The Hidden Dangers of Weight Loss Drugs and the Power of Lifestyle Change

Weight loss medications like Ozempic have been making waves for their off-label use, but at what cost to our overall health and sustainability of weight management? I, Anthony Amen, dive into the complex world of semiglutide, unearthing the reality behind this type 2 diabetes drug now trending for weight loss. In this candid discussion, we peel back the curtain on the risks associated with such drugs, from gastrointestinal distress to the alarming potential for thyroid cancer. More than a cautionary tale, this episode is a clarion call for a shift from quick fixes to meaningful lifestyle transformations that last a lifetime.

Transform your family's health narrative and step away from being lifelong patients with a new perspective on wellness. This episode is not just about critiquing the temporary allure of procedures like liposuction; it's a rally cry for embracing the long-term benefits of a fitness-focused lifestyle. Together, we examine how diet, exercise, and building muscle can revolutionize our metabolic rate and vitality, ensuring a future where the legacy we pass on is one of health and vigor, not dependency on medical interventions. Join me on this platform shift, as we commit to the mantra that true fitness is our best medicine.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:11

Hello and welcome to another episode of Health and Fitness Redefined. I'm your host, anthony Amen. Today we're going to talk about something that's been all over the market, and I'm really excited to actually bring this topic to all of you. So let's just first start with the fact that we are officially off YouTube, guys, that is, you'll no longer find these episodes on YouTube. So if you're listening, you're listening on audio or on our one and only video platform, rumble going on. Now we're doing this so we can have episodes like this. We can talk about exactly what I've seen in my industry. I can talk about exactly what's going on in the world, although it hasn't been late to Health and Fitness and not to worry about my episodes being cut off and deemed non-watchable by YouTube, which has happened quite a few times. If you notice, they don't really directly line up.

Speaker 1: 1:02

So, without further ado, let's dive into today's quick tip episode of Ozempic, or the drug name semiglutide. Semiglutide is a inhibitor that basically increases your insulin to help drop your blood sugar, and it is effective with those that do have type 2 diabetes. It does keep their blood sugar in check, because we all know hyperglycemia can lead to a world of issues. Sugar in check, because we all know hyperglycemia can lead to a world of issues. I mean blindness, leg loss, you name it. Tetradiabetes is absolutely no fun. The issue, then, concern, of what's been going on is that people have been using this for weight loss, and before we dive into like the nitty gritty of the drug itself, I'm just going to be straight with all of you right now and if you're watching the episode off right here, that's totally okay. Diets, pills, don't work. Period. It doesn't matter what new drug comes out. It doesn't matter what new diet comes out.

Speaker 1: 1:58

The moral of all of this is that, yeah, if you want a quick fix, too bad, it's not going to work. You really need to make lifestyle changes and habit changes in order to sustain things going on for the rest of your life. So this may make you lose 100 pounds, but you're going to gain 110 pounds back. So what really good would that do is put you on a wild rollercoaster of issues, like you've seen with the keto diet or the paleo diet or intermittent fasting or I don't know. Pick something and insert here the Atkins diet. There's so many things that have been out in the market that really haven't worked out well for people.

Speaker 1: 2:39

I just want people to understand that there is a way to lose fat for good, and if it says lose fat quickly, that's when you run away. Instead, you have to put the hard work in and you need to change your life, and you can only do that through lifestyle and your intervention. Starting with the foods you eat, continuing on to the gym, making sure you're building enough muscle to increase your metabolic rate, having a higher metabolic rate. Now, when you're eating less, you're burning more, so you don't really start seeing the weight pile off that way. Plus, you're going to feel better, live longer and not have a plethora of other issues that come with a lot of other stuff. So, anyway, let's talk about the good. The good is Zempic, or some of Glutide, has actually been shown to lose a decent amount of weight for people based upon placebos. They've shown 17%, based on some PubMed studies I was reading earlier, compared to those that did have straight lifestyle interventions. Yeah, that's great, but, anthony, what are the issues with that? That sounds awesome. I've been wanting to lose this weight 17% quicker. Sounds amazing. If I can get this weight off, why wouldn't I do it?

