As an overweight American (surprise!) I could use help like this. These treatments are too expensive for me, but hoping prices come down. I struggle with motivation to excercise and motivation to...
As an overweight American (surprise!) I could use help like this. These treatments are too expensive for me, but hoping prices come down. I struggle with motivation to excercise and motivation to eat properly long term, and my health is suffering. It's easy for people to say 'just eat better and excercise more!' and they are right technically, but I'm one of millions of people who can't do it on their own. I'd need a chef and a personal trainer to keep me up on both, and that's very expensive, very fast. I don't care if it makes me look weak, I'd take a pill to help me live to see grandchildren and possibly great grandchildren.
I've fought weight all my life. It is as simple as 'just eat better and exercise more!' but simple is not easy when it comes down to doing it. I did figure it out for myself but I've learned that...
I've fought weight all my life. It is as simple as 'just eat better and exercise more!' but simple is not easy when it comes down to doing it. I did figure it out for myself but I've learned that these problems are deeply rooted and someone's silver bullet is not everyone's silver bullet.
I took Ozempic for my diabetes when it first came out and it was iffy if it was doing anything at all for me. I didn't continue it. Two years later I was looking into the gastric-bypass surgery and in preparing for the surgery, I finally started to get some traction through logging food, walking, and weekly IRL support. A year later I was -105 lbs, diabetes was gone, the surgery was canceled, and I was maintaining the weight loss (tenuously, because I could hardly believe it). I've been keeping it off vigilantly. Eight years at goal weight now.
It'll be interesting to see how people react if these other drugs become inexpensive and widely available. Like the surgery, these pharmaceutical interventions work. But like the surgery, people will have to do their part as a patient, too. Some will. Some will still need help. But it's good. More options are a good thing.
I was pretty thin until a psychiatrist prescribed olanzapine for off-label treatment of depression/social anxiety. This was probably like 15+ years ago or something like that so I don't remember...
I was pretty thin until a psychiatrist prescribed olanzapine for off-label treatment of depression/social anxiety. This was probably like 15+ years ago or something like that so I don't remember it all in great detail but I think my body weight increased by something near 30% (went from somewhere around 110lbs to somewhere around 145lbs) after getting on that drug and based off hazy memory I'd say it was a year or two at most I was on it. I remember my appetite going up so high I couldn't stop eating. I was also maybe somewhere between 17-19 but I can't remember what age exactly. No I didn't really read the side effects, probably just believed doctor knew best at that time, and it was never mentioned to me that was a possible side effect. I ended up looking it up online later and found that it was often prescribed off-label to help people gain weight too, in addition to other things like what it was prescribed to me for. From what I remember it was more successful at helping people gain weight than the other things it was being used to treat.
I've never recovered from that either. Granted I realize at that age is when people probably start putting on more weight or at some point afterwards it starts, so maybe it would have been how things had happened anyhow, but the rest of my family doesn't have that problem.
I guess I mention this because I think people don't realize the scale at which medication might be bringing on these problems, it's no surprise that we end up turning to medication to solve them.
I am on an antidepressant, escitalopram. I had been slowly putting the weight on before that. I'd say at around 25 I started putting weight on. It's ultimately my fault, it's just hard. 3 years...
I am on an antidepressant, escitalopram. I had been slowly putting the weight on before that. I'd say at around 25 I started putting weight on. It's ultimately my fault, it's just hard. 3 years ago I did a meal replacement program that was physician monitored. Blood work every month, followed by a meeting with the provider. I lost 70 lbs, was down close to my goal weight. They transitioned me to normal food again. I stuck with it OK for about 2 months and then slowly starting slipping in bad food, overeating, and it slowly went back to before. To add to it, I had been playing indoor soccer and a back 2 back game night caused a partial knee ligament tear, and I stopped being able to play sports. My knee took over a year to fully recover. In that year I put basically all the weight back on.
