Struggling to get into last year's swimsuit or shorts? There's nothing quite like a summer holiday and the prospect of stripping off at the beach to get us feeling more self-conscious about our bodies. And however much we embrace the body-positive movement, many of us still feel a need to be slimmer, fast, and want something to help us achieve that easily. Enter Ozempic (semaglutide), the drug launched in the US in 2017 to help people with type 2 diabetes control their blood sugar.
However, scientists also knew the drug suppressed appetites and caused weight loss, so the idea of it being used as a ‘fat jab’ was born. And with around a quarter of adults in England being obese and a further 38% overweight, the potential market is obvious. Even though Ozempic wasn’t officially approved for weight loss, doctors and online clinics began to prescribe it for exactly that. Hollywood was the first to be hooked and celebrities (even some who were pretty thin to start with) started mysteriously shrinking further.
During his Oscars monologue in 2023, comedian Jimmy Kimmel joked, ‘Everybody looks so great. When I look around this room, I can’t help but wonder, “Is Ozempic right for me?”’ Celebrities who’ve admitted taking Ozempic include Sharon Osbourne, 71, who lost three stone in 2023, with her weight falling to under seven. The star, who has previously spoken about having bulimia, later confessed, ‘You can lose so much weight and it’s easy to become addicted to that, which is very dangerous.' Long-term yo-yo dieter Oprah Winfrey, 70, debuted a wasp-waisted new figure after taking a weight loss drug that she declined to name, along with lifestyle changes.
It didn’t take long before the word spread into the media and fashion industries (there are models who take weight loss drugs to ensure they keep getting booked for jobs) and then to the wider public – it’s a hot topic on private social media groups and the parenting website Mumsnet has countless threads devoted to these weight loss drugs.
For between £150 and £200 a month, dozens of private online pharmacies and clinics are now dispensing Ozempic and other medications like it, such as Wegovy (another brand of semaglutide) and Mounjaro (tirzepatide), to thousands a BBC investigation found unregulated online sellers offering fake semaglutide kits without a prescription. To avoid getting dangerous fake medicines, it’s vital to only order from a pharmacy on the General Pharmaceutical Council’s register – you can check this at pharmacyregulation.org.
What are the side-effects of Ozempic and weight-lass jabs?
They’re not pretty. Professor Giles Yeo says, ‘GLP-1 is naturally produced in large quantities when we have food poisoning. It’s what makes us feel sick and vomit.’ And sure enough, in early studies, people given large doses of GLP-1 felt nauseous and were even sick. They also suffered diarrhoea. Even today, up to half of people taking a GLP-1 drug will experience nausea, which can be severe and persistent.
Other side-effects can include pancreatitis (a painful inflammation of the pancreas), gallbladder disease, bowel blockages and stomach paralysis, or gastroparesis. The latter condition is linked to the way that GLP-1 drugs slow the passage of food through the digestive system: when the food doesn’t empty properly, it can form a solid mass called a bezoar, which blocks the passage out of the stomach, and this can require surgery.
Some people respond to semaglutide and tirzepatide with such a dramatic loss of appetite that it can be a struggle to get enough nutrients in their diet. This can be particularly harmful in mid- and later life, when we need more protein – 1g per kg of body weight – and around 1,200mg of calcium to maintain bone and muscle strength.
What happens when you stop taking Ozempic or other weight loss jabs?
Professor Le Roux says, ‘In most cases, the weight comes straight back, so one of the most important questions we ask our patients is, “Are you prepared to take this treatment for the rest of your life?”’
In one study, patients regained an average of two-thirds of their body weight a year after stopping semaglutide. However, a more recent study found that while one in five people regained every pound within a year, more than half kept the weight off for at least a year after stopping semaglutide and 36% even lost more weight.’
All weight loss medications have limits in what they can achieve. Around 15% of patients don’t respond to them and lose little or no weight. Other people are super-responders and lose more than average. But at some point, everyone’s weight loss hits a plateau. Professor Le Roux points out that a person who starts semaglutide weighing 18st and loses 15% of their body weight will end up at just over 15st. At this point, they’re likely to start feeling hungrier, making it very difficult to lose any more weight.
New drugs in development will likely increase the number of people who respond and the amount of weight it’s possible to lose. Some experimental medications aim to boost metabolism as well as reduce appetite; others contain three or more gut hormones to help reduce appetite more and for longer. But these advances must be weighed against the risks of more side-effects.
When it comes to weight loss, Professor Le Roux says: ‘Doctors need to be clear and honest with patients. We shouldn’t tell people that this medication is going to make them thin and happy, because that’s not true.’
