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For generations, we've searched for new ways to make bodies smaller.

The methods have changed. The underlying premise has not.

The body responds negativley to undernourishment regardless of how it occurs.

Questioning the goal can be as important as evaluating the method.

A few weeks ago, while preparing for a training on GLP-1 medications, I found myself going down a rabbit hole. What started as research on today's medications quickly turned into an unexpected history lesson about Lord Byron drinking vinegar to suppress his appetite, Horace Fletcher insisting people chew each bite until it liquefied, rubber garments promising to "draw the fat completely away," and amphetamines marketed to housewives as a way to stay slim while doing the laundry. It would all be amusing if it weren't so familiar and so harmful. The deeper I went, the more one question stayed with me: What might the last two hundred years of weight-loss history teach us about this moment?

The Same Story, Different Decade

The answer, I realized, is that every generation seems convinced it has finally found the answer to the question, "How do I lose weight?" In the 1920s, cigarettes were marketed as a way to curb appetite. By the 1950s, the sugar industry was running ads claiming a spoonful of sugar gave people the "willpower to undereat." Fast forward to the 1990s, and Fen-Phen was prescribed to about six million Americans before being withdrawn because of its association with heart valve disease (ACHI, 2024). Seen in that context, today's conversations about GLP-1 medications feel less like the beginning of a completely new story and more like the latest chapter in a much longer one.

I understand the appeal. I've worked with people who spent years cycling through diets that failed to deliver on their promises. Many blamed themselves instead of recognizing that consistently eating less than their bodies needed was always going to have consequences. When something new comes along, it's understandable to wonder whether this time really is different.

What Changed and What Hasn't

What interests me isn't........

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