A panel of FDA advisers has recommended approval for Contrave, a new weight-loss drug that combines antidepressant and anti-alcoholism medications to help people lose ... wait for it ... a whopping 4.2 percent more weight than they did without it! In other words, if you have 100 pounds to lose...this could help you lose four more!
Gee, thanks...?
I guess that's better than diarrhea and gas with oily spotting (like you might get with Alli), but even Alli can give you 5-7 pounds more weight loss than the 8 or so pounds you could expect to lose with diet and exercise alone.
So, right now, the best, most effective options for struggling obese people are major stomach surgery such as gastric bypass -- or this drug that doesn't actually work all that well? Is this really the best you can do, drug research companies?
As someone who has battled my weight most of my life, I have to ask, where are the researchers looking at this problem? We're supposed to be happy with drugs that give you oily farts? Or drugs that will make you less gloomy and disinterested in drinking but not too much thinner? Or, you know, major surgery that, from what I hear, makes you feel horrendous if you eat more than a quarter cup of food (and before you get snotty about portion control, go to your drawer right now and take out a quarter cup measure. A single forkful from one of the meals you ate today is probably bigger than that). Oh right, or you can diet and exercise and still not lose a pound although you'll probably feel and look better and be a lot healthier in general.
Yes, I believe in personal responsibility, and I know there really is no magic pill for weight loss. We can't expect to eat crap food and sit on the couch all day and then take some magic pill to keep from having to be removed from your home by a crane. Diet and exercise, while not the path to thinness for everyone, blunts the impact of obesity in many, many ways and is probably the best recommendation for overweight people for that reason.
On the other hand, we have probably 10 antidepressants that work really well, several acid reflux medications, and enough erectile dysfunction drugs to create a flotilla of embarrassing ads. Can't we come up with something that aid obese people a little more than a few pounds? If there's going to be a new study every day concerned with obesity as health crisis, could we please start coming up with a viable solution that actually help curb it? Please?
What do you think? Should researchers be looking for a medication to help obesity?
Image via Colin Rose(colros)/Flickr
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Comments 31
nope
No, I don't believe in "magic pills" at all. I do believe in personal responsibility and diet and exercise. And I know that you can lose more than 8 or so pounds by just diet and exercise because I lost 15-20 in a month! Everyone can do it, they just need to get off their butts and stick to it is all.
I also believe that making lifestyle changes is the only way to lose weight healthfully and more importantly, keep it off. There are lots of short term fixes that can help you drop some weight, but that leads to a bunch of yo-yo effect. Honestly, even if you get liposuction or gastric bypass or use some sort of diet pill, you have to be willing to give 100% towards changing your lifestyle. You have to eat healthfully, use portion control, and exercise, no matter what. People are always looking for that quick fix or magic pill or miracle surgery, but the easiest and most surefire way to lose weight is to change your behavior, and it seems like a lot of people are completely unwilling to do that. They spend ridiculous amounts of money on the easy "tricks," but the most effective strategy is free. Its just a whole lot more effort, and it seems like a lot of people aren't willing to put in effort. That's the problem.
I just love all of your answers. They're so tolerant. So open-minded.
Tell me this: there's a drug that helps drug/alcohol addicts quit using. Should they just have to "get off their asses" and do that without help? Those erection drugs are made mostly for the elderly, and mostly for pleasure. But that's ok, because old folks deserve to have some fun, right?
But fat people? They're just lazy, stupid, and deserve what they get. So what if they struggle daily, have thoughts of killing themselves because the harder they try, the worse it gets? So what if their very existence is mocked by all around them - people on the street look at them with disgust, if they even see them at all (because being fat, you might as well be invisible)? So what if they can only buy clothes online (except for a few stores that either cater exclusively to them, or sell a nice selection of large-print abominations)? So what if their condition is akin to being a smoker - blamed for all the ills of society? Someone has to be at fault, and it's certainly not the thin among us. Those stupid fat people GOT themselves that way, they can certainly get off their lazy asses and suffer until they're thin like you, right?
But they'd better not do it at YOUR gym, or where YOU can see them, because you don't want to be offended.
Jalaz77 - People who are serious about losing weight do not want a quick fix - not in reality, anyway. But we would like to be considered the same way that any other addicted person is considered - with compassion and understanding.
Someone who is addicted to alcohol is given oodles of support - groups, inpatient and outpatient clinics, yes, a drug or two, not to mention the absolute devoted support of family and friends. I daresay you'll never, ever hear someone tell an alcoholic, "Just have a shot of this whisky, it's no big deal! You can go back to being on the wagon tomorrow!" But you hear that ALL the time with people who admit that they're on diets or weight-loss "lifestyle changes".
And now, a drug may be coming to market that might help a person lose a paltry 4% more weight than they would have just making those "simple" lifestyle changes... and we get responses like "Nope! Eat less and get off your ass!" Or did I misquote you?
So, yes, I AM angry. I'm angry because people who are not obese, and who "struggle" with their weight (you do not know what it's like to "struggle with your weight" when it's 10 or even 20 lbs. Try 100+ sometime. THEN tell me that you're "struggling") are constantly told how simple it it is... "just eat less and exercise more!! Get off your ass!"
I personally find the "get off you a@# " type attitude more than offensive. Everyone seems to think that it's as simple as someone being lazy. It's not.
8 years ago the 15 of this month I was in a severe motorcycle accident that left me with both my legs broken, one completely shattered. I have 2 plates, 15 screws, and a rod. I was told I would never walk again. Both of my arms were broken as well. One so severely that I no longer can lift a gallon of milk without the risk of re breaking it. I also had 4 broken ribs, and a cracked vertebrae. Before, and even after the accident I was at my ideal weight, or even less unless pregnant. I had 7 children, one that was only 10 months old and still a nursling. I weighed in at a whopping 122 lbs. I also had the severe depression of the loss of my husband and my lifestyle to mourn. So there was the emotional issues that came with that.
Considering I was never going to walk again, according to the experts, I am pretty impressed with the fact I can get off my A#$ and move at all. Now, 8 years later, I am pregnant with my 10th. I started this pregnancy at my post pregnancy weight with my 9th. I have only gained 12 lbs.
I think the judgemental attitudes of those who don't struggle with their weight to be a great deterant to even being able to try. My weight gain is due to circumstances. I bet not one judgemental size 2-10 out there even stops to consider that there may be an underlying reason my body isn't what it was. I don't look disabled. I barely walk with a limp, that unless I told you about the reason for it you might never even see.
A little compassion and support may be what that friend of yours who is struggling with her weight might need. I don't want my BFF to be my coach. I need her to understand that I have issues she may not.
No no no, I am not saying that everyone who is overweight or obese is lazy and deserves their pain, not at all, and I am truly sorry it came off that way. For some people, the ones with health concerns that cause their weight gain (I am prescribed to Paxil, an antidepressant that contributed to a sixty pound weight gain that brought me to 165 pounds and considered overweight), medication or surgery is a completely legitmate option. Its a fantastic option even, but I truly believe that even with those awesome helps, lifestyle changes are necessary. they may be hard, but they are 100% possible and within reach. My biggest help when I was losing weight was finding more people in my area with a common goal, and forming a group. That was the best thing I ever did for myself, and I am back down to a healthy 107 lbs.