I have noticed over the past 12 months many clients have been prescribed glp 1 agonist medications and much if not all have successfully lost weight.
I am curious what the teams thoughts are on how this might impact health coaching as a whole? It can be very difficult to help individuals become more mindful when eating, planning and managing emotions around food (everyday noise).
It seems like for many individuals who just want to “lose weight” these drugs are working wonders. Not need to put in anywhere near as much effort.
It feels like it doesn’t even make sense for someone trying to lose weight to work on their behaviours if they can wipe out any food noise and cravings. I have even had clients say they no longer need coaching support since these medications have been so potent.
I am curious how you think this might impact the fat loss/weight loss coaching space.
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I think that the anti-obesity medications, e.g. Zepbound and Wegovy, increase the likelihood that someone will eat a healthier diet and be more active. At least that’s what is starting to emerge from the evidence, though individuals will vary of course. Contrary to your statement about effort, I think these individuals are putting in the same amount of effort as before, but getting more out of them. I also would not agree that people with obesity were generally not putting in a lot of effort prior to using these medications.
In other words, I don’t think they were lazy or stupid. I think weight loss is very hard, especially maintaining it.
To that end, I think most weight loss coaches should have been out of a job a long time ago, as they are generally not very good at their chosen profession despite the selection bias. I think that their will be a shift for potentially more people to use good coaches for shorter periods of time to help learn what to do if there are gaps there, and some will likely maintain the relationship for their own reasons. I think that coaches will likely get better results than ever before due to these new tools.
Just my 0.02.
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Thanks for the reply, I didn’t mean that people with obesity don’t put in a lot of effort or are lazy, that would never be my stance. At least I did not mean it to come across that way. I am fully aware of the Biopsychosocial Model of Obesity.
What I meant is certain individuals have to really put in a lot of effort to notice and respond to emotional and mindless eating behaviours, such as logging emotions, tracking when cravings arise and so on. All of which is extremely hard and goes beyond what many expect to have to do to get healthy.
As such, I have experienced that for my n=1, many of these individuals just don’t have a desire to eat anymore or do not get the same pleasure reward. I have seen individuals who really try and struggle, have fantastic results from using these. At the same time, others who don’t appear* to want to put in much effort also have the same effects (often just forgetting to eat).
It seems like a “no-brainer” for anyone wanting to lose fat to use these medications if they get their hands on them? Even for those who consider themselves very disciplined, fat loss still can be difficult and I believe why you’re seeing some bodybuilders starting to use them for competitions too.
Bodybuilders have been using GLP1’s for a long time, all the way back to Byetta, but that’s another story.
I think what you’re observing is that dietary practices are mostly infuenced by subconscious processes. Generally speaking, I don’t think most people can try harder for success in weight management.
I have few concerns regarding people using these for weight loss, with recreational use likely being much safer than other options that were previously available.