I'm not trying to post for pity, it's just on topic with the thread. I wish I could have a pill force me to eat less and I feel like if I could lose the weight, I'd be more willing to try to get back into sports. Sports at least made me feel if I didn't show up, I was letting teammates down, so it was an indirect motivator. Most nights I enjoyed it too. I've tried gym memberships and I just end up never using it.
If you are a guy, get your testosterone checked. Insurance does not like to cover it, but through private providers like Henry, you can get it for $100 a month that includes the "doctor" visit.
If you are a guy, get your testosterone checked. Insurance does not like to cover it, but through private providers like Henry, you can get it for $100 a month that includes the "doctor" visit.
It's incredible that we've finally found medications to treat obesity! Transitioning from an injection to pills should make the treatments even more available for people. The only question I have...
It's incredible that we've finally found medications to treat obesity! Transitioning from an injection to pills should make the treatments even more available for people.
The only question I have is whether the pills have more side effects than injectable medications since the two drug routes are processed differently by the body.
I would 100% use a drug like Ozempic for an appetite suppressant. Yes, I could lose some weight…but also the added benefit of not consuming as much meat.
I would 100% use a drug like Ozempic for an appetite suppressant. Yes, I could lose some weight…but also the added benefit of not consuming as much meat.
In the article they reference a new drug, Retatrutide (and study: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2301972) ), which lead to a reduction of 17% in body weight after 24 weeks. The...
Thanks for this. ...still hoping they find a way to administer the drug beyond weekly injections. Tablet form would be ideal. I'd love to just pop a pill everyday to reduce urges.
Thanks for this. ...still hoping they find a way to administer the drug beyond weekly injections. Tablet form would be ideal. I'd love to just pop a pill everyday to reduce urges.
A new, oral form of semaglutide works about as well as Ozempic or Wegovy, which are injectable versions of the same; so does another pill containing a drug called orforglipron.
I've taken ozempic for my diabetes now for about 18 months. Before I started, I was on a ketogenic diet with intermittent fasting and had kept off a 60 lb weight loss pretty well for a few years....
I've taken ozempic for my diabetes now for about 18 months. Before I started, I was on a ketogenic diet with intermittent fasting and had kept off a 60 lb weight loss pretty well for a few years. My doctor finally convinced me to try ozempic saying I could go back to eating carbs. As soon as I started the shot and quit the keto diet I immediately gained back 25 lbs and got super depressed over it. My A1c was great though... I was bummed that the ozempic didn't surpress my appetite like I thought it might. It wasn't until I went back to eating a low carb diet plus the ozempic that I lost another 35 lbs. The low carb diet was definitely easier to sustain than before I started ozempic.
Yeah, anyway, I started this reply with the plan to say that the weekly sq shot doesn't hurt at all and I very much prefer it to having to remember to take a pill each day but got in my bag a bit there.
I'm trying to be more conscious of how my actions affect our environment. For one, Cattle/Livestock production consumes about 40% of all United States land....
That's a noble goal, but lately I have been seeing meat consumption much more the way that oil and gas industries saw recycling in the previous decade: a way to push the blame for climate change...
That's a noble goal, but lately I have been seeing meat consumption much more the way that oil and gas industries saw recycling in the previous decade: a way to push the blame for climate change away from large industrial polluters and on to individuals.
Your lifetime carbon footprint is roughly equal to the carbon footprint of a single cargo ship traveling 25 miles.
Cut out meat for health reasons or because you don't like the taste, but certainly don't allow mega corporations to gaslight you into thinking climate change is because you had a sausage omelette for breakfast.
I fully agree with your thoughts here. I recognize that even I went fully vegetarian, that’s not going to solve anything. What drugs like this provide, however, is the potential for mass appeal...
I fully agree with your thoughts here. I recognize that even I went fully vegetarian, that’s not going to solve anything.
What drugs like this provide, however, is the potential for mass appeal and use. If a sizeable portion of the population is eating less and less food, that will lower the demand for it.
