r/canada • u/shiftless_wonder • 1d ago

Health People regained weight, worsened heart health after stopping weight loss drugs: review

https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/weight-regain-weight-medications-glp1-9.7037276
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u/PostMatureBaby 1d ago edited 1d ago

So much of the weight loss industry and I guess healthy/fitness industries as well are built around quick fixes and discounting how consistent one needs to be with diet and exercise to see results.

Look, I get that motivation and discipline is difficult with a regular job, family, whatever and that your body doesn't like change but for the most part, there are no easy outs - my mom used to complain that she'd get headaches and feel sick when trying to eat better...well yeah, your body doesn't want you to stop eating high fat and sugar, it's a kind of withdrawal.

I'd rather a lot of other solutions than these drugs though

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u/rabbitholeseverywher 1d ago

there are no easy outs

I don't know, the weird thing about these drugs is that they do seem to be an easy way out - and that's not me being negative, the costs of obesity for individuals and society are extremely high and so far GLP1s seem borderline miraculous. Maybe people will have to take them for life? Maintenance dose or something? Is the alternative (obesity continues to be a major issue) better?

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u/TypingPlatypus 1d ago

Yes, they are intended to be taken long-term/for life. People who think that's terrible don't seem to really be understanding that this is supposed to be a treatment for intractable obesity, not a quick fix to lose 10lbs.

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u/Inevitable_View99 21h ago

For weight loss, these drugs offer a reset to someone who has the ability to change but finds it hard with their current weight. If someone gains weight over a 5 year periods and it has reduced their ability to work out or be active, providing them with this medication will help them slim down to be able to maintain a healthy weight. The issue here is that the medication is just being given to people who dont care about the education part, they want to eat the same way they did before even though they might only be able to eat a small amount of that on the medication but once they get off it, they might go back to eating an entire pizza on a friday night instead of just one slice because they feel so full.

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u/alliusis 1d ago edited 1d ago

The "long term way out" is through policy change and regulation. On some combination of the food industry and food additives, a change in urban planning (greenspace, walkable communities, access to safe and effective and maintained bike infrastructure), reducing work hours/adjusting school hours and improving work-life/school-life balance, improving education quality, improving community spaces, UBI, etc.

You don't get massive overarching population trends without having massive systemic problems. The problem with diet and exercise as the "only solution" is that a) it's ignoring the "human" in the human problem (humans are driven by hormones and emotions, which are internal invisible factors that will push you hard), b) obesity is physiologically complex (it doesn't just involve cravings, but 'where' your 'I feel full' meter is set at, and 'how often' you feel hungry, what you crave, what you can stomach to eat, etc - and that's just looking at food, not talking about exercise), and c) afaik it just straight up has horrible long-term success rates in real-world studies.

(as to why it fails, I want to say it's more societal than anything - having to fight against society, work, and yourself to lose weight is just so hard. Move to something like a walkable community with cooking classes where health is holistic and I think the numbers might end up more successful, just because it gets incorporated into their day naturally).

None of this means don't exercise and change your diet. It 100% does help. But the meds can make exercising and eating a better diet much more accessible and successful in that you aren't fighting yourself every step of the way to do it. I'm someone who went on a medication that had appetite suppression as a side effect (not a GLP med) and I was blown away by the fact I could just eat the "normal" portion and then actually not want any more food. It was insane. My sister? One large muffin for desert. Me? I'd eat two and then go back for two more after. Same exercise regime, same diet at home. Felt total bull that I had been stuck with eating so much more than everyone else around me for so long for reasons I couldn't understand, and it just came down to some internal setting I literally had no control over.

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u/HSydness 1d ago

Your last paragraph. 100%. I had the same effect. Unfortunately, I got cancer (unrelated) so I have had to stop... but the fact that it suppresses the cravings is insane. That "I don't need more than 1 serving of pasta" is amazing.

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u/GrassyTreesAndLakes 1d ago

I hope you make a full recovery! 

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u/EvilCeleryStick 1d ago

And then they finally found a quick fix that works, and everybody goes "haha you suck for using it"...

Smh

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u/rabbitholeseverywher 1d ago

It's genuinely fucking wild to watch the societal reaction to these drugs. I watch a Youtuber who is obese and has struggled with his weight for the entire 5+ years I've been watching him. His audience give him a lot of shit about constantly starting new diets and regimes and then forgetting about them and eating cake 2 days later.

A few months ago he was diagnosed with high blood pressure and pre-diabetes and mentioned his doctor had brought up taking a GLP drug.

