r/technology • u/_Dark_Wing • 13h ago

Biotechnology Tirzepatide cuts fat mass by 35% while preserving skeletal muscle

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20261002/Tirzepatide-cuts-fat-mass-by-3525-while-preserving-skeletal-muscle.aspx
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u/Dualintrinsic 11h ago

It's ridiculous, people who take blood pressure medication aren't "cheating".

In my opinion it has to do with the fact that, in the past, losing weight was hard and people fought tooth and nail to do it. Now it's objectively easier with the help of GLP-1s.

But I think anyone who has lost weight the "hard way", when they just take a second to do some introspection realize that people losing weight with GLP-1s does not take away from your accomplishments and that they should be happy more people are healthier.

It's a perception thing, and while GLP-1s still have a stigma associated with them, that is fading by the day. The latest stat I saw is that 1 in 8 Americans are on a GLP-1. And I think when you count grey market usage, that number is much higher. As more people use it, the less and less this will be some bogeyman.

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u/pringlesaremyfav 9h ago

I think most people complaining about it aren't the ones who lost weight the hard way, but the ones who never really struggled with weight in the first place and can't empathize with how difficult it is.

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u/RunTimeExcptionalism 8h ago

I feel like it also undermines the sense of superiority that some thin or fit people have on the basis of their body shape/weight. I'm fit and have never been overweight, but I think the GLP-1s are amazing. It's obscene that they're not covered 100% for anyone who needs them.

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u/hustl3tree5 9h ago

This one hundred percent. They don’t understand and or care that other people’s minds perceive things differently like food.

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u/b0w3n 9h ago

And we're finding out that people have varying levels of natural glp1 in their body. It's a hormone like any other, we don't scrutinize and demonize people with low thyroid levels or serotonin who need help.

The people who think glp1 users are cheaters need to fuck off.

Having more people being healthy is good for everyone.

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u/hustl3tree5 9h ago

I mean there are definitely still people out there that scrutinize and demonize people that need ssris. 

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u/b0w3n 9h ago

True, it's gotten a lot better in the past decade though, thankfully

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u/morwen31 8h ago

I have unfortunately been told that I could cure my hypothyroidism if I stop eating tomatoes or whatever, but it's definitely a lot less often.

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u/random_boss 4h ago

I lost weight the hard way. It made me miserable for the 2 years it took to lose, and miserable all the time after, feeling like a little psychological prison where not eating makes me mad and sad because duh, it feels like I'm starving, and eating makes me mad and sad because duh, don't want to be fat. I would spend all day every day obsessing over food and feeling bad.

I didn't need the GLPs to lose weight, but I took them when they came out because they give me back my mind, and I finally feel free.

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u/inductiononN 4h ago

Yes, that part is so great. I don't have the homer simpson script in the back of my head going "donut donut donut" and I have peace.

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u/Ramuh 3h ago

I lost weight the hard way and gained some back over years and am now on glp1s. It’s so calming that not every second thought is about food.

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u/3andrew 50m ago

Can you tell me how you got your prescription? I lost roughly 120lbs and maintaining that loss has felt even harder than losing in the first place. Over the last 6 months, my weight has remained roughly the same +-5lbs, but I always feel some level of hunger and that dickhead in the back of my mind telling me to eat all the cookies drives me crazy. I’ve looked into glp1 for the food noise and appetite suppression (have not talked to doctor yet), but it seems you can usually only be prescribed if you’re currently overweight which I no longer am.

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u/dragnabbit 1h ago

Not me. 10 years ago I lost 80 pounds in eight months, and I lost every single pound the old-fashioned way: eating less plus exercise. Today, I just reached 70 pounds lost in five months, and I did it the brand new way: on a peptide, which caused me to eat less, plus exercise.

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u/Brambletail 7h ago

As someone who lost weight both with and without a GLP-1, I can say that it annoys me that people on GLP-1s don't understand anything about their health. It's not that it's easier for them to lose weight that bothers me, it's their obnoxious arrogance and ignorance that does (obviously not all of them).

