds. Now I started losing weight by just balancing macro-nutrients; more protein, more vegetables, less carbs as opposed to absolutes "no" and "only" except for no sugary drinks and beer and deserts except in social occasions. Also big emphasis on weight lifting as op…

I felt miserable on Keto the first two times I tried it. I’ve found doing fasting in the month prior helped with the adaptation and a large part of the misery was loss of electrolytes. By using electrolyte powder I only really had one or two really miserable days this time round.

Interesting. How long have you been doing keto this time?

Re: Launch HN: Fella (YC W20) – Tackling men's obesity using medication and coaching

#84

Post by rich-cartwright »

MagicWishMonkey wrote: post #78
ryanSrich wrote: post #66

Do you help people account for family lifestyles and cooking for more than just themselves? I used to do 2-3 day fasts, but now that I’m married with kids I find it almost impossible to do so since I cook and prep all the meals. I tried low carb and keto. It works fine for me, but selling my wife on a breakfast that consists of 6 eggs and a pound of bacon is a hard sell. So there’s always bread and pasta in the house…

My wife is lifelong vegetarian, and I'm a big fan of keto. We've basically adapted to a "I make food for myself, she makes food for herself and we split responsibility for making food for the kids" workflow and it works out pretty well. It helps a lot that I do the grocery shopping, I try to avoid buying stuff that I'll be too tempted by - like regular carb tortillas or plain tortilla chips.

Keeping food out of the house is a powerful behavioral device. It takes away the "Ability" part from the Fogg Behavior Model if you find that framework helpful.

Re: Launch HN: Fella (YC W20) – Tackling men's obesity using medication and coaching

#85

Post by rich-cartwright »

wxnx wrote: post #55
rich-cartwright wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sweet what's the group you're part of? Sounds interesting. It's obviously a great question about the focus on men, and something we think a lot about. My take: the whole industry is focused on women, and there are already cool companies taking a medication approach with branding clearly focused on women: https://www.joincalibrate.com/ , https://joinfound.com/ , https://www.formhealth.co/ I'm a fan of what these folks…

Thanks very much for answering! Sorry, if I'd had the foresight to use a throwaway I'd drop a link to our group, but I prefer not to publicly associate my HN account with work. We're a small team of software and data engineers, machine learning scientists, and health policy folks at a large research institution in Canada that take on clients to work on stuff like this (from early stage research to approvals to deploy…

Sounds really interesting. Would love to hear from you: my email is richie@joinfella.com

Re: Launch HN: Fella (YC W20) – Tackling men's obesity using medication and coaching

#86

Post by gnicholas »

It sounds like the medication is an important part of this plan. Is it something that you anticipate someone would take indefinitely, or only to get down to a target weight?

Also, can you give some ELI5 background on how the medication works in the body?

Re: Launch HN: Fella (YC W20) – Tackling men's obesity using medication and coaching

#87

Post by rich-cartwright »

cesher wrote: post #62
lharries wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Richie's co-founder here) We are aiming for Washington by the end of 2021. If you'd like me to let you know when we launch there feel free to fill in the "Am I Eligible" quiz and join the waitlist or send an email to luke@joinfella.com and I'll add you manually

Already filled it out, thank you!

Perfect! Working our hardest to get live in WA in the coming quarters.

Re: Launch HN: Fella (YC W20) – Tackling men's obesity using medication and coaching

#88

Post by rich-cartwright »

danpalmer wrote: post #76
rich-cartwright wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100%. We're actually British founders so it's been a baptism of fire learning about the nuances of US healthcare! That said, the US is the focus for the moment, so we're not planning to expand to Europe for quite a while.

What was the reason for going after the US market instead of the UK market? I'm in the UK and would love to try Fella, especially if I could get it on the NHS with a GP referral.

UK market is tricky for a few reasons. Very centralized decision-making for healthcare funding, and the timelines are too long for a startup to survive. Plus us Brits are definitely more hesitant of medication approaches in general, although that is changing.

Both my parents, my sister and my brother-in-law work in the NHS - so lots of interesting family conversations about this!

Re: Launch HN: Fella (YC W20) – Tackling men's obesity using medication and coaching

#89

Post by rich-cartwright »

TeeMassive wrote: post #28
robomartin wrote: post #20

[flagged]

>WE DO NOT NEED PILLS! >Yes, I am yelling. If pills work then what's the problem? It seems to me that you're making an appeal to nature ( https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/appeal-to-nature ). Given all the health problems associated with obesity from cancer to cardiovascular problems then whatever side effects the pills have are probably negligible in comparison. > Weight management isn't at all about eating less. It'…

Interesting references.

Re: Launch HN: Fella (YC W20) – Tackling men's obesity using medication and coaching

#90

Post by rich-cartwright »

someguydave wrote: post #40
robomartin wrote: post #20

[flagged]

you could make the same argument about any modern technology

It is interesting how divisive conversations around weight can be. For a lot of people, it represents a broader theme of we view individualism & morality.
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