It’s practically impossible to go through your day without being exposed to marketing for GLP-1s.

Whether called by their name brand or common names like “semaglutide” and “tirzepatide,” the use of these drugs for weight loss has exploded in the past couple of years, seemingly overnight.

While these medications were originally used primarily to manage diabetes, they are now widely prescribed by many doctors for weight loss, often regardless of a patient’s body weight, shape, or size.

While GLP-1s may seem like a magic medication, there is a very dark reality: These medications are very deeply interwoven with diet culture, they are often not a temporary measure but a lifelong commitment to maintain weight loss, they come with serious health risks, and there is still so much that is not known about them and their long-term use.

The surge in these products and the hard push in their advertising has increased exposure to an emphasis on weight loss, which can be extremely challenging, especially for those navigating eating disorder recovery.

Additionally, the risks of taking GLP-1 medications and developing an eating disorder should not be overlooked. Before beginning a GLP-1, it’s important to understand the roots of these medications and how they can impact your physical and mental well-being.

The Undeniable Link Between GLP-1s and Diet Culture

Many people undoubtedly use GLP-1s for diabetes management. However, when prescribed and taken for the sole purpose of weight loss, it’s quite similar to taking diet pills.

Diet culture pressures practically everyone to desire smaller bodies, and feeds us lies that we are not good enough as we are—and the marketing of GLP-1s is no different.

GLP-1s are openly marketed to people of all shapes, sizes, and backgrounds, with little concern for the potential mental (and often physical) implications. They are prescribed and sold to practically anyone and everyone, including people of average weight, with no prequalifying conditions necessary.

One 2025 study noted the quick and drastic increase of GLP-1 prescriptions, citing a “700% increase in GLP-1 prescribing over the past four years,” according to US data.¹

GLP-1 weight loss drugs are a part of diet culture, and there’s no way around it.

The Inescapable Marketing of Weight Loss Drugs

Consider the sheer magnitude and degree to which GLP-1s are marketed. They appear on television commercials, across social media, on billboards, and practically everywhere advertisements can be seen.

It’s not just the pharmaceutical companies that are profiting from these medications; it’s the entire diet industry, including weight loss companies, facilities, and so forth. Celebrities and athletes are serving as spokespeople, which should be a huge red flag, further indicating the pure profit these companies are making.

Valued at $144 billion in 2023, the weight management market is estimated to more than double in just 10 years, reaching more than a staggering $381 billion in 2033.²

You don’t see any psychiatric medications going viral in the same way because they aren’t as widely profitable. It’s also worth noting the price, coupled with the government drawbacks on coverage of these medications.

It’s worth considering: Does the company making this medication truly care about my well-being, or do they care about the money I can give them?

If these medications were truly necessary for the general population, insurance companies would be incentivized to cover them. Instead, many people pay hundreds of dollars a month out of their own pocket for GLP-1s, with no end date in sight.

For pharmaceutical companies, it’s a lifetime subscription for patients to take their medications.

It’s also worth noting that research has found that “around 40% of all advertising for weight-loss products made use of false, unsubstantiated claims and 93% contained one or more deceptive statements.”³

The Risk Factor Links Between Dieting, GLP-1s, and Eating Disorders

Longstanding research has shown that dieting can progress to chronic dieting and eating disorders. ⁴ ⁵

Because all dieting is a form of restriction, it’s all a disordered behavior. GLP-1s are directly associated with lower food intake by decreasing appetite, which can be considered disordered.

Weight loss drugs and disordered eating often go hand-in-hand. Diet culture and eating disorder risk factors are directly connected.

Dieting significantly increases the risks of developing an eating disorder, and the risks are even greater in those who have struggled with disordered eating in the past.

One recent study found that “engaging in any dieting in the past 12 months was associated with greater eating disorder psychopathology” in women, men, boys, and girls.⁶

Despite common misconceptions, eating disorders impact people of all body shapes and sizes.

Dieting and eating disorder statistics research shows that anywhere from 23-30% of individuals are overweight or “obese” at their eating disorder diagnosis.⁷ Furthermore, less than 6% of individuals diagnosed with an eating disorder were clinically underweight.

With eating disorders being much more often missed in individuals who are not clinically underweight, this only increases the potential risks and complications of GLP-1 use and eating disorder development or relapse.

When GLP-1s are used solely for weight loss, this can be considered a disordered behavior and seriously impact a person’s mental health as well as physical health (more on that below), and pose serious risks of developing an eating disorder.

The Serious, Harmful Side Effects of GLP-1s 

GLP-1 side effects and eating disorder symptoms present very similarly:⁸

• Digestive disturbances, including decreased appetite, diarrhea, nausea, slowed digestion, and vomiting, 
• Dizziness
• Headaches
• Increased heart rate
• Low Blood Sugar
• Malnutrition and its impacts, including hair loss, nutrient deficiencies, electrolyte imbalance, and more
• Muscle wasting: A meta-analysis found that 40% and 25% of total weight loss on semaglutide and tirzepatide, respectively, was lean muscle mass ⁹

These physical risks can cause serious health complications.

GLP-1s also come with some serious potential side effects, including infections, pancreatitis, medullary thyroid cancer, kidney injury, and more. Furthermore, there is still so much we don’t know about the long-term impacts of GLP-1 use for weight loss and the potential risks.

How GLP-1 Side Effects Can Impact Eating Disorder Behaviors

For a person who is already vulnerable to engaging in disordered eating behaviors, the urge to engage in these behaviors can significantly increase when taking GLP-1s.

Due to the accessibility of weight loss drugs, there has been less focus on size inclusivity and acknowledging natural size diversity. Now, people of almost any size can access these products to shrink themselves regardless of any medical reason to take them.

A common response to body dissatisfaction is to change your body, but what if your body isn’t the problem?