I understand your point here, but I'm of a similar mind to the comment you're replying to. I try to reduce my consumption of meat similar to the reason that I try to reduce my use of plastics....
climate change is because you had a sausage omelette for breakfast.
I understand your point here, but I'm of a similar mind to the comment you're replying to. I try to reduce my consumption of meat similar to the reason that I try to reduce my use of plastics. It's not because my individual contribution will make a difference, it's that if enough people do the same the demand goes down and corporations will be less incentivised to produce them. Which is where the real differences start to show up.
I think the most important thing is when someone talks about reducing meat consumption, or consumption of goods in general, we can be there to say we've already been doing it and it's not hard at all.
I think the most important thing is when someone talks about reducing meat consumption, or consumption of goods in general, we can be there to say we've already been doing it and it's not hard at all.
Statement A Statement B The above two statements are a contradiction because both of them presume that consumer action will make a dent. You know what actually makes a dent? Legislation.
Statement A
It's not because my individual contribution will make a difference,
Statement B
it's that if enough people do the same the demand goes down and corporations will be less incentivised to produce them
The above two statements are a contradiction because both of them presume that consumer action will make a dent.
I agree that legislation is the most effective way, but I disagree that consumer action doesn't make a dent. It's definitely smaller, and often way slower (although sometimes not) but I don't...
I agree that legislation is the most effective way, but I disagree that consumer action doesn't make a dent. It's definitely smaller, and often way slower (although sometimes not) but I don't think it's completely ineffective.
Also, cathartic in the face of so many other things I cannot affect about the world.
This is why I cut meat consumption as well. Emissions for meat production are also very high (can't find my favorite reference at the moment, but good research is easily found by searching...
This is why I cut meat consumption as well. Emissions for meat production are also very high (can't find my favorite reference at the moment, but good research is easily found by searching around).
I work in the industry and knowing how the sausage is made (pun intended) really makes me hesitant to consider meat a critical part of my diet.
Environmental impacts aside, meat is very high caloric density and many people don't feel satiated unless they have eaten a certain volume of food. It's easy to over eat with meat.
Environmental impacts aside, meat is very high caloric density and many people don't feel satiated unless they have eaten a certain volume of food. It's easy to over eat with meat.
Meat is also predominately protein, and protein is both a very filling macronutrient and also one of the most difficult to digest (which is a good thing from a weight loss perspective). Simple...
Meat is also predominately protein, and protein is both a very filling macronutrient and also one of the most difficult to digest (which is a good thing from a weight loss perspective). Simple carbs are way easier to overeat with, even if you’re eating fattier parts of meat.
That being said, red meat is linked with health complications beyond weight gain. It leans to high cholesterol, is linked with cancer, and more. But if the aim is to eat healthily, poultry and fish are among the better things you can make your diet of.
Keto works, at least if people adhere to it, for a reason.
I've found the exact opposite - I can eat 3x the normal amount of calories in bread with ease, but protein fills you up and lasts for a longer period of time. I've made huge improvements in my...
I've found the exact opposite - I can eat 3x the normal amount of calories in bread with ease, but protein fills you up and lasts for a longer period of time.
I've made huge improvements in my life - most notably dropping from 230 to 200 pounds - by switching to a keto/Paleo diet high in meat.
Man I’m 230 right now and it feels so bad. I work out 3x a week and don’t think my diet is THAT bad but i just can’t drop the weight. I was solidly 215 for the past 5 years then suddenly jumped up...
Man I’m 230 right now and it feels so bad. I work out 3x a week and don’t think my diet is THAT bad but i just can’t drop the weight. I was solidly 215 for the past 5 years then suddenly jumped up to 230 this year and it just won’t come off. I’d like to be at 180 but it seems impossible.
That 15lbs made such a difference too. I went from feeling “a little manageably overweight” to feeling like a hulking wheezing mass that gets tired now just walking up my stairs.
