Should You Use Ozempic or GLP-1 Medications for Weight Loss?
Drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy, and Tirzepatide, often grouped as GLP-1 medications or receptor agonists or GLP-1/GIP dual agonists, are powerful medicines that, while popular, deserve precaution.
GLP-1 medications were developed primarily to treat type 2 diabetes, but many people without a medical indication are now considering them purely to lose weight.
This article is written for those considering GLP-1s exclusively for weight loss. We hope that this will help you reflect about physical, emotional, and spiritual costs before making that choice.
And before we proceed to discuss this sensitive topic, a gentle reminder that this aims to be fair, evidence-based, and compassionate.
What GLP-1s Do and Why They Change Appetite
As mentioned, GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) medications like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro were originally designed for people with type 2 diabetes. They help manage blood sugar by mimicking a natural gut hormone that slows digestion, lowers blood sugar, and decreases appetite.
When used in people with diabetes, this can be a safe and effective way to support metabolic balance. But when used exclusively for weight loss, the same mechanism that lowers blood sugar also suppresses normal hunger signals.
That means you might:
Feel full after just a few bites
Go long stretches without feeling hungry
Lose interest in food altogether
While this might sound appealing to anyone who’s fantasized about weight loss, appetite suppression comes at a cost. Our hunger and fullness cues are God-designed signals that protect us from starvation, help maintain muscle and organ function, and support mental clarity.
When those cues are switched off, your body adapts, and not in a way that promotes lasting wellness.
Research from the STEP 4 Randomized Clinical Trial, published in JAMA (2021), found that adults using semaglutide (Wegovy) lost an average of 10.6% of their body weight during the first 20 weeks. However, once participants stopped the medication, their weight rebounded significantly, often regaining much of what they lost.
This research therefore concludes that continued use was necessary to maintain results, highlighting that the drug’s effects rely on ongoing appetite suppression rather than sustainable metabolic change.
This means that when the medication is stopped, hunger returns, often stronger than before, and the body fights to restore its natural weight range. This response reflects the body’s natural drive for balance and survival.
From a non-diet nutrition perspective, this highlights why using GLP-1s solely for weight loss can be problematic and because it works against the body’s built-in regulation system instead of supporting it.
How GLP-1s Can Disrupt Metabolism and Food Relationship
When your body consistently receives less food than it needs, several biological and emotional responses begin to occur.
Let’s further discuss how GLP-1 medications affect your relationship with food.
Slower metabolism
Prolonged appetite suppression leads to reduced energy intake, which tells your body to conserve fuel. Over time, this slows your metabolic rate, meaning you burn fewer calories even at rest. This is the same metabolic slowdown seen in chronic dieting and disordered eating.
Increased preoccupation with food
Even though GLP-1s often silence hunger, the mind can become more fixated on food when the body isn’t adequately nourished. This can be described as an odd tension, like people feeling or aren’t physically hungry, but they find themselves constantly thinking about what or when to eat next. This happens because restriction heightens mental focus on food and it’s your brain’s way of protecting you from under-eating.
Higher risk of disordered eating patterns
For those who have a history of dieting, body image struggles, or eating disorders, appetite suppression can feel deceptively safe, like an external control mechanism. But in reality, it can reinforce restriction, dissociation from hunger, and mistrust of your body’s signals.
When GLP-1s May Be Medically Appropriate
There’s an important distinction to make here: GLP-1 medications really should not be given to just anyone, but they may be medically necessary for some people.
For individuals with type 2 diabetes or certain metabolic conditions, these drugs can significantly improve blood sugar control and lower cardiovascular risk. When prescribed responsibly under medical supervision, they can be a vital part of chronic disease management.
The problem is not the medication itself. It’s the way culture has co-opted it as a shortcut to weight loss often without addressing that weight stigma, weight cycling, or disordered eating patterns are often contributing factors to the disruption of weight maintenance.
The research above noted that semaglutide’s weight-loss effects were dependent on ongoing use and higher doses than what’s used for diabetes. This means the same medication that supports health for someone with diabetes could be risky when used for aesthetic or body-image reasons.
Just like fad diets of the past, these medications promise transformation but don’t teach sustainable health behavior change or healing from diet culture’s messages.
So, should you use GLP-1 medications for weight loss?
If you don’t have diabetes or another health condition requiring GLP-1 therapy, using these medications purely to lose weight deserves serious caution.
Here’s why:
The medication works by inducing restriction, not by healing metabolism.
Appetite suppression makes it easy to ignore hunger, which is a hallmark risk factor for disordered eating.
Once stopped, weight regain is common, an effect linked to worse health markers over time.
As a Christian dietitian, I also want to address the spiritual side:
God designed your body to communicate with you: through hunger, fullness, energy, and satisfaction. Manipulating those cues to fit a cultural ideal of thinness not only distances you from your body but can also diminish your joy around food and life.
Scripture reminds us that our worth is not measured in size or appearance, but in how we live with love, grace, and care for what God created. Taking medication to quiet the very signals that sustain us can move us further away from that peace.
True wellness is not found in shrinking your body. It’s found in listening to it, nourishing it, and trusting that it was created with intention and wisdom.
If you’re ready to take the next step toward healing your relationship with food, our team at Maddox Nutrition is here to walk alongside you and will help you rebuild trust, restore nourishment, and find freedom in the body you already have.
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What you need to know
The difference between a Dietitian and Nutritionist
A dietitian is a regulated healthcare professional who has completed formal education in nutrition and dietetics, undergone supervised training, and is licensed to provide medical nutrition therapy for conditions such as diabetes, eating disorders, or gastrointestinal issues.
The title “dietitian” is legally protected in many countries, ensuring that only those who meet strict professional standards can use it.
In contrast, the title “nutritionist” is not always regulated, meaning anyone can call themselves a nutritionist regardless of training, though some may hold advanced degrees or certifications. Generally, dietitians are qualified to offer clinical nutrition care, while nutritionists often focus on general wellness and healthy lifestyle guidance.