What happens when you reach your target weight with drugs like this?
After having learned potentionally nothing about nutrition, exercise, and self-control, are you stuck on these meds for life out of fear of binge-eating back to your original weight?
FWIW I'm on a hundred-pound roller coaster ride from 300lbs to 200lbs; currently ~215. I've learned a lot about discipline and sustainable habits along the way.
I’ve never been obese but after losing 30+ lbs of weight I found it a lot easier to live an active lifestyle and keep the weight off. Partly it was just that moving around was physically easier and less strenuous, but also that I was less self conscious and had higher self esteem.
I imagine Ozempic will help with this even if people don’t learn about nutrition per se. Though I think basically everybody knows nutrition, it’s more about self control IME.
What happens when someone who was previously deeply depressed but feels better goes off an antidepressant? They learn to handle life, or they return to the drug if further treatment is needed. It’s not a moral failing.
As an anecdote: at my worst (when I was clearly suicidal, insomniac and emotionally unstable) I was on antidepressants (Prozac) and it helped me a lot. It made me very emotionally stable. I got off Prozac after a couple years to try it out and I felt much better. Over that year, I started feeling similarly terrible due to COVID world. Went back to Prozac. Once again made me very stable. Stopped using Prozac in mid 2022, again to see if I feel good without it. Since then have been feeling much, much better. Of course, mental health is a constant battle, you fight one day at a time, but I consider my depression as close to "cured" as possible because over the last year I felt pretty normal without any drugs.
Things to note are, along the way I stopped drinking alcohol which helped me tons. Before 2020 I was a huge drinker (not alcoholic, but every day heavy drinker). Initially, I started smoking weed. This helped a ton because I stopped drinking completely, but I wasn't getting very high every day and I thought THC helped quite a bit too. Eventually, in late 2022 I stopped using THC too. I'm completely drug free now. I believe that both Prozac and THC helped me significantly to get out of depression. In addition to drugs, CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy), therapy in general and getting a cat has been extremely helpful as well.
This is just an anecdote, every brain is different. Never self medicate, see a doctor and a therapist!
I don't think you need to bring morality into it. OP is just asking, do you develop your own tools to address the problem, or rely on another's forever? There are lots of practical non-moral answers to that question.
Presumably the dose can be altered such that for a given individual their appetite creates a caloric equilibrium at close to the target weight. I don't think this is something that is done currently.
The side effects of chronic use don't appear to be that significant and would need to be weighed against the side effects of chronic obesity.
After having learned potentionally nothing about nutrition, exercise, and self-control, are you stuck on these meds for life out of fear of binge-eating back to your original weight?
FWIW I'm on a hundred-pound roller coaster ride from 300lbs to 200lbs; currently ~215. I've learned a lot about discipline and sustainable habits along the way.