Comment by orwin

Comment by orwin 9 hours ago

7 replies

You just don't understand how food addiction works. Going from 34 BMI to 28 (I'm at 26 now) was the hardest thing I ever done, and I had money, great friends, a great family and a doctor that followed me twice a month.

Willpower is not a muscle, it's a well that fill doing what you enjoy, and clear when used. During my diet, my work ethic was at the bottom, and I couldn't force myself to go out meet new people.

Now that I have a healthier weight and stopped dieting hard (I'm still constantly hungry, but now it's my life), I'm a great coworker, I met a lot of people, made life-changing decisions and I have a lot of willpower left to do all the little things right. If I had a drug that helped me control my appetite at the time, i would have taken it.

titanomachy 4 hours ago

> Willpower is not a muscle, it's a well that fill doing what you enjoy, and clear when used.

I won't negate your experience, since this is such a personal thing, and it's not like we have a rigorous scientific understanding of these things. But to me, willpower does feel like a trainable thing. Doing hard things seems to make me better at doing other hard things. Limiting my TV makes me less likely to compulsively eat later. Working out hard makes me less likely to lie in bed scrolling on my phone. Doing hard coursework makes me more focused at work.

The caveat is that these changes seem to happen pretty gradually, and the gains can be lost pretty easily, just like with muscle.

But being in a perpetual caloric deficit can be pretty rough and can definitely sap your energy. Glad you found your way to a healthier weight.

Funes- 7 hours ago

How have fat people gotten thinner without those meds up until now, then? Was their addiction not as strong as yours, as you seem to imply? They just didn't "understand"? Look, I went from being an absolute fucking fatass to 8% body fat out of willpower alone when I was 17. It took a lot, namely destroying every bad habit I upheld for years regarding food and exercise, but I wanted to do it bad enough, so I did. It was a really extreme and sudden change of mindset, like a flip of a switch, actually, because I had enough of the bullying and lack of self confidence. One day I just got mad enough and changed my whole life.

  • AlisdairO 7 hours ago

    > How have fat people gotten thinner without those meds up until now, then?

    Mostly, they haven't. You and I are outliers.

    The population-level data tells us that overweight people are mostly unable to control their weight in the face of modern food. That being the case, it doesn't seem unreasonable to look for alternative solutions to the failed option of just telling people to eat less.

    edit: regarding strength of addiction - I mean, of course, isn't it profoundly obvious that different people will have different strengths of addiction? I can drink without the slightest inclination to excess, while others are broken alcoholics. My grandfather didn't have the slightest interest in food beyond the calories needed to survive, while I have to fight every day to eat well.

    • titanomachy 4 hours ago

      Exactly, regarding strengths of addiction. I don't feel morally superior about not being an alcoholic... it's pretty clear that my experience of alcohol is just wildly different from some of my friends. I enjoy alcohol fine, but I never feel like I'm exercising willpower when I choose to stop after 1-2 drinks.

  • titanomachy 4 hours ago

    the guy you're replying to also lost weight without the drugs... he says he would have taken them if they'd been available.

timewizard 8 hours ago

> You just don't understand how food addiction works.

Would you concede that some foods are more addictive than others? Doesn't this suggest other remedies like food regulations, at the very least, should be deployed in concert with seeming "miracle drugs" like GLP-1 agonists?

  • SpicyLemonZest 7 hours ago

    Can't speak for the original commenter, but I would not concede that, because experiencing semaglutide has convinced me it's not true. The feeling I can now clearly recognize as something like "food addiction" disappeared uniformly for everything from Brussels sprouts to donuts.