New diabetes drug helped obese people without the disease lose incredible amounts of weight

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So when I was in my late 30s I was way out of shape and very over weight. I used to joke that I would have the big one at 40 and then turn my life around. Only the closer I got to 40 it wasn’t so funny anymore.

I lost 100lbs in less than a year by eating nothing and running like crazy. I did it in a very dangerous way.

But, within a year I was placing and even winning my age group at 5k races with my all time personal best 18 and change on New Years Eve a few months after I turned 40.

I kept the weight off for years and stayed hooked on running. After several years the weight got away from me and I gained most of it back.

Ten years ago I had the should be dead heart attack. So I got serious again. My cardiologist said I was his first and only patient that listened to him. I ran a 5k 30 days after the heart attack and a half marathon one year later.

I did have a stroke 6 years ago and spent a week in the hospital. All the doctors commented, after looking at my numbers and weight that I was not the typical stroke patient.

I kept the weight off until the last couple years when I lost motivation but I never gave up running.

I just had a talk with my cardiologist about my weight.

My cholesterol is always flagged as too low but he wants it lower, my blood pressure is way low, my blood sugar is normal, my resting heart rate is mid 50s and I can easily run 3 miles a day. I passed my stress test with flying colors with only one other person beating me in time on the treadmill. I’m very competitive.

He’s happy with my health.

I’m loaded with plaque and there is nothing I can do to change that. No matter what I do I will have another heart attack.

The point is you absolutely can be overweight by lots of so called standards and still be healthy.

The wife and I will be running a marathon for our 40th anniversary when we both turn 60.

As long as my numbers stay below normal and I can run I can’t see caring about my weight unless my cardiologist says I should.

That being said, if there was a pill I’d try it because I hate to waste my skinny clothes.

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For what it’s worth, I’m a type 2 diabetic, and I can only tolerate 500 mg of Metformin daily without diarrhea. But my GP put me on extended release Metformin, and that lets me take 2,000 mg a day without diarrhea or even the mild stomach discomfort the 500 caused. Might maybe be of some help to you, I hope.

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Ozempic, semaglutide, has helped me lose weight. I started keto, Ozempic, and a job with strenuous physical work last year. So, it’s all muddled up in what is causal for me. But in 13 months, I’ve gone from 495 lbs to 365, my A1C has gone from 10.5 to 6.1, and I’m off of one of my 3 heart medications. If this medication can be more effective than Ozempic, I hope it helps lots of people get to the weight they want to be.

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I read that as the conjunction of Satan. Which is obviously wrong.

He’s in upper management.

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our bodies are out to get us

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If I could upvote you more than once, I would.

I try to keep as active as I can, but my weight has stayed in the 280-290 range despite losing ~4 inches off the waistline, and I’ve been at this plateau since just before the pandemic hit. (Although I will note that I’ve not gained anything post-pandemic, probably because I’ve been staying active but not indulging in my weekly rock gym trips.)

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Both Is Good The Road To El Dorado GIF

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This might be a good point to bring up the work of behavioural scientist Sendhil Mullainathan. I’m not the best placed to explain his work, but the essence (as I understand it) is that you have a finite amount of willpower. And if you’re in a bad place, mentally or socio-economically for example, you will use up most of that willpower on just forcing yourself through an exhausting work day or hellish home life. You’ll have little willpower left to do the whole calories in/calories out thing.

At least for me, the times I have piled on the podge have been difficult times for me. I didn’t suddenly get too stupid or lazy to match my calorie intake with my exercise level, it’s just that I knew that in order to get through it all something would have to give. I bargained away health because being hangry would just tip me over the edge.

So if there existed a drug that wouldn’t necessarily cause me to loose weight just from taking it, but instead (as suggested in this thread) could boost my internal reward system so as to leave me with the satisfied feeling of having had a pizza even if I have just had a bowl of steamed broccoli and rice, then I know that I could maintain my current weight level if things were to become difficult again.

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That’s a double-whammy, since stress increases circulating hormones that downregulate metabolism and increase hunger.

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I don’t think enough people realize that Binge Eating Disorder is a DSM diagnosable condition. I got diagnosed, and then I got an ADD diagnosis (at age 66).

For me, BED means spending every waking moment thinking about when and what I will eat next. These days you hear the term “intrusive thoughts” in other contexts. Oh yeah.

I didn’t realize what “normal” was until I went on semaglutide (expecting only effects for diabetes), and my obsession reduced dramatically. Presumably because of endocrine changes? I was liberated!

My weight loss (unexpected back in October, before all this news) was a bonus. I continue now on the drug, but my numbers have plateaued because I am back to some bingeing. Less, though.

OK, another anecdote. My new doctor (after previous one retired) gets points for starting me on the drug – for my diabetes. But when I said the initial effect on eating had worn off, she told me I had not been eating enough to survive (I’d provided no food logs, and it was simply not true).

Then the doctor said, “You could try not keeping snacks in the house.” I changed doctors and still have not forgiven the first for that drastic insult (email is challenging). That doctor is 5 feet tall with AAA-cup breasts (I wear an H cup, and that runs in both sides of my family).

She didn’t know my history at all, which includes (a) learning her tip at Weight Watchers 45 f-ing years ago, (b) no fad dieting after age 17, (c) occasional medically-supervised programs where I’d lose the same 70 lbs, and then gain them back over 3-4 years, (d) maintaining weight of 210 for the last 20 years.

I refuse to become “happy fat” because my other numbers are still terrible (cholesterol, etc). It’s metabolic syndrome. I’ve been hacking at this all my life because my dad died of a heart attack at 46 and 3 of my grandparents never saw 60. They all had the belly fat and there were none of the 5 drugs I’m on at 66. (I got put on max statins in my 30s and my HDL/LDL numbers have remained in the dangerous range… they now believe my decades of assertion that it’s genetic).

(Is it possible for an individual to be drug resistant? I’ve been on so many (for other conditions, too) and I get almost no side effects – but I get very little therapeutic effect either.)

My new new doctor said, “wow, you haven’t been well served by the medical profession, have you?” Empathy, more doctors should try it.

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Sorry, these drugs aren’t it (at least not semaglutide, in my experience). There’s so much more to hunger and taste than that.

I still thought I wanted extreme foods even when I couldn’t face them after I bought them. There’s been cake in the freezer for 6 months because it made me queasy to look at the frosting (in the first weeks on the drug). If you leave off the frosting and call it muffin, I’ll be happy to crave it.

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