Nah man. I'm overweight and despite trying everything I possibly can for most of my adult life, I still can't win. I do everything you're supposed to do but it's just not possible to maintain long-term. It's a constant struggle. You don't have discipline. It's just easier for you. That's all. I still won't use this drug but don't try to tell me I failed because of a lack of effort, understanding, exercise, "discipline", etc.
> don't try to tell me I failed because of a lack of effort, understanding, exercise, "discipline", etc.
Not to be _too_ rude here, but clearly you missed the mark on at least one of those things. If you're burning more energy than you're consuming, it's impossible to not lose weight. Maybe you underestimated how many calories you were consuming, overestimated how many calories you were burning, didn't do it often enough, didn't do it for a long enough period of time, had a few too many "cheat days", or some combination thereof.
The missing piece is that the body does not burn a constant amount of energy, and often the body's response to calorie restriction is to reduce the amount of energy used. [1]
Play the weight-loss game with your body, and you'll find the goalposts get moved.
> and often the body's response to calorie restriction is to reduce the amount of energy used.
Presumably the point at which it's VERY difficult to expend more calories than you're consuming is something of an equilibrium point, or healthy weight. I find it hard to believe that if you're still 100 pounds overweight after having lost say 20 pounds that it's nigh-impossible to find more "fat to trim" in the caloric intake, for example.
I count my calories accurately. The problem is keeping consumption that low in the long term. It's not sustainable. Your body does everything to fight you and it only gets harder the further you go.
Only if you misunderstood what I said. Your body will determine how much "discipline" you have. Will power doesn't come from some external magical place. It'll be adjusted by your body as necessary to make sure losing weight is hard as possible for you.
For more than half of my life, I was quite skinny. I was not exhibiting any particularly strong willpower or self control. I never had to put forth any effort in not being fat. It was not a struggle, it was not a challenge, and it was not because I lacked a behavioral problem. Well into my 20s I had zero issue controlling my weight - though saying controlling my weight here is kind of a misnomer, since I put no thought or effort into it. If anything, when I was trying to get into powerlifting, I struggled to eat enough - I constantly felt sick trying to reach my calorie and protein targets.
Then circumstances changed. I swapped to an overnight job for more money. I started cooking less because of the hours, and eating more fast food. I stopped lifting weights because powerlifting was less interesting to me. My weight crept up little by little for years and years until I was overweight. And I realized my relationship with food had changed - ignoring physical hunger was still easy, but I was still constantly thinking about food. Slightly bored? Let's eat something. Work stressing me out? Grab some more food. Have a few minutes respite from everything? Eating sounds good. Eventually I was past overweight and into obese.
I managed to lose 30lb or so a few times, close to 50lb once. I could maintain it for a bit. But I was having to expend huge amounts of mental energy to do it - something I had never had to do before I had gotten fat in the first place. The second I had to prioritize other things in my life, for whatever reason, I no longer had the energy to spend so much time trying to push down all of the noise in my mind about food.
vs. just a decade prior, never really thinking about food at all. Is it possible for anyone to lose weight? Sure. Bodies aren't magic. Energy has to come from somewhere, and lower your calories a sufficient amount and you will lose weight. But for many people the amount of willpower and effort required is just massively different. The years of skinny me would not have lasted nearly as long as they did if I had the same level of food noise then that I do now.
No, it's not a "behavioral problem." Your phrasing is disgusting. The research is perfectly clear on why it's extrenely difficult to lose weight. There's no need for speculation.
You just haven't got there yet. You haven't failed.
It really just comes down to eating less and healthier. Some people have metabolic differences either side, but they don't amount to a great deal.
Weight loss drugs suppressing your appetite literally shows this to be true. You just need to do it yourself without the drug. Eventually you'd want to come off the drug, right? When that happens, you would need to do just this.
Every time I've heard somebody say they've tried everything, they usually haven't. It's not a failing, it's an opportunity to keep trying and get it right.
> Eventually you'd want to come off the drug, right? When that happens, you would need to do just this.
I've made enough changes to my lifestyle that I am confident I could come off the drug and maintain the lost weight. I've added weight lifting with the prospect of bodybuilding as a hobby. I'm likely going to need to take time off just to get enough calories in during periods when I am trying to add muscle because I won't want to eat enough otherwise.
But I'm not actually looking forward to that, because the list of positive effects from these medications that are independent of weight loss is quite long. I expect that short of any major detrimental side effect suddenly rearing it's head or gene editing or some other superior thing appearing, I'll be on these for life, regardless of weight.
