[–] AnthonBerg 1 day ago
[–] JKCalhoun 18 hours ago
I look at the obesity epidemic, the efficacy of GLP-1, and wonder if the GLP-1 was once part of our body chemistry and, somehow, no longer is.
Or is the GLP-1 just a "magic bullet" that luckily works in a way to overcome our selfish desire to overeat unhealthy foods—there are other, non chemical, reasons we have been getting obese as a society over the past decades?
I've been on GLP-1 for a few months now and it is amazing. And I've been wondering this whole time—why did I previously have this "food noise" that, apparently, people like my wife do not? (Example: she'll often stop eating and say, "I'm full" when I'm thinking, that doesn't happen to me unless I eat an insane amount. Where is my I'm full detector?) I was sure thin as a rail for the first three decades of my life. Is it just a male, aging thing? ... I'm just flummoxed (but happy to be losing weight finally even if I do have to pay out of pocket every month for the drug).
[–] traviswingo 17 hours ago
Now, if you remove breads, sugars, and processed foods, try eating the same number of calories with whole foods only. You’ll become full way before you reach that number.
And some people, like your wife, simply respond to food differently. Id say she’s in the minority, though.
I, like yourself and most people, don’t feel full until I’ve eaten an unreasonable amount of certain types of foods. Since switching to Whole Foods and cutting out breads, sugars, and processed foods, I’ve lost weight while eating until I’m full/satisfied.
[–] rubicon33 15 hours ago
[–] tstrimple 8 hours ago
[–] zosima 17 hours ago
I've not found any promising leads, besides maybe something fuzzy about intestinal microbiome. But I've not given up hope of figuring it out.
Especially, I'd note that if a food production company had accidentally added, say a GLP-1 antagonist (without knowing what it was) to their product, they'd just notice sales go up and consider it quite good business.
[–] 47282847 14 hours ago
[–] bluefirebrand 17 hours ago
It's hard to estimate how much the last couple of generations weight was because of smoking cigarettes suppressed appetite too
[–] justsomehnguy 17 hours ago
Yes?
When you hit the puberty your requirements go up for an additional 1000-1500 calories.
Women calorie demand returns back after puberty, men stays the same and the calorie burn rate (if you don't sit 24/7 at the screen ofc) are higher than a women' one in the first place. So you on all levels - including your own habits - are conditioned to eat a whole lot.
And then your forties come your body suddenly decides what you don't need that much energy and your metabolism slows down, winding down the calorie intake demands. But if all your life you needed a whole chicken with a plate to 'feel full' then you won't suddenly eat a couple of chicken wings and have a 'feel full' feeling.
And I would agree with a sibling comment: the food caloric density did increased a lot though 'saltier, sweeter, and generally more addictive' is not a rule but a more of a diet choices.
[–] Melatonic 1 day ago
[–] zemoerfi 1 day ago
So while your body produces it in a few places, the product gets used up almost immediately.
[–] shawa_a_a 21 hours ago
[–] zemoerfi 18 hours ago
[–] thebigspacefuck 19 hours ago
[–] jkahrs595 17 hours ago
[–] potamic 1 day ago
[–] throwaway20222 17 hours ago
I got off of them after 14 month and while it hasn’t been as easy as being on them for sure, my time on them gave me a chance to look at what I was eating and how much I was eating more subjectively. I lost nearly 40 lbs, put ten back on before leveling out.
Critical to add - losing the weight allowed me to become much, much more active without pain so I attribute a lot to that habit of being really active being picked up to my maintenance.
YMMV
[–] mft_ 20 hours ago
[–] thrance 19 hours ago
[–] thebigspacefuck 19 hours ago
[–] the_mar 18 hours ago
[–] deskamess 1 day ago
I am also reading up on things called triple agonist but its not readily available in Canada. Web sites with a lot of discussion about peptides and titrating which seems a little difficult.
[–] toomanyrichies 1 day ago
[–] illegalbyte2 1 day ago
[–] happyPersonR 1 day ago
Folks really only discontinue because of cost … which is because our health system is a disaster
[–] seanmcdirmid 1 day ago
[–] JKCalhoun 18 hours ago
[–] nly 1 day ago
I'm assuming this is normal and something will happen when I up the dose.
[–] seanmcdirmid 1 day ago
[–] gruturo 21 hours ago
Even 10mg is very, very high, beyond the trials maximums (though preliminary small escalation trials tested that, even reaching 16mg, I guess the participants really didn’t enjoy that) and would have serious side effects if not result in a hospital visit as well.
Please be a lot more careful dispensing advice on a public forum on matters where people could get hurt.
[–] iand 21 hours ago
[–] JKCalhoun 18 hours ago
[–] seanmcdirmid 12 hours ago
[–] MisterMunchkin 22 hours ago
[–] randycupertino 1 day ago
The triple agonists like Retatrutide should be available in ~6 months assuming all goes well with their trials. Unless you are Trump who got special permission to get it before everyone else! https://www.statnews.com/2026/06/23/eli-lilly-unusual-weight...
