this post was submitted on 06 May 2026
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[–] Hegar@fedia.io 26 points 22 hours ago (49 children)

people have been losing weight by a variety of methods

Surprisingly, they have not.

Before GLP1s, weightloss was a myth. 99. something % of people (edit 99.2% of women) who meet the medical definition of obese will always be obese despite a lifetime of effort.

We know for certain from decades of research that weightloss from willpower alone, even with diet plans or excersize plans is functionally impossible. The best they do is yoyo effects - no diet has ever produced perminant weight loss on a real scale.

Very rarely a statistically insignificant sample size enjoy permenant weight loss and these individuals are held up to show it's possible and you can do it too! But that's just not true, and we know it's not true because decades of stats show again and again that perminant weight loss just does not happen.

[–] U7826391786239@piefed.zip 0 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (18 children)

wait a minute... are you reallly saying all these studies come to the conclusion that "weight loss is just a myth" rather than the much more likely scenario of "this many people simply refuse to give up pastries, pasta, and fried food"

i can see how big pharma would love more $tudies like this, but i'm not fucking buying the "if you're fat, it's not because of anything you did"

edit: LOL in other words, human beings, the only mammals that stuff their face with donuts, bagels, and pancakes and calls it "breakfast" are also the only species that has an epidemic (mostly in america) of morbid obesity that no one can do anything about, short of GLP. riiiiiight....

[–] Hegar@fedia.io 11 points 22 hours ago (6 children)

This attitude is the problem, yep.

There's no other medical condition which only 0.8% of people ever recover from where we tell people to just keep trying treatments that we know don't work.

An individual's behaviour is a contributing factor in most diseases. But the hormones, social factors, etc. which determine that behaviour are beyond the control of willpower. GLP1s work because they treat the hormonal imbalances which cause the behaviour that causes weight loss.

We don't tell people they're pathetic for catching a cold, though our social organization put them in a place where their biological weakness to that disease was triggered.

[–] glimse@lemmy.world 9 points 20 hours ago

I am not downplaying the psychological effects of obesity but....Willpower is quite literally the ability to overcome your hormones/emotion and resist social pressure. It IS all you need, it's just really hard to learn. Especially nowadays with the societal pressure to be hot and how depressing the world is in general.

Comparing obesity to a cold is a false dichotomy as you most people can't simply avoid asymptomatic carriers. But if you insist on the comparison, we were absolutely vicious to people who got COVID because they chose to not wear masks (and rightfully so). I'm not suggesting we SHOULD be similarly mean to fat people, though.

I want to reiterate I'm not looking down on anyone for having weak willpower, mine is shit when there's a sweet treat in front of me. But I lost 5kg last year just by practicing at the grocery store. If there's junk food in my house, I know I'll pick it over real food every time. So I choose not to buy it.

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