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Comment by Zababa | Hacker News Reader

> Why is the control group eating more?

Because they aren't taking an appetite suppressing drug. It's easier to not eat when you aren't hungry, so it's easier to lose weight with the same amount of willpower compared to people that aren't taking an appetite suppressing drug. Willpower has no part in the study, it doesn't "suggest the opposite".

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Willpower is exactly why they eat more. They feel a pang of hunger in their grossly stretched out stomach and can't resist eating.

The drug does not remove fat. It removes the feeling of hunger. Assume both groups have little willpower (they are fat after all). The control group feels hunger and continues satisfying that hunger with food as they have no will power. The group with suppressed hunger from the drug also have no willpower, but since they feel no hunger they eat normal amounts.

honestly who cares? it's not a competition. most people eat when they are hungry and stop when they're not hungry anymore. for me this results in being at the lower end of the ideal weight range for a person my size. it takes no willpower at all; I don't even think about it until I read a thread like this. other people, for whatever reason, have an appetite that is out of proportion with what their body needs. why not just let them solve their problem however they see fit? if a drug is part of their weight loss regimen, so be it.

So we agree that there is more to weight gain than lack of willpower then. It wouldn't be a stretch to then imagine that not all people feel hunger the same (as hormones usually vary from people to people), and thus that for some people, it takes less willpower to maintain a healthy weight.

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