[–] taurath 1 day ago
[–] JKCalhoun 18 hours ago
But as the dosage climbs, so does the price. I started at the $300/month dosage and am up to the $350/month dosage.
(Hopefully I get to my target weight at this dosage—it's very possible.)
[–] randycupertino 1 day ago
[–] PeterStuer 13 hours ago
[–] arjie 1 day ago
Now all we need is an easy pill that makes you hate opioids.
[–] JKCalhoun 18 hours ago
One weird aspect of it working as well as it has on me is that when I see people who are morbidly obese in public now I have to fight the urge to proselytize GLP-1.
[–] randycupertino 1 day ago
[–] thechao 1 day ago
[–] hashmap 19 hours ago
[–] phil21 18 hours ago
The potency and purity are typically pretty good but from time to time vendors will be outed for either outright fraud or a bad batch that is underfilled or low purity. Most of the direct vendors (out of China) will guarantee fill and purity, and also give credit on your next order for lab test costs if you share the tests with them for future marketing purposes.
All sorts of risks involved of course, but you can mitigate them fairly effectively. Your risk tolerance may vary. Some folks will buy single vials from US resellers and trust those seller's lab test reports. Others (smartly, imo) don't trust that and do their own testing directly on the product they receive.
This grey market supply chain is remarkably robust these days. Plenty of suburban Facebook soccer moms organizing group buys.
[–] estearum 17 hours ago
[–] JumpCrisscross 16 hours ago
[–] estearum 17 hours ago
"Person A takes Foundayo, Person B takes mystery drug?"
Not sure what you think you're learning from that.
[–] thechao 16 hours ago
[–] solyin 1 day ago
Not about to try and get some first hand experience with that tho!
[–] ulrikrasmussen 1 day ago
[–] MisterMunchkin 22 hours ago
[–] MisterMunchkin 22 hours ago
[–] gib444 1 day ago
It is now firmly back, after ~6 months off the drug (due to cost) :/
I've managed to keep off the lost weight, through a lot of willpower, but winter will be a struggle I can tell.
[–] Sohcahtoa82 1 day ago
It wasn't until this week that I started feeling the effect, and so far, it's like...yeah. I don't feel this damn near constant urge to eat anymore.
It's so frustrating to deal with people who naturally eat sensibly and look down on overweight people and accuse them of not having self-control. They have a complete lack of empathy and assume that everyone else has the same properly-calibrated sense of hunger that they do. Guess what: not everyone does.
They have no idea what it's actually like. They'll eat a six-inch sub sandwich and feel full all the way to dinner. Maybe they'll eat a handful of nuts in the afternoon if they get snackish. Then they assume that's what life is like for me.
No. If I ate just the six-inch sandwich, my stomach wouldn't even tell me I'm satiated, let alone full. I'd have to eat the footlong. And I'd still be hungry two hours later. Yeah, I'd eat a handful of nuts. And then another. And another. Until eventually I've eaten 700+ calories from nuts and I'd still be fucking hungry.
And don't tell me "drink more water!". If anything, I was overhydrating. My urine was nearly clear and I'm pissing every hour.
Ozempic has flipped the switch, though admittedly I'm in a transition period for sure. I went out for dinner the other day, had a bowl of soup and only about 1/3rd of my main course. My stomach was feeling full, but something was still telling me to keep eating. Luckily the discomfort of fullness won out and I took the rest home. The next day, for lunch, I ate the leftovers, and I felt full afterwards, and didn't feel the urge to snack at all before dinner.
It's such a breath of fresh air. Is this what normal or "naturally thin" people experience? Hunger that reflects actual caloric needs, rather than some unnecessary urge to constantly keep adding things to the stomach?
EDIT: "It is now firmly back, after ~6 months off the drug (due to cost) :/"
That sucks. With my insurance, it's only $50 for a 4-week supply, but on the prescription form from Costco, it lists the "U/C" as $2,207, which my understanding means it would be $2,207 if I didn't have insurance.
The price of this drug is damn near criminal.
[–] _heimdall 20 hours ago
The looking down on people is the huge problem. It is at least in part a self control problem, and also who cares? Everyone has things they try to deal with, faults they don't even notice, etc.
In my opinion, saying it is often a self-control problem is calling a spade a spade. It isn't always that, there are other reasons people may struggle with obesity. But for those finding help in GLP-1 blockers it does seem to boil down to just eating less. And again, who cares? Demonizing and shaming people for lacking self-control in certain areas is just a pretty shitty way to treat people.
[–] Aerroon 21 hours ago
I've come to realize that some of this difference actually comes from low-effort activity like walking.
At 1796 kcal BMR your weight is 76 kg.
At 1896 kcal BMR your weight is 86 kg.
At 1996 kcal BMR your weight is 96 kg.
It is easier to just eat 100 kcal less, but it's also not unreasonable for people to walk more. 100 kcal gets burned in something like 30-60 minutes of walking.
And that 100 kcal is a 10 kg difference in weight in the long-term (22 lbs). The key is that people usually don't go for those walks to lose weight, they just happen naturally during their day due to other reasons.
[–] JKCalhoun 18 hours ago
Now, who knows, without the walking I might have been 10 pounds heavier, but it sure didn't bring my weight down.
