I remember a time, seven years ago, when I was desperate for a magic drug that could help me lose weight fast.
At that time, I was so sick of dieting and working out without ever seeing any real difference. I was convinced my body needed to be smaller.
I went in search of a magical, miracle weight loss drug to help me reach my goals – but because it was 2019, I didn’t find one.
Instead, I ultimately found the only TRUE solution to my lifelong battles: getting off the diet culture hamster wheel and radically accepting my body just the way it is.
In hindsight, I’m actually so happy that there wasn’t a drug to “help” me back then!
Now it’s 2026 and, as we all know, the magic-bullet weight-loss drug does exist today. I know so many people who are on it.
And Ozempic and the other GLP-1s do seem like a miracle for some. These meds seem to make weight loss easy and quick, just like I always longed for.
But I have to ask… at what cost? We don’t know the long-term health impact of staying on a GLP-1 indefinitely. Sure, most people can make peace with the side effects of going on the medication – things like nausea, diarrhea and the like.
But what about the longer-term ill effects, such as muscle and bone loss? Significant weight loss can include loss of lean muscle and accelerated bone mineral loss, raising fracture risks. Some people have also experienced hair loss from being on GLP-1s.
And, that rapid weight loss can result in changes to facial appearance. “Ozempic face” is a real thing. As you lose facial fat, your skin loses its supportive volume, resulting in a more gaunt, hollow or aged appearance with increased wrinkles, sagging skin and sunken eyes. This sounds dreadful, and it’s sad to me that people are willing to age their faces unnecessarily just to be skinny.
Then there are the issues that occur when the medication is discontinued: most notably, rebound weight gain. Coming off the GLP-1s typically leads to a return of appetite and progressive weight regain unless long-term lifestyle changes are successfully maintained. Which, as we all know, is next to impossible – or you wouldn’t have gone on the drug in the first place!
It makes me sad that our society has artificially created a craving or need to be thin that almost nothing can ease. That never-ending need to be thin makes people do brutal and barbaric things to their beautiful bodies.
It makes me sad that people could be cutting their lives short or harming themselves in exchange for being thin. It makes me sad that for some people, there will never be a “thin enough” because the problem was never their bigger bodies in the first place. Maybe the weight we need to lose is actually just this faulty thinking that there’s something wrong with our bodies?!
And it makes me sad that, although I have done the work to love and accept myself just as I am, even I am still tempted at times by the never-ending commercials and social media posts in support of weight loss with GLP-1s.
It is tough to be in a bigger body in this Ozempic age when it feels like everyone else is falling in line with “thin is in.” Staying fat and happy is a form of rebellion against diet culture and false societal norms and constructs. There is beauty and acceptance in the fat community and there are still influencers who reject the GLP-1s and rejoice in their natural bodies – you just have to look extra hard to find them.
I personally wouldn’t change a thing – I’m so grateful that I found body acceptance before the GLP-1s became available. I don’t judge anyone who goes on the skinny drugs, I just feel sad that they couldn’t find acceptance for and within themselves without doing something so extreme.
I wish true body love and acceptance for everyone. And I also wish our society would quiet pushing the false narrative of “thin is in” because thin isn’t right for every body!
Some of us are happy just the way we are.
