While I do agree with lifestyle changes, it is very clear at this point it doesn't work for the majority of people.
Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity, or something like that...
Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity, or something like that...
If they lack the motivation or determination to see through a diet, that's on them. The resources to count calories are there, it's not nearly as hard as it would have been 20 years ago.
Now, some people genuinely have some form of disease or unusual case where medication is 100% needed and no lifestyle change would help - and those people should get whatever treatment best suits them.
But 36% of the US (obese) is not an unusual edge case, some rare genetic disorder or disease.
Do I have hard data on this? No.
Yes, that I would completely agree on.
I think now that we actually have a solution, we can stop saying this “lifestyle choices” junk. The reality is people rarely have a true choice.
But just because it's hard doesn't mean it's not doable. For the vast majority of people it is doable without any form of medication. It will be slow and uncomfortable, but doable.
I think that a prescription should be a last-resort option for people who genuinely have a condition that makes a traditional method not possible. There's a variety of reasons for that, from monetary ones to health concerns about being on something like these medications long-term.
Traditional methods are already out there and this health crisis is just getting worse each year. The average person is clearly not having success with them, and saying "if they just try harder" or putting some different spin on them hasn't done a thing to fix the trajectory of this problem in the past 30 years, so I can pretty confidently say that there is zero chance they will somehow solve this societal problem in the future.
Being significantly overweight has immense health consequences and imposes huge costs on both the individual and society. I think it's incredibly, incredibly unlikely that the costs or health risks of this medication are higher than the well-documented costs of people continuing to be significantly overweight.
And FWIW: I say this as a thin person with no trouble with my own weight.
Sure it's hard but if I ate till I couldn't regularly I'd end up several thousand calories over what my body needs for maintenance.
Struggling successfully is struggling.