I’m all for having choices, and choosing the one that works best for anyone.
I don’t see much point in making a value judgment about which approach is superior.
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Everyone’s free to make their own choices–e.g., to take a new, faddy drug, or blow out their gastric bypass, or drink like Gerard Depardieu. Likewise, people are free to wonder aloud about the wisdom or myopia of such choices. No one should be shamed for making bad or questionable health choices, but neither should anyone STFU about them being poor choices.
We have a dear family friend who got suckered into taking human growth hormone for weight loss. She’s never been fat, but for vacations and gatherings, she wanted to look good in a swimsuit. So, a lot easier to hit the HGH than waste time in the gym. Many cycles of this. MAY have given herself leukemia and an autoimmune disorder. To rock a bikini?
And yet, you continue to do exactly that by parading out “dear friends” whose decisions you deem poor. Of course, you are entitled to wonder aloud about other people’s choices in life, even if they don’t concern you one bit.
I just generally choose to MMOB, and let grown-ass adults make their own decisions.
Your anecdotes are just that 
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My friend had a gastric bypass, and she reduced her weight on her tiny 4 foot 11 frame from 200ish lbs to 100 lbs. This was in her late 40s. Her doctor thought she was in danger, and this was advised to correct her blood work that was a result of the weight.
Immediately after the bypass, my friend was eating around 800 calories a day to maintain this loss and she kept it off at least 2 years, through very tiny portions. She would order a steak at a restaurant and take 3/4 home in a doggy bag.
4 years later, I would say she weighed around 120 lbs, maybe a size 6.
As women get older, they go through menopause and that causes a lot of muscle loss in most women.
Men lose muscle as they get older and produce less testosterone, but it doesn’t start as early as estrogen loss starts for women, and men already are starting with more muscle to begin with.
Many women also feel like crap as they go through menopause and perimenopause, and don’t always feel that good about their changing shape and fat distribution, plus sleep disturbances, so that doesn’t necessarily put women in the mood to go out and exercise to build muscle.
Also, middle-aged women are usually saddled with domestic and family responsibilities that mean finding time for exercise is impossible.
I know my over eating issue is mostly my emotional eating or stress eating that is part of a coping mechanism. I also don’t drink. I’m more likely to hit the snacks than drink a 6 pack or run 10 km when I’m having a stressful day
Menopause and aging after menopause means my friend would need even less calories to maintain that 100 lb weight, unless she was able to maintain or even add muscle mass. Plus the stress of life over the last 10 years, kids with major issues. Her husband and kids have all become obese. Her daughter at 35 is also around 200 lbs on a tiny frame, like my friend had been.
My friend also has some arthritis and back issues that would further complicate exercise.
I would say my friend is now around. 160 lbs. Obese, but not morbidly obese.
It’s really hard to maintain any significant weightloss if you aren’t extremely regimented. She is doing her best. That’s what we all are doing. I’m saying this 12 days into wearing a continuous glucose monitor. I recommend trying one if you’re trying to lose weight or trying to improve your blood work.
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That is interesting , thank you for sharing it.
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The only shaming here is you tut-tutting me for identifying poor choices. Too bad.
Maybe you and your friend are. No one said losing and/or maintaining weight is easy–it definitely hasn’t been for me.
Ultimately, we each need to be brutally honest with ourselves as to how hard and smart we actually work at improving and/or maintaining our health.
I’ll ask about the continuous monitor. Thanks.
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The better question might be, “whether whatever possible long term health effects of GLP-1 are extant are actually worse (or less worse) than the long term health effects of not taking GLP-1 agonists”?
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Yup.
My daughter in law’s sister (overweight her whole life) was diagnosed with full blown diabetes at 41 and these drugs are probably going to save her life or at least give her a decent quality of life. So the benefits outweight other issues. The drugs are also being used by people who just want to lose weight and who knows how that works long term. The change in some famous actors has been startling to say the least.
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Yes.
You can either die from obesity, or from GLP-1.
Not sure how I would choose.
Enjoy hedonistic food and die of obesity.
Live a Spartan, ascetic lifestyle while sporting a svelte figure and die from whatever side effects of the “better living through pharmacology” mantra.
Some days I think I would choose Door 1, but it’s a close call on most days.
Like with most things in life - there is rarely just black and white but many, many shades of grey
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Unless you know the long-term side effects of a new drug (which we can likely never usefully know in advance), it’s not really a comparison. It’s a gamble.
The part that’s not a gamble is the short-term positive result, weight loss and A1C in this case.
John Goodman, Jonah Hill, and Melissa McCarthy come to mind, although their PR folks (of course) claim it’s diet and exercise.
All three of them look* much healthier than they used to, for sure.
*I know appearances aren’t necessarily indicative of overall health.
Mindy Kaling!
That’s 40 lbs over … 5 years? Not sure that’s shocking. That’s actually a reasonably slow, healthy weight loss over a long period of time.
Now, if she’d dropped 40lbs in a few months, I’d have questions 
Well good for her I follow her on instagram (I’m a fan of her shows) and she’s changed dramatically probably more than 40 pounds at this point. I was just googling this and Oprah article popped up and she has no issues saying that she’s been taking the drugs and it’s helped her lose a lot of weight. Which I think is more helpful in the long term. My sister in law used Fen-Phen in the 80’s or 90’s and that proved to be a disaster but hopefully this will be fine for everyone. And it’s a life saver for diabetics.
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I’ve only known 2 people using these meds (for T2DM, not prescribed for weight loss necessarily). Both of them ended up with the gastroparesis side effect and were in considerable pain for weeks and even a couple of months after stopping the meds.
So they kind of scare me. Personally I wouldn’t use for weight loss, but then I’m not yet desperate and do fine losing on my own as I want.
Some people have metabolic dysfunctions and may not have a choice, though, and the risk of side effects may well then be smaller than the risks of remaining too overweight.
Also, it’s surely likely that I do know more people who are using theses meds than just those two, but it’s just never come up so I’m unaware of it.
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As I believe I’ve mentioned before, I know a handful of people who are on these drugs for a variety of reasons. Some of them are more open about it than others.
Given the evident proclivity to judge the ones using it for weight-loss as somehow ‘lazy, weak, or looking for the easiest way out,’ it doesn’t surprise me one bit that some of them are not.
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I sure as shootin’ wouldn’t blab about it.
The first rule of GLP-1 Club is, don’t talk about GLP-1 Club.