The only thing that did (in my eight years of recording) was eating less.
I had to prepare for surgery some 7 or so years ago and started eating the smallest of meals out of fear that I might die before the operation could take place (I had a constriction in my intestinal tract that, if blocked, could cause my intestines to burst).
In that two months of fear and small portions I lost like 20 pounds.
In the 7 years since though, I have been unable to stay at the small portions. (Until Zepbound.)
[–] Viliam1234 11 hours ago
But then I took the pill (orforglipron) and the kilograms started disappearing.
[–] GeoAtreides 16 hours ago
You don't get the full calories from nuts because we're can not chew them so thoroughly that they're 100% bio-available. There were studies that confirmed it. Now, eating them as butter, that's another thing.
700+ calories of nuts is about 100g-150g?... it would be better if you ate them in one sitting, the satiety suppression would be stronger. And don't be afraid to eat them, as much as you want, as long as they're whole, with no coatings. Just don't washed them with Coke, juice, etc.
[–] gruturo 21 hours ago
Good news: they let the patent on Semaglutide lapse in Canada, and it’s already expired naturally in India and a bunch of South American countries. There are going to be accessible generics at some point.
[–] JKCalhoun 18 hours ago
[–] nujabe 1 day ago
If you ever tried water fasting first couple of days are gruelling but day 3 and 4 are significantly easier. Another natural hunger suppressant is cardio which reduces hunger.
[–] Sohcahtoa82 1 day ago
The hunger never went away.
[–] boringg 20 hours ago
[–] pedalpete 1 day ago
These include things like loading your body earlier in the day with heavy protein and fermented foods, eating proteins and vegetables before carbs (make less room for carbs), and of course there is still the lower stress, improve sleep and exercise.
I'm not suggesting these are replacements, but potentially like a micro-dose response.
[–] zemoerfi 1 day ago
These GLP 1 drugs are huge molecules with a GLP 1 shaped key on them. It's like a house key attached to a school bus. Once it's in your lock, that key is going to be a pain to remove.
Stimulating natural GLP 1 helps for a few minutes. Using these drugs can help for a week.
[–] Sohcahtoa82 1 day ago
I did try keto before. Heavy protein, low carbs. Everyone promised a high protein/fat/fiber diet with low starch/sugar was the secret to feeling full sooner and for longer.
Nope. Didn't change a damn thing. I was still hungry all the time.
My experience mirrors the GP. Ozempic really flipped the switch. See my other comment (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50399564) for more.
[–] gib444 1 day ago
I don't really like fermented foods and I avoid dairy. Only have heavy carbs a few times a month. Mostly it's meat, vegetables, fruit. I've done various diets as a result of trying to fix other issues but none move the needle on the food noise
I've also had no stress for like, a year now due to my circumstances
[–] i2amsam 18 hours ago
On a glp I don’t need to carefully plan my diet because carb-heavy or greasy foods are unappealing to consider. It’s a very strange feeling for me to look at a big menu and realize I want to order the salad, not that I “should”, and my cholesterol levels fell by 66%
[–] GeoAtreides 15 hours ago
[–] gorfian_robot 18 hours ago
recents topics:
The Truth About BPC-157 & Peptides
Retatrutide & Beyond: Eli Lilly Exec on Next-Gen GLP-1s
Retatrutide Phase 3 Results: What the Data Actually Means
[–] perching_aix 1 day ago
This is basically about as far as I feel like entertaining conspiracy theories. I think it's a fairly grounded one, compared to most.
Not claiming that a molecule or a class of such molecules (or a perfect storm of unrelated molecules acting indirectly) is behind the obesity epidemic, or that there's explicit malicious intention involved, just that it does make me wonder.
[–] bobbiechen 1 day ago
[–] owebmaster 1 day ago
Yes! It's sugar. And yes, it's highly addictive.
[–] AnthonBerg 1 day ago
I propose that it's less about the molecule and more about the receptor, and the heuristically self-balancing system and the novel environment it finds itself in.
[–] GeoAtreides 15 hours ago
sugar
[–] peterfirefly 1 day ago
[–] perching_aix 1 day ago
I find the treatment that got approved for its effect on hunger last year interesting. It's a completely different drug to semaglutide and its analogs. Quick search suggests that it's seemingly not as effective for ordinary obesity, but substantially more effective for this specific syndrome, and vice versa.
–All of heart failure, addiction, and aging certainly have inflammation and redox stress as substrate.
It's interesting that GLP-1 agonists all have pulmonary effects. There's GLP-1 receptors in the lung.
(the lung is somewhat relevant in redox stress / burden / balance
as well as neuroendocrine metabolism. the lung is a metabolic organ. it metabolizes serotonin. serotonin has… many roles, anciently repurposed for a ton of things.)
It's usually the case that anything that, say, curbs addiction? will curb inflammation and redox stress, and have pulmonary effects. Exercise, for one. Psychological safety. Healthier eating. 5-HT2A agonists. NMDA antagonists. And… GLP-1 agonists.
spooky old-man-oracle voice: everything is pulmonaaaaryyyy