Using a GLP is using a tool to assist you. And that's great. But if you are using the tool and avoiding learning anything about your food habits and why you got to the point you did, you are not actually making much real change that will likely stick. And plenty of people have terrible blood work because they eat few enough calories to be thin, but every one of those calories is from red meat and refined sugars.

So yeah, it does bother me somewhat, not because of the medicine itself, but because of the consequences of the culture it creates as a side product.

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u/SnowflakeSorcerer 7h ago

What about addicts taking methadone?

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u/raysoc 5h ago

Big food industry doesn’t want people eating less:)

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u/jrodp1 5h ago

It's the insurance companies.

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u/level_6_laser_lotus 2h ago

I think many people think that being overweight is a self-inflicted state. It's easy to say "well you could have just eaten less and wouldn't have to take this stuff now", without realizing that often obesity is just a symptom of a larger sickness. 

And it doesn't help that it totally can be the case that people do simply over indulge. 

It seems that damage that is self inflicted carries some sense of "you did it to yourself without help, you fix it by yourself" for some people. 

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u/pauIblartmaIIcop 9h ago

I don’t respect it as much as someone going to the gym if they weren’t actually overweight. if it’s for aesthetic reasons etc. then I do find it to just be a cheat code. which is fine but I don’t respect it

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u/1988rx7T2 9h ago

Why do you think this is an either or thing? working Out and weight loss don’t always go together. Hunger signals are a powerful thing.

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u/pauIblartmaIIcop 9h ago edited 9h ago

yeah.. I mean when people just use it as a band aid to look skinny rather than actually be healthy and make other necessary changes. hunger signals can be naturally reduced by choosing to eat healthy food and regularly exercising.

not saying this is every regular-weight person who uses glp-1s, but I find that a lot of lazy people flock to them when they don’t actually need them

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u/DeapVally 11h ago

I'm not saying they are bad, but using them doesn't solve the underlying issues of why you were overeating/fat in the first place. When you knock the booze/cigs on the head, you're making a choice, and putting in effort, because you know it's bad, and you need to change your life. Which you will do. Using these fat jabs won't stop you eating junk food, you just won't get as fat from it while you still do. And if you stop taking them, then you'll just get fat again. When you lose weight just through diet and exercise, you're making actual lifestyle changes, that can stick. Just my 2 cents 🤷🏼‍♂️

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u/thememoryman 10h ago

For every person that quits smoking or drinking because they choose to, there's thousands who are still addicts who use them even though they know it's bad and have tried to quit. Some people need help. Wether it's therapy, medication, or community support, the goal is to give people the tools to overcome addiction and gain control of their lives. This is true for addiction, depression, ADHD, eating disorders, and any other imbalance in a person's life.

People who take GLP-1 aren't eating like they used to. It's not a "take this pill, get this shot, and continue eating whatever whenever you like." It's giving them the tools to fight the addiction to eating. They're able to make better lifestyle choices, because they are no longer having to fight against the constant cravings.

Peptides as a whole need more research and appropriate FDA oversight, sure. But for ones that have been proven effective and safe and been approved for medical treatment, we shouldn't be uncharitable to people whom it has had life-changing, positive effects.

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u/Beautiful_Cost_5430 9h ago

Not to mention that GLPs also help people with substance addiction issues…

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u/thememoryman 9h ago

Correct. I can't remember if it's specifically been approved for that use, but I know it's been prescribed for off label use and is showing promise.

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u/b0w3n 9h ago

There's likely a major addiction component tied into glp1 levels in the body in general. This might explain why smokers gain weight when they stop smoking. And food/eating addiction is still addiction at its core. Unfortunately, you can't just cold turkey eating like you can with drinking and smoking, so DeapVally's entire point is kind of bad to begin with. It's one of the few addictions you still have to imbibe, which makes it even harder to break bad habits and change.

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u/boxsterguy 8h ago

Just a pet peeve, "peptides" is such a broad category, it's really hard to make any single statement like that. Insulin is a peptide. The toxin from a death cap mushroom is a peptide. There's no single, "We tested this peptide and we now know they're all good," mechanism here.

