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Comment by hombre_fatal | Hacker News Reader

This looks like a wonder drug.

On social media there seem to be two types of deniers:

1. People who make stuff up about it. Even Peter Attia said in an interview recently that you lose more lean mass than fat on the drug.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8089287/ "Greater weight loss was associated with greater improvement in body composition (lean body mass:fat mass ratio)."

2. People who think it's an unfair shortcut to lose weight with a pill. That fatties should just have to exist until they can make the identity level genetic changes on their own to lose it.

Both cases are sad to see especially if you've been someone who has- or watched a loved one- struggle to lose weight their whole life.

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> People who think it's an unfair shortcut to lose weight with a pill. That fatties should just have to exist until they can make the identity level genetic changes on their own to lose it.

That's quite the straw man. The actual position is "while there's a shortage of these drugs, people who merely want them as a substitute for self-control should have to wait in line behind everyone who actually needs them for what they're meant to treat".

And then there's the plot twist. On-label use is for type 2 diabetes, which is considered a consequence of obesity. So it's actually about prevention vs treatment.

Your claim just launders the same character judgement through a drug shortage problem.

Now they are lazy and keeping drugs from people who are lazier thus more advanced along the type-2 diabetes escalation.

That's supposed to be a steelman of the position I listed?

#2 seems to be a perennial favorite for people that morally judge fat people, and it actually seems worse from other fat people.

My partner got gastric sleeve surgery, and she got an inordinate amount of shit about how it was "cheating" to lose weight from some of her fatter friends as well as a bunch of her skinny friends. It's weird like that.

> That fatties should just have to exist until they can make the identity level genetic changes on their own to lose it.

Or just eat less and exercise more..

What happens when they come off of this drug? Does the weight just go back on again?

Underlying lifestyle changes are the proper way to lose weight and keep it off. The sort of lifestyle changes that most non-fat people have been making all of their lives. That's why many people criticise shortcuts like this. It's a lazy solution to (mostly) laziness.

No, it's psychological in most of these cases

So if someone can never change, they deserve what they get? Even though some medication can help them?

We're all dealt the exact same hand of psychological cards to work with?

They can change, with less food (mostly) and more exercise. It's not beyond the realms of possibility for overweight/obese people to lose weight.

Introducing a drug like this with no lifestyle changes will just lead to eat, inject, repeat.

No, it's genetic. No amount of willpower will save you from your genes.

Try permanently changing the color of your skin.

Or changing your gender so that you can have children.

"Sex", not "gender".

Also, look up epigenetics.

Are you typing all this through a time vortex from 1980?

Are you always this rude?

Are you capable of posting anything without being rude?

Absolute bollocks. Saying weight gain or difficulty with losing weight is genetic is (for the vast majority of people) a coping mechanism for lack of willpower.

Prove it.

Until then, it's clear that you have no useful experience on the subject.

If you're arguing that weight gain or a sense of willpower are entirely genetic, I think the onus is on you to provide proof.

Introducing the likening of weight loss, something that everybody is capable of, to changing skin colour and changing your gender/sex is absurd.

Eating below your energy expenditure will cause you to lose weight. Every time somebody decides to eat a (or many) burger or a donut, they have the choice not to do that. Genetics aren't forcing anyone.

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