Pocket worthyStories to fuel your mind

Unpacking the Ozempic Craze

Navigating the complex health and societal issues around the rising popularity of the antidiabetic medication.

Amy Maoz

Read when you’ve got time to spare.

Much of the coverage of Ozempic—the injectable medication also known as Semaglutide—revolves around celebrities. Who’s definitely taking it, who’s probably taking it, and who’s denied taking it. Who gets left out: people with type 2 diabetes dealing with shortages because their medication has become a viral weight loss drug. It’s a problematic place to start a conversation already filled with so many potential minefields: Who “gets” access to a drug that costs around $1,000 a week—and has only been FDA approved for a certain portion of the population? How can doctors safely monitor for side effects when it is regularly prescribed off label—and even more worryingly, knocked off by compounding pharmacies? And how does a “get thin quick!” drug affect an already diet-crazed society, one with an anti-fat bias so entrenched that people who look overweight face stigmas and hurdles everywhere from courtrooms to the Jeopordy stage? Especially when we consider, as writer Marquisele Mercedes does, the more sinister implications of a pharmaceutical corporation profiting from that society’s fear of fat.

The stories below put faces and facts to these concerns, painting a fuller picture of how this recently approved drug has lasting effects—and not only on the people who take it.

Images by Emilija Manevska / Getty Images

Weight Loss Drugs Aren’t A Quick Fix

The popularity of drugs like Ozempic and a new pediatric recommendation that encourages fat teens to get weight-loss surgery show we still view fatness as a moral flaw that needs extreme intervention.

Shortages of a ‘Game Changer’ Weight-Loss Drug Are Driving People to Buy Potentially Risky Knockoff Versions

Compounded medications are safe—if you know where the ingredients come from. In this case, we don't.

Twitter Thread by @hels

My only take on ozempic/weight loss “shortcuts” is that if you think fat people should be thin, but you also think we need to “earn” thinness through torturous food restriction, social frustration, & ED-like obsession, you just (still) want to punish fat people for being fat

Ozempic, Ghost Celery Juice, and Other Diet Culture Myths (with Aubrey Gordon)

We cannot believe it, but today we’re chatting to one of our absolute HEROES, fat activist Aubrey Gordon (@yrfatfriend).

Start at 33 minute mark for Ozempic conversation.

Wegovy Isn’t A ‘Game Changer’, But An Update.

They say the Devil works hard, but the diet industry works harder.

You Might Go Through Hell for Your Post-Ozempic Body

When you take the nausea, constipation, diarrhea, and other possible issues into account, Ozempic isn’t always the panacea it’s made out to be.

The Problematic Arrival of Anti-Obesity Drugs

Fat activists say they’re tools of coercion. Celebrities are taking them to get slim. Is this really the road people want to go down?

Who Deserves the New ‘Miracle’ Weight-Loss Drugs?

Injections meant to treat type 2 diabetes have been found to help people lose weight — now, TikTok has become a place of discussion and potential misinformation.

Obesity in the Age of Ozempic

Drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy are changing how patients view their own weight struggles. Will society follow?

A New Drug Switched Off My Appetite. What’s Left?

Mounjaro did what decades of struggle with managing weight couldn’t. Welcome to the post-hunger age.

How Do the New Weight Loss Drugs Work?

This video explains exactly how these drugs work in the body.