Speaker 1: 3:49

Well, let's start with the thing that everyone seems to be getting, which is gastrointestinal issues. What I mean by that is nausea, vomiting diarrhea. When you're going to increase higher levels of insulin you're going to be really run down and dragged. You're going to be experiencing hypoglycemia Maybe not to the effect where it's going to cause issues, but the fact you're going to feel it and I'm sure if you've seen somebody that's taken it, they always talk about how you just kind of feel groggy and sluggish the first few weeks that you're on it as you're increasing your dosage, and that grogginess is hypoglycemia. I'm sure you've gone days where you really didn't forget, forgot to eat. I'm sure you've gone days where you really didn't forget, forgot to eat. I've been there. You're so stressed You're running around, five o'clock hits, you haven't had lunch and you're like, oh my God, this world is dragging and that's really just having low blood sugar. A quick meal will perk you back up and get you going, but this seems to have that effect happening to almost everybody that's taking it. The nausea, the vomiting diarrhea, is a common side effect, not with everybody, but a lot of people have reported issues for it, especially loss of appetite, and that's kind of related to the hypoglycemia.

Speaker 1: 4:55

When you're not craving food. You're gonna have a tendency to forget to skip meals more often and everything's just gonna look like, wow, you're gonna look at that pizza and you go. I really don't want anything that also works in the side effect of healthy food, like you're not even going to want to eat grilled chicken. You're going to look at it and go. I just want to fit nothing in my stomach forever and I will be okay. So huge red flag for me, but some people are okay with that.

Speaker 1: 5:22

The bigger issues that have arised, just as far as what's been shown. There's been a lot of studies with mice. It hasn't been shown in human trials yet, just to be frank, but thyroid cancer seems to be coming up a lot, especially those that are prone to it and have some genetic predisposition. There is a high rate of associated with thyroid cancer. When it came to studies of mice, they are currently studying that, I said for humans, but that alone would scare the shit out of me. Thyroid cancer is not something. You want to play with your thyroid and you're going to screw metabolisms up for the rest of your life, so not fun.

Speaker 1: 5:57

The other thing on that was kidney damage. A lot of people were reporting kidney issues. I was talking to one of my cousins who was a PA in a hospital, an ER, and he was talking about high increases of kidney damage from people taking the semi-glutide. This is the same thing as everything. Not everyone's going to have issues right. So you could take it and have absolutely no issues and be totally fine, or you could take it and this could happen. You know what doesn't have all these side effects Eating healthier and exercising Doesn't that sound so much better? Side effect may sweat. That's pretty much about it. Another issue people having with semi-glutide is racing hearts and some heart palpitation issues. So if you're someone who suffers from afib, that's where we do not take semi-glutide, because it can have throw your part back into AFib and that's not fun for anybody, for those who haven't had it. So something to think about when exploring this option.

Speaker 1: 6:52

The other thing I looked at was the costs associated. You're looking at around $1,000 a month and you need to do this. It looks like for about three to six months to really get results. So you're talking from $3,000 to $6,000 just to take a drug. That's going to make you feel like shit, but don't worry, you'll lose weight and then the other side of it is after those that came off of some aglutide, and this is something we see with every single diet across the world period, every single drug across the world period. There's always a rebound effect. 66% of people have gained that weight back plus. So they lost 100 pounds, gained 100 pounds back plus some. And that comes down to not having those lifestyle changes. If you don't change the way you eat, it doesn't matter what you do.

Speaker 1: 7:35

Standing with gastric bypass surgery which I think is way worse personally and screw it. Let's touch up on that now, just to get that out of the way. I have personally done two studies. I know it just doesn't show proof in the scientific community. Oh my God. He tested two people, that's nothing, but that's all I had at the time. So I measured body fat before and after gastric bypass and kind of shocking or not shocking if you know the industry both clients lost about 100 pounds, right?

Speaker 1: 8:06

So that's 100 pounds of weight after undergoing Gatchit bypass. They're body fat, meaning the percentage of their weight that is fat was exactly the same. So what does that mean? Yes, they lost fat, right, because it's a percentage. So if they were 33%, let's say, out of a hundred pounds that they lost? They lost 33 pounds of fat. But that means what are they losing? They're 70%, and that would be muscle.

