You don’t need to suppress your appetite

TW: Talk about body image, weight loss, weight gain, fat shaming

Today it has been announced that a new drug is being used to help obese people suppress their appetite and lose “more than a fifth” of their body weight. The drug is taken via a weekly injection and is said to be ‘effortless’ when it comes to losing weight. Scientists have excitedly proclaimed this to be “a new era in treating obesity”.

I proclaim it to be yet more of the same old bullshit.

Suppressing your appetite isn’t good for your health

The drug in question, semaglutide, is used as a treatment for type 2 diabetes – fab. However in this case, the dosage is up so that on obese people, the weight comes down. This works by suppressing their appetite.

There are so many things wrong with this, primarily that appetite suppressants aren’t good for your health.

Honestly, people go on and on about how unhealthy obese people must be, but they’re happy with the idea of pushing appetite suppressants? What about that sounds healthy?

Your appetite is important. Yes, it can be altered by different factors in life, but generally speaking you need an appetite. It indicates when you’re hungry, if you need to eat more, when you’re full. Listening to your appetite allows you to nourish your body correctly.

Suppressing it certainly isn’t going to do your body any good when you’re hungry but not supplying your body with the food it needs.

Remember, at its core, food is fuel. If you don’t have enough fuel in your car, it stops running. That’s pretty much how food works with your body, too. Don’t eat enough, your body stops working. Therefore if you suppress your appetite, your body is going to start to flag – pretty quickly, too.

It appeals as a ‘quick fix’ to vulnerable people

We already know that there’s a body image crisis going on. Thanks in part to social media, people feel more insecure than ever before. We are constantly pushed the narrative that thinner = better, that fat = bad and that the only acceptable ‘flaws’ are the carefully displayed ones from “curvy” size 8 influencers who are labelled as ‘brave’.

For years now, many of us have been fighting against diet products promoted by influencers and celebrities, including appetite suppressants. Many people have been criticised for promoting them, and rightly so.

Yet now that a drug that can suppress your appetite is being offered by health professionals as “cure” for obesity, it’s suddenly… celebrated?

What’s changed? It’s certainly still the same quick fix that won’t work. If nothing else, it will appeal to vulnerable people who are struggling with body image and eating disorders who want to lose weight with as little effort and as in as little time as possible.

It’s not hard to imagine this drug quickly being swooped up and then sold as a ‘treatment’ from clinics and surgeries. All easily accessible to the main target group when it comes to weight loss and body image – young girls.

Come get your nails done, legs waxed and appetite suppressed for just £95! (I’m sure it would cost much, much more…but you get my drift)

Diets don’t work

The sickeningly ironic side to this news is that… this “cure”, this “treatment” doesn’t even work.

It. Doesn’t. Work.

Someone who participated in the trial of this drug has said that since stopping using the drug, her appetite has returned and she is putting weight back on. She has described herself as being in a “constant battle with food”.

WHAT A SURPRISE. Who could have predicted this?

Diets do not work. The very reason the diet industry is worth billions of pounds is because it is designed to fail. You invest in a group, or products, or whatever and as soon as you stop, the weight piles back on. So you invest all over again…and again…and again. It’s a vicious cycle, and until people break out if it, the industry will continue to thrive.

Thriving on our insecurities and body image issues. If that doesn’t disgust you to your core, I don’t know what to tell you.

The fact that this woman’s appetite came back shows that your body knows how much food you need, and when. Honestly, your body is a very smart thing and it knows what’s best for you! It’s important to listen to it and eat intuitively. If you’re hungry, eat!!!!

It’s okay if you lose weight

If you want to lose weight, then that’s your prerogative. If you need to lose weight for something, again, it’s something you have to do for you. I’m not talking about fitting into a bikini come the summer either, I mean a legitimate reason, like surgery.

This isn’t about being anti weight-loss. It’s about being deeply concerned about the fatphobia that runs rife in the U.K. About the way body image issues are dealt with, and the way bodies are portrayed and talked about in mainstream media.

We are now living in 2021. It should not be hard to accept that everyone’s body is different. Some people are fat, some are not. It’s usually a person’s own choice to look the way they do, to eat what they want to it. If you’re ever ready to judge, I suggest you just butt out.

If you lose weight, that’s fine – but I think it’s important to make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons and remembering that you don’t have to look like anyone else. You don’t have to be a certain way. If that’s why you’re losing weight, they’re the wrong reasons and I would advise you reevaluate.

Pills, suppressing your appetite and weight loss clubs won’t work

They’re all short term. What happens when you stop taking the pills, when you leave the weight loss club and don’t have weigh ins anymore? What then?

More often than not, the weight piles back on. Just like it did with the woman in this clinical trial, and just like it does for almost everyone who takes up a diet.

They are designed to fail.

Because it’s not about your health, your weight, your body. They don’t care what you look like or what you eat or how you feel. They just want your cash lining their pockets.

Break free from the cycle and stop contributing to this toxic industry. It can only last as long as we let it.

If you’re struggling with weight, body image issues, diets etc, there are some great things you can do to help:

• Follow some of the right people on Instagram. Some of my favourites include Alice, Ashlee, Brittany, Kenzie and Mollie
• Try to start eating intuitively. It takes a lot of practice, a lot of effort after years of not doing it but it works. It’s about going back to basics and listening to your body
• Read empowering materials, such as Fattily Ever After by Stephanie Yeboah and Body Positive Power by Megan Jayne Crabbe
• Take regular breaks from social media and mainstream media. That means less TV, less magazines and therefore less advertisements that push the diet industry down your throat.
• Start practicing self love and trying to boost your body confidence. Small baby steps each day can help towards feeling better in your body more often than not.
• Share the load! Speak to someone, if only to offload. Sometimes the worries and stresses about our bodies can really eat us up (pardon the pun) and make us feel truly terrible. It’s important to speak up if you’re struggling and remember that you’re not alone.

Above all else, you should remember that you are so much more than your body; your physical appearance is probably the least interesting thing about you. So start giving energy to more positive things, more important things. You’ll feel so much happier, I guarantee it.

Love from, Florence Grace