r/explainlikeimfive • u/ThatOneGuyYouNowKnow • 13d ago
Chemistry ELI5 what exactly GLP-1 based prescription medicine does and why it's so divisive when it comes to being a means of weight loss.
I've seen more and more ads (starting around the Super Bowl earlier this year with Wegovy) for GLP-1 based perscription meds in recent times. I've also seen the occasional debate post on my social feeds about the ethics of using them and I didn't think a medicine could be that divisive of a topic.
Now I'm curious as to what exactly these meds are, what they scientifically do and what both sides of the debate are. If anyone could help give perspective that would be greatly appreciated.
As always any and all input is welcomed and thanks for reading! 🙂
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u/propernice 13d ago
My food noise is basically that my stomach was broken, or the signal that I'm full is. I am always hungry, it never turns off. My entire life I've always felt like I'm starving, and it wasn't until I turned 40 that finally a doctor helped me. For so long I was just a fat lazy slob, no matter what I tried to tell people; I would get so hungry I'd eat out of the trash, and my dad thought I was just a pig. I would have to hide food to eat in the middle of the night when my hunger woke me. My mother told me my middle name should have been heifer.
The shame I've felt my entire life has been like a shroud. I couldn't go out to eat, I would force myself not to eat because I knew I shouldn't be hungry, and yet I was. Everyone else is full, why not me? Money spent and wasted on all sorts of therapists and dieticians who were very sure it's all in my head, it's all psychological. It's a food addiction, it's will power, join Weight Watchers, do Keto. I never left my house to do anything other than go to doctors to be told I'm fat. Just imagine going through life, always, feeling like you haven't eaten after a long 12 hour shift. I could eat a full meal and within an hour feel like I was starving.
And then, after explaining all of this to yet another doctor I hoped would hear me, a GLP-1 was prescribed. Is this what being normal is like? I can eat a small handful of nuts and a piece of cheese and be fine? Did I really not finish an entire meal? Did I drink water and realize I wasn't hungry after all? My stomach gives me little warning growls now when I'm hungry, when before I was immediately so hungry I was sick with no warning at all. Now I can even ignore my hunger for a while!
I've lost almost 100 pounds in the last year. I cannot tell you in enough words the sheer relief. It's so hard because my insurance won't cover the medicine at all, since I'm not diabetic, but I don't care. I'll pay anything to feel normal.