Growing up, I wasn’t the picture of a fitness guru or health aficionado. As a child struggling with being overweight, I often turned to food for comfort, control, and as a way to bond with family members who had difficulty expressing themselves in healthier ways.

Long before I could grasp the full scope of emotions like fear, anger, and anxiety, I relied on food to help manage them.

My journey pivoted not because of a diet, but thanks to my mother’s perceptive decision to enroll me in martial arts. Her intention wasn’t to help me lose weight, but rather to provide an outlet for my energy, instill a sense of inner strength, and build confidence from within.

This foundation was transformative. As my self-esteem flourished, so did my belief in the possibility of changing my body. I began to embrace physical activity more and adopted portion control in a straightforward manner—by eating half of what was served, opting for wholesome foods over processed ones, and cultivating discipline through small, consistent choices.

The process was gradual, far from perfect, and entirely human, but it proved effective because it transformed me as a person, not just my habits.

Recently, as I listened to a doctor on a panel discuss GLP-1 drugs as the ultimate weight loss solution—the miracle cure, the future of medical treatment—I understood the allure. Having experienced the challenging path firsthand, I know the true cost of meaningful change.

I also know this: the only reason these drugs seem miraculous is because our food environment has become so toxic, so engineered against human biology, that achieving a calorie deficit now feels impossible without pharmaceutical help.

But underneath all the breathless claims of medicalized weight loss lies a simple truth: weight loss is reduced caloric intake and better blood sugar control. That is it.

I wasn’t born a fitness expert or a health enthusiast. I was an overweight kid who used food the way a lot of struggling children do — as comfort, as control and sometimes as the only way to connect with family members who didn’t know how to show up in healthier ways

I learned portion control the old-fashioned way — eating half of what I was served, choosing real food over processed garbage and building discipline one small decision at a time

GLP-1 drugs do not supercharge metabolism or rewrite human physiology. They work by slowing gastric emptying so food stays in your stomach longer, prolonging fullness, and by acting on appetite-regulating centers of the brain to quiet the dopamine-driven food noise that ultra-processed foods have conditioned into so many of us.

These drugs are not performing metabolic wizardry – they simply make a calorie deficit achievable in a food environment engineered to make it almost impossible on your own.

But it hasn’t always been this way.

If you go back just a few decades, it was not this hard. In the 1970s, obesity rates were a fraction of what they are today, not because more people were on Ozempic, but because the food supply had not yet been industrially redesigned.

The explosion of ultra-processed foods changed everything. They combine sugar, refined starches, industrial fats and chemical flavor enhancers in a way that overstimulates dopamine and overrides the natural ‘I’m full’ feedback loop. Their soft, low-fiber textures dissolve quickly, letting you consume huge amounts before your gut even has time to register volume.

And because some of these offerings contain virtually no protein, fiber or healthy fats, the nutrients that naturally stimulate satiety hormones, they fail to activate your body’s fullness chemistry. Instead, they create rapid spikes in blood sugar and insulin, followed by the crash that triggers hunger, irritability, cravings and the impulse to overeat again.

The result? You are hungrier after eating them, not because you lack discipline, but because the foods were scientifically designed to make stopping nearly impossible.

This is exactly why some clinicians now tell patients not to bother trying to lose weight without drugs. In a food landscape engineered to drive overeating, most people will fail.

But that also means the drugs do not fix the root problem.

Basing your long-term health on a drug because the food environment is broken is an insane, terrible long-term strategy. These medications come with real risks: gastroparesis, malnutrition, muscle loss, nausea, vomiting, gallbladder issues, severe GI dysfunction and emerging concerns about pancreatic effects. Even the manufacturers list these warnings plainly.

And every major meta-analyses shows the same sobering pattern: when people stop the drug, they regain the weight, and often more. Not because they failed, but because the medication never rebuilt healthy appetite signaling, metabolic resilience or muscle tissue.

The result is predictable: weight comes back on a body with less muscle, lower metabolic capacity and greater vulnerability than before.

The turning point didn’t come from a diet. It came from my mother, who had the foresight to put me in martial arts

Basing your long-term health on a drug because the food environment is broken is an insane, terrible long-term strategy

That is not a path to health. It is a biochemical holding pattern with no exit ramp.

For fast, meaningful weight loss, women should aim for 1,200 to 1,400 calories a day and men for 1,600 to 1,800, with unlimited non-starchy vegetables added on top. These greens are essentially free, high-fiber, low-calorie, high-volume foods that increase fullness.

Any fitness tracker, Apple Watch, Garmin, Whoop, can estimate daily calorie burn with enough accuracy for real-life decision-making.

And if you are thinking, ‘I know what to do, I just can’t figure out how to do it,’ here is how:

Start with a 30-day ultra-processed food detox. Not deprivation, liberation. For 30 days, remove the engineered foods that keep you inflamed, exhausted, hormonally dysregulated and chronically hungry: the packaged snacks, fast-food meals, sugary drinks, frozen dinners, boxed cereals, protein bars pretending to be health food, and the endless chips, cookies, crackers, candy that never came from a farm or a kitchen. This won’t be easy, but it will be worth it and it will get easier.

Within weeks, cravings recalibrate. Taste buds reset. Hunger signals normalize. Blood sugar flattens. Energy levels stabilize. You stop fighting your own biology.

Then rebuild with foods that support human physiology: whole foods that stabilize blood sugar, reduce inflammation, feed your microbiome and activate satiety hormones naturally. If it came from the ground or had a mother, it is real food. If it did not, it is a lab experiment.

And do not underestimate the power of the basics: fiber and protein. Fiber feeds your gut bacteria, which regulate immunity, mood, inflammation and metabolic health. Protein keeps you full, preserves lean muscle, fuels recovery and maintains a higher metabolic rate as you age. Together, they anchor appetite and counteract the biochemical chaos created by ultra-processed foods.

Finally, while I suggest you strength train four to five times a week, even the simplest baseline habit, a consistent 5,000-step daily goal, changes everything. It steadies blood sugar, reduces inflammation, improves metabolic health and quietly increases daily calorie burn.

Here is the bottom line: you do not need a prescription drug to do what your body is brilliantly designed to do. The fundamentals have not changed. And despite what the food and pharmaceutical industries may want you to believe, you are not broken. You are not powerless. Your biology just needs a fighting chance.