I’ve been hearing a lot lately about how it’s “taking the easy way out” to use GLP-1s to lose weight.

That may be true. But then again, you might be able to say the same thing about virtually every medical advancement. When you boil it down, chemotherapy is “taking the easy way out” of testicular cancer. Penicillin is “taking the easy way out” of a bacterial infection. The MMR shot is “taking the easy way out” of getting the measles.

You could be suffering and dying along with everyone else who’s had the problem since the beginning of time but, instead, you’re over here relying on a chemical shortcut to better health. So lazy.

Obesity isn’t like having cancer, but as time passes, research has shown that humans also have limited control, ultimately, over their weight.

Our bodies, in most cases, look a lot like our biological parents’ bodies, and when they don’t, there are often medical, social or emotional factors at play. We weigh more than we ever have in the United States, that’s true, but we’re also taller than we ever have been and have more consistent access to a wide variety of foods than at any point in human history.

We have evolved to protect ourselves from starvation, which, for most of the time we have roamed the Earth, was a far graver and widespread problem than was weighing too much. Research has also shown that when someone loses weight, their body will work overtime to get back to its previous set point.

At the same time, there are strong societal pressures to be thinner. Anyone who’s ever dropped a few pounds and found themselves covered in congratulations knows we richly reward weight loss.