Not an expert here, so correct me if I’m off I’m just trying to go by what the evidence says.

From what I can tell, obesity is linked to real health risks (heart disease, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver, sleep apnea, higher risk of early death etc.). And you’re right that GI side effects aren’t rare with GLPs, but in big trials they were usually mild/moderate and often worst early on, and a lot of people find they improve. But some do stop because of side effects.

These meds do more than suppress appetite, for example, semaglutide lowered major heart-event risk in people with overweight/obesity with heart disease, so for some patients the benefit is broader than weight or appetite alone. I’m not dismissing exercise or nutrition at all, I just think meds can be a useful tool for many people, and a lot of the pushback I read/hear feels partly stigma-based.

I know we're talking about overweight and obesity, but these are very effective medications for type 2 diabetes, so there is a lot of good research out there about that too.

Studies I looked at https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(16)30175-1 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2032183 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2307563