Comment Re:"Just eat less, keep input output" know-it-alls (Score 4, Interesting) 107
Now, with that said, are you REALLY trying to tell me that nearly half of society is this way? That sounds like an extraordinary claim that will require extraordinary evidence. That's why I wonder if there are not other issues at hand here besides just hunger pains. I know we all tolerate pain differently as well.
This part is completely anecdotal and based only on formed opinion, but I also tried to think back on when the "hungry all the time" started, and my best guess is sometime between 20 and 25. What was I doing then? Well, living on a shoestring budget and studying at university. What do you eat when you live on a shoestring budget and need to study for exams and courses burning midnight oil? Ready-to-eat ultraprocessed crap, fast food, all that jazz.
Not a problem at that time, but my belief without anything really to back it up, is that that particular diet hardwired something in my brain to make my body demand stuff at unhealthily regular intervals stayed even after graduation and better living conditions. After starting a family, diet as in the ingredients in food got even better (you make more effort in cooking when you are no longer just doing it for yourself). However, in your 20s and early 30s, your metabolism can still keep up.
My weight started rising late 30s/early 40s, and ever since then - for the past 10 years, I've tried "everything". Bloodwork and treadmill tests show I'm in excellent health and physical shape apart from that BMI indicator.
Is this something you can generalize to the massive number of people in US (and first world in general really)? Maybe. Don't know. For me, seems plausible but I have nothing concrete to back it up with except the popularity of fast and "ultraprocessed" food in the US. And no, I do not even have a definition for ultraprocessed. This part about original causes for the hunger is all just personal opinion based on following news on the subject.
I made my bed in my early 20s and I'm glad now there's finally some *hope* for fixing it, even if it costs a bunch of money right now. The constant hunger *is* real. It's the same for my two friends I mentioned in GP - I wouldn't have started the medication without discussing with them at length about this - they specifically felt the same way. Now for first time ever I can hope to get rid of it. And no, there are studies that placebo effect (the hope itself) alone doesn't cut it - 20% weight loss with Mounjaro vs 3% with placebo, tops *if* you previously had an inactive lifestyle.