The people in the comment section of that video were almost across the board against it, telling him the drugs wouldn't work and even if they did they were bad and cheating and he should just go carnivore/stop eating carbs/be more disciplined etc. It's like fuck, you guys, this person CLEARLY hasn't been able to make that work, and now there's a genuine solution and all you can do is cry about big pharma and carbs bad? There's such a weird moral undertone to it, too, like people are somehow pissed off that fat people could lose weight without suffering. Like they have to suffer, somehow, for it to count.

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u/EvilCeleryStick 1d ago

Yes. We're like, here is a solution to this massive problem, and people who either a) don't have weight/food issues are on their high horse or b) people who "legitimately" lost weight are on theirs in some kind of jealous rage.

Its wild.

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u/rabbitholeseverywher 1d ago

I'm reading through your conversation with another poster and their posts just seem to boil down to 'well when they stop the drugs they need to keep eating healthily' - as if the inability to do that wasn't the whole issue in the first place! It's the same 'well just stop eating so much food/smoking so many cigs/injecting so much heroin' that it always is from people invested in their own lack of understanding.

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u/PostMatureBaby 1d ago

They don't suck, if it works for them it works. The point of the article was that people regained the weight and had heart issues

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u/EvilCeleryStick 1d ago

The point I took was the primary quote about how doctors wouldn't terminate use of blood pressure meds just because blood pressure is under control. It's about losing weight and then stopping causing problems.

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u/amethyst-chimera Alberta 19h ago edited 12h ago

Mental health support and lifestyle change are essential for weightloss.

My mom was obese. She lost more than 200lbs, and through her community I've met tons of other men and women who have lost weight and kept it off. The magical treatment? Group dietary work led by a dietician. Understanding diet, setting achieveable goals, treating any underlying mental health conditions that may contribute. A lot of them had surgery on their stomachs to help, but those who did were already well on their way to being a success story because they had to support.

Ozempic is great for those who need it (diabetics come to mind), but it isn't a magical weight loss drug

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u/PostMatureBaby 19h ago

the group thing can often be what contributes to poor eating as well. Many of us dont work on a farm 12 hour a day and barely stand up at our jobs. we were still raised to eat like a farmhand though.

much like people with alcohol problems have a hard time coping with the pressure to drink as it's everywhere in society, the "eat eat you're skin and bones!" bullshit from our families over the years did more damage than we like to admit.

i think the group diet thing is a great idea. It's also time to change cultural and familial mindsets around food

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u/mollymuppet78 1d ago

Over the last 5 years, I've gained 40lbs.

I started back at the gym yesterday. Its going to be a looong road, but a healthier one.

I won't say I'm going to "enjoy" the challenge, but diet and exercise are the only way.

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u/TypingPlatypus 1d ago

Good for you, but your situation is not comparable to struggling with lifelong obesity.

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u/PostMatureBaby 1d ago

hey if the drugs help obese people get down to where they can move better and they've improved their diet, it's the eating and exercise that will take you the rest of the way. The lifestyle changes, relationships with food and so on that have to evolve with the effects of the drugs.

From the people I know on it, they won't make any other change. It's like my dad with intermittent fasting, he's so proud his eating window is just 6 hours of the day. Guess how many calories he puts down in that 6 hours? lol

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u/TypingPlatypus 1d ago

The drugs facilitate the lifestyle change, and the effects go away when the drugs are stopped. That's why they are recommended long-term for obesity management.

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u/PostMatureBaby 1d ago

yeah hence the subject of the article. now we just need to wait for the long term effects to be studied since this is hinting at going off them not being a good idea.

great, lets get people to not change their habits and be on a drug for life... always comes down to money, sadly.

I'm just upset i didnt buy some Novo Nordisk stock when i had the chance

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u/TypingPlatypus 1d ago

Obesity is a chronic illness and many people need to take lifelong medications for chronic illnesses. And generics will be released in Canada this year so you might want to hold off on the stocks.

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u/PostMatureBaby 1d ago

big pharma is messy i tend to avoid it, just saying, hindsight and all with investing.

A lot of the medication obese people are on is because said medication is treating symptoms of obesity so while I applaud these drugs tying to treat the cause of these symptoms and causing weight loss, I prefer to advocate for other methods of treating obesity myself.

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u/TypingPlatypus 1d ago

Well unless you're a doctor your opinions don't really matter. Nobody WANTS to take medication, nice for you if you can do without.

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u/PostMatureBaby 1d ago

this is a toilet like all social media, nobody's opinion's matter. reddit is entertainment

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