Speaker 1: 8:36

So they've burned through their entire muscle tissue because they haven't been able to sustain the amount of protein intake that they need to hold on to muscle. Because they don't eat. And that's the same thing, going back to something like glutargine. If you don't eat and you don't have enough protein in your diet, your body's going to burn your muscle mass because it's saying to itself oh my God, help me, we're in starvation mode, there's no food around. Let's eat our muscle up. Anthony, why are they eating my muscle up? Because if you were in the wilderness and you have a lot of muscle and your body didn't eat your muscle up, you die quicker. You die quicker because your metabolic rate is higher. Your metabolic rate how many calories a day you're burning at rest? So your body is like staying alive, staying alive and just chopping away your muscle as it's singing that song, going through to help drop your metabolic rate so you can live longer. Because it's thinking there's no food around and we don't have that issue in society anymore. There's food everywhere. So this is where you're going to get that decrease in muscle mass and your fat is not going to change whatsoever.

Speaker 1: 9:43

So, with these people truly healthier? We've talked time and time again how BMI is not accurate whatsoever and you truly need to look at somebody's body fat percentage to understand how healthy they are. So if we're saying the body fat percentage is exactly the same, they're in the same exact situation that they were in 100 pounds ago, except now it's worse because now, for the rest of their lives, for those that get gastric bypass, can't eat real food anymore. They can't do it. You need small meals and then what ends up happening is people like having a little alcohol and they don't eat because they know they can't drink because they get such little amounts. And you need to drink protein drinks for the rest of your life because you physically can't get enough protein down just by eating, because you get full too quickly. So it just doesn't work.

Speaker 1: 10:32

But yet again, your insurance company will go pay for a gastric bypass because all they care about is BMI, which is absolutely ridiculous. But same thing, leading into Zepic People saying they have high blood sugar, even though they don't, just to get the weight loss drug. So the insurance companies will cover it. And yet again insurance companies covering things that do absolutely no good for us. You know, when insurance companies want to start covering personal training, then let's have a serious conversation about how we can change people's lives, but apparently it's not good enough for them. So instead we're going to keep people sick and keep them coming back because they want a client for life. All these issues just don't seem to add up. If you don't make lifestyle changes, why put your body through hell on getting gastric bypass or taking semi-glutide and have all these adverse reactions? I mean, thyroid cancer is getting the shit out of me. I don't know about you guys, but it's not something that's worth the risk.

Speaker 1: 11:31

You can make small changes and this is the little things we've talked about, just small changes in your everyday life. Walk to your mailbox and back. If that's something you've never done before, that's fantastic. Next, walk to the end of your block and back that's fantastic. Make the smart decision just of parking further away when you go out. Park a couple spots, the park coast. Let's further get more walking in. Throw in a local gym, you know, if you don't need money, it's fine. There's so many options you can do just to move more when you're on the phone. Walk, walk and talk gets me like 6,000 steps a day just because I'll just talk to my phone and pace my house Great, instead of sitting down and doing it. Don't watch TV at night. Go for a family walk and do some family bonding. Go for unfried options. Don't go out to fast food. Limit your sugar intake. I mean these are really simple steps.

Speaker 1: 12:25

You want to really boost your metabolism. Cut alcohol off for a month. By week three, I guarantee you're going to feel your metabolism revving and you're going to become banished and you're like, wow, I need food Because you're just like. Your body just starts ramping up at that point and your BMR group really starts getting cranky because it doesn't have alcohol slowing it down, or it doesn't have semi-glutide slowing it down. It doesn't have gastric bypass slowing it down, it doesn't have the keto diet slowing it down.

Speaker 1: 12:51

All these things that are ultimately dropping our metabolic rate and doing permanent damage to us in some sense, especially for some of them. It just makes you think and I don't want to beat a dead horse, but before you go ahead and make a decision to go drop all this money on this crazy quick, fast procedure, even liposuction let's get rid of the fat and draw it out. We're just going to get it back, and is it really worth it? Maybe next time look into how can I change my life and maybe start looking for lifestyle changes and talk to people around you, and especially your significant other and your kids and your immediate family, and say, hey, let's do this together. Let's figure out ways to live better, let's figure out ways to live longer, let's figure out ways to stay out of the hospital, let's figure out ways to avoid going to the doctor and not give them a patient for life, but yet take my life back.

Speaker 1: 13:48

So, with that guys, that's our first non-YouTube episode. It's good to see you on Rumble if you want to watch the video, and we will see you next time on Health and Fitness Redefined. Don't forget, fitness is medicine, medicine. Until next time. Outro Music.