Lots of people seem to think that losing weight is simply a matter of calories in and calories out, and if calories in exceeds your BMR then stop eating. But that's like saying that gambling is a matter of winnings and losses, and if the losses exceed your budget then stop gambling. Simple enough for the average person, but obviously useless advice for someone who has a problem.
this post was submitted on 06 May 2026
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I lost 100 pounds, and I'm still dropping, without any drugs. My strategy:
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Stop all soft drinks. Ice water, mostly, occasionally a Waterloo Peach, 0 calories/sugar. I will sometimes have a beer for dinner.
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Eat whatever you want, but only when hungry, and only until not hungry. Serve small portions or half a sandwich. If you find yourself staring into the fridge, wondering what looks good, you aren't hungry, you're bored. Go do something else.
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Distract yourself. My Dad quit smoking in the 80s with a Rubik's Cube, picking it up whenever he had a craving. I did it with the guitar. Every time I had a craving, I picked up the guitar.
Just those three easy rules, and I lost 100+ pounds, and learned to play the guitar at the same time. You could lift weights, learn a language, write a book, go running, knit, or anything else.
Okay, this comment thread has convinced me that almost noone here actually reads anything but the headline. I think I'm gonna resign from Lemmy too... Is there somewhere online where intelligent adults have conversations?
Lemmy is its own cult. Weight mentioned in the headline and every comment is about their zero science "worked for me" aproach to weight loss and then claiming its universal and drugs bad. Not a single comment talking about how this research has found a medicine for diabetes treatment that can be used for people having bad reactions to standard one, and the fact that thats really cool
What I think some people ignore is that "food drive" is a thing. When I get hungry, and I know there's food around, there's no stopping me from eating. It's most strong following days of intense exercise for me, but I know other have it worse than me.
There's other reasons to, just like how we need to ask why someone is doing drugs, we also need to ask why they are eating food. GLP-1 are amazing because they can give you a head start on weight loss. But if you never do the work to understand what's making you gain weight in the first place they're basically useless.
A friend of mine got a gastric bypass and lost a ton of weight. She was super happy with her body and life improved a lot. Then life got very stressful and she became an alcoholic again. No we she's gained weight again. The article is about a better weight loss formulation that doesn't use GLP, but instead using glucagon and GIP peptides. I guess it's got less side effects, maybe.
The food noise is miserable. It's cruel and mean! Hate it.
Same, the only way I found to not eat crisps every day is to not have any at home, otherwise I would eat half a bag a day. I buy 1-2 bags a month, go through them in less than a week, by which point I'm disgusted enough to easily hold out until next month. Bc never eating crisps sounds sad, but if I know I can eat them again in ~3 weeks, I don't feel tempted when I see them in the shop meanwhile 🤷
Isn't part of the reason why GLP-1 drugs work so well, is because they do something that interferes with that "food drive"? I think it's different than gastric bypass in that way
The gastric bypass helped lose weight fast, she kept it off for a while. I still don't think she eats that much. Alcoholism is a beast of it's own, I think she got disulfiram out of rehab to help.
I think is the other way around. They extend the "I'm fullfil" hormone like from minutes to hours, so people don't find themselves snacking an hour after eating
Yes, but the problem is that these are not meant to be forever drugs. You're supposed to take them in conjunction with changing diet and exercise habits so that you can go off the drug and maintain a healthy weight on your own. Often people get off of these drugs without having done the work, and they end up right back where they started.
Back in 2019 I lost 60 lbs in about 6 months without GLP-1. Fucking sucked like hell but I did it. But don’t worry, I found it again.
Lol your last sentence cracked me up.
I think they just rediscovered the old "eat healthy and exercise" option.
I'm always baffled by the lack of curiosity around this subject. It's just blame the victim for being obese. Just eat less, bro! and then defend that viewpoint to the death. There never seems to be a point where the question comes up "I wonder why only in the last 30 years or so that the western world has seen this dramatic increase in obesity?" Can't be large food corporations making cheap unhealthy foods highly addictive. Can't be a significant reduction in nutrition education. Can't be a reduction in access to mental healthcare.
Nope. Just fatty goin' to be fat. Such a fucking lazy take.
Part of it is that we have more leisure time, and even much of our working time is sitting around. You don't gain weight working 70 hours a week mining coal. Personally I spend a lot of my time eating, because donuts are awesome.
There’s actually a phenomenon where Americans move abroad, and suddenly start losing a ton of weight. Not because they consciously changed their eating habits, but simply because the food that is available in their stores and restaurants is healthier.
American grocery stores tend to prioritize convenience and unhealthy foods. You have to really search to find anything that is worthwhile, even when the store is packed full of food. There’s a ton of variety in American grocery stores, (Europeans are always baffled by the entire aisle dedicated to breakfast cereals) but basically none of it is healthy. So Americans naturally end up buying lots of unhealthy shit, simply because it’s all they realistically have access to.
But then that gets flipped on its head when those Americans move abroad. Suddenly, the stores they’re shopping at aren’t full of junk. And so they naturally start losing lots of weight. Many Europeans assume that Americans are simply complacent with their weight, but the reality is that the entire infrastructure surrounding them is singularly focused on keeping them fat.
walking and biking for evertday errands make a big impact too.
I actually made a comment addressing the car-centric layouts (and how it is basically impossible to walk anywhere in many parts of America) elsewhere in the thread here.
