No, GLP-1s Are Not Miracle Weight-Loss Drugs
Never trust a frenzy + Some tips for staying grounded when so many media outlets are praising GLP-1s.
I’ve grown increasingly alarmed watching what I can only call an inundation of pro-GLP-1 messaging across media outlets, with limited attempts at being unbiased or platforming people or groups who, like me, are concerned about the morality of marketing an appetite suppressant as a “miracle cure” in a culture with such marked weight stigma and anti-fat bias.
Let’s start with why GLP-1s ultimately aren’t substantively new for the culture or the weight-loss industry because they are, at their core, appetite suppressants.
When the body is hungry, our guts emit hormones telling our brain to eat food. When we’re full, another set of hormones are emitted in order to tell our brains that we’re full. GLP-1s affect the fullness hormone signaling. They basically tell the brain that the body is full of food when it’s not. Manipulation of these fullness hormones is what’s responsible for the quieting of “food noise” that the users of GLP-1s report. Though manipulating this specific hormone is a different way than appetite suppression has normally been created, the fundamental fact remains: GLP-1s are fundamentally appetite suppressants. Their results rely on caloric depravation, pretty much exactly the way every other diet and even weight-loss surgery does. The main difference is the experience of not feeling hunger as caloric depravation - or food restriction - is occurring.
You might be saying, “But wait, doesn’t not feeling hungry qualify GLP-1s as miracle drugs then?” My answer is, again, no. Here’s why:
GLP-1s have not and will not alter the data we know about weight science.
Let me explain.
The phrase “weight-loss” is a misnomer - or it’s incomplete. The “loss” part of weight-loss is something many, many of us have experienced. Our culture is obsessed with this loss part of the story, but what we know from weight science is very clear: that the loss is merely Part 1 of a 3-part story.
Part 1: Loss
Part 2: Plateau
Part 3: Restore/Regain
Yes, even if you don’t “feel hungry,” even if you’re incredibly calorically deprived, your body will eventually still go through this cycle.
GLP-1s do not have the power to end diet culture or weight stigma. That’s like saying that we can solve racism by medically altering everyone’s melanin so they’re white or saying that we can end homophobia by forcing everyone to be straight.
To which you might say, “But Virgie, those groups don’t have the poor health outcomes that higher weight people do.” To which I would say, “Yes, they do.” When researchers go in and control for all the factors that could explain the health and life-span disparities between marginalized groups and dominant groups, they consistently come to the conclusion that the life expectancy gap and other poor health outcomes are as a result of stress: the ongoing cardiovascular toll that discrimination takes on the body, not because of anything inherent to being a Black and/or queer person. Black Americans still, in 2024, live shorter lives than white Americans. In 1990 the longevity gap was seven years. SEVEN YEARS. That’s with federal laws in place to protect against racism. People in the LGB community still have worse health outcomes than people in the straight community.
We don’t ask targeted groups to assimilate to the dominant group’s discriminatory views because we know it’s immoral and yes, kind of eugenicsy, let’s be honest. Yet that’s exactly what we’re seeing here: higher weight people being blamed and asked to take expensive medications for life in order to assimilate to weight stigma.
The only way to end weight discrimination is to end weight discrimination.
Some of the companies that produce GLP-1s have attempted to co-opt the ideology, language and critical frameworks developed by fat activists and body positive advocates. This co-optation is immoral and it leads to the gaslighting we see occurring right now.
Recently a GLP-1 advocate said that these medications would be the end of diet culture. This is, in a word, “PREPOSTEROUS,” girl!
On the one hand, boooooo stealing the intellectual property of grassroots activists and victims of the diet industry, diet culture and fatphobia. Silver lining: no one steals something that isn’t valuable. They know the threat we pose. That’s why they’re trying to take away our ability to critique them.
I’m not surprised we’re being inundated so rapidly, so forcefully, and on so many fronts. Because when it comes to “weight-loss miracles,” time isn’t on their side.
As I pointed out above, the biological cycles of weight can’t be stopped long-term on a population-wide scale. Period. Period! And this would explain the rapid-fire inundation of this pro-GLP-1 medication messaging. They know they need to make the biggest, most bombastic claims now before (1) stages two and three of the weight cycle kick in on a grand scale and/or (2) whatever side effects or long-term effects that may be present (and truthfully/hopefully, it’s possible they will be minimal) kick in.
Marketing campaigns are designed to drive sales, not health. And right now, what I’m seeing with GLP-1s isn’t a responsible, measured, scientifically-driven and appropriate level of caution. I’m seeing a frenzied cash grab.
We shouldn’t be striving for a world without fat people in it. We can’t expect the “end of weight stigma” or the “end of diet culture” to rely on everyone being on GLP-1s for the rest of our lives.
Like, I kind of hate that I have to point this out, but I do unfortunately. We have to strive for a world where people of all sizes can freely and without coercion make informed decisions about their bodies and the medications they take. Right now, we live in a coercive environment, in which making a grounded, well-informed decision about whether to take GLP-1s is almost impossible because of how much fatphobia is a part of our daily lives. We have to strive for a world where people can opt out of taking GLP-1 medications if they don’t feel that it’s for them. In that world fat people’s consent matters and we can choose not to take GLP-1s, and there will still need to be protections in place for us. This means, again, no, GLP-1s will not end weight stigma or end diet culture.
If you’ve committed to being anti-diet and anti-weight-cycling, it can feel so, so, so hard to stay grounded at a moment like this. Here are some tips:
Seriously, take a break from your phone, the news, etc. as often as you need to.
Check in with how you’re feeling before you get into either a rabbit hole online or a discussion with a friend or colleague. If you’re feeling your blood pressure already start to rise, tell yourself/them you need to take a rain check.
You actually DON’T have to be a weight science expert or any type of expert to know you don’t want GLP-1s. Your consent matters.
Return to the comforting articles, podcasts, photos, social media posts, journal entries, etc. that help you stay grounded when you feel overwhelmed or gaslit by weight-loss messaging.
Remind yourself that you’re just human and it’s ok to feel confused or sad or angry. Confusion isn’t the same as reneging on your values or your belief system. Anger is a normal reaction to what’s happening.
Remind yourself that this SUCKS right now, but it’s 100% absolutely not going to be at this fever pitch forever. Everything we know about weight science and weight-loss hasn’t changed, despite what these companies are telling us.
xo,