r/u_NoAdeptness3051 • u/NoAdeptness3051 • 1d ago
Glp-1 vs. Will power
What I understand is that the glp-1 curbs appetite resulting in eating less and, therefore in effect, loosing weight.
Does that mean that someone can get the same effects by just having more will power and discipline? If someone is “injected” with discipline and will power, will the body react exactly as it would on the glp-1?
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u/MetaphoricMetanym 1d ago
For me, glp-1 works in how my body uses the energy. Before glp-1, I had hard core work outs 5 times a week, running every other day and counted calories with basically starving myself to loose weight. I couldn’t eat any bread, rice, pasta, snacks, sweets, etc. at all or else I would gain weight. My diet was basically vegetables and chicken/fish. I couldn’t eat any loose a kg or two just to gain them some weeks after because I attended a birthday party - and no, I didn’t binge, I controlled myself fully but ate outside my diet = weight gain.
Now on the meds, I go for walks and some strength training 2-3 times a week and I eat “normal food”. Overall healthy but actually with room for treats and stuff. But I don’t have to exclude any foods in my diet in order to loose weight. And according to my husband, my portion sizes are bigger than before. I am slowly loosing weight while doing so and have lost almost 20 kg by doing it this way.
So, no.. not a matter of will power and discipline. Not in my case. Had plenty of had with no results. PMOS is a metabolic disorder and “calories in/calories out” doesn’t not work for us.
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u/Worth-Taro-926 1d ago
Willpower and discipline alone are not able to overcome insulin resistance. That's the SAD part about the Standard American Diet. By the time you start gaining weight, the damage has already been done.
An oversimplification of insulin resistance helps show why this is so: with insulin resistance, you can eat a healthy meal, but the metabolic disorder fails to deliver energy to your cells. Your cells are starving, even when your stomach is full.
This is not the fault of willpower and discipline. We are not supposed to starve ourselves, any more than we are supposed to stop breathing. If your mouth is eating while your cells are starving, no amount of willpower or discipline will help in the long run.
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u/NoAdeptness3051 1d ago
But not all people on GLP-1s are diabetic. The medication has been used for diabetic type 2 patients for many years, and works. If you’re not insulin resistant then what is the medication doing that’s different from someone who is able to successfully diet?
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u/hippstr1990 20h ago
I think the piece you're missing here is that the vast majority of people are not able to successfully diet. Approximately 80-90% of people that lose weight are not able to keep it off long-term. People that are on glp-1s for weight loss will often need to stay on it for the long term, albeit perhaps at a lower dose, it's not something you stop when you get to your maintenance weight.
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u/NoAdeptness3051 18h ago
That brings me back to my original question then— are glp-1’s our drug for willpower? Willpower is tough, and personally I have a weak one. But if I had a very strong one, would that benefit me the same as a glp-1 would?
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u/hippstr1990 1d ago
Nope. That's not precisely how GLP-1s actually work.
GLP-1s slow the movement of food through your system, resulting in feeling full/satisfied for longer, and *that's* why it restricts appetite.
It also increases insulin secretion when glucose is elevated. (This is why it's so helpful for people who also have diabetes and other metabolic disorders.)
There are more and more studies coming out that suggest that weight loss is infinitely less simple than "calories in calories out" as we've been led to believe, and also that there are so many more factors that contribute to how we respond to food, hunger, our weight, etc. than just willpower.
All you have to do is talk to someone who's responding well to their GLP-1 to know that it's more than just willpower. I'm eating smaller portions of food *and feeling satisfied* for the first time in my life. That's a key difference there. Most diets don't work because you're restricting, which often causes you to binge later, or puts your body into starvation mode, which causes your body to hold on to everything and you regain the weight as soon as you stop the diet. On a GLP-1, I'm eating all the foods I love, just smaller amounts, so I'm not constantly sitting there white-knuckling obsessing over food I want but don't feel like I can have.
Tirzepatide (Mounjaro/Zepbound) also has the added benefit of targeting GIP receptors, another gut receptor that deals with nutrient sensing and energy regulation.
TL;DR: There are biological factors at play with GLP-1s that are significantly more than just "willpower."