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by futureshock 746 days ago
While this is oft repeated, it’s not very relevant. First of all, some weight is kept off, which is a huge win. Secondly, the drug can be taken again. Thirdly, it will be a second chance for millions at a heather lifestyle. Once you get so fat, it becomes a doom spiral of low physical activity and low body image. Personal willpower and choice can have a huge impact but its very hard to start exercising when you can barely walk down the street.
1 comments
fiftyfifty 746 days ago
It's not just that the weight is gained back but the rate that it's gained back. Imagine someone loosing 100 pounds on semaglutide and then gaining 70 pounds of it back in 1 year when they stop taking it. That's over 1 pound a week of weight gain, likely much faster than that individual gained the 100 pounds originally. That type of rapid weight gain is associated with even worse health effects than carrying the extra 100 pounds probably was, and that's just at 1 year, where will this individual be in 2 years, 3 years etc? Will they really keep that other 30% weight off? We don't have the data yet, but it doesn't seem likely they will. I'm not saying we shouldn't use these drugs, just that we need to understand that they are only the first step to a much longer strategy to improved health.
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JumpCrisscross 746 days ago
> That type of rapid weight gain is associated with even worse health effects than carrying the extra 100 pounds probably was

Source?

And are the people losing 100 lbs regaining 70 of it? These statistics are provided in the aggregate [1]. I wouldn't assume the re-feeding of someone who lost 20 lbs will mirror someone who lost 100 lbs.

Also, conventional methods resulted in "more than half of the lost weight was regained within two years, and by five years more than 80% of lost weight was regained" [2]. So our baseline is the 100 lb person regaining 50 lbs following diet and exercise or whatever.

[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35441470/

[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5764193/

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ProfessorLayton 746 days ago
This is literally a straw man argument.
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