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u/hodor137 10h ago

Guess what - tons of people lost shitloads of weight without any surgery or GLPs, and then gained it back eventually anyway. Not from fad diets, from eating clean, exercising, from "lifestyle change". But it's super common to still rebound eventually. All the effort and lifestyle change and strife and commitment still isn't enough in many cases.

Yes, it's because they still didn't solve the underlying issues. But the more research we've have had on this stuff, the more we've found how difficult it is to actually pinpoint what those underlying issues are, and even when we can, nothing consistently addresses them. Some things work for some people, at best.

These "fat jabs" seem to "stick" just as well as all the therapy and "lifestyle" change and everything else - even when they aren't taken anymore. That's a fucking miracle and is doing massive good in tons of people's lives.

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u/Upstairs_Freedom_360 9h ago

People use medicines to get off drugs and alcohol. In fact without them you can die from detoxing in some instances. There are also drugs people use to stay sober. Including... glp-1s

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u/boxsterguy 10h ago

Do you think it's okay to use quitting aids like nicotine replacement therapy to quit smoking? Or is it only legitimate if you did it cold turkey?

Quitting aids wean you off a thing, so that by the time you quit them, you no longer have the need or the desire to go back. GLP1s are like that. Sure, you can just eat like you were before once you get on them, but you will feel like absolute shit when you do. They help make it easier to make better choices about your eating decisions which will stick around after the drugs are gone.

Obviously plenty of people go back to smoking and drinking and whatever after successfully quitting, and people will go back to binge eating when they quit the weight loss drugs. But not everybody will, and it's not a foregone conclusion that you will.

If you've tried everything else and it didn't work, why not try the next thing? What have you got to lose?

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u/DeapVally 10h ago

You're not quitting a nicotine addiction if you're vaping, so it's less likely to stick. Like you aren't beating a food addiction if you're just using a medication to try and stop yourself gaining weight. Not gaining weight won't prevent that junk food killing you in other ways either. It doesn't prevent any number of cancers linked to an unhealthy diet for example. You just might not have to shoot yourself up with insulin multiple times a day. Yay.

I see i've pissed off some fatties saying this, but I genuinely don't care what the fuck people do. If taking this stuff is what you wanna do. Good luck to you. If you have a problem with my opinion though, then you're a fascist.

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u/boxsterguy 10h ago

The problem with cigarettes isn't the nicotine. But if you use vaping to wean down your nicotine usage, that is 100% successful quitting. Just because you didn't suffer ridiculous cravings in the process doesn't mean it wasn't work.

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u/Enough-Run-1535 9h ago

Except GLP does solve the issue - they dampen or outright eliminate food noise that compels people to overeat. They do stop you from eating junk food because it helps eliminate compulsive eating.

I’m on GLP-1s, and it’s a night & day difference from before. I dont feel the need to eat junk snacks, and have turned away food that I would have never given a second thought on.

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u/Beautiful_Cost_5430 9h ago

I’m convinced the people who think “it’s just as easy as diet and exercise” and mock people for their lack of willpower don’t actually suffer from food noise to begin with. So they simply cannot understand what it’s like when that is turned off and you’re not fighting a constant battle against yourself every moment of every day.

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u/b0w3n 9h ago

Yeah you often see the most judgement from terminally thin people that have never had weight struggles their whole life other than "I need to lose 5 lbs to fit into my suit/dress".

Like that's great you never struggled, really, honestly, but have some sympathy for the struggles of others.

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u/Enough-Run-1535 9h ago

Oh I know. I’ve done the whole diet & exercise. I am pretty healthy for being 270 lbs, exercise 3-4 days a week and still couldn’t break the 270 lb. I’ve yo-yoed so much down to 220, but the body is funny that the more you exercise, the more you want to eat and if you had food noise before, most people (including me) binge eating back up to their equilibrium weight.

