What lengths would you go to lose weight?
Let's talk about Ozempic.
“We don’t talk about it, but everybody knows it. Thin is power.”
— The Cut
An article from The Cut went viral last week, bringing to light the latest beauty trend: using diabetic drugs for weight loss. If you’ve somehow been lucky enough to escape this pervasive diet in your algorithm, let me quickly fill you in.
Ozempic, an injectable diabetes treatment, has been used off-label as a “miracle weight loss drug” among wealthy crowds over the last year, due its ability to completely zap your appetite. It’s speculated to have contributed to several celebrity weight loss moments (i.e. Kim Kardashian in Marilyn Monroe’s dress at the Met Gala), but the drug has become so popular that it’s now facing shortages and price increases. Of course, this creates a huge problem for people who actually need it, which are Type 2 diabetics.
In fact, according to IQVIA, a healthcare data-analytics company, 1.2 million prescriptions for Ozempic were filled nationwide in December 2022, a 64 percent increase from the previous December. Of all non-diabetic patients who have been prescribed Ozempic, almost 40 percent are between 25 and 44 (for all patients, most people are between 45 and 64). And I’m sure this won’t surprise you, but 81% of prescriptions for the drug are written for women.
In this essay, I want to talk about how this movement enables sexist ideals of “delicate” feminine bodies and the pressure we collectively put on our bodies to conform to these ideals. Obviously, weird diet trends are not new. As far back as the 1940s, cocktails promising to reduce your appetite (known as “rainbow pills”) were marketed to American women. After dozens of deaths, the FDA removed them from the market. In the 1990s, “fen-phen” entered the cultural zeitgeist, where people used the “diet miracle” of anorectics (drugs that reduce appetite) to lose weight. Those drugs were withdrawn from the market shortly after they were shown to case potentially fatal pulmonary hypertension and heart valve problems. But Ozempic feels…different. More problematic perhaps?
There’s something uniquely “rich” about Ozempic. People who use the drug need access to healthcare professionals that will prescribe it to them, and the cost of purchasing the drug off-label is around $1,000 per month without insurance. Maybe this trend also feels so regressive because it’s in stark contrast to the body positivity movement of the past decade. Although I’m not convinced it’s actually all that different.
Crash diets of the ‘90s and early 2000s might feel as if they’re in the rearview mirror, and there definitely was a brief moment where our media engine began acknowledging more diverse bodies, but I think the same products and attitude have always existed, telling you you’re not perfect enough. And for the wealthy, the pursuit of thinness never really went away, it just turned into the wellness industry.
But if we literally do not eat—what even are we? It wasn’t always this way. Fuller and fat bodies have been revered and coveted at different stages throughout history, often the marker of wealth through access to food. Are we more recently obsessed with thin bodies for the same reason we’re obsessed with putting filler in our lips? It certainly feels like it. As Jessica DeFino put it: “Modern beauty means being as divorced from your humanity as possible. Like a complete separation from all that is human about you.”
But I want to hear from you… what do you think of Ozempic? Would you try it? Have you tried it? Do you feel pressure to maintain your weight? Are you diabetic and do you need to take it? I want to hear everything this topic brings up for you. Share your thoughts here.
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What we’re reading…
Why I started having tweakments after my mother’s death (The Times)
How could I deny him fatherhood? (The New York Times)
Weight loss drugs, thin worship and crash diets (Glamour)
Till next week,
Emma
co-founder, Diem
How many of us go to THIS length to maintain a normal weight?
1. Stay away from the food supply. Mnimize time in the kitchen!
2. Walk a few miles every day, preferably before breakfast.
For me the ability to gain surplus weight is a *good* sign, and the way to lose any surplus I've gained is those two steps. No special diet (I have to restrict my diet for health reasons, not weight control).
Some people's metabolism is slower than mine, and they need to take more than those two steps--but taking those two steps will help with whatever else they do to prevent medical obesity.
To prevent *looking* fat, I just ignore "fashions" and wear what fits the shape I have. No "updates."