site banner

Eli Lilly releases data for a new weight-loss drug to tackle obesity : Shots - Health News : NPR

npr.org

This drug is a true gamechanger

In the SURMOUNT-1 study, people who took the highest dose of tirzepatide, most of whom had a BMI of about 30 or higher but did not have diabetes, lost about 21% of their body weight during the 72 week study. As researchers point out, for people who have bariatric surgery, typical weight loss is about 25% to 30% of their weight, one or two years after the surgery. In the tirzepatide study, 36% of people taking the highest dose lost 25% or more of their body weight.

this is comparable to bariatric surgery

11
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

This is what I was afraid of. As more evidence mounts that the obesity epidemic is caused by something environmental (either a change in dietary composition or a toxin of some sort), a "cure" has arrived just before the root cause has been proven. Instead of targeting the root cause and removing whatever is causing obesity from the environment, slimness will now be sold to those who can afford it. I think even if researchers identified the cause of obesity, there would be a lot of incentive to keep the obesity train rolling, to everyone's detriment.

And obesity is just the most visible symptom of metabolic disease. Could we still be at increased risk of cancer, heart disease, etc even with these miracle drugs?

The environment is super-calorie dense ultra palatable food. compare a food store today to 70 years ago.

According to your theory, what is the path from tasty calorie-dense food to a decrease in basal energy expenditure (BEE)?

I think it is more likely that this is an effect of the other major cause of obesity: A Decrease in physical activity.

It sounds like you didn't read the twitter thread in my first post, but Active Energy Expenditure (AEE) has actually increased over time. Basal Energy Expenditure is the amount of energy you use just to keep alive. Adjusted for body composition (it's known that muscle expends more basal energy than fat), the amount of Basal Energy Expenditure has decreased over time.

How do we get back, then?

That is the question, isn't it? This playlist looks into a lot of what might have gone wrong. His primary theory is substituting poly-unsaturated fats (PUFA) for saturated fats, but there are a few other things we could be looking at.

Unfortunately that just tells us how to stop digging the hole, it doesn't tell us how to fix it. There are people who report removing PUFA and increasing Saturated fats stopped weight gain, but it didn't make their weight go down significantly. However, it did make their temperature go up, which might be an indicator their BEE went up as well.