I actually tried this for 3 months and didn’t really see results although I did feel better doing it. I was eating one large meal a day at like 4:30PM so basically a 23 hour fast everyday. I...
I actually tried this for 3 months and didn’t really see results although I did feel better doing it. I was eating one large meal a day at like 4:30PM so basically a 23 hour fast everyday. I actually felt pretty energized doing it but I saw zero weight loss. Maybe 3 months wasn’t long enough to se results and I have been thinking about trying it again just on the basis of saving money as we just moved and the budget for food right now is tight…
I’d recommend rigorously tracking calories with an app and a kitchen scale for two weeks just to see where you’re really at. There’s a lot of sneaky sources - particularly condiments/sauces - and...
I’d recommend rigorously tracking calories with an app and a kitchen scale for two weeks just to see where you’re really at. There’s a lot of sneaky sources - particularly condiments/sauces - and accurately estimating portion sizes is notoriously difficult.
I know religiously tracking and a kitchen scale work for some people, but for me it absolutely destroyed my mental health and was a great starter kit for disordered eating. I was ONLY thinking...
I know religiously tracking and a kitchen scale work for some people, but for me it absolutely destroyed my mental health and was a great starter kit for disordered eating. I was ONLY thinking about food, at all times. Reading the labels is good and all, but I’d say proceed with caution.
Agreed so completely on this. I have said my ADHD driven inability to maintain a habit is likely the only reason I don't have a disordered eating diagnosis. It still was awful for my mental...
Agreed so completely on this. I have said my ADHD driven inability to maintain a habit is likely the only reason I don't have a disordered eating diagnosis. It still was awful for my mental health, and I become obsessive immediately. My mom was always on a diet, and I want the orthorexia diagnosis to be added to the DSM for folks in a similar situation. It's just not healthy!
Intermittent fasting, tons of water, and focusing on high quality paleo food was my strategy. I used to eat tons of ramen noodles and I think cutting out the crappy processed salt-and-sugar-filled...
Intermittent fasting, tons of water, and focusing on high quality paleo food was my strategy.
I used to eat tons of ramen noodles and I think cutting out the crappy processed salt-and-sugar-filled crap did almost all of it.
I suppose I'll be the outlier here. I'm unconvinced that medication like ozempic (and similar) is healthy in the long term, especially given how historically diet medication has been approved...
I suppose I'll be the outlier here. I'm unconvinced that medication like ozempic (and similar) is healthy in the long term, especially given how historically diet medication has been approved despite major side effects and health risks.
We ignore that dieting does not work on a population level, with the vast majority of people regaining most or all of their weight after several years. We make weight and obesity (an incredibly flawed measurement itself) a personal failing, and particularly AFAB folks get told to eat the amount of calories a growing toddler should eat in a day and if you don't, that's once again a personal failing. It's your fault for not losing weight so you cannot have a particular surgery, but if you want to do weight loss surgery they'll put you on the table. (It's so often weight brought up even if you're basically bleeding from your eyeballs)
I worry that medicalizing weight loss even further will just lead to greater ostracism and discrimination against those folks that do not want to take diet pills/shots and further mess with their body's satiety signals. And until our medical research system is willing to actually tangle with long term efficacy and effects when it comes to weight loss practice and medication, I think we're better off regulating ingredients in food, and encouraging cultural shifts to reduce stigma, increase universal design, and not push fat folks out of day to day life. Having the time and money to afford cooking at home will do more than MyFitnessBestie telling me I'm over fat based calories for having a string cheese.
But... we dont. Ozempic & co are not "diet" medicines. They work on suppressing appetite. I can attest that I was on Saxenda (Liraglutide) for a few months. I stopped it because side effects, but...
We ignore that dieting does not work on a population level, with the vast majority of people regaining most or all of their weight after several years.
But... we dont. Ozempic & co are not "diet" medicines. They work on suppressing appetite.
I can attest that I was on Saxenda (Liraglutide) for a few months. I stopped it because side effects, but the appetite suppressing effects have stayed with me since.
