I’d be interested to see what the weight gain would be for people who lose weight through diet and exercise over time. My hunch is we’d see people gain significant weight back. I’ve seen this from colleagues who had weight loss surgery, lost a bunch of weight, then gained it back over a few years.
You just hit the nail on the head. I have had two large weight losses in my life. Both through diet and exercise. The first time I lost 70 lbs with a low-carb/keto diet (at the time it was called Atkins, so this was the early 2000's and I was 21). It took 3 months of running/walking 3 miles a day. The second time was when I was 37 I lost 95 lbs and it took 8 months of calorie restriction combined with weight lifting and jogging 3 miles a day. Both times due to 'Things' I fell back into poor eating habits and lack of exercise due to injury. I found myself recently 70 lbs back from my lowest weight and decided that I would try Wegovy. It has been 2 weeks and I have already lost 11lbs (not sustainable at all and ymmv). I remember the control I had from the big push when I was 38 (I am now 42) and that control feels back. I am taking the Wegovy to get back down to a weight where I feel comfortable working out in a way that minimizes my risk for injury while at the same time reminding myself what that self control felt like. At this point I am just desperate to get some results as I have felt completely off the rails for 2 years now.
First, great job on the weight loss! Those are two major accomplishments, and you shouldn't get down on yourself for not being able to maintain something your body has evolved to avoid. If you did it before, you can do it again, but it might just take longer.
I'm 42 as well and looking to get some sort of GLP-1 agonist as my A1C just popped up to 5.7 after being normal my entire life which is a huge warning sign for me. I've cut out processed carbs (all white bread, sugary snacks, etc) and junk food/fast food, and upped my walking to 4+ miles a day. I'm noticing "slimming" but not weight loss. We'll see what happens with my A1C, but I am excited to get a little help. I'd like to lose ~40 pounds over the next two years.
We do see exactly that, diets are infamously ineffective at keeping weight off.
(“Well that‘s because people don’t stick to them…” yes, that would be the reason they’re ineffective, that exact thing happens in the vast majority of cases)
