Although society has come a long way in accepting bodies of all shapes and sizes, there is still much more work to be done which can be seen when one examines Hollywood and celebrity culture. Like it or not, people in the public eye fan an enormous amount of scrutiny over their appearances, including their weight. A newer diet trend for famous individuals is to use the type-2 diabetes drug Ozempic or the obesity drug Wegovy to lose weight. This is controversial for multiple reasons including the fact that this is an off-label use of these drugs which are in short supply making it even harder for people who actually need it to get them. Let’s take a look at how these drugs work, who admits to using them for weight loss, and who is speaking out against them.
What is it?
Ozempic and Wegovy are both semaglutides, meaning they mimic the hormone GLP-1 and lower blood sugar levels. This can also impact hunger signals in the brain, making people feel full or disinterested in food. Common side effects include nausea, stomach aches, vomiting, and diarrhea.
Dr. Caroline Apovian, co-director of the Center for Weight Management and Wellness at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, worries that celebrity desire for these drugs will negatively impact her everyday people’s patient care. “The Hollywood trend is concerning. We’re not talking about stars who need to lose 10 lbs. We’re talking about people who are dying of obesity, are going to die of obesity,” she stated.
Who’s taking it? Chelsea Handler was.
Many celebrities are quickly defending and distancing themselves from the trend, but some are coming clean about it. Comedian Chelsea Handler admits she was on it but claims she didn’t know that’s what she was taking. “My anti-aging doctor just hands it out to anybody. I didn’t even know I was on it. She said, ‘If you ever want to drop five pounds, this is good,’” she stated on Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast.
Handler figured it out during lunch with a friend and decided the drug and the side effects were not for her. “I came back from a vacation, and I injected myself with it. I went to lunch with a girlfriend a few days later, and she was like, ‘I’m not really eating anything. I’m so nauseous. I’m on Ozempic.’ And I was like, ‘I’m kind of nauseous, too.’ But I had just come back from Spain and was jet-lagged,” she went on to say.
At the end of the day, she chose to go off the drug. “I’m not on it anymore. That’s too irresponsible. I’m an irresponsible drug user, but I’m not gonna take a diabetic drug. I tried it, and I’m not gonna do that. That’s not for me. That’s not right for me. I’ve injected about four or five of my friends with Ozempic because I realized I didn’t wanna use it ’cause it’s silly. It’s for heavy people. Everyone is on Ozempic. It’s gonna backfire. Something bad is gonna happen,” she predicts.
Elon Musk is taking it
Twitter Owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk disagrees with Handler on this. He is totally fine with being on the drug Wegovy and even tweeted about it. In November of 2022, he boasted that he lost 30 pounds and credits “fasting + Ozempic/Wegovy plus no tasty food near me.”
Remi Bader was
Remi Bader is a content creator and social media influencer. She went on Ozempic because her doctor advised her to. “[My doctors] said I need this. And I had a lot of mixed feelings,” she stated on Amanda Hirsch’s Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast.
When she decided to go off the drug, she gained all the weight back. “A few months later I went off it and got into the bad binging,” she went on to say. “I saw a doctor, and they were like, it’s 100 percent because I went on Ozempic. It was making me think I wasn’t hungry for so long, I lost some weight. I didn’t wanna be obsessed with being on it long term. I was like, I bet the second I got off, I’m gonna get starving again. I did, and my binging got so much worse. So then I kind of blamed Ozempic. [I] gained double the weight back.”
Golnesa “G.G.” Gharachedaghi is.
Reality television star Golnesa “G.G.” Gharachedaghi is best known for her time on the Bravo series Shahs of Sunset. She disclosed in an Instagram video that she was on Ozempic to lose a stubborn 11 pounds which she did in just 21 days. She stated that she “wasn’t going to lie about taking the drug like some celebrities. I’m not sure why so many people deny taking the shots. Y’all can judge in the comments section below. But for those interested in trying this, you should hit up my doctor.”
Celebs speak out against Ozempic
Many celebrities are against taking Ozempic or anything similar for causal weight loss, and they are making their strong opinions known.
“Let me make one thing very clear: I’m not taking it. I refuse. There’s a clear moral issue here. It’s hard to take a drug because swimsuit season is around the corner while others need it to stay alive,” Meghan McCain wrote in an op-ed for The Daily Mail. She stated many people “urged” her to take it after giving birth to her child.
Real Housewives of New Jersey star Jackie Goldschneider agrees, calling it “an eating disorder in a needle” on Instagram. She worries what will happen when people have to go off the drug.
Actress Jameela Jamil also worries about the future. “HOPE this doesn’t end the same way we were told opioids were safe,” she wrote on Instagram. “There is little to no discussion of the side effects in any advertising online. I’m deeply concerned, but I can’t change any of your minds because fat phobia has our generation in a chokehold.”