I do take a medication that has appetite suppressant as a side effect. It's a stimulant which is what many past diet medications have been. And yet it mostly just makes me feel sick, not eat...
I do take a medication that has appetite suppressant as a side effect. It's a stimulant which is what many past diet medications have been. And yet it mostly just makes me feel sick, not eat enough when it's working and need to force myself to eat lunch or a snack or feel sick from that instead. Simply suppressing one's appetite isn't ideal.
Ozempic and the like are being used as diet medications even if that isn't their purpose, they're mostly diabetic medications, and the side effect of weight loss is making them hard to access for some diabetics which has another level of frustration.
If it's effective as a treatment for compulsive eating disorder or similar, I'm certainly on-board. But that isn't the same as a celebrity wanting to keep weight off for example.
I think these drugs flip the script on its head when it comes to obesity as a moral failing. It's been known for a while that satiety/hunger signaling is very largely a matter of genetics and...
I think these drugs flip the script on its head when it comes to obesity as a moral failing. It's been known for a while that satiety/hunger signaling is very largely a matter of genetics and environment, and very little to do with willpower, we now have a drug that can level the playing field and make it easier for people who struggle to control their weight on a purely physiological basis.
My previous grudge with these type of drugs was that as soon as people come off them they'll rebound since they didn't develop any tool or strategy to manage their hunger, but I read a good comment somewhere comparing it to blood pressure medication. I was wrongly thinking of the drug as a "dieting" tool, not as general health improving medication. I never had to struggle to keep my weight, I've never been fat, shouldn't other people have it as easy as me? is it bad to take a drug that will improve your life substantially when the only cost is money and negligible side effects?
Reading about the experience of people using these appetite suppressant drugs it's also clear that it helps them tremendously to eat healthier, they're not longer fighting themselves every day to stay away from junk food. They're also not all losing weight at a dangerous rate, the drug doesn't have to be all or nothing, it can be fine tuned.
I still worry about long term effects, since it looks like the best use of these drugs is long term for some people. And it worries me more how it's been trending as a "dieting fad" basically, lots of people are gonna rebound and end up worse off... but then again we have teenagers messing themselves up with steroids for useless social media fame.
Overall it doesn't fix systemic issues that lead to unhealthy lifestyles, but not having these tools won't fix them either and some people could have life saving changes thanks to them.
As an overweight American (surprise!) I could use help like this. These treatments are too expensive for me, but hoping prices come down. I struggle with motivation to excercise and motivation to eat properly long term, and my health is suffering. It's easy for people to say 'just eat better and excercise more!' and they are right technically, but I'm one of millions of people who can't do it on their own. I'd need a chef and a personal trainer to keep me up on both, and that's very expensive, very fast. I don't care if it makes me look weak, I'd take a pill to help me live to see grandchildren and possibly great grandchildren.
I've fought weight all my life. It is as simple as 'just eat better and exercise more!' but simple is not easy when it comes down to doing it. I did figure it out for myself but I've learned that these problems are deeply rooted and someone's silver bullet is not everyone's silver bullet.
I took Ozempic for my diabetes when it first came out and it was iffy if it was doing anything at all for me. I didn't continue it. Two years later I was looking into the gastric-bypass surgery and in preparing for the surgery, I finally started to get some traction through logging food, walking, and weekly IRL support. A year later I was -105 lbs, diabetes was gone, the surgery was canceled, and I was maintaining the weight loss (tenuously, because I could hardly believe it). I've been keeping it off vigilantly. Eight years at goal weight now.
It'll be interesting to see how people react if these other drugs become inexpensive and widely available. Like the surgery, these pharmaceutical interventions work. But like the surgery, people will have to do their part as a patient, too. Some will. Some will still need help. But it's good. More options are a good thing.
