ShrinkingSheila
Well-known member
I saw an article that touched on something I've dealt with a lot: people saying weight loss meds are 'cheating.' https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/what-if-ozempic-doesnt-fix-literally
This idea that fixing stuff is somehow *bad* is so tiresome. It's often tied to the belief that things are inherently fair or that whatever's 'natural' is automatically good.
Like, Arthur Brooks seems to think if we make obesity less of a problem, we'll miss out on the 'joy' of struggling. No thanks! I'll pass on that struggle.
I think the reason people keep saying this, is it sounds like a similar, but actually GOOD question: 'Could this fix have unforeseen consequences?'
You always have to consider that in medicine. I tell people the body is like an economy. You can't just tweak one thing without affecting everything else. That's why you don't mess with stuff that isn't broken, until you understand it really well. Getting something for nothing is rare.
For example, people find it odd that I had a brand new type of surgery, but don't mess with hormone therapy much. I believe I can track the side effects of my surgery. I can't say the same about hormone therapy.
So, it's true that getting something for nothing is hard. But we should still try! Just because it's difficult doesn't mean the goal is bad.
I was really skeptical about these meds at first. I'm taking a low dose of reta on and off to help with muscle building, but I'm not sure if it's wise. I might get some weird disease in 3-4 decades. Oh well!
But I'm worried about side effects - not that making shedding fat easy is bad for my soul.
Like the author said, life is full of hard things. I've got enough problems. I don't need to cling to the ones I have like they're precious.
Maybe when we have a perfect world, we can save some problems so we have stuff to 'overcome'. But for now, let's just try to improve things!
This idea that fixing stuff is somehow *bad* is so tiresome. It's often tied to the belief that things are inherently fair or that whatever's 'natural' is automatically good.
Like, Arthur Brooks seems to think if we make obesity less of a problem, we'll miss out on the 'joy' of struggling. No thanks! I'll pass on that struggle.
I think the reason people keep saying this, is it sounds like a similar, but actually GOOD question: 'Could this fix have unforeseen consequences?'
You always have to consider that in medicine. I tell people the body is like an economy. You can't just tweak one thing without affecting everything else. That's why you don't mess with stuff that isn't broken, until you understand it really well. Getting something for nothing is rare.
For example, people find it odd that I had a brand new type of surgery, but don't mess with hormone therapy much. I believe I can track the side effects of my surgery. I can't say the same about hormone therapy.
So, it's true that getting something for nothing is hard. But we should still try! Just because it's difficult doesn't mean the goal is bad.
I was really skeptical about these meds at first. I'm taking a low dose of reta on and off to help with muscle building, but I'm not sure if it's wise. I might get some weird disease in 3-4 decades. Oh well!
But I'm worried about side effects - not that making shedding fat easy is bad for my soul.
Like the author said, life is full of hard things. I've got enough problems. I don't need to cling to the ones I have like they're precious.
Maybe when we have a perfect world, we can save some problems so we have stuff to 'overcome'. But for now, let's just try to improve things!