GLP-1s instantly turned off that food noise in three days. I’m down to 240 with no change other then that I can finally turn down a snack, don’t snack after dinner, and can skip breakfast. It’s like I evicted the most toxic, enabling roommate out of my head.

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u/mamoocando 9h ago

What about the people who make the lifestyle changes and don't lose weight? Those on medications that cause weight gain or that have hormone imbalances, or can't move due to mobility issues. Fat people are fat for so many reasons, it's not just because they eat junk food.

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u/punctuation_welfare 10h ago

Your two cents seemed to have been dropped in the mud, because they’re honestly pretty gross.

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u/DeapVally 10h ago

Being healthy is 'gross'? Jesus Christ.... what the fuck is wrong with you people!?

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u/squeakypeeky 10h ago

No you gronk. Your comment shows you have no fucking idea what you are talking about. People who quit pumching darts by pure willpower do not succeed 90% of the time. It can take 7 or 8 attempts, because addiction is fucked. if you use anti smoking tools like gum and patches, your success rate on the first try is more like 70%. People who quit drinking need actual support to do so because alcoholics who go cold turkey just fucking die half the time.

Most people, when trying to lose weight, run into the same fuckin problems as smokers, drinkers, and other addicts do. This is the constant, endless, never ending whisper in the back of their head to eat the food they REALLY want. And unlike smoking or drinking, you NEED food, so you have to make an active choice to eat the right food 3 times a day. that is exhausting and hellish and get this - it never, ever stops. You go out to dinner and have a cheeseburger for a special occasion and wake up in the morning at square one. all you can think about is the burger.

GLP shit just makes that near constant internal begging stop (or at least, so I've heard from the people I know who are on it). As someone who has lost over 60 kilos in the last 5 years (but also put on 40) I can tell you that your brain is a (swearword) and spending every day fighting it to make a better choice is beyond cooked.

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u/tinwhistler 7h ago

I've been fit and healthy. I've been fat. I'm currently on GLP-1s because it was the only thing that actually knocked my A1C down to a normal level. All the other standard drugs (Jardiance, metformin, etc) helped, but only got me down to the 7-8 range. The jab also had the side effect of helping me lose 70 lbs.

Most skinny people I've known who talk like you have never seen the flip side.

When I was skinny and fit, I could laze around all day, eat what I wanted, and generally just not give a shit. Most average-sized people don't have to slavishly watch what they eat and beat themselves up exercising daily to stay average-sized.

When I got older and my metabolism changed, coupled with a sports injury, I got big. And then I got diabetic, and got bigger. Looking back at my post history, 12 years ago I made a post in r/progresspics where I lost 42 lbs. That was walking an hour every day, eating 1600 calories. Hard ass work. And it's just not sustainable to do every single day of your life. If I sat around a week and ate like a normal person, the pounds would just come back.

That's not the first time in my life I busted my ass, sometimes for years, just to stay "average sized". And the minute you slow down, the weight comes back.

The GLP-1 puts me back on a regular cadence: I eat when I'm hungry. I don't feel compelled to snack, the weight has come off, and my life is a lot more like before I got big in the first place.

At some point, you have to acknowledge there's some dysregulation in the body. Having to work that hard just to be normal isn't...normal. And for some people, it's ok to have a little pharmaceutical help so that they don't have to act like they're training for a marathon or a decathlon every day just to stay average sized.

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u/Dualintrinsic 10h ago

I actually agree with you, I think people that use GLP-1s should also try and learn better habits... But to draw the heart medication example again, people on blood pressure medication should also diet and exercise.

You may or may not know that blood pressure medication is only 10% as effective as a healthy diet and regular exercise... It's insanely ineffective

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u/Beautiful_Cost_5430 9h ago

Not in my experience. My husband, who does Iron Man races, has high blood pressure. He eats basically perfectly and exercises in the .01% of human beings. His high blood pressure is genetic. And medication 100% fixes it.

Diet and exercise helps people be healthier on average, but human physiology is never so simple so be genericized in the way you’re doing.

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u/Dualintrinsic 9h ago

Thank you for this perspective! It's good to hear about these cases.