[throwawaylaptop]

Believe me, cutting out bread and sugar completely is 10x easier than some kind of lifelong moderation for a person that has struggled for it already for most of his life.

And he is extremely happy with his new sugar and bread free life of increased mobility, less pain, and much lower blood pressure. At 64, he's learning how to ride a dirtbike and doing pretty well at it.

[42772827]

The choice is no longer between "cutting out bread and sugar completely" and "some kind of lifelong moderation for a person that has struggled." The choice is now between "cutting out bread and sugar completely" and "removing the struggle to moderate bread and sugar."

You're clearly an advocate for your father making healthy choices. So why would you advocate against the use of a drug that makes that easier?

[nradov]

Why waste money and risk side effects for a drug that's not actually needed? Changing your habits is much easier.

[42772827]

If changing habits were much easier, then people wouldn't be using the drug to make it easier change their habits. They would just do it.

[worldsayshi]

> They would just do it.

Telling your mind to do a thing is only ever easy in retrospect and when you find a "trick" that works for you. For some people that trick is getting clear feedback about glucose levels in your bloodstream. But any trick that works for one person might not work for the next. So it is good that there are many approaches.

[tirant]

Changing habits is easy. Still people decide against it because they enjoy those habits more than the result of changing them.

Unless we talk about eating disorders.

[homefree]

Obviously it’s not much easier or the drug wouldn’t be so valuable.

People make such a moral crusade of this - the drug works, people will take it. Behavior modification works in theory and fails for most in practice. Even for those that can make it work usually don’t hold out indefinitely.

[nradov]

I made no moral statement. Behavior modification has worked great for several formerly obese people that I know. They made permanent lifestyle changes without relying on drugs. I really don't care whether people take weight loss drugs or not but the reality is that there are cheaper and safer alternatives.

[homefree]

You’ve been here since 2007, you’re not dumb. Stating it’s “much easier” when it’s obviously not betrays something.

We likely agree that doing it without drugs is probably better, but it’s definitely harder and it’s not clear yet how much better it will even be.

I’ve successfully lost 70lbs (250->180) three times and gotten fit, but it’s a constant effort and psychic drain to maintain the lower weight. If the drug (which I haven’t taken yet) made it easy that’d be a relief. It’s much easier to just manage exercise.

I suspect people that don’t have as much difficulty just get a different amount of joy from eating. For me I felt I could relate to the way an alcoholic described trying to quit drinking, except it’s harder in a way because you have to eat.

[cthalupa]

This is such an absurd statement.

If changing your habits was much easier then we wouldn't need these medications and the world wouldn't keep getting fatter. People have known how to not be fat for a long time, yet the obesity rate has been rising worldwide, even in countries that have traditionally been skinny.

It's not like fat people on the whole are ignorant of how to become not-fat and never attempt to do so.

[tirant]

Because people are choosing deliberately to get pleasure to eat unhealthy stuff instead of being healthy. And that’s a reasonable thing to do. Immediate pleasure trumps future hypothetical gains.

And it’s exactly the same situation with financial education, debt, university degrees, or in general any long term endeavors that requires the sacrifice of the immediate pleasure.

Of course, we still have a non trivial percentage of people that suffer from eating disorders, and use food as a way to emotionally regulate themselves because that’s what they learned as children (child is unhappy, give him a candy…).

[cthalupa]

None of which addresses the point. Combating all of those urges and changing your habits via willpower is still far more difficult than a weekly injection that provides huge help in combating said urges.

[ranger_danger]

If it's so easy why does the drug even exist? Why is it so popular? Why isn't everyone just changing their habits so easily like you say?

[sumeno]

As someone who in the past lost ~50lbs and has mostly kept it off for more than a decade this is just horse shit. It's incredibly hard even as someone who was only a bit overweight and not obese and it is still a struggle 15 years later, even more so than it was when I was younger