At the same time, experts say there are genuine medical reasons to take GLP-1s for weight loss.<\/p>\n
Weight-bias expert and host of the US podcast, GLP-1 Truth Serum, Virgie Tovar, says for some people there’s a cost to coping in the GLP-1 era, which she believes is “aggressively anti-body positivity”.<\/p>\n
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Virgie Tovar runs corporate training on weight bias in the United States. (Supplied: Andria Lo)<\/p>\n
She says a recent weight-loss ad caused her to abandon her weekend plans to spend time at a pool as a distraction.<\/p>\n
“[The ad] really, really, truly upset me,” she says. “I just needed something that \u2026 was going to completely take me out of my brain.”<\/p>\n
Ms Tovar, who lives in San Francisco, California, is someone who experiences weight bias and also has an eating disorder history.<\/p>\n
“If you have vulnerabilities to this kind of messaging \u2026 these are real costs that add up,” Ms Tovar says.<\/p>\n
“Even if you’re not spending money, like I did on the pool pass, you’re spending time, you’re spending energy.”<\/p>\n
Our experts:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Virgie Tovar, trainer\/educator on weight-based discrimination and author of You Have the Right to Remain Fat, The Self-Love Revolution and The Body Positive Journal<\/li>\n
- Dr Emma Beckett, registered nutritionist and senior lecturer in nutrition and food science at the Australian Catholic University<\/li>\n
- Professor Gemma Sharp, clinical psychologist and body image, eating, and weight disorder researcher with Adelaide University’s School of Psychology<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Weight stigma and diet culture in new packaging<\/p>\n
Emma Beckett \u2014 food and nutrition scientist and self-described “chonky” person from Eora\/Sydney \u2014 says anecdotally, for larger people, the choice to use GLP-1 drugs can feel like a “lose-lose” situation.<\/p>\n
How Ozempic works in the brain to help people lose weight<\/a><\/p>\n
People on Ozempic and other GLP-1 agonist drugs commonly report they no longer have constant, incessant thoughts about food.<\/p>\n
“People in larger bodies just absolutely cannot win \u2026 if we stay fat, we’re told that our fatness is the problem. If we lose weight, we’re told that our weight loss is the problem,” she says.<\/p>\n
Dr Beckett herself was an early user of Ozempic, which she took to lose weight in order to relieve chronic pain that was preventing her from exercising.<\/p>\n
“I’m trained in biomedical science \u2026 and a lot of my research has been on nutrigenetics and nutrigenomics, looking at how genetic differences change the way we interact with food,” she says.<\/p>\n
“I always knew that I experienced food differently to other people. I knew that I had different levels of hunger and drives of hunger.”<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\nSometimes people who use weight-loss drugs are accused of taking the easy route. (Unsplash)<\/p>\n
GLP-1 drugs mimic the activity of a natural hormone<\/a>, slowing digestion and helping people feel full for longer.<\/p>\n
“If biology means we all have a different variance in [the hormones involved in appetite] and a medication can correct that, how is that any different to those exact same differences happening in a blood pressure pathway?” Dr Beckett says.<\/p>\n
She ultimately chose to stop using Ozempic as she “only wanted to eat bland, white foods” while using it.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\nEmma Beckett has used a GLP-1 drug for weight loss but found it wasn’t right for her body. (Supplied: Emma Beckett)<\/p>\n
While the drug wasn’t the right choice for her, she still believes people should be able to use it without judgement.<\/p>\n
Dr Beckett says the conversation about GLP-1 weight loss drugs and people who use them has gotten a bit silly, and ultimately, weight stigma is to blame.<\/p>\n
If you or someone you know needs help:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Butterfly National Helpline \u2014 1800 33 4673 or visit www.butterfly.org.au<\/a><\/li>\n
- Eating Disorders Families Australia\u00a0\u2014 1300 195 626<\/li>\n
- Eating Disorders Victoria \u2014 1300 550 236<\/li>\n
- Eating Disorders Qld\u00a0\u2014 07 3844 6055<\/li>\n
- Professionals Credentialed in Eating Disorders<\/a><\/li>\n
- Lifeline on 13 11 14<\/li>\n
- Suicide Call Back Service \u2014 1300 659 467<\/li>\n
- Kids Helpline \u2014 1800 55 1800<\/li>\n
- MensLine \u2014 1300 78 99 78<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
“We are over-interested in these medications. No-one has ever asked [me]\u2026 ‘Do I think it’s reasonable that people take blood pressure medications?'” she says.<\/p>\n
“The only reason we are having this conversation is \u2026 this particular medication leads to a change in something that you can visibly see.”<\/p>\n
Kaurna country\/Adelaide-based clinical psychologist and professor Gemma Sharp, whose research at Adelaide University is centred around body image, eating, and weight disorders, says weight stigma existed long before GLP-1 drugs, and there is strong evidence that it leads to “negative health consequences”.<\/p>\n
Like Dr Beckett, she says GLP-1 weight-loss drugs are not the enemy and is an advocate for their use where medically appropriate and supported by wraparound care.<\/p>\n
However, she isn’t a fan of some of the marketing strategies used to sell them.<\/p>\n
“They rely upon people having poor body image in order to sell products,” she says.<\/p>\n
At the end of the day, “weight stigma is a major social ill” that affects people of all sizes, Ms Tovar says.<\/p>\n
So how can you hold onto hard-won or developing body positivity, or acceptance, in spite of it?<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0f5e94127dd9885d268962b06e138e93.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nDiet culture a decade ago was very “spandexy”, Virgie Tovar says. (Unsplash)<\/p>\n
Get good at spotting adverts for diet-culture<\/p>\n
Ms Tovar says diet culture in the era of GLP-1 drugs doesn’t look like it did in 2016, when it was “very spandexy” and all about “thin, female bodies packaged in a very particular way”.<\/p>\n
“But the good news is \u2026 just like we all became good at spotting it then, we can do that again,” she says.<\/p>\n
“Develop a simple phrase like, ‘This is an ad, not the truth’ \u2026 It’s like a protective act.”<\/p>\n
- Butterfly National Helpline \u2014 1800 33 4673 or visit www.butterfly.org.au<\/a><\/li>\n
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