No, they’re ignoring the medical fact that “tell people to lose weight” has a basically zero percent success rate.

The only intervention known to work reliably was bariatric surgery until stuff like Ozempic showed up recently.

Cutting losses to spend time with other patients isn't ignoring that little medical fact. It's an acknowledgement of it; all the effort spent treating the symptoms of obesity is basically wasted, squandering the resources (time particularly) of the medical system.

Except the post directly criticizes one of the major new ways of reducing that effort.

Someone genuinely worried about obesity wasting doctors' time should be all for stuff like Ozempic.

As far as I see, the only one directly talking about Ozempic is you.

I welcome your alternative explanation of what "instead of giving them shots" meant.

Are you suggesting that the purpose of the medical system is not to treat medical conditions? I suppose if they took that tack, yes, the system would be more efficient.

Note that GLP1 receptor agonists are a whole class of drugs, and they were known to be effective in treating diabetes as well, and have been for a while.

Recent commercialization and buzz is definitely new and there have been new formulations of course.

It is quite remarkable that people might think simply telling people to "lose weight" will work still, in this day and age.

The reality is that insulin isn't a treatment for Type 2 -- it's a treatment for Type 1. Type 1 is basically internal starvation. Your cells can't obtain the glucose they need from your blood because your body can't produce insulin.

Type 2 is the exact opposite. Your cells are saturated with glucose and your body literally can't produce any more insulin to stuff that glucose away. Giving insulin just forces the excess blood glucose into tissue and causes additional fat gain. The additional fat gain makes Type 2 worse. Weight loss is the treatment for Type 2.

We've kind of known this since 1915 when Type 2 was treated with fasting. Right up until insulin was discovered. [1, 2, 3]

That's why GLP-1/GIPs work for diabetes. They make you not hungry, so you don't eat, so you lose weight, and presto, no more insulin resistance.

> [...] we now understand that people with type 2 diabetes who lose significant weight and improve other factors related to diabetes can achieve remission. [3]

Fun fact.

[1] https://www.endocrine.org/news-and-advocacy/news-room/2022/i...

[2] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle...

[3] https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/professionals/d...

> No, they’re ignoring the medical fact that “tell people to lose weight” has a basically zero percent success rate.

Lots of people aren't overweight, so apparently it works on a lot of people. Eat less is perfectly fine advice, it might not work for everyone but it works for everyone who can keep it. Some need additional help after hearing that advice to ensure they actually eat less, others are fine with just that.