Glucagon-like peptide-1 agonism - GLP-1, common in obesity medicines - is not essential to weight management, according to preclinical research led by Richard DiMarchi and Matthias Tschöp, with funding from their startup company Bluewater Biosciences.
There’s actually a phenomenon where Americans move abroad, and suddenly start losing a ton of weight. Not because they consciously changed their eating habits, but simply because the food that is available in the foreign stores and restaurants is healthier.
American grocery stores tend to prioritize convenience and unhealthy foods. You have to really search to find anything that is worthwhile, even when the store is packed full of food. There’s a ton of variety in American grocery stores, (Europeans are always baffled by the entire aisle dedicated to breakfast cereals), but basically none of it is healthy. So Americans naturally end up buying lots of unhealthy shit, simply because it’s all they realistically have access to.
But then that gets flipped on its head when those Americans move abroad. Suddenly, the stores they’re shopping at aren’t full of junk. And so they naturally start losing lots of weight. Many Europeans assume that Americans are simply complacent with their weight, but the reality is that the entire infrastructure surrounding them is singularly focused on keeping them fat.
Yes, also walking to the store, walking to work. I don’t use my car much - arranged my life so that I can get everywhere I need to, mostly, without driving but that is unusual as fuck where I live, everyone else in my office arrives by car. I am not usually the only bike in the rack at the grocery but maybe 3, 4 bikes and a hundred cars in the lot. No bike rack at my doctors’ offices, nor dentist, nor aesthetician. None at restaurants.
Walking a lot or even biking on e-bike everywhere like I do, makes a difference in what you can eat without getting fat. But also I cook at home, from ingredients, do make sweet stuff for the kids & husband but don’t like it much myself. Grow some of our food, and lunch biggest meal.
I don’t think it’s impossible here, to have a reasonable lifestyle, I do it and am not an unusual person, not super rich or super ambitious or determined. I do think it’s more difficult and you have to be intentional AND either be lucky (city grew up around me) or flush with money, to create a life that is the “fifteen minute bubble” with everything nearby.
So did I; unfortunately that means not having to leave my house. So I offset that with self-mandated walks and runs.
I actually made a comment about walking elsewhere in the thread, just a few minutes ago.
I saw that recently in a video about food in Japan. Japanese people going to Western countries and gaining like 25 pounds in a couple of months, then returning to Japan and shedding it within weeks.
Sugar content, portion size, nutrition vs empty calories and other factors…