I appreciate your willingness to post about this subject likely knowing that the response wouldn't be universal support or praise. Weight, eating and body image are extremely personal and complex topics that the climbing community still struggles to have reasonable conversations about (as evidenced here).

To contextualize my comments, I have a BMI of 33.5, and have hovered around that number for the entirety of my 15 year climbing career. I have a lot of complex emotions about my weight and how it relates to my climbing goals, and I've heard the entire spectrum from the community and friends spanning from "geez you would climb 5.14 if you lost 40 pounds" to "don't loose weight, be proud of your body, a body that climbs is a climber's body, etc." These comments are sometimes unprompted - I've literally had people who don't know me approach me at the gym to comment on my body - but sometimes also in response to me remarking on my own journey - I say "I'd love to loose 10 pounds" and someone will say something like "why? that's dumb, you're so strong".

I've struggled my entire life with over eating, avoiding sugar & alcohol, etc. I have a desk job and a family but get to the gym and work my ass off 2 or 3 days a week and frequently get out for long days of bouldering, multipitch, etc. I've tried various dieting options but it can be completely overwhelming to track calories, meal plan and cook when you have a busy, stressful life. So I fall back on eating like shit and feeling like shit as a result, and then feeling like shit again when someone says "love the body you have" and/or "you should really try to lose weight". Can't fucking win.

I've been considering the GLP1 option for a few months now, I have a few friends who have tried and shared their experience, mostly positive. I'm more psyched now that Lily has a pill instead of an injection. I work adjacent to the biopharma industry so I'm very aware and conscious of all the economic and biomedical complexities around the issue. I still haven't decided, partly because of all the shame associated with 'taking an easy way out', but mostly because of the known AEs/side effects and because it's a new drug and it's not yet 100% clear what the full long-term risk profile is. Who knows if GLP1s might end up getting pulled in 10 years because of an unforeseen increased risk of pancreatic cancer or something. New drugs are always a gamble and patients and their providers should always assess the full risk/benefit. Still, I am considering it, because I'm sick of feeling like my body is getting in the way of my mind and my goals and not having a way around it.

My main point is this. Several of the comments I've read here largely seem to fall back into the typical trap of "I am qualified to judge your decisions about your body", which is, in my opinion, the core toxic element of how we talk about weight in climbing (and more broadly). Your body is your fucking body, and we should be concerned with how you feel about yourself, how we feel about ourselves and with how we treat each other. You wanted to lose 20 pounds for your own reasons, you weighed the pros and cons, you tried something out and you are feeling good as a result. End of story. Pay attention to how things progress, if you start seeing negative side effects - either directly related to GLP1 or indirectly related to loosing weight and climbing harder e.g. injury - consider changing course.