• What if the problem is extreme cultural ideals that are not realistic or unfair?
• What if the problem is weight stigma and the belief that thinner is better, even though all people were created equal and naturally have different body sizes?
• What if the problem is body distortion, and a person views themself as too large when they aren’t?
• What if the problem isn’t you, but diets and how they fail everyone?

Taking GLP-1s to lose weight does not address those underlying problems.

What if your body is the least important thing about you, and diet culture exists to profit off insecurities and make you feel poorly about your physical appearance? What if people can be healthy at every single body shape and size?

What if GLP-1s seem like a magic medication for weight loss and making you feel good about yourself, but do more harm than good?

The Mixed Messaging of Recovery and the Culture Behind GLP-1s

When recovering from an eating disorder, people work toward valuing their health above their body ideals. This can already be extremely challenging, and becomes more and more difficult when the world around them is sending a contrasting message.

Advertisements that boast the mentality that “smaller is better” and “smaller = happy” are inescapable. But these advertisements are all selling a false promise.

Anyone who has navigated eating disorder recovery or escaped the diet culture trap will likely tell you that they felt the worst about themselves when they were at their smallest body size. Physical health impacts aside, living in the lie that your weight (and a smaller one, at that) is inherently interwoven with your self-worth makes your relationship with yourself and your body miserable, because nothing will ever be good enough.

Navigating Conflicting Messages in the World Around You

Weight stigma and eating disorder recovery don’t mix, but it can be incredibly hard to navigate conflicting messages from loved ones.

It can be very difficult to witness friends and family engaging in diet-related behaviors, such as taking GLP-1s for weight loss, when they are cautioned against engaging in them.

Especially if someone is part of your support network, this can become even more challenging when trying to shift their mindset toward self-worth independent of body shape or size, while they are sending the exact opposite message by engaging with GLP-1s solely for weight loss.

Diet culture and the increased marketing and access to weight loss drugs are pulling more and more people into the diet cycle, which makes it all the more important to call it out when you see it.

Surround yourself with people who have the same values you do. Hit “unsubscribe,” “ignore,” “don’t show me this content,” and call out false information when you see it.

While it may not be possible to filter all the content you see, controlling what you can will make the world a much more enjoyable place, and direct algorithms to show you more anti-diet content that doesn’t make you feel poorly.

GLP-1s Are Generally Not a Temporary Solution, but Often a Lifetime Commitment

The truth is, GLP-1 drugs for weight loss are not a temporary solution. Once people stop taking them, they are likely to regain all of their weight, and maybe even more.

Researchers noted that in studies of both semaglutide and tirzepatide use, patients who discontinued use of the medications all gained the weight they had lost while using them, even with a significant calorie deficit and increased exercise regimen.¹⁰

It’s crucial to be aware that taking a GLP-1 means signing up for a lifetime of taking the drug. Especially with a high cost, in the hundreds or thousands of dollars a month, this is a significant commitment that will impact your health and finances for years to come.

And if you want to take the mentality that it’s only temporary, know that it’s very possible (if not certain) that weight regain is a possibility.

Just like dieting is linked with weight regain, so are GLP-1s.

Choose a Sustainable Option: Body Kindness and Food Freedom

GLP-1s may seem like the fix that people have been praying for. However, they come with serious physical and mental health risks.

Regardless of whether you’ve struggled with an eating disorder in the past, they are directly related to many of the factors that significantly increase the risk of developing one. GLP-1 medications and eating disorder risks are connected.

Especially if you’ve struggled with disordered eating, it’s crucial to consider how these drugs may impact your recovery. Your body image in eating disorder recovery isn’t going to improve because of a medication—in fact, it may have the opposite effect.

However, you don’t have to live in a world of body dissatisfaction or feeling like food rules your life. It’s completely possible to heal your relationship with food and move into a body kindness mindset.

If you’re ready to take that journey, Life Cycle Nutrition’s eating disorder-informed dietitians in Omaha are here to help. You deserve to love the body you’re in, without pressure to change who you are on the outside.

 

WORKS CITED:

1. Reiss, Allison B., Shelly Gulkarov, Raymond Lau, Stanislaw P. Klek, Anita Srivastava, Heather A. Renna, and Joshua D. Leon. 2025. “Weight Reduction with GLP-1 Agonists and Paths for Discontinuation While Maintaining Weight Loss.” Edited by Gundu H. Rao and Undurti N. Das. biomolecules 15, no. 3 (March). https://doi.org/:10.3390/biom15030408.
2. Allied Market Research. 2026. “Weight Management Market to Reach USD 381.5 Billion, Globally, by 2033 at 10.3% CAGR: Allied Market Research.” PR Newswire (Portland), May 11, 2026. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/weight-management-market-to-reach-usd-381-5-billion-globally-by-2033-at-10-3-cagr-allied-market-research-302768526.html.
3. National Eating Disorders Association. n.d. “Media and Eating Disorders.” National Eating Disorders Association. Accessed May 31, 2026. https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/media-and-eating-disorders/.
4. Shisslak, C. M., M. Crago, and L. S. Estes. 1995. “The spectrum of eating disturbances.” International Journal of Eating Disorders 18, no. 3 (November): 209-219. https://doi.org/10.1002/1098-108x(199511)18:3<209::aid-eat2260180303>3.0.co;2-e.
5. Barakat, Sarah, and Siân A. McLean. 2023. “Risk factors for eating disorders: findings from a rapid review.” Journal of Eating Disorders 11, no. 8 (January). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40337-022-00717-4.
6. Fan, Jingchuan, Jason M. Nagata, Kelly Cuccolo, and Kyle T. Ganson. 2024. “Associations between dieting practices and eating disorder attitudes and behaviors: Results from the Canