So can you teach yourself to not be thirsty? Sleepy?
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Silly examples, IMO. People learn to eat more slowly and to not eat every time you feel āhungerā. Portion control, etc. There are ways to manage eating.
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Why are they silly examples? Food is necessary to sustain life, just as water and sleep are. Iāve taught courses on the neurological bases of all these drives. They are incredibly powerful (as helpfully described by the physician upthread) and not easily overcome or modified. These different biological needs just have different timecourses in how long they can be put off. This is why people can lose weight on any number of diets, but almost never sustain it long-term.
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Sigh. You donāt eat every time you are hungry. You donāt drink every time you are thirsty. You donāt you donāt sleep every time you are tired. I am also trained in this field. Not going to argue. No one said it was easy.
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If meds were the only way to change behavior, then CBT would be absolutely useless.
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True! But if you were forced to drink, say, 2/3 of the amount of water you wanted to, or sleep 2/3 of the amount you wanted to, that is do-able but maybe unpleasant for a while. After a certain number of days, it would become really unpleasant. After long enough, it would feel like torture. Obviously, if you get low enough on sleep, water, or food, you die.
Iām not saying eating behaviors canāt be modified at all. Nor am I saying that some people wonāt have great long-term success with that. But many people who are in the category of folks going on these drugs donāt fall into those success groups. For some of them, their appetites are high enough that they canāt sustain weight loss without significant appetite suppression. Thatās why no diets work long-term. Doesnāt matter how the weight is lost.
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Hahaha. There are many of us who function on 2/3 of the amount of sleep we want!! You learn to adapt. Moving on.
I can believe there are people who cannot loose weight the traditional way, with diet/exercise. But it does seem important that folks do at least try that method before resorting to meds.
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I have lost 30 lbs. on Wegovy. Side effects have been some nausea and recently hiccups after eating (just 3 or 4). 5% of Americans have fatty liver and the majority do not know that they have it. I had been having ultra sounds every 6 months to keep track of mine. The last test showed a huge improvement and the cysts were gone. Just another health benefit. I love no longer having the food chatter in my brain. For the first time my life I am not hungry. It is a fabulous feeling.
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I do not think it is that easy at all. I am a marathon runner log 35-45 miles a week and more if I am training for a race. I will not lose weight unless my calorie consumption is under 1000 a day. On top of that, to not lose muscle mass, getting at least 110grams of protein per day is crucialā¦ pretty hard to stay under a 1000 calories and get all of the nutrients needed. Now I am not overweight but all the people I know taking Ozembic and similar are getting less than a 1000 calories per day. My female friends are about 800. I do not think nutritional guideline would suggest anyone get that few of caloriesā¦ but to lose weight that is what needs to happen. Yes, you can change habits and get more exercise but after a certain age it is difficult to see any progress. These drugs are life-changing.
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No one says these meds arenāt helpful. After all, I am the one who started this thread!!! Just saying that if people want to try to keep weight off, they should not go back to old habits/behaviors.
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Iāve been hesitant to post in this thread, but I do wonder how much of the food noise issue is environmental. When the thread first talked about it, though I never heard that term, it brought back a lot of memories.
From my teens to my mid 20s I thought about food CONSTANTLY. Iād be thinking what Iād eat for my next meal while eating the current one. It would not stop. And I would stress about it all the time. It was not healthy. So I think I do get what people are saying.
But I realize now, thatās totally gone and has been for a very long time. Whatās changed? I can think of two possible things. My way of eating is weird, but it works for me. I slightly under eat 6 days a week. take your current weight or goal weight (but no more than -25pounds) and multiple that by 10. Thatās what you get for the day if you do 3x20 min of hard cardio and 3x30 weight lifting a week. If you burn more than that, you can add those calories in. You break it up into 5-6 roughly equal sized meals and you must have a good protein and carb source at every meal. That last day a week? Whatever and as much as you want. Sometime I bet I hit 7000 calories. Seriously. The next day the bloat is real, but it goes away after 24 hours.
Anyhow, my meals are very measured and simple and every day - except for dinner. I donāt think about what Iām going to eat. I know what it is and when. And if I do get cravings, I can hold off until Saturday. And thereās no guilt. I donāt talk about my diet much and wouldnāt claim it to be a cure all, but it does work very well for me.