I was pretty thin until a psychiatrist prescribed olanzapine for off-label treatment of depression/social anxiety. This was probably like 15+ years ago or something like that so I don't remember it all in great detail but I think my body weight increased by something near 30% (went from somewhere around 110lbs to somewhere around 145lbs) after getting on that drug and based off hazy memory I'd say it was a year or two at most I was on it. I remember my appetite going up so high I couldn't stop eating. I was also maybe somewhere between 17-19 but I can't remember what age exactly. No I didn't really read the side effects, probably just believed doctor knew best at that time, and it was never mentioned to me that was a possible side effect. I ended up looking it up online later and found that it was often prescribed off-label to help people gain weight too, in addition to other things like what it was prescribed to me for. From what I remember it was more successful at helping people gain weight than the other things it was being used to treat.
I've never recovered from that either. Granted I realize at that age is when people probably start putting on more weight or at some point afterwards it starts, so maybe it would have been how things had happened anyhow, but the rest of my family doesn't have that problem.
I guess I mention this because I think people don't realize the scale at which medication might be bringing on these problems, it's no surprise that we end up turning to medication to solve them.
I am on an antidepressant, escitalopram. I had been slowly putting the weight on before that. I'd say at around 25 I started putting weight on. It's ultimately my fault, it's just hard. 3 years ago I did a meal replacement program that was physician monitored. Blood work every month, followed by a meeting with the provider. I lost 70 lbs, was down close to my goal weight. They transitioned me to normal food again. I stuck with it OK for about 2 months and then slowly starting slipping in bad food, overeating, and it slowly went back to before. To add to it, I had been playing indoor soccer and a back 2 back game night caused a partial knee ligament tear, and I stopped being able to play sports. My knee took over a year to fully recover. In that year I put basically all the weight back on.
I'm not trying to post for pity, it's just on topic with the thread. I wish I could have a pill force me to eat less and I feel like if I could lose the weight, I'd be more willing to try to get back into sports. Sports at least made me feel if I didn't show up, I was letting teammates down, so it was an indirect motivator. Most nights I enjoyed it too. I've tried gym memberships and I just end up never using it.
If you are a guy, get your testosterone checked. Insurance does not like to cover it, but through private providers like Henry, you can get it for $100 a month that includes the "doctor" visit.
It's incredible that we've finally found medications to treat obesity! Transitioning from an injection to pills should make the treatments even more available for people.
The only question I have is whether the pills have more side effects than injectable medications since the two drug routes are processed differently by the body.
I would 100% use a drug like Ozempic for an appetite suppressant. Yes, I could lose some weight…but also the added benefit of not consuming as much meat.
In the article they reference a new drug, Retatrutide (and study: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2301972) ), which lead to a reduction of 17% in body weight after 24 weeks.
The benefit for the health of the population is looking good for the future.
Thanks for this. ...still hoping they find a way to administer the drug beyond weekly injections. Tablet form would be ideal. I'd love to just pop a pill everyday to reduce urges.
From the article:
Sweeeeet
I've taken ozempic for my diabetes now for about 18 months. Before I started, I was on a ketogenic diet with intermittent fasting and had kept off a 60 lb weight loss pretty well for a few years. My doctor finally convinced me to try ozempic saying I could go back to eating carbs. As soon as I started the shot and quit the keto diet I immediately gained back 25 lbs and got super depressed over it. My A1c was great though... I was bummed that the ozempic didn't surpress my appetite like I thought it might. It wasn't until I went back to eating a low carb diet plus the ozempic that I lost another 35 lbs. The low carb diet was definitely easier to sustain than before I started ozempic.
Yeah, anyway, I started this reply with the plan to say that the weekly sq shot doesn't hurt at all and I very much prefer it to having to remember to take a pill each day but got in my bag a bit there.
Why is meat consumption something you're worried about?
I'm trying to be more conscious of how my actions affect our environment. For one, Cattle/Livestock production consumes about 40% of all United States land. https://cgmf.org/blog-entry/331/This-Land-is-Your-Land-The-U.S.-Energy-Landscape.html
That's a noble goal, but lately I have been seeing meat consumption much more the way that oil and gas industries saw recycling in the previous decade: a way to push the blame for climate change away from large industrial polluters and on to individuals.
