GLPs require some good dietician advice to be given and followed to be effective, otherwise you are just trading off obesity for an eating disorder. You really have to do both, provide the high protein + high fiber food alternatives and the GLP to make cheating less likely.

Have you taken them? Because I see this “you still need virtue^Wdiscipline” refrain a lot, but it doesn’t match my experience or that of many others I know who use GLP-1s.

For me, I lost 50 lbs not exercising and not actively managing my diet. I felt better and all my biomarkers got better (blood pressure, cholesterol, etc.). Later, I started to exercise and cleaned up my diet because I wanted to. Healthy food just tastes better now, and moving my body is satisfying rather than tiring. They are the closest thing to magic I’ve ever experienced.

I'm talking from direct experience here. Although I'm over 50 (years, not lbs) so that definitely can make my experience different from yours (assuming you are younger, but that's just an assumption, my health/body could also be different).

Also, constipation and muscle loss are real issues. Protein and exercise will help with muscle loss (well, I haven't really started weight training yet, just aerobic), but you need to up your water and fiber intake or you could be in for a very hard time. I'm glad that this didn't happen to you, and that you didn't have to take an emergency trip to the drug store to figure out what an enema was (and how to use it, ouch).

I'm in the same age range. Never had those issues (with GLP-1s, anyway) and I'm sorry to hear you did. Fiber is good regardless :)

On each ramp I had constipation issues, but they seem to have mellowed as I got used to the dose. The dietician has been really useful, I recommend that anyone who wants to get started with this look into a video consult (no need to attend in person), insurances generally cover the dietician faster than they will your GLP dosage, and they are good at providing solutions to balance out your diet long term if you can't figure it out on your own.

That's not even vaguely true a low dose is effective enough at reducing hungry enough to get slow and steady weight loss and require zero planning or effort on the users part.

The only time you need a dietician is if you want a high enough dose you barely want to eat at all.

I can't imagine the military wants a fighting force dependent on a consistent supply of GLP-1s to the front lines.