> maybe some therapy for addiction (of all kinds) and a shift in focus toward health is a better idea than being on a drug for the rest of your life.

It doesn't work for nearly as many people as GLP-1 agonists do. There are many different treatment methods that have been tested and evaluated, and being told to diet and exercise through therapy barely works at all. GLP-1 by contrast works very well.

> At some point, we may find that these drugs cause long-term health problems of their own, too.

Almost sounds like wishful thinking on your part -- you might want to stop and consider why you're so invested in these drugs having long-term side effects.

> I don't think the point is that GLP-1 inhibitors are "cheating," but that maybe some therapy for addiction (of all kinds) and a shift in focus toward health is a better idea than being on a drug for the rest of your life.

There is no guarantee that I’ll have to be on it for the rest of my life. But also, I was not “addicted” to food.

I spent 18 months changing my lifestyle, nutrition, and exercise habits, and I lost zero weight. I gained health (hikes were no longer a problem, I was fully capable of working out after enough time doing it, etc.), but no weight loss.

Yes, I tracked. Yes, I ate below my expenditure. My body holds onto weight.

So yeah, I agree with more help for people with addictions, period. I do not see how it is a “replacement” for a medication that is clearly helping people.

A lack of therapy was not my problem.

> So many people regain all the weight they lost after stopping these drugs, so it doesn't make meaningful progress and just covers the problem.

And so many people don’t.

Also, we’re learning. Quit cold turkey and yeah, you’ll gain. Taper, and you likely won’t: https://www.pharmacist.com/Pharmacy-News/coming-off-glp-1s-s...

> At some point, we may find that these drugs cause long-term health problems of their own, too.

Or we may not; these drugs have been around since 2005. They’re not new, despite most people having just heard of them now.

But we know for a fact that obesity kills.

Again: your contention is that instead of using this medication that helped me get healthier over the last 7 months and will help me get healthier yet over the next 7-8, you would have preferred that I “accept” that I have a problem imbued with negative morals (“addiction”) and try my hardest to break it. The thing is, I had already done that for the entirety of my life, remained obese, and would have died of it eventually.

Can I be disciplined? Absolutely. I even lost 55 lbs doing keto for 10 months. I ran a startup, and successfully sold it.

Discipline wasn’t my issue.

I’m not suggesting you should use a GLP-1 med. I’m suggesting you shouldn’t be the arbiter of whether it is helpful or not; it’s effects should be.