Your lifetime carbon footprint is roughly equal to the carbon footprint of a single cargo ship traveling 25 miles.
Cut out meat for health reasons or because you don't like the taste, but certainly don't allow mega corporations to gaslight you into thinking climate change is because you had a sausage omelette for breakfast.
I fully agree with your thoughts here. I recognize that even I went fully vegetarian, that’s not going to solve anything.
What drugs like this provide, however, is the potential for mass appeal and use. If a sizeable portion of the population is eating less and less food, that will lower the demand for it.
I understand your point here, but I'm of a similar mind to the comment you're replying to. I try to reduce my consumption of meat similar to the reason that I try to reduce my use of plastics. It's not because my individual contribution will make a difference, it's that if enough people do the same the demand goes down and corporations will be less incentivised to produce them. Which is where the real differences start to show up.
I think the most important thing is when someone talks about reducing meat consumption, or consumption of goods in general, we can be there to say we've already been doing it and it's not hard at all.
Statement A
Statement B
The above two statements are a contradiction because both of them presume that consumer action will make a dent.
You know what actually makes a dent?
Legislation.
I agree that legislation is the most effective way, but I disagree that consumer action doesn't make a dent. It's definitely smaller, and often way slower (although sometimes not) but I don't think it's completely ineffective.
Also, cathartic in the face of so many other things I cannot affect about the world.
This is why I cut meat consumption as well. Emissions for meat production are also very high (can't find my favorite reference at the moment, but good research is easily found by searching around).
I work in the industry and knowing how the sausage is made (pun intended) really makes me hesitant to consider meat a critical part of my diet.
Environmental impacts aside, meat is very high caloric density and many people don't feel satiated unless they have eaten a certain volume of food. It's easy to over eat with meat.
Meat is also predominately protein, and protein is both a very filling macronutrient and also one of the most difficult to digest (which is a good thing from a weight loss perspective). Simple carbs are way easier to overeat with, even if you’re eating fattier parts of meat.
That being said, red meat is linked with health complications beyond weight gain. It leans to high cholesterol, is linked with cancer, and more. But if the aim is to eat healthily, poultry and fish are among the better things you can make your diet of.
Keto works, at least if people adhere to it, for a reason.
I've found the exact opposite - I can eat 3x the normal amount of calories in bread with ease, but protein fills you up and lasts for a longer period of time.
I've made huge improvements in my life - most notably dropping from 230 to 200 pounds - by switching to a keto/Paleo diet high in meat.
Man I’m 230 right now and it feels so bad. I work out 3x a week and don’t think my diet is THAT bad but i just can’t drop the weight. I was solidly 215 for the past 5 years then suddenly jumped up to 230 this year and it just won’t come off. I’d like to be at 180 but it seems impossible.
That 15lbs made such a difference too. I went from feeling “a little manageably overweight” to feeling like a hulking wheezing mass that gets tired now just walking up my stairs.
I actually tried this for 3 months and didn’t really see results although I did feel better doing it. I was eating one large meal a day at like 4:30PM so basically a 23 hour fast everyday. I actually felt pretty energized doing it but I saw zero weight loss. Maybe 3 months wasn’t long enough to se results and I have been thinking about trying it again just on the basis of saving money as we just moved and the budget for food right now is tight…
I’d recommend rigorously tracking calories with an app and a kitchen scale for two weeks just to see where you’re really at. There’s a lot of sneaky sources - particularly condiments/sauces - and accurately estimating portion sizes is notoriously difficult.
I know religiously tracking and a kitchen scale work for some people, but for me it absolutely destroyed my mental health and was a great starter kit for disordered eating. I was ONLY thinking about food, at all times. Reading the labels is good and all, but I’d say proceed with caution.
