For decades, we argued about why people get fat. 

Was it carbs? Fat? Genetics? Willpower? Metabolism? So many competing theories, so much conflicting data.

Then came drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy—and they ran the experiment for us.

Millions of people who swore they couldn’t lose weight started losing weight. Same people. Same genes. Same lives. 

GLP-1 drugs didn’t just create a new treatment for obesity. They ended a debate.

Turns out when you give people a tool that actually reduces appetite, they eat less and lose weight. 

Almost like it was a calorie problem all along.

Don’t believe me?

GLP-1s have already dismembered several of the most common excuses for staying fat.

“It’s my genetics.”

Scientists have identified specific genes that make people hungrier, harder to satisfy after eating, and more drawn to junk food. 

The most common one is called MC4R, and it indeed produces real, measurable biological disadvantages that predispose carriers to obesity.

But GLP-1 research shows the drugs work just as well for people with this “obesity gene” as for everyone else. Similar findings have been demonstrated in people carrying other genes associated with fatness.

So, while DNA might help explain why someone got fat, it doesn’t stop them from losing weight when they eat less food.

“It’s my menopause and/or PCOS.”

For many women, menopause feels like the fat loss final boss on Nightmare Mode.

But then GLP-1 data shows these drugs work just as well for menopausal women as for younger ones. 

And in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)—a hormonal condition linked to weight gain and insulin problems—GLP-1s produce meaningful weight loss and improvements in blood sugar.

“It’s my medication.”

Many psychiatric drugs cause serious weight gain. For instance, clozapine is used to treat severe schizophrenia, and it packs on the pounds. 

A recent trial gave these patients Ozempic-style drugs alongside their psychiatric medication. And they lost weight. And their psychiatric symptoms didn’t get worse. 

“It’s my crazy appetite.”

Some people don’t just have mysteriously outsized appetites—the “hunger center” of their brain is damaged.

For these people, appetite isn’t just hard to manage—the control system itself is physically broken.

And yet in one case series of four women with this kind of brain damage, they lost ~17% of their body weight on these drugs and kept it off for two years.

The bottom line?

The pattern keeps repeating. 

Researchers test GLP-1 drugs on people with rare genetic syndromes that cause extreme hunger. They work. They test them on people with hormone disorders. They work. They test them on people whose obesity seemed completely hopeless. They work.

So far, the primary variables that actually affect how well these drugs work appear to be:

  • Whether you’re male or female
  • Whether you have diabetes
  • How heavy you are when you start
  • Whether you keep taking them

That’s it. Not your genes. Not your thyroid. Not your hormones. Not menopause.

Thus, the existence of GLP-1 drugs proves that for 99% of people, the “root cause” of their obesity isn’t a mysterious metabolic glitch, a thyroid issue, or a toxin.

They simply are eating too much food.

Scientific References +