#glp

Conversations around weight and weight loss have always been contentious.

The oft repeated mantra of weight loss has been “there is no silver bullet.”

It’s a jeering remark meant to chide dieters for trying anything beyond eating skinless chicken breast and 20 hours a week working out.

If you want to lose weight you have to pay the penance for every excess pound. You have to earn it.

Their smug satisfaction of watching weight loss aids fail is salt in the wound. They snickered at limitations and failure of Amphetamines, PhenFen, Ephedrine, Orlistat, LapBands, and Gastric Bypass.

See? You can’t cheat your way out. You did this to yourself, now you must suffer the consequences.

An anti weight loss movement emerged in opposition to this mentality. Body positivity is a healthy response to diet culture; making the radical assertion that existing in your body, the way it is, without trying to change, is not only okay, it’s a good thing.

Love your body and focus on being healthy. Your weight is not your worth. This cannot be said enough. Your worth in this world is not related to how your body looks.

When around came GLP-1 medications, the reactions have been fascinating.

The drugs themselves are remarkably effective, and instead of targeting the weight, they correct the underlying metabolic problem. They’ve been on the market for years and are generally known to be safe.

The ire toward them, is in some ways unsurprising.

No! You can’t do it the easy way! You have to work at it!

You’re stealing them from the deserving- the diabetics. Ironically, the same people they blame for their own illness.

The body positivity crowd response is fascinating as well. Taking the drugs is a betrayal. You shouldn’t want to change your body. You’re giving into diet culture. You shouldn’t want to fit conventional beauty standards.

The response has been negative from both sides. People feel entitled to police the bodies and choices you make about your body.

Both of these reactions are moral judgments. You have to pay for your sins. Either for gluttony or vanity.

The thing is, there should be no judgement at all.

Weight loss requires a lot of mental energy. You have to commit your mental and physical energy to it. There are a million reasons why someone can’t or doesn’t want to do that. And that’s okay. There is no reason why you should feel obligated to.

However, ignoring the very real disabling effects of obesity is also a kind of denial of humanity. It’s not anyone’s business, and to condemn someone for trying to prevent or correct the effects is kind of cruelty all its own.

There’s no reason someone should have to justify their desire to change their bodies or their efforts to do so.

Try to love your body, regardless of its size, but it’s okay if you want to lose weight and you don’t have to justify your reasons or your decision to use medication to do it.

Everyone else, support people if they choose to change their bodies as well as when they choose not to. It’s not your decision, your business or your place to judge them.

We, the body positivity advocates don’t criticize trans people for changing their bodies because they’re unhappy with the way it looks. We don’t shame people with disfiguring congenital defects who choose to have corrective surgery; even when it poses no health risk. We understand the very real effects of social stigma, and wouldn’t criticize them for avoiding it.

You’re punishing people trying to lose weight for the sins of vanity and envy.

The other assholes, you wouldn’t tell a cancer patient “there’s no silver bullet” or snicker when an experimental or risky treatment fails. You don’t tell people with high blood pressure or high cholesterol that taking medicine is “taking the easy way out.” You know it’s cruel, you simply want to punish people for the sins of gluttony and sloth.

All I’m saying is - leave the people taking weight loss meds alone.

Weight is not a moral issue.

Weight is not a moral issue.

Weight is not a moral issue.

Weight is not a moral issue.

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