[fnfjfk]

How do these drugs affect cardiovascular health compared to exercising?

Basically if you run/bike a lot you’ll burn more calories and lose weight if you eat at a deficit. But you’ll also improve your heart health, lower your resting heart rate, etc.

Do these drugs help in that way at all or just with losing the weight? It would be amazing if we had a drug that improved people’s heart health.

[choilive]

Heart issues due to sedentary lifestyle would still exist, but many cardiovascular issues are long term side effects of obesity and poor diet. I.e. High blood pressure, high triglyceride levels, high HDL cholesterol, diabetes, are very common obesity related comorbidities. These all increase the risk for heart diseases. In short, Yes as long as there isn't other even more dangerous heart related side effects of Ozempic/Wegovy/et al., it would improve heart health.

[borski]

They work in tandem. These drugs to appear to have cardio-protective effects, but they also help you lose weight, which in turns helps you work out. Any doctor prescribing a GLP-1 med will prescribe it with a lifestyle change of working out and eating better, and it is in the literature as well.

Doing nothing and only taking the pill will help, just because it helps you lose weight, which has its own cardio benefits, but that is not how it is intended to be taken. It is intended to be taken with an exercise and diet regimen.

[NovemberWhiskey]

You can’t outrun your fork. These are different parts of the problem. Also: achieving a reasonable weight makes it much easier to get into an exercise program.

[fnfjfk]

I don’t think the first part is true though, any distance runner or cyclist that has experienced the “bonk” knows that they didn’t eat enough.

But yup if you’re very obese, running won’t be good for your joints. Swimming would be better, but unless you have a pool or live on a lake it’s much less convenient.

[chaosist]

The first part is true. It is ultimately a problem of thermodynamics.

The distance runner or cyclist is not obese in your example.

There is simply no way to exercise enough if obese to create the caloric deficit needed.

This is all really part of the problem. Telling obese people to exercise more and don't restrict calories too much just doesn't work. What works if obese is a massive calorie deficit over time because an obese person has a massive amount of calories stored by definition.

It is just a much different situation compared to a distance runner that is already very learn. That person does have to worry about not consuming enough calories exactly because they don't have the stored calories the obese person does.

[cyberax]

You generally can't ride every day long enough to expend more than 300-400 calories. And that's just one small smoothie.

[NovemberWhiskey]

A pint of Haagen-Dazs is about a thousand calories - that's an hour of jogging at 5mph for a person that weights 280 lbs.

If you're very obese, you're probably also sedentary, and running for any amount of time at all is probably aerobically impossible.

I stand by my original point - you cannot outrun your fork.

[riehwvfbk]

There's also the "a lot" part that's problematic. It's not easy to find time to bike enough that it makes a difference.

[akira2501]

> not easy to find time to bike enough

Are children and teens being prescribed this drug? Have you ever lived in the suburbs?

[riehwvfbk]

"Enough" is a lot more than a casual bike ride. I used to have a bike commute that totaled 30 miles. Yes, I was in good shape. But it took 4 times longer than driving and required having a shower at the office.

[akira2501]

So Ozempic is "maybe a good thing" because it would make it easier for teens and kids to get to the office for the job while maintaining a slim physical appearance?

Ok.

[mewpmewp2]

Problem with working out though is that when I do that I will also crave more food, so I'll end up eating much more.