[radiofreeeuropa]

There's anecdotes, and there's science.

Individually, there's (previously) been nothing better to suggest than "try harder (and, maybe, smarter)".

Statistically it was almost useless, but it's the best we had. It's not bad advice exactly, it's just extremely unlikely to work for long-term, sustained weight loss.

It also very much appears to be the case that weight gain and loss are heavily influenced by environmental factors. Skinnier countries aren't skinnier because the people there have more willpower, it seems, but because they live in a skinnier country and are surrounded by the culture, laws, physical layouts of the created world, et c., that come with that. It'd be kinda weird if we expected "just try harder" to work very well when that's evidently not the mechanism by which skinny countries are skinny. Alternatively, if it is willpower doing it, we're just adding a step, because then it appears that environment strongly influences willpower, instead, since the same observations hold.

Sure, sometimes it works for individuals. In fact, it often works temporarily, causing a yo-yo effect. It can work for long periods (many years without a slip) but that's rare.

If your solution to the obesity crisis is "people need to try harder" your solution is demonstrably not helpful. Can it work for one person? Yes. Over a population, will it? No, it won't, it's amazingly ineffective, even very expensive high-touch interventions involving multiple experts aimed at weight loss and lifestyle change and such are wildly less effective than "inject GLP-1 agonists" or "move somewhere skinnier".

[eru]

> Skinnier countries aren't skinnier because the people there have more willpower, it seems, but because they live in a skinnier country and are surrounded by the culture, laws, physical layouts of the created world, et c., that come with that.

Do we have data on that?

I guess you could look at natural experiments, like people who lost and won H1B lotteries, and see if only the ones actually making it to the US get fat?

[radiofreeeuropa]

Yes, it’s a google away.

[verisimi]

> There's anecdotes, and there's science.

> If your solution to the obesity crisis is "people need to try harder" your solution is demonstrably not helpful. Can it work for one person? Yes. Over a population, will it? No

Are you an individual or a population though? Take off the telescopes (and data, and science), and look at the world through your own eyes.

No one needs (or can) to address the obesity crisis in the population. The only crises that can be solved are the ones individuals find in themselves.

[vidarh]

And odds are very firmly that you'll fail. That's what the science shows us.

[gmadsen]

having the understanding of the science and self motivated enough to make lifestyle changes already puts you a couple standard deviations out of the population average, such that I don't really think its helpful as a comparison or something to model after

[vidarh]

The science is clear that people who do make changes and achieve initial results are still overwhelmingly likely to fail at maintaining the results.

Lots of people successfully make changes and lose weight, but exceedingly few manage to keep it low over time.

[gmadsen]

you are misunderstanding my point. There is a selection bias. Those with the reading comprehension and scientific aptitude to make a statement like "the science is clear" with accuracy and confidence is already exceedingly rare.

My assertion is that the success of long term weight changes is not independent from that variable.

[vidarh]

That's an assertion there is to my knowledge no evidence for.

There's no evidence to suggest that reading comprehension or scientific aptitude has any link whatsoever to ability to maintain the willpower to stick to a diet. It seems distinctly non-obvious to think it would matter.

And all the evidence is that diets works soo poorly that the effect would need to be astronomical for it to counter-act just how unlikely they are to effect lasting change.

[skeezyboy]

you are taking in more calories than you are burning off, for whatever reason. its that simple

[_345]

Then what should I do :(

[toomuchtodo]

Get a GLP-1 under the supervision of a doctor or other licensed medial provider.

[ykonstant]

As a chronically obese, non-diabetic individual, here in Greece it is impossible to convince a doctor to prescribe anything close to that :(

[everfrustrated]

I find this hard to believe. Wegovy is authorised for sale in the EU for weight loss (IE not Ozempic which is for diabetes. Yes I know it's the same drug). If you can't find someone to prescribe it, that's on you. Find a better doctor or pharmacist. In all seriousness, please do - obesity is no joke and taking ownership of this by at the very least finding a doctor who will support you might be one of the most important and life changing decisions you make.

[mghfreud]

Visit Turkey for a couple weeks. Rules are the same, but behavior is the opposite. Weekly dose of 1mg is sold over the counter for around 150$.

[jart]

And it's thanks to that kind of dishonorable practice that $NVO has lost 64% of its value over the last year. This is how the world rewards the makers of the most successful and helpful drug in history.

[cthalupa]

A huge chunk of Novo losing it's valuation is the fact that Eli Lilly is absolutely destroying them on the next generations of these. Tirzepatide is better than Semaglutide, and Retatrutide is better than Tirzepatide. Mazdutide looks to be a particularly good fit for Asia for a variety of reasons. And from Novo, Cagrilintide/CagriSema look to be a bust. Rybelsus is a bust.

Other "newcomers" in the GLP-1 space are also showing more promise than what Novo has in the pipeline. Boehringer Ingelheim has Survodutide in the pipeline as well, along with plenty of others.

They're the least interesting game in town when it comes to the incretin mimetics at this point.

[toomuchtodo]

They’ve been rewarded enough (~$14.65B USD net profit 2024), and are lucky they’re allowed to capture any further economic benefit from the sale of a simple compound (imho).

[ponector]

I always thought penicillin is the most successful and helpful drug. As well as vaccines against deadly diseases.

[ponector]

Hard to believe. Always can try the same kind of doctors who issue prescription for medical marijuana.

[siva7]

Get it simply over other legal channels instead of fighting with the stupidity of the local medical system.

[randomNumber7]

I think it's mainly the food that makes skinnier countries skinnier.

People in the US eat absolute shit. Even the bread is full with sugar.

Good for capitalism if you can feed that to the people and then give them an injection to be healthy again I guess.