Agreed so completely on this. I have said my ADHD driven inability to maintain a habit is likely the only reason I don't have a disordered eating diagnosis. It still was awful for my mental health, and I become obsessive immediately. My mom was always on a diet, and I want the orthorexia diagnosis to be added to the DSM for folks in a similar situation. It's just not healthy!
Intermittent fasting, tons of water, and focusing on high quality paleo food was my strategy.
I used to eat tons of ramen noodles and I think cutting out the crappy processed salt-and-sugar-filled crap did almost all of it.
I suppose I'll be the outlier here. I'm unconvinced that medication like ozempic (and similar) is healthy in the long term, especially given how historically diet medication has been approved despite major side effects and health risks.
We ignore that dieting does not work on a population level, with the vast majority of people regaining most or all of their weight after several years. We make weight and obesity (an incredibly flawed measurement itself) a personal failing, and particularly AFAB folks get told to eat the amount of calories a growing toddler should eat in a day and if you don't, that's once again a personal failing. It's your fault for not losing weight so you cannot have a particular surgery, but if you want to do weight loss surgery they'll put you on the table. (It's so often weight brought up even if you're basically bleeding from your eyeballs)
I worry that medicalizing weight loss even further will just lead to greater ostracism and discrimination against those folks that do not want to take diet pills/shots and further mess with their body's satiety signals. And until our medical research system is willing to actually tangle with long term efficacy and effects when it comes to weight loss practice and medication, I think we're better off regulating ingredients in food, and encouraging cultural shifts to reduce stigma, increase universal design, and not push fat folks out of day to day life. Having the time and money to afford cooking at home will do more than MyFitnessBestie telling me I'm over fat based calories for having a string cheese.
But... we dont. Ozempic & co are not "diet" medicines. They work on suppressing appetite.
I can attest that I was on Saxenda (Liraglutide) for a few months. I stopped it because side effects, but the appetite suppressing effects have stayed with me since.
I do take a medication that has appetite suppressant as a side effect. It's a stimulant which is what many past diet medications have been. And yet it mostly just makes me feel sick, not eat enough when it's working and need to force myself to eat lunch or a snack or feel sick from that instead. Simply suppressing one's appetite isn't ideal.
Ozempic and the like are being used as diet medications even if that isn't their purpose, they're mostly diabetic medications, and the side effect of weight loss is making them hard to access for some diabetics which has another level of frustration.
If it's effective as a treatment for compulsive eating disorder or similar, I'm certainly on-board. But that isn't the same as a celebrity wanting to keep weight off for example.
I think these drugs flip the script on its head when it comes to obesity as a moral failing. It's been known for a while that satiety/hunger signaling is very largely a matter of genetics and environment, and very little to do with willpower, we now have a drug that can level the playing field and make it easier for people who struggle to control their weight on a purely physiological basis.
My previous grudge with these type of drugs was that as soon as people come off them they'll rebound since they didn't develop any tool or strategy to manage their hunger, but I read a good comment somewhere comparing it to blood pressure medication. I was wrongly thinking of the drug as a "dieting" tool, not as general health improving medication. I never had to struggle to keep my weight, I've never been fat, shouldn't other people have it as easy as me? is it bad to take a drug that will improve your life substantially when the only cost is money and negligible side effects?
Reading about the experience of people using these appetite suppressant drugs it's also clear that it helps them tremendously to eat healthier, they're not longer fighting themselves every day to stay away from junk food. They're also not all losing weight at a dangerous rate, the drug doesn't have to be all or nothing, it can be fine tuned.
I still worry about long term effects, since it looks like the best use of these drugs is long term for some people. And it worries me more how it's been trending as a "dieting fad" basically, lots of people are gonna rebound and end up worse off... but then again we have teenagers messing themselves up with steroids for useless social media fame.
Overall it doesn't fix systemic issues that lead to unhealthy lifestyles, but not having these tools won't fix them either and some people could have life saving changes thanks to them.