That can be a serious challenge for large parts of the USA. Growing up, the nearest grocery store to my father's house was nearly three miles, up a narrow and busy highway. Biking was possible, but definitely a little harrowing. Walking was prohibitively time-consuming. And that's in a relatively dense New England town. I've lived places out west where it was over an hour to drive to the store.
To me New England has no excuse. Where I live, measured directly, my fav grocer is .6miles from my house. Tell me why I have to take the higgway, jist for one exit, to get there. Walmart and Aldi are basically across the street, and yet, it is not walkable. the road you must cross is 5 lanes and 45mph which is exceeded as if the road is a highway.
If Mcdonalds can tear down, AND rebuild their stupid store in 6mos for no other reason to make it a grey box, I think our local civic engineers can do better.
Maybe out west will be hard, but New England literally has no excuse. The attempts at bike lanes ive seen in CT are fucking laughable. Its like they are trying to make it so people dont use them.
All the people with money have cars because its so impossible there to live without them. They also see themselves as paying all the taxes. Their cars are sunk costs of tens of thousands of dollars. They see improving infrastructure as taking their money to help other lazier shittier people. The only way it looks attractive is if it can be taking federal dollars to line the pockets of a minority of rich people and "create jobs" by which they mean pay 1 dollar to the company so a penny can filter into the hands of the peons accidentally.
I'd be curious if there might also be a cultural aspect at play.
Apparently in America, their portions tend to be quite large, since the expectation is to get as much for your money as possible. Anything you can't stomach can then be taken home to finish another day.
Whereas many other places don't tend to do that. Food served in the restaurant is to be eaten there, and wanting a take-away container to take your meal home means paying extra for the container.
Yes, also walking to the store, walking to work. I don't use my car much - arranged my life so that I can get everywhere I need to, mostly, without driving but that is unusual as fuck where I live, everyone else in my office arrives by car. I am not usually the only bike in the rack at the grocery but maybe 3, 4 bikes and a hundred cars in the lot. No bike rack at my doctors' offices, nor dentist, nor aesthetician. None at restaurants.
Walking a lot or even biking on e-bike everywhere like I do, makes a difference in what you can eat without getting fat. But also I cook at home, from ingredients, do make sweet stuff for the kids & husband but don't like it much myself. Grow some of our food, and lunch biggest meal.
I don't think it's impossible here, to have a reasonable lifestyle, I do it and am not an unusual person, not super rich or super ambitious or determined. I do think it's more difficult and you have to be intentional AND either be lucky (city grew up around me) or flush with money, to create a life that is the "fifteen minute bubble" with everything nearby.
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Everything you mentioned, PLUS:
- Increase in stress, leading to "grazing" eating
- increase in corn subsidizes that make HFCS cheaper to add than honey or even sugar
- the campaign against Fat as a flavor enhancer, which pushes companies towards sugar in the first place. Fat, for the most part, passes through you whereas sugar is metabolized
- decrease in walkable cities, or even walking trails. Combined with people having less time to use them.
- unfettered algorithm that prioritizes engagement to keep people in front of their screens, this less physically active
The list goes on.
The single most important thing everyone can do is take a walk. I make sure I do this rain or shine, even if it's down the block and back.
GLP-1 and other "weight lost methods" gain popularity in the US due to our population's proclivity of saying "I want x, but I don't want to change anything about me." In other words, "I want to lose weight but don't want to change my lifestyle."
Study after study has shown that slow, gradual, and intentional weight loss is healthier and will last longer than any fad, drug, or food plan.
Not only will your body naturally learn what it means to eat and be healthy, you'll actually feel better too.
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Just eat less? Golly, why didn't I think of that? So simple!
Also if you have basically an addiction to food, this is like telling a drug addict "just use less heroin!" And the survival rate of withdrawals from stopping cold turkey with food is approximately 0%. So you will be managing that addiction for your entire life.
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This headline is 100% peak NotTheOnion 👌
What an incredibly fucking stupid headline.
Wait, so not satire, then?
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Sounds like it's possible to buy a house without help from family. Some people do achieve it but most people will benefit from the help.
"The mindset right now is that the GLP-1 hormone itself is the secret sauce to weight loss," DiMarchi said. "What we've found in rodents and monkeys is that the combination of glucagon and GIP activity alone are sufficient to achieve comparable weight loss, without the lengthy dosage adjustment and adverse GI side effects
This article is saying that slightly different products can also produce weight loss.
You actually read the article before commenting? What are you, a monster?
Ok but the research is actually interesting. I'm very much a supporter of weight loss by healthy lifestyle and calorie reduction (it's how I obtained and maintain a healthy weight), and even for aiming for a healthier lifestyle even if one doesn't care about reducing weight (your body is your business, I'm just pro healthy lifestyle). But for those actively interested in weight loss who are finding themselves unable to stick to a reduced calorie diet I support them having the access to the tools that can help.
I've known people who wound up fat for a variety of reasons, from thyroid issues, to stressful lifestyles, to disabilities and chronic pain, to genetic propensity, and plenty of other reasons. And when I think about how much happier with himself my friend was after his stomach band helped him lose a ton of weight and then stay thin, it's just hard for me to not stand by the understanding that while what worked for me is the best first thing to try, I just want people to be happy with their bodies.
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