[thefuzz]

I don't see him as being cynical. I think these are questions worth asking given that the OP is asking why diet pills aren't prescribed.

It's looking at a problem in a systemic way rather than isolated events, at least according to me.

[awjr]

Allowing the prescription of diet pills treats the symptom and not the cause.

Anecdotally I've been overweight most of my life and it is only through a change in lifestyle (cycling to work and a shift to low carb diet i.e. low sugar) that I have seen significant weight loss.

That's not to say prescription diet pills wouldn't work, but without underlying lifestyle changes I would expect the person to using the pills to be going on and off them for the rest of their life.

[jrs235]

"it is only through a change in lifestyle"

And that's the difficult thing people aren't willing to do. Taking a pill might help for the near term (we are so short sighted these days!) but it won't address the long term. "I've been taking this pill so now I'm not overweight [so now] I don't need to take the stairs over the elevator!" A few years later, you might not be overweight but you still aren't healthy!

"it is only through a change in lifestyle"

Reminds me of a coworker that complains about his financial situation. He complains about not making enough money and thinking that if he made more then he'd be able to "pay his bills and get ahead"... that might work for the short term, but without a change in how he handles money he's going to end up as "poor" as he is now.

(Preface: He makes more than the average American, this isn't about true poverty) If you live paycheck to paycheck because you are unwilling to make the difficult change in your lifestyle by living slightly under your income level in an effort to pay off debt and save for the future, you will continue to live paycheck to paycheck after you get a raise (that you claim is what you need to "get ahead"). If you spend what you make, you'll just spend more when you make more.

Discipline. It's not easy.