This analysis is phenomenal, Samantha. I’ve been on Wegovy since July. It’s helped me kick a few horrible food habits and psychologically I have noticed less of a taste for ultra processed foods. I’m craving cleaner, whole foods when I am hungry. It’s not forever, but I’m striving to focus on the changes in foods and portions. “Oh, so my body doesn’t need all the food I was eating.” I gave lost significant weight in the past by Keto… not sustainable. I did it with diet and exercise, but didn’t make lasting habit and lifestyle shifts… not sustainable. Using GLP-1 as a cautious tool to help me reframe my entire approach to food… exciting and seemingly the only sustainable tactic for lifelong health and good choices.
All that being said, I share all the apprehensions in your analysis but couldn’t help but comment. This write up is FULL of good distinctions!
Thanks, Will! I am so happy to hear that you are making healthy, sustainable changes and that you are having a good experience with it. That would be my hope for everyone who calculates that the benefits of these drugs outweigh the risks. Like many pharmaceuticals, this class of drugs holds some amazing promise. I really hope they end up being as miraculous as some studies are promising!
This is such a helpful analysis of these drugs and weight loss difficulties. I would love to hear more of your writing examining why some do not lose weight through "normal" diets, exercise, calorie cutting and such. Especially as they may tie in with thyroid conditions and the enigma of inflammation.
Yes! I will work this into the schedule at some point. In the meantime, Johann Harri’s book linked above does a great job summarizing the research. Also, McCall McPherson on YouTube has several episodes on Hashimoto’s and why calories in/calories out is insufficient to explain what’s going on there.
I do the shopping for my family, and I'm the cook. When I shop I can't help looking at the carts of other shoppers, especially the obese ones. It's what you'd expect: pallets of sticky buns, cases of soda, and the rest of the garbage from the center aisles. Maybe some ground beef and chicken wings or thighs. It seems so obvious what's making them and now their kids, fat. And the soda and other processed trash isn't all that cheap.
A lot of the shoppers buying that stuff are using EBT. Should that be permissible on the government dime if it's hurting their health?
A year ago I got scolded for A1c of 5.7. I tried a carnivore/keto mod to my diet. Not strict carnivore and not all that keto but no more starchy crap. I was 5'4" and 150 lbs at the start. In six months I had lost 10-12 lbs. I wasn't trying to lose weight, it just came off when I dumped the carbs. It was a diet based on chicken, beef and fish. Not as much fun as lasagna or shepherd's pie but it satisfied hunger.
On the other hand I have acquaintances and friends who tried the glp-1 peptides. One was so constipated he ended up with appendicitis. One ended up with severe gastroparesis that's taken months to reverse somewhat. Others gave it up because of nausea and vomiting. And some have stuck it out and have ozempic face. Add to these experiences the fact that we don't know the long term effects. If this stuff can modify reward seeking behavior what else can it do psychically?
I can't say the carnivore diet is something I'd tell everyone to try. It's so personal. I would say maybe ditch the soda and potatoes and sticky buns and Little Debbie and substitute stuff from the outer aisles.
It’s definitely a multi-layered issue. For sure, I support efforts like those to remove soda from SNAP eligibility, for example. But that doesn’t solve the root issue. The reason processed foods are so cheap is because we, the American taxpayers, are subsidizing them through the Farm bill. So we are paying both to make the product cheap, as well as for the actual product sold via food stamps. And then we pay again when these “cheap” foods make the consumer sick and addicted — particularly in the demographic for which the American taxpayer is covering the food and healthcare expenses.
I would love to live in a culture where eating healthy wasn’t so expensive, and where going out to eat didn’t mean eating a meal full of toxic seeds oils, etc. It would be great if birthday parties and Halloween didn’t pose actual health risks to my kids.
So glad to hear you’re making healthy changes. Restrictive diets like keto/carnivore/paleo have amazing benefits and can reverse or reduce symptoms for many chronic conditions. They are also exceedingly difficult to adhere to and have a huge social cost (speaking from multiple years of strict paleo to heal autoimmune issues). For people who don’t have the funds, time, or mental energy to implement these strategies, I believe the research indicates that GLP-1s might prove a solid option for improving their health.
Of course, as you point out, they are not without their risks, and individual patients need to weigh those carefully in consultation with their doctors to decide what intervention is appropriate and helpful for their situation.
