So it's no surprise that some people who undergo bariatric surgery experience a resurgence of a pre-existing eating disorder or the emergence of a new eating disorder. Frequent vomiting, never knowing what foods will upset your stomach, and the stress of maintaining your post-op weight — “you can end up with an eating disorder,” says Du Briel.
But semaglutide and tirzepatide promise to fulfill an even stranger fantasy: eliminating appetite itself. While drugs like Mounjaro work in many ways—including preventing the body from storing fat and “browning” existing adipose tissue—it's the feeling of being free from desire that seems to fascinate patients and doctors alike. People who respond to the drug often say, “I forgot to eat,” says Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity medicine specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital's Weight Center.
If doctors truly believe that obesity is the lesser of two evils, then this approach makes sense. For example, when it comes to bariatric surgery, a review of the medical literature shows that, overall, it is associated with a reduction in all-cause mortality or death from any cause* – *not undergoing surgery compared to patients without high BMI (although Such studies are very limited because they usually do not control for social factors such as income or education). Many hope that semaglutide and tirzepatide will one day prove equally potent.
But eating disorders can also kill. In many cases, constant hunger is considered an irony. Cravings for food or anything else are a great way to know you're alive. “It drives me crazy that we think not having an appetite is a positive thing,” says Shira Rosenbluth, an eating disorder therapist who works with people of all sizes. Anna Toonk agrees: “I realize there yes There are worse things than being fat,” she told The Cut last fall. “The worst thing is wanting to throw up all the time. ”
Ultimately, the proliferation of drugs like Mounjaro means that medicine is prescribing not just “normal” weight (which it hasn't quite figured out yet), but also “normal” appetite. What was once an intuitive process, where your body tells you what it needs, has become an imperative under the diet culture: You tell your body what it can have. Now medicine promises a complete reset: with the right medicine, your body won't be hungry at all.
weight loss techniques It can't be stopped completely – and it shouldn't be. Everyone has the right to choose what they want to do with their bodies. But informed consent is built on information, and we may not be enough. Mounjaro was fast-tracked by the FDA, based on studies designed to observe weight loss for just 72 weeks, a fraction of the time that real patients were on the drug. At a minimum, patients should be informed that they are participants in ongoing trials during the first few years after a drug is on the market.
As the biomedical war on obesity continues, people must do more to combat anti-fat bias—not for technical reasons, but as part of a broader vision that righteous obesity activists began to articulate more than 50 years ago. Neither a miracle nor a cure for semaglutide, tirzepatide, bariatric surgery, etc. There have always been fat people, and there will always be, whether they are “unresponsive” to treatment, refuse treatment, or struggle on the waiting list. It's worth noting that even those who lose weight dramatically after surgery or injections may remain overweight or obese, depending on their starting point.
Perhaps most importantly, weight loss discourse in America must move away from the reflective scientism that allows biomedicine to place the entire human experience under its single-minded scrutiny. Weight, like nearly every aspect of reification, is not just a biological phenomenon, nor is it a definitive medical “problem” to be addressed. It is influenced by a myriad of factors, such as social power distribution, individual psychology, and the most terrifying force of all: the desire for more.
If you or someone you love is struggling with an eating disorder, please call the National Eating Disorders Association Helpline at (800) 931-2237.
