People who lose weight on Ozempic are viewed worse than people who dont lose weight at all: study
In the Ozempic era, not all pounds lost are met with praise.New research suggests that people may face more judgment for slimming down with the help of a GLP-1 drug than if they hadn’t lost weight at all.“We expected there might be some stigma around using a GLP-1,” Erin Standen, assistant professor of psychological sciences at Rice University and the lead author of the study, said in a press release.“But what surprised us was the extent of it.”In the study, Standen and her colleagues asked more than 600 participants to evaluate a fictional person based on their weight history.
The person was described as a 38-year-old college graduate with no specified gender who had been living with obesity since adolescence and recently weighed around 220 pounds.The participants were told that the person had either slimmed down using a GLP-1 drug like Ozempic or Wegovy, shed pounds through diet and exercise, or hadn’t lost weight at all.After reviewing the profile, the participants rated the person on a series of positive and negative personality traits, from “friendly” and “intelligent” to “lazy” and “sloppy.” They were also asked whether they’d want to spend time with them.“The GLP-1 users were socially penalized not just compared to someone who lost weight through diet and exercise,” Standen said.“They were also rated more harshly than someone who didn’t lose weight in the first place.”The findings come as GLP-1 use for weight loss has skyrocketed in recent years, climbing from 5.8% of US adults in February 2024 to 12.4% in October, according to a Gallup poll.Originally developed to treat diabetes, the drugs work by mimicking hormones released in the gut after eating, helping regulate blood sugar, appetite and cravings.
They’ve quickly reshaped modern weight-loss care, with studies showing people typically shed between 15% and 25% of their body weight after a year of consistent use.That shift is now starting to show up in national da...