"'Gamechanger' drug for treating obesity cuts body weight by 20 percent"

[Duces Tecum]

​Report:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/release...0211091352.htm

A bit about semaglutide:
https://www.drugs.com/mtm/semaglutide.html

[RJ]

Interested in what the Docs here have to say.

As a layperson, I've just went from 206 lbs to 183 lbs in 7 months, using a focus on a ketogenic diet, with carbs below 50 g a day, moderate protein and higher fat. I use HIIT 2x a week, average. I currently target 1,900 cal a day. I'm not done yet. Whether my success is due to calorie deficit, or to a Keto / hormonal approach of managing insulin resistance, I don't know.

I would opine if this drug's chief effect is to suppress hunger, to achieve a calorie deficit, it fundamentally misses the long term damage done from an over consumption of sugar in all forms in the modern diet, resulting in diabetes, cardiac issues, etc.



Eating "less" Pizza, fries, burgers, etc. isn't going to permanently change behaviour to make better food choices than the horrible carb+fat rich diet many have today.

[0ddl0t]

Given what happened with previous "gamechanger" drugs fen-phen & DNP, I'm very skeptical of the long term health impacts.

[orionz06]

Given what happened with previous "gamechanger" drugs fen-phen & DNP, I'm very skeptical of the long term health impacts.

This one appears to work differently though, so there's that.

[BehindBlueI's]

The trial's UK Chief Investigator, Professor John Wilding (University of Liverpool) said: "This is a significant advance in the treatment of obesity. Semaglutide is already approved and used clinically at a lower dose for treatment of diabetes, so as doctors we are already familiar with its use. For me this is particularly exciting as I was involved in very early studies of GLP1 (when I worked at the Hammersmith Hospital in the 1990s we were the first to show in laboratory studies that GLP1 affected appetite), so it is good to see this translated into an effective treatment for people with obesity."

Well, that's interesting. Not a totally new drug, just a different dose and I suppose what's called an "off label" use.

It may or may not lead to long term changes, I've no idea, but if nothing else it seems like it'd be a good thing for someone needed to rapidly lose weight for a surgery or the like.

[HeavyDuty]

That’s one of the greatest features of the bariatric surgery I had in 2013 - the part of the stomach that is removed and fed to the pigs is the source of a large percentage of the ghrelin hormone that affects hunger. I still get hungry, but not like before - and my life doesn’t revolve around food anymore. I’m still a foodie, but in much smaller quantities and much less frequency as before. I’m down 180, and have been for 8 years now.

[revchuck38]

It'd be interesting to follow up on these folks after a year or two to see if they maintained their lower weight. Losing weight via drugs is one thing, maintaining that loss requires a lifestyle change.

[HeavyDuty]

It'd be interesting to follow up on these folks after a year or two to see if they maintained their lower weight. Losing weight via drugs is one thing, maintaining that loss requires a lifestyle change.

Big time. Unless they stay on the drug, I suspect most will see regain.

One place I can see it being useful is surgery prep, where patients need to lean up as much as possible before a cut to reduce risk. However, I doubt it would work as well as the liquid diets that already do that - two or three weeks of liquid can result in a fair temporary drop. (Speaking as a nonmedical person so it’s a gross simplification, but one who has been through this myself and with three life partners.)

[5pins]

Weight loss drugs have been around for years.

[YVK]

It'd be interesting to follow up on these folks after a year or two to see if they maintained their lower weight. Losing weight via drugs is one thing, maintaining that loss requires a lifestyle change.

Yes. There are enough examples of U shaped outcomes in weight loss trials over longer periods of time.

I don't do weight loss but I've colleagues who do it and who are smarter than I am. While I understand that there is often times a need for one jump-start intervention, be that a new drug, a surgery, or a specific diet, that is rarely a complete answer. The problem is multifactorial, so the answer should be too.