I Totally get that GLP-1's are absolute medical breakthroughs. But they are a _serious_ societal problem, IMO. My partner and I are both larger-bodied people; both our BMI's (it's a terrible measurement, I'm aware) hover just over 30. We've done a lot of work to destigmatize our own bodies and accept who we are so that we can teach our kids to have healthy self-images and not suffer the dysmorphia that we both went through for decades. We're active, we eat well, and we have great lives; we just aren't _thin_.
My partner has a new coworker who just started on Wegovy and has been poisoning my partner's brain with her terrible self talk. She calls herself a "fat bitch" at work, and raves about how excited she is to "lose all the fucking weight" before her wedding next fall, and it's bad enough that my partner has had to talk to her manager and HR about it. It's bad enough that my partner broke down the other day and told me she's struggling to see herself as anything other than overweight and unhealthy because the negative sentiment her coworker has of _her_ body is leaking onto everyone else.
These medications are absolutely essential for _some_ people who need to lose weight for medical reasons or need the other benefits they provide. But, they've also unlocked a cheat code for losing weight, and people like my partner's new coworker are focusing on only that aspect. The potential societal effects of making weight loss easier than ever before are kinda terrifying to me. I don't know what I'll say to my kids if they end up with our body type and come to me one day asking to go on Ozempic or Wegovy because "all the kids at school are doing it" and "being thin is what's normal now". I'm so scared that we've opened up a Pandora's box of making thin even more of an expectation because it's "easy" now.
I guess my point is, I _really_ wish the FDA would step in and make it clear that these medications are not to be prescribed for cosmetic weight loss, and they should bring the hammer down on online pharmacies like Hers (which is where my partner's coworker got her Wegovy).
EDIT: there are a bunch of folks in the replies telling me I'm lying to myself and misserving my kids by accepting myself. That's...odd, to say the least. Every metric I have that isn't my weight is perfectly fine. My blood pressure is normal, my cholesterol is normal, my A1C is normal, my blood sugar is normal, my doctor and I are very happy with my health. The number on the scale is _a_ representation of your health, but it's not the only or even best one. And the impact on my mental health has been astounding. I'm not going to change my mind about my weight because a bunch of folks using an extremely outdated metric of overall health tell me my number is bad.
Respectfully, both of our diets are totally fine, and I don't need your opinion to let me know that. Any biomarker you might like to use tells us that we're fine; our weight is the only number that is "outside the norm", and while sure it's a measure of overall health it's not the only one or even the best one.
To be clear, being obese is dangerous in the long-term. Your biomarkers being okay now doesn't mean you're good to go. Obesity increases your risk of pretty much everything bad. That doesn't mean you're magically unhealthy, but certainly your risk is greater.
That doesn't mean you need to change anything or that you're weak or whatever people might say. I do tons of unhealthy stuff that are fine for the time being. I drink for one - that's gonna catch up to me.
Also basic biomarkers are not a complete picture of your health. Obesity puts stress on the body in a variety of ways, some of which might not show up until it gets to a threshold point. For example, strain on joints.
BMI is a shit metric and must be taken with a grain of salt.
If you take a not so tall person with a large muscle mass and sub 10% body fat, you can still end up in the severely overweight / obese range.
Because muscle is way more dense than fat, and we should factor in for bone mineralization and bone weight in those who do resistance sports as well.
So take BMI = kg/m2 with precaution, as there better metrics such as waist-to-height ratio.
You know if you are a BMI outlier. It's not interesting to discuss outliers as they are rare by definition.
BMI is a fine metric for describing a population's general health when it comes to weight. The actual reason the metric exists.
There are exceedingly few folks with 10% body fat and a BMI of 30. They tend to be clustered around professional athlete or bodybuilder circles. Again, not interesting to discuss these things outside of niche circles. Those that are outliers know already, due to the work they put in to be such.
No one is walking around with a BMI of 30 and happening to accidentally be at a healthy weight due to low body fat percentage/high lean muscle mass and not knowing it.
That's nice. On the other hand, I'm fat because I eat too much. It makes me unhealthy and less attractive. I welcome GLP-1s and think they definitely should be prescribed for cosmetic weight loss. Others can use whatever psychological coping strategies they deem fit—I'll have the pharmaceuticals.
Is there actually such a thing as cosmetic weight loss, given the incredible health benefits of being in an optimal weight range?
Excess weight is tied to pretty much every major cause of mortality and morbidity in the west. The UK's plan to offer Wegovy to unemployed people with complex health problems etc is, leaving aside its many political problems, a great illustration of how this is the case.
It may just be that tackling obesity lowers the strain on public health systems to such an extent that it is worth it financially, for those countries that have such systems coexisting with high rates of obesity.
I think the big thing the skeptics miss is that they believe it's only good for wealth loss. But studies is showing that it has massive health benefits that you don't get from dieting alone. Yes, losing weight by workout/dieting improves blood pressure, reduces sugar, and reduces heart disease. But GLP-1 has massive and better effects towards these things. If you just need to lose a few lbs and don't have health issues, go natural.