This analysis is phenomenal, Samantha. I’ve been on Wegovy since July. It’s helped me kick a few horrible food habits and psychologically I have noticed less of a taste for ultra processed foods. I’m craving cleaner, whole foods when I am hungry. It’s not forever, but I’m striving to focus on the changes in foods and portions. “Oh, so my body doesn’t need all the food I was eating.” I gave lost significant weight in the past by Keto… not sustainable. I did it with diet and exercise, but didn’t make lasting habit and lifestyle shifts… not sustainable. Using GLP-1 as a cautious tool to help me reframe my entire approach to food… exciting and seemingly the only sustainable tactic for lifelong health and good choices.
All that being said, I share all the apprehensions in your analysis but couldn’t help but comment. This write up is FULL of good distinctions!
Thanks, Will! I am so happy to hear that you are making healthy, sustainable changes and that you are having a good experience with it. That would be my hope for everyone who calculates that the benefits of these drugs outweigh the risks. Like many pharmaceuticals, this class of drugs holds some amazing promise. I really hope they end up being as miraculous as some studies are promising!
This is such a helpful analysis of these drugs and weight loss difficulties. I would love to hear more of your writing examining why some do not lose weight through "normal" diets, exercise, calorie cutting and such. Especially as they may tie in with thyroid conditions and the enigma of inflammation.
Yes! I will work this into the schedule at some point. In the meantime, Johann Harri’s book linked above does a great job summarizing the research. Also, McCall McPherson on YouTube has several episodes on Hashimoto’s and why calories in/calories out is insufficient to explain what’s going on there.
I do the shopping for my family, and I'm the cook. When I shop I can't help looking at the carts of other shoppers, especially the obese ones. It's what you'd expect: pallets of sticky buns, cases of soda, and the rest of the garbage from the center aisles. Maybe some ground beef and chicken wings or thighs. It seems so obvious what's making them and now their kids, fat. And the soda and other processed trash isn't all that cheap.
A lot of the shoppers buying that stuff are using EBT. Should that be permissible on the government dime if it's hurting their health?
A year ago I got scolded for A1c of 5.7. I tried a carnivore/keto mod to my diet. Not strict carnivore and not all that keto but no more starchy crap. I was 5'4" and 150 lbs at the start. In six months I had lost 10-12 lbs. I wasn't trying to lose weight, it just came off when I dumped the carbs. It was a diet based on chicken, beef and fish. Not as much fun as lasagna or shepherd's pie but it satisfied hunger.
On the other hand I have acquaintances and friends who tried the glp-1 peptides. One was so constipated he ended up with appendicitis. One ended up with severe gastroparesis that's taken months to reverse somewhat. Others gave it up because of nausea and vomiting. And some have stuck it out and have ozempic face. Add to these experiences the fact that we don't know the long term effects. If this stuff can modify reward seeking behavior what else can it do psychically?
I can't say the carnivore diet is something I'd tell everyone to try. It's so personal. I would say maybe ditch the soda and potatoes and sticky buns and Little Debbie and substitute stuff from the outer aisles.
It’s definitely a multi-layered issue. For sure, I support efforts like those to remove soda from SNAP eligibility, for example. But that doesn’t solve the root issue. The reason processed foods are so cheap is because we, the American taxpayers, are subsidizing them through the Farm bill. So we are paying both to make the product cheap, as well as for the actual product sold via food stamps. And then we pay again when these “cheap” foods make the consumer sick and addicted — particularly in the demographic for which the American taxpayer is covering the food and healthcare expenses.
I would love to live in a culture where eating healthy wasn’t so expensive, and where going out to eat didn’t mean eating a meal full of toxic seeds oils, etc. It would be great if birthday parties and Halloween didn’t pose actual health risks to my kids.
So glad to hear you’re making healthy changes. Restrictive diets like keto/carnivore/paleo have amazing benefits and can reverse or reduce symptoms for many chronic conditions. They are also exceedingly difficult to adhere to and have a huge social cost (speaking from multiple years of strict paleo to heal autoimmune issues). For people who don’t have the funds, time, or mental energy to implement these strategies, I believe the research indicates that GLP-1s might prove a solid option for improving their health.
Of course, as you point out, they are not without their risks, and individual patients need to weigh those carefully in consultation with their doctors to decide what intervention is appropriate and helpful for their situation.