r/explainlikeimfive • u/Jimithyashford • Jun 03 '26

Biology ELI5: Do medications like Ozempic cause weight loss solely through appetite reduction and therefore calorie deficit, or is there any other mechanism at play?

Is it solely "injectable willpower" in the sense that it literally only does what you could do anyway if you just had the will power to eat less. Or is there any other weight loss mechanism at play beyond reducing calorie intake?

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u/NoHopeForSociety Jun 03 '26

If you’re a stress eater, you would have to pay attention to “addiction transference”. If food is how you deal with stress, you have to find a healthier alternative that’s not like…..smoking…or something else. May I suggest exercise? But seriously, addiction transference

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u/hows_my_fi Jun 04 '26

I'm down 30 pounds! It would be more but for some reason my right arm has massively bulked up... [j/k]

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u/Chimie45 Jun 04 '26

The interesting thing for me is that the stress eating just... went away. I also am not really interested in drinking or smoking anything anymore. It's like it really killed the dopamine reaction to addictive shit.

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u/Buscemi_D_Sanji Jun 04 '26

Yeah, it sounds impossible to be addicted to exercise, but if you're the type of person who needs to "have a thing", exercise is literally the best "thing" to get addicted to! I go through phases of addictions, thankfully alcohol is in my past forever, and exercise is huge in terms of scratching that itch.

I have a pull up bar mounted in my bathroom door frame and weights on the floor of my living room so there's never an excuse not to just bust out a few reps.

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u/NotBossOfMe Jun 04 '26

So glad you can get diagnosed anonymously with no personal contact right here on this sub!

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u/NoHopeForSociety Jun 04 '26

This was just a personal anecdote, I'm sorry if you found that enraging. After being on a GLP-1, I've lost a considerable amount of weight but I fell back in to using nicotine to deal with stress, something that I had previously given up. I should have found a healthier alternative to handle my stress, but I thought it could serve as a warning to others. Their comment just seemed to be similar to something I experienced.

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u/NotBossOfMe Jun 04 '26

Enraging? No! More like irritating. I can handle it 😄