The other thing is that I no longer read magazine with fashion, food, eating in my face. I watch tv on demand so there arenāt constant food commercials. I never watch eating or cooking shows. And the people I hang around donāt talk about diets and food all of the time. Itās not that I donāt enjoy eating. Iāll never give up my junk food and dessert! And the moderation thing doesnāt work for me. I like to eat A LOT. But food is no longer front and center in my life.
So I do wonder if once the drugs took off the weight and changed the feelings immediately, if behavior couldnāt also be worked on and the drug not as necessary forever.
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I had never heard the terms, āfood chatter,ā or āfood noise,ā until this thread. This must be the situation with my cousin. She constantly thinks about and talks about food. When I talk to her about a vacation/trip (whether mine or hers) the first topic is ALWAYS food. What was eaten while on vacation. Not sights, museums, landscapes, attractions, history, etc. Most people I know when talking about vacations might mention the overall quality of the food they ate, or mention a special meal, or maybe mention a speciality of the area. She, however, often gives a day-by-day synopsis of her meals.
She has lost over 100 lbs (once 150) a couple of times already in her lifetime. In seeing recent photos on FB, I can see itās creeping back up again. She is a type II diabetic (on Metformin), and her last weight loss allowed her to reduce her dosage of that. I havenāt spoken to her recently, but I am wondering if her doctor will bring this up with her.
I had always wondered if her issues were psychological because my aunt insisted she be a member of the clean plate club and loved it when she got seconds of food my aunt had prepared (my aunt took great pride in her cooking skills). It sounds as though this is much more of a biological issue to me than I had ever imagined.
I agree with @Colorado_mom, though - these medications shouldnāt be a first line of defense. It always seems best to me to approach health with lifestyle first. But, it seems to be more and more clear over time that genetics sometimes make that an inadequate solution.
Maybe I wrote some of this above. Iāve just been thinking about this more and more as this thread has continued.
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Thatās basically what I do as well but its 5/2 for me.
I also find if Iām properly hydrated, I donāt feel as hungry. If I am hungry in between meals, I have a spindrift and then wait to see if Iām still hungry. Usually thatās enough. If I am hungry, I keep a stash of easy to grab raw veggies and fruits on hand. I find that psychologically knowing that I can eat something is better for me than trying to deprive myself until dinner.
Me too!
For me, there is a huge psychological factor with my eating. Food = safety for me. I grew up in a very volatile home but when my parents had dinner parties (which was very frequently), I knew that everyone was going to be on their best behavior. I loved the nights where we were at the table for hours. Once I figured that out, it helped release that pattern. (This is where I think programs like Noom are really helpful).
I have a friend with similar issues and she hates hates feeling hungry so she switched to a plant based diet. She eats whatever she wants, whenever she wants but because itās all plant based, she eats a lot of bulk, never feels hungry, and was able to lose and maintain a bunch of weight.
I think itās all about finding what works for each individual. Weāre all different and what works for one person doesnāt for another.
I have a number of weight loss success stories in my circle of friends and the common denominator for keeping it off is to continue the life style change. āDietā (and I hate that word) needs to be a forever because maintaining at a lower body weight looks exactly like the diet that got you there. Sounds like itās similar with these drugs!
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Cost comparison of popular weight loss drugs in other countries. $83 dollars in France versus $940 in the US.
In my teen years into my 20s I also thought about food constantly, but I struggled with anorexia. My days revolved around food and exercise. It was exhausting. I was accused of being āunkindā on this thread, but my concern about these drugs comes from the knowledge that they will be harmful to people who struggle with eating disorders and body image. We were getting away from thin is the only way to be beautiful - now we are there again.
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Are these meds really being used by those wishing to be thin, or instead by those seeking a healthy body weight without the obesity-related risks they currently suffer?
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Absolutely. It started with celebrities, but is now being used by people looking to lose it for āvanity purposesā according to many doctors. Ads all over social media.
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It soon wonāt be just for vanity, doctors are going to recommend this much more widely:
āpeople on Wegovy experienced a 19% lower rate of death from any causesā
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Not a surprise that anything health care costs much more in the US than in other rich countries, though ~10x is a bigger disparity than typical.
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