Wow, you held so many truths together in this piece in a way I’ve never seen anyone do, and reading it felt so liberating. I often think to myself, after reading a piece having to do with bodies, that it’s not possible to have a public conversation about bodies. The ways antifatness, dehumanization, the capitalist food industry, trauma, etc etc etc intersect with each body is so uniquely painful, there’s just no way to hold everyone’s pain. And it’s why I often feel erased as a reader about bodies (which I am because I am also recovering from an eating disorder). Maybe what we need is more of us writing the stories of our bodies in ways that extend compassion and welcome to all our past selves (our fattest selves, our disordered selves, our pursuing-weight-loss/management-out-of-terror-of-being-erased selves), and (crucially!) to believe one another’s stories.
This is a terrific, courageous story. One of the things I most admire about you as a writer is your willingness to share your inner life with the reader. It is giving me more courage to do the same in the book I am working on.
The story of GLP-1 receptor agonists is quite remarkable. Some biomedical scientists consider that this family of drugs will have enormous effects on public health. It is likely, and being studied now, that beyond weight management, these drugs improve overall health, reduce inflammation, may delay or reduce cognitive decline, and have other effects. I am deeply skeptical of many drugs that seem to be developed primarily to line the pockets of drug companies, but this family of drugs is different, with the potential to benefit humanity beyond its initial uses. From your narrative, it seems that you are beginning to enjoy some of the broader benefits of this drug.
Thank you, Tom- and you're right that there is a lot of incredible research happening. I recently saw one trial exploring the effect of these meds on opiate addiction. Truly groundbreaking!
Thank you for your vulnerability and a very in-depth explanation. So helpful to me both as a child of the 80’s (think Aerobicicise, Diet soda and popcorn diets, Bulimia, etc) and as a mother of kids who are dealing with depression, anxiety and an onslaught of opposing media images including AI/photoshopped bodies- we have so much dysphoria to consider. Also, as an autoimmune sufferer, very interesting to hear about this medicine as an inflammation reducer. 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽
Thank you for sharing this. Although there are so many people who are being inappropriately prescribed these drugs, that doesn't mean that you should feel any less worthy of taking them. Some of us anti-dieters and fat-activists lose sight of peoples lived experiences including their metabolisms. Yes, food liberation and dietary changes can help resolve food cravings, but that doesn't change the fact that some peoples bodies are less efficient at utilizing certain nutrients... GLP-1 agonists have helped so many people with "food noise" because it helps their body be more efficient at using glucose... while there are other folks that I've seen be put on it when they really just needed some guidance on balanced eating.
That being said - all of our bodies are different. All of our lived experiences are different. And sometimes we need some support to get through the damn day. Thank you so much for sharing your lived experience. <3 I hope in the anti-diet space we can actually have these nuanced conversations as opposed to simply making claims that they're happening.
I really appreciate your reflection, Stephanie. I agree that the medications are being prescribed very casually and in ways that can be harmful, and I hate knowing that folks in larger bodies now have to deal with their doctors pushing these meds to them when they may not need or want them. I'm grateful they have been supportive for me...but I am also under no delusion that that could change, and hoping that I can use this time to recover and develop new ways of existing that are healthier for me mentally and physically.
Thank you so much for sharing. It’s so helpful to read your words and understand what you’ve been through and how this new medication is helping you, in so many ways. I’ve never been able to turn away from diet culture, and I don’t know if I ever will - or if I even want to. It’s so helpful to understand what others go through and know that many of us have struggles around food. It’s all so complicated. You are such a good communicator.
Thanks so much for reading and sharing. Idk if it is actually possible to escape diet culture- but I think we need to accept that each person is on their own path. I only want to be recovered my ED, and to help others recover, and to be honest about my experiences. I think when we start judging others for their personal decisions things can go massively haywire.
This is exactly why i am a paying subscriber. Your writing does such an amazing job of exploring and examining and delineating and articulating the complexities of your lived experience. Your boldness and vulnerability in revealing your inner life — and the smartness with which you interweave these observations with your awareness of the material and cultural conditions we share. Thank you so much. I don’t know if or when (hopefully the latter!) i’ll finally get back to my own writing life (hi grad school burnout) but you are a huge inspiration for getting there — and in the meantime it is such a nourishing pleasure to get to receive your words. You rock! (Also: sorry for my lack of engagement with your offering! Idk if it’s how much i have going on rn [a lot] or if the burnout is just still doing it’s thing; i guess we’ll see when it comes back online!)
