[flagged]

mft_ 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

> Skinny people don’t even feel hunger.

I suspect it’s a touch more complex than that. :)

Anecdata: I have a 40-something friend who enjoys eating lots more than I do (and I witness this repeatedly: round after round of bread and chunks of cheese after a full meal, always happy to have desserts that I’ll sometimes forgo, etc.) and who stays slim. Sure, he exercises, but not so much more than I do to account for the calorie delta between us.

He’s just made differently, in a way we can’t currently explain. We sometimes joke about a faecal transplant.

	▲	BatFastard 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		I suspect a persons microbiome has a lot to do with how they process food. Its strange to think what you want is a less efficient food processing engine. That society has so many calories to burn that we can reduce our ability to reduce caloric intake by 30%, but I would like that. And a fecal transplant might be a good start.

▲

phil21 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Skinny people don’t even feel hunger.

One of the worst outcomes from GLP-1 drugs are people getting on them and then saying ridiculous things like this. Just totally confident that they can discount other folks lived experiences.

I know quite a few skinny people who have struggled every single day with food noise, overeating, and self control. They simply got through it with a lot of struggle, habits, and discipline.

Some of these people had to maintain their weight and fitness because their careers required looking conventionally attractive for their jobs. It consumed most of their life doing so. Some of these folks are now on GLP-1s and their lives are immensely better as they don't need to constantly be in a battle of willpower with themselves.

There are a huge number of "skinny" people out there who feel hunger in very likely the same way many obese people do.

	▲	ProfessorLayton 2 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		>I know quite a few skinny people who have struggled every single day with food noise, overeating, and self control. They simply got through it with a lot of struggle, habits, and discipline. You're right, but the charitable interpretation of GP's comment is that people that were always skinny don't feel hunger, which clearly isn't true in a strict sense, but not totally untrue either, it just isn't as often. What you're talking about seems to be people that worked their way to being skinny, or those that have such low body fat that they have visible abs, which even 'naturally skinny' people would struggle to maintain. As someone skinny enough to have visible abs (But not washboard abs either), I don't try particularly hard to maintain my weight, it's mostly just avoiding obvious things like having fast food all the time (I still do eat it) and working out. Food isn't something I think about unless I'm hungry, and despite working in offices stocked full with candy/snacks, it hasn't resulted in weight gain over my tech career. I've been told directly by people in my circle (Not in tech) that they would really struggle with working in an environment like that. I know a few folks on GLP-1s, and they operate on a completely different wavelength in regards to food than I do, and it's been great to see them reach their body goals.
	▲	idiotsecant 2 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Yes, there are outliers in just about any situation. The vast majority of healthy people, though, do not have this food noise impulse. If they did, they'd not be healthy people.

▲

_heimdall 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This is an absurd claim. Skinny and fat isn't an indication of whether a person experiences hunger.

If GLP-1 blockers work for people then great, but it does so by making them uninterested in eating, meaning all those years of people being demonized for saying obesity is, in some meaningful part, a lack of will power and self control were indeed right. If it was either of those, and instead obesity is a purely genetic condition, appetite suppression wouldn't help.

▲

Viliam1234 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

It is not necessarily either-or.

What if staying skinny requires willpower... but the genetics determine whether little willpower is enough, or you need astronomical amounts of willpower?

▲

_heimdall 2 days ago | parent [-]

We may be talking about different issues. If a pharmaceutical intervention drastically reducing hunger allows a person to low weight, it confirms that the issue was eating too much.

That isn't a moral judgement or a knock against the person, we all have issues we struggle with.

That makes no statement over a measurement of willpower required though, and I don't know of any research linking dietary willpower to genetics. That link could exist, but if it does I don't think we have found it yet and that argument hinges on pharmaceuticals being able to overpower genetics, which is a bold claim.

▲

Viliam1234 21 hours ago | parent [-]

Of course if you eat less and less, at some moment you stop gaining weight. The question is what else also happens to you.

Before physiological harm, such as losing your muscles and ultimately your heart muscles, there will be psychological harm, when your hunger prevents you from thinking clearly, so you may become e.g. unable to hold your job.

I am saying this because sometimes "just eat less" is a technically correct answer to losing weight, and yet...

(And the pill breaks the link between the amount of food and how the person feels about it.)

	▲	_heimdall 21 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Oh I 100% agree. I think people may be making a mistake taking an appetite suppressant and watching pounds drop thinking it means they're healthy. The question rarely asked in modern medicine is why a symptom is present. Doctors and patients almost entirely focus on how to get rid of the symptom, in this case dropping lbs without first understanding why the weight is there. I equate GLP-1s to simply eating less because my understanding of the mechanism is that is all it does, make a person uninterested, and even in some cases unable, to eat more.

▲

idiotsecant 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Whew, lots of moralizing to unpack here.

	▲	_heimdall 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		Where do morals come into this thread? Obestity isn't a moral question, neither is self-control. I specifically didn't say people with self control issues specific to diet are bad people for it, or lazy, or whatever you may be reading into it. Everyone has shit they deal with, that's expected not a reason to ostracize a person. My point remains, if GLP-1 blockers help a person lose weight they haven't been able to lose then great, I hope it leaves them healthier and happier. And also, the fact that a diet suppressant did the trick makes it pretty clear a lack of self control was at play since the fix was finding a way to eat less.

▲

lurking_swe 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

> Skinny people don’t even feel hunger.

as a skinny person for most of my life, and someone who wakes up famished in the mornings, very eager to eat breakfast, this is patently false.

but I do agree that it's a miracle cure for those who struggle with constant hunger.

▲

idiotsecant 2 days ago | parent [-]

That impulse you feel in the morning, imagine you felt it every half hour for the rest of your life.

	▲	lurking_swe a day ago \| parent [-]
		I hear you. That's what i agree it's a miracle drug!