The diabetes drug Ozempic and similar prescription weight management drugs like Wegovy are getting lots of buzz–from millions of mentions on social media to rumors that celebrities are taking them to dramatically slim down. And that buzz means more people are taking them off label, potentially solely to lose weight, whether they need to or not.
That focus on weight loss can be problematic for people with eating disorders or feel pressure about their weight–a population that includes a high percentage of athletes. The drugs have brought a renewed emphasis on being thin, potentially undoing progress of the anti-diet and body acceptance movements in the last few years, and that can be triggering for those susceptible to worrying about their weight, says Evelyn Tribole, MS, RD, a registered dietician with a private practice in Newport Beach, California.
“I’ve seen the rhetoric about how diets don’t work and therefore use these drugs, so these drugs have co-opted that rhetoric,” she says. “If you’re really interested in health, why would you be taking something that can really injure your health in the long…
