The Hunger

I'm not saying it's a conspiracy, but it is kind of interesting that first there's a Pandemic and quote-unquote everyone has to get the shot. The shot (and to be fair, the virus itself) seems to have far-reaching unknown and known side effects including potential fertility consequences, cardiac symptoms, and ... weight gain.

The Pandemic ends (somewhat anti-climatically) and all of a sudden, the algorithms of all things social media are flooded with GLP-1 medication ads and stories about the miracle drug that was created for diabetics but proves to help scads of people with pesky pandemic weight gain start losing pounds again. Oh, and it seems to have some long-term cardiac benefits, too. Eyebrows raised, anyone?

So yeah, I tried it.

I gained between forty and sixty pounds around 2020. I don't know for sure because I went for a year where I refused to weigh myself. Might have been the shot, might have been stress, might have been hormones. Definitely didn't help that I stopped running and started eating my feelings instead.

When I did decide to get it back under control in 2022, it seemed like I was powerless. The low-carb-high-fat diet that worked splendidly for me in the past was no longer working. I would get super-regimented with my diet and workout for two weeks and lose five or six pounds, only to gain it back in a day or two of rest.

Finally, I asked the hormone doctor I'd been seeing for the last year or so about this new fabulous weight-loss medication everyone was talking about. I didn't care that it was expensive, or that you have to inject it. I just wanted the half-closet full of clothes I couldn't wear to be wearable again. I wanted to run again and not feel like I was carrying a twenty-five-pound body-suit of fat over my once-lean muscles. I wasn't looking for a quick fix, and I was willing to put in the work, but I needed some kind of help. An edge. A boost.

Enter, semaglutide.

Let me start by saying I quit taking it about a month ago. And yes, I'm low-key terrified that the forty pounds I lost in six months will just show back up overight and laugh at me. But honestly, I don't really care, because here's what I learned during my partnership with a 'miracle drug'.

They start you off with a small dose, so your body gets used to it. You'll start noticing that you're not hungry. And it's a different 'not hungry' than you experience on stimulants like ADHD meds or phentermine- in my experience with those meds, your body feels hungry but your brain is opposed to food. The brain seems to have the power to tell the body ignore that rumble in your gut and the body plays along. But you do know that you're hungry, and that you should eat.

With GLP-1 inhibitors, the body stops being hungry. And it's great. At first.

Let me be clear here. It's really nice to live in a body that isn't constantly wondering what's for dinner. It's like a reprieve from being human. It's one less thing to worry about. It even tanks your taste for alcohol, so that two-glass-of-wine habit is finally easy to break. It's not that your brain is overriding hunger, it's that hunger is gone.

When I started running with a coach again, she asked me to get off the semaglutide. She researched it and had major concerns as to how it would affect my training. I agreed to come off of it once I reached a place where I felt like I could rely on my body. I got to the place a couple of months ago, and let me tell you something.

I missed being hungry.

When my appetite returned, I noticed it in a big way. I feared it, a little- because OH MY GOD WHAT IF I ACTUALLY AM HUNGRY AND WHAT IF I ACTUALLY EAT FOOD....

I realized something that everyone seems to be missing about the miracle weight loss drug (that may or may not be a bazillion-dollar conspiracy related to COVID, IMHO) ....

We were MADE to be hungry. We were made to crave... to NEED food and water and sex and all kinds of things. When we eliminate that hunger, sure, a lot of things are easier because where there's a hunger yin there's always a yang- a need for self-control, discipline, and moderation. Eliminating the hunger eliminates our capacity to self-regulate. To become better, because we have to.

I am absolutely not judging anyone who's taking the med, who loves it or intends to stay on it indefinitely. I just think that it's something no one's talking about... that the real danger in the miracle of GLP-1 drugs is that we're silently trading one demon for another. All the while, of course, Big Pharma gets to rule the narrative that the drug they developed for diabetics will also help everyone.

As long as you stay on it.

I like a good conspiracy theory, and this is one of them. Big Pharma has a hunger of its own; it's not enough to rake in billions of dollars on the backs of people sick with horrible diseases. Hell, it's not even enough to corner the market on vaccines. Let's go after pudgy people. Hungry people. Men with dadbods and gym memberships they never use. Busy wine moms who can no longer afford their BeachBody online subscriptions. Let's just take them all. And make them weaker by taking away their innate ability to survive.

Hunger, like pain, is how we know we're still alive. Hunger is on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs; it's literally one of the first things we rely on to assess our own well-being. To determine what we need. If you eliminate hunger, sure, you'll eat less and lose weight. But you'll also lose control without ever really knowing it.