Comment by Propelloni | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Propelloni | Hacker News Reader

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There are no silver bullets. Receptor agonists only work as long as you take them and seem to have a limit at about 15-20 % of your starting mass. Bar a lifestyle change, once you stop taking them, most regain their weight. Furthermore they have side effects like vomitting, nauseau and increase the risk of certain kinds of cancer and gallstones. If you are seriously overweight, agonists may give you the headstart you need, but they are not a long-term solution.

A lifestyle change alone may take longer (it took me about a year to lose 15 % of my weight) but is longer lasting and cheaper. That muscle build-up is more beneficial to weight reduction than cardio is not new but research is still warranted.

True, you take them for life, given multitude of other benefits, what's the problem about it? No one is claiming otherwise. Problem used to be the price, but now they are cheap.

Negative consequences of quitting gym are even more severe than those of quitting GLP-1. Especially if one worked out intensely enough to actually achieve any weight goals (i've been doing it for 6 years with a personal trainer and achieved absolutely nothing). Many people who were serious gym rats, just died after quitting (quitting because of trauma or similar external causes), usually due to heart conditions - heart was unable to readapt. You don't die after quitting GLP-1, just get fat again, which is bad in itself - analogous to yo-yo dieting - but not fatal.

GLP-1 is indeed, absolutely, a silver bullet for obesity. And pre-diabetes, and multitude of other conditions and among other things, many addictions (albeit not smoking, sadly).

Having lost weight, i quit gym because it wasn't working for me anyway, and my weight goals have been achieved. Nothing bad happened except now, a year later, i can feel that slight back pains i used to have before starting gym and that completely went away while i was doing it, are slowly coming back.

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