...then it's not cosmetic weight loss? I don't think we disagree. If we prescribed these medications the same way we prescribe, say, blood pressure medication, I think I would be less worried. When you have high blood pressure, they of course put you on a medication immediately to get your blood pressure down, but the goal is to reduce the medication over time by helping you work on the underlying cause of the high blood pressure. Some people just have naturally high blood pressure and will need the medication support forever, and that's OK, but many people can engage in lifestyle changes that will give them most of the improvement they need. If we were approaching GLP-1's with the same mindset I think I would be much less worried about the future of our society with these medications.
And for what it's worth, the above isn't a "coping strategy". It's body acceptance, which has made me a hell of a lot healthier than all the attempts I made at losing weight I didn't really need to lose in order to be healthy and happy.
I am well aware of the evidence and discussed it with my doctor. People WILL gain the weight back if they revert to their old eating and exercise habits.
So, because you actually don't accept yourself as you are, at the same time you made it part of your identity, you want the government to step in and remove other people's choice, their fucking dreams so they don't shatter your fragile ego?
> are not to be prescribed for cosmetic weight loss
We don't really know the coworker's medical conditions.
Also, I'm not sure that achieving a positive self-image isn't worthwhile. With any drug you take, you balance the positives and negatives. I really don't know the negative side effects of these GLP-1 drugs, but if it turns out the negatives are low and the cost isn't too high, I'm really not sure why we'd want to keep people from using them how they want.
You may want to consider that you (both) are just trying to lie to yourself about this whole acceptance thing, if this what it takes to let it go under the bus.
Frankly what you call “destigmatize our own bodies” sounds like lying to yourself over and over until you believe it.
A BMI over 30 is obese, which is unhealthy in and of itself. It’s great that you try to stay active and eat well but you’re not healthy. And I worry that you’re teaching your kids bad lessons.
Being obese is also not attractive, sorry but that’s not going to change.
It reminds me of one of the arguments against assisted suicide, particularly for disabled people. If the option is there, people start to question why you're not taking it (e.g. if you were extremely disabled, why wouldn't you use assisted suicide. If you're overweight, why aren't you using Ozempic).
I'm only comparing them in as much as the risk of people feeling coerced in to making a personal decision. E.g. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx276lwn6n2o. Obviously the outcomes of both actions are radically different.
I suspect GLP-1s will find their way into the gym as well. I'm currently on a cut. It takes some pretty rigid discipline and some overhead for doing things like meal prep and whatnot. Ozempic is basically the perfect cut supplement. When you hop off it, after a bit your appetite comes back and you can easily go into a bulk. It's perfect.
It's already pretty prevalent in gym circles. Not to TRT levels yet, but pretty close. Whomever you get your TRT from (clinic or UGL) you can likely get your preferred GLP-1 from as well.
Interesting! I assumed that it would be fairly popular in the gym setting, but I had no idea it was already. I don't take gear, but I'd take GLP-1s. It seems like a no-brainer.
Great question, but unless it’s really detrimental, it wouldn’t be a huge deal. You’re likely going to be losing muscle mass on a cut anyway, you’re just trying to minimize it.
I Totally get that GLP-1's are absolute medical breakthroughs. But they are a _serious_ societal problem, IMO. My partner and I are both larger-bodied people; both our BMI's (it's a terrible measurement, I'm aware) hover just over 30. We've done a lot of work to destigmatize our own bodies and accept who we are so that we can teach our kids to have healthy self-images and not suffer the dysmorphia that we both went through for decades. We're active, we eat well, and we have great lives; we just aren't _thin_.
My partner has a new coworker who just started on Wegovy and has been poisoning my partner's brain with her terrible self talk. She calls herself a "fat bitch" at work, and raves about how excited she is to "lose all the fucking weight" before her wedding next fall, and it's bad enough that my partner has had to talk to her manager and HR about it. It's bad enough that my partner broke down the other day and told me she's struggling to see herself as anything other than overweight and unhealthy because the negative sentiment her coworker has of _her_ body is leaking onto everyone else.
These medications are absolutely essential for _some_ people who need to lose weight for medical reasons or need the other benefits they provide. But, they've also unlocked a cheat code for losing weight, and people like my partner's new coworker are focusing on only that aspect. The potential societal effects of making weight loss easier than ever before are kinda terrifying to me. I don't know what I'll say to my kids if they end up with our body type and come to me one day asking to go on Ozempic or Wegovy because "all the kids at school are doing it" and "being thin is what's normal now". I'm so scared that we've opened up a Pandora's box of making thin even more of an expectation because it's "easy" now.
I guess my point is, I _really_ wish the FDA would step in and make it clear that these medications are not to be prescribed for cosmetic weight loss, and they should bring the hammer down on online pharmacies like Hers (which is where my partner's coworker got her Wegovy).
EDIT: there are a bunch of folks in the replies telling me I'm lying to myself and misserving my kids by accepting myself. That's...odd, to say the least. Every metric I have that isn't my weight is perfectly fine. My blood pressure is normal, my cholesterol is normal, my A1C is normal, my blood sugar is normal, my doctor and I are very happy with my health. The number on the scale is _a_ representation of your health, but it's not the only or even best one. And the impact on my mental health has been astounding. I'm not going to change my mind about my weight because a bunch of folks using an extremely outdated metric of overall health tell me my number is bad.