Thank you so so much for these incredibly kind words. And you do not need to apologize!! I understand. We are all holding a lot right now and frankly I welcome the break as I get through the rest of the semester and the dang election.
Thanks for lifting the paywall! I really enjoyed reading it and agree with everything you said. I have taken liraglutide (Victoza), dulaglutide (Trulicity), and now tirzepitide (Mounjaro) for type two diabetes over the past six years and slowly lost weight without that being a goal. I have spent most of my life overweight, morbidly obese, also and when I wasn’t morbidly obese it was due to having lost 100 pounds multiple times in my life through various extreme measures, only to regain it over and over. My whole life was gaining and losing immense amounts of weight and in constant misery regarding it the whole time. Luckily I stumbled across a very good endocrinologist about 10 years ago and he led me through my diabetes journey, which I was not able to forestall through diet and exercise despite Herculean efforts through my entire adult (and half of childhood, let’s be honest) life. I consider these drugs to be miraculous and allow me to finally just live my life without being a slave to food. The way people speak of those who choose, for WHATEVER reason, to pursue these drugs with their medical professional, is so condescending and ignorant and wrong. It is wild how people who consider themselves caring “wellness” professionals will say things like “just pick up a weight” or make judgments without knowing any facts at all. I am also convinced that the “semaglutide abuser”, on the scale that the media would like us to believe exists, is just a straw man that doesn’t really exist. Maybe a few celebs and the rare individual, but most people who use these drugs do so for very valid reasons just like you and me. This is just another opportunity for the media and the sheeple to hate fat people openly while hiding it behind concern for them. Concern that people cant make their own medical decisions without knowing any their medical professionals. It is concern trolling. Fake concern. Anyways, thanks for your essay! ❤️
Thank you so much for sharing your experience- amazing that you found an excellent doctor, and that you have experienced so many benefits from these medications! I also think they are miraculous- and I want fatphobia and fat discrimination to end. Both can be true at the same time!
Wow, you held so many truths together in this piece in a way I’ve never seen anyone do, and reading it felt so liberating. I often think to myself, after reading a piece having to do with bodies, that it’s not possible to have a public conversation about bodies. The ways antifatness, dehumanization, the capitalist food industry, trauma, etc etc etc intersect with each body is so uniquely painful, there’s just no way to hold everyone’s pain. And it’s why I often feel erased as a reader about bodies (which I am because I am also recovering from an eating disorder). Maybe what we need is more of us writing the stories of our bodies in ways that extend compassion and welcome to all our past selves (our fattest selves, our disordered selves, our pursuing-weight-loss/management-out-of-terror-of-being-erased selves), and (crucially!) to believe one another’s stories.
Yes to ALL of this, Shaina. Thank you for being you.
This is a terrific, courageous story. One of the things I most admire about you as a writer is your willingness to share your inner life with the reader. It is giving me more courage to do the same in the book I am working on.
The story of GLP-1 receptor agonists is quite remarkable. Some biomedical scientists consider that this family of drugs will have enormous effects on public health. It is likely, and being studied now, that beyond weight management, these drugs improve overall health, reduce inflammation, may delay or reduce cognitive decline, and have other effects. I am deeply skeptical of many drugs that seem to be developed primarily to line the pockets of drug companies, but this family of drugs is different, with the potential to benefit humanity beyond its initial uses. From your narrative, it seems that you are beginning to enjoy some of the broader benefits of this drug.
Thank you, Tom- and you're right that there is a lot of incredible research happening. I recently saw one trial exploring the effect of these meds on opiate addiction. Truly groundbreaking!
One of the best things I’ve ever read! Really resonated for me!
That means so much to me!! Thank you ✨
Thank you for your vulnerability and a very in-depth explanation. So helpful to me both as a child of the 80’s (think Aerobicicise, Diet soda and popcorn diets, Bulimia, etc) and as a mother of kids who are dealing with depression, anxiety and an onslaught of opposing media images including AI/photoshopped bodies- we have so much dysphoria to consider. Also, as an autoimmune sufferer, very interesting to hear about this medicine as an inflammation reducer. 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽
Fellow child of the 80s here!!! And absolutely agree with everything you've said. Thank you so much for reading and sharing ❤️
Thank you for sharing this. Although there are so many people who are being inappropriately prescribed these drugs, that doesn't mean that you should feel any less worthy of taking them. Some of us anti-dieters and fat-activists lose sight of peoples lived experiences including their metabolisms. Yes, food liberation and dietary changes can help resolve food cravings, but that doesn't change the fact that some peoples bodies are less efficient at utilizing certain nutrients... GLP-1 agonists have helped so many people with "food noise" because it helps their body be more efficient at using glucose... while there are other folks that I've seen be put on it when they really just needed some guidance on balanced eating.
That being said - all of our bodies are different. All of our lived experiences are different. And sometimes we need some support to get through the damn day. Thank you so much for sharing your lived experience. <3 I hope in the anti-diet space we can actually have these nuanced conversations as opposed to simply making claims that they're happening.
I really appreciate your reflection, Stephanie. I agree that the medications are being prescribed very casually and in ways that can be harmful, and I hate knowing that folks in larger bodies now have to deal with their doctors pushing these meds to them when they may not need or want them. I'm grateful they have been supportive for me...but I am also under no delusion that that could change, and hoping that I can use this time to recover and develop new ways of existing that are healthier for me mentally and physically.
Thank you so much for sharing. It’s so helpful to read your words and understand what you’ve been through and how this new medication is helping you, in so many ways. I’ve never been able to turn away from diet culture, and I don’t know if I ever will - or if I even want to. It’s so helpful to understand what others go through and know that many of us have struggles around food. It’s all so complicated. You are such a good communicator.
Thanks so much for reading and sharing. Idk if it is actually possible to escape diet culture- but I think we need to accept that each person is on their own path. I only want to be recovered my ED, and to help others recover, and to be honest about my experiences. I think when we start judging others for their personal decisions things can go massively haywire.
Holy, moly, River. I felt like you were reading my mind. You were so courageous in outlining all of this. Thank you!!
Thank you so much Amanda!!
Oh and i forgot to say: i’m so so so happy for you that you are receiving these incredible benefits from this medication!!!!!
This is exactly why i am a paying subscriber. Your writing does such an amazing job of exploring and examining and delineating and articulating the complexities of your lived experience. Your boldness and vulnerability in revealing your inner life — and the smartness with which you interweave these observations with your awareness of the material and cultural conditions we share. Thank you so much. I don’t know if or when (hopefully the latter!) i’ll finally get back to my own writing life (hi grad school burnout) but you are a huge inspiration for getting there — and in the meantime it is such a nourishing pleasure to get to receive your words. You rock! (Also: sorry for my lack of engagement with your offering! Idk if it’s how much i have going on rn [a lot] or if the burnout is just still doing it’s thing; i guess we’ll see when it comes back online!)
Thank you so so much for these incredibly kind words. And you do not need to apologize!! I understand. We are all holding a lot right now and frankly I welcome the break as I get through the rest of the semester and the dang election.
Thanks for lifting the paywall! I really enjoyed reading it and agree with everything you said. I have taken liraglutide (Victoza), dulaglutide (Trulicity), and now tirzepitide (Mounjaro) for type two diabetes over the past six years and slowly lost weight without that being a goal. I have spent most of my life overweight, morbidly obese, also and when I wasn’t morbidly obese it was due to having lost 100 pounds multiple times in my life through various extreme measures, only to regain it over and over. My whole life was gaining and losing immense amounts of weight and in constant misery regarding it the whole time. Luckily I stumbled across a very good endocrinologist about 10 years ago and he led me through my diabetes journey, which I was not able to forestall through diet and exercise despite Herculean efforts through my entire adult (and half of childhood, let’s be honest) life. I consider these drugs to be miraculous and allow me to finally just live my life without being a slave to food. The way people speak of those who choose, for WHATEVER reason, to pursue these drugs with their medical professional, is so condescending and ignorant and wrong. It is wild how people who consider themselves caring “wellness” professionals will say things like “just pick up a weight” or make judgments without knowing any facts at all. I am also convinced that the “semaglutide abuser”, on the scale that the media would like us to believe exists, is just a straw man that doesn’t really exist. Maybe a few celebs and the rare individual, but most people who use these drugs do so for very valid reasons just like you and me. This is just another opportunity for the media and the sheeple to hate fat people openly while hiding it behind concern for them. Concern that people cant make their own medical decisions without knowing any their medical professionals. It is concern trolling. Fake concern. Anyways, thanks for your essay! ❤️
Thank you so much for sharing your experience- amazing that you found an excellent doctor, and that you have experienced so many benefits from these medications! I also think they are miraculous- and I want fatphobia and fat discrimination to end. Both can be true at the same time!
Typo should have said, concern that they can’t make their own medical decisions in consultation with their medical professionals. :)
Thank you!! I have edited this piece so much but I always miss something!!
No, I meant my typo! Haha. I would NEVER point out someone else’s. :)
Hahaha clearly I wouldn't be offended!!