Ozempic vs Body Positivity: The Newest Weight Loss Craze
Reported By: Benny Schorie
Photo From: myhealthexplained
When I watched this year’s Grammy Awards with some friends, one of them asked, “How many of these people do you think are on Ozempic?” This question was a reaction to the recent wave of celebrity weight loss. I hadn’t noticed before, but once you see it, it can’t be unseen: dozens of celebrities of all body types have been losing weight in the past year. This amusing yet disturbing moment makes me wonder, “Are we still doing weight loss trends in 2024?”
For the uninitiated in the latest medication trends, Ozempic was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2017 to treat adults with Type 2 diabetes. Its active ingredient, semaglutide, mimics your body’s natural hormones and tells your brain your stomach is full; its effects are similar to bariatric surgery but less invasive and costly. Ozempic isn’t approved for weight loss, but a similar drug, Wegovy, made by the same pharmaceutical company, is. Though approved by the FDA in 2021, Wegovy has not been as accessible as Ozempic.
According to CNN, Ozempic prescriptions skyrocketed in early 2023 causing a shortage of the drug by August of that year. This increase is largely due to the prominence of telehealth; the access to primary care providers with limited access to patient health history has allowed patients to abuse the system and obtain unnecessary prescriptions. Hence, the increased use of Ozempic as a weight loss drug instead of as a medication to treat diabetic patients. It gained popularity after celebrities like Elon Musk and Real Housewives of New Jersey star, Jennifer Fessler, credited the drug for their weight loss in early 2023. Once it made its way to TikTok, Ozempic became popular. There are almost 80,000 videos under #Ozempic, and each video gathers millions of views. Now, there is a long list of celebrities who have admitted to being on Ozempic. Oprah Winfrey praised Ozempic saying, “The fact that there’s a medically approved prescription for managing weight and staying healthier, in my lifetime, feels like relief, like redemption, like a gift.”
While positive stories like this are great, the long-term effects of Ozempic are yet to be determined. Recent studies have already shown that the drug can lead to gastrointestinal conditions like stomach paralysis, pancreatitis, bowel obstructions, and much more.
Another potentially devastating effect is the social ramifications of Ozempic use. With increased accessibility to Ozempic, it’s not just medically obese people who are taking the drug; it’s everyday people too, specifically women. According to recent polling data, women ages 30 to 64 are more likely to be interested in weight loss medication than any other age or gender group. Considering the disproportionate amount of pressure put on women to maintain a certain beauty standard, this is not surprising. Weight loss trends, like Ozempic, hold society back from escaping the grips of misogyny.
In the last ten years, the body positivity movement has been changing the lives of women by encouraging them to embrace their bodies and reject impossible beauty standards, but Ozempic challenges this aspiration by presenting women with an alternative. In an age where young girls struggle with self-image more than ever, this is dangerous because they could become adults who abuse the medical system and spend thousands for a facade of self-love.
Fluctuations in weight are natural, normal, and beautiful. Our bodies will not stay the same forever, and that’s a good thing. To raise a confident, self-assured generation of women, these things need to be no-brainers. Self-love cannot be authentic when it relies on external validation, and confidence cannot be genuine when it comes from aligning with beauty standards.