At my yearly wellness exam, I asked my doctor about going on a GLP-1. He pretty much flatly refuses to prescribe them for weight loss and isn't apologetic about it. You have to have comorbidities like diabetes or have tried to diet for 6-12 months and failed for him to even think of prescribing.
GLP-1s use for weight loss only has about 2 years worth of data so we don't really know much about them. I think he was talking about how GLP-1s work on hunger-related hormones and how that affects the brain. I don't know how accurate his assessment is on this point.
They are not a good medication (although he didn't really say what makes a good medication). Ibuprofen is OTC and is a horrible medication that actively damages your liver. So what the fuck is a "good" medication?
People plateau in their weight loss journeys or give up because they haven't really made the commitment to lifestyle changes. False. Bodies actively work at defending their weight when you diet. Your body will try to stop you from losing weight.
You gain all the weight back once you go off the medication. Well, you gain all the weight back after dieting, too. You gain the weight back after bariatric surgery even!
I didn't refute him or try to argue (even though I obviously had counter arguments to all of his points). Just asking him about going on a weight loss drug was hard enough.
It didn't help that I have actually lost weight since I last saw him. I'm doing the Whole 30 diet and walking some. I tried to tell him it is not a sustainable diet-- it's not meant to be! You're supposed to be on it for 30 fucking days! but he instead praised me and said I was "doing all the right things."
How many hoops does a fat person have to jump through before they are "worthy" of help? I never had to justify going on antidepressants to a doctor, whether I was in a significant crisis or when I just needed a little help, so why do I have to have an exact measurement of my suffering as fat person in order to deserve medical attention?
I want to have a real conversation about GLP-1s and my specific situation but that wasn't going to happen with my doctor. I have questions about the efficacy of the pill vs. the shot. I have questions about side effects and drug interactions, especially given my psychiatric history. I have questions about long term dosage and maintenance.
But instead, he had all the power and his mind made up and I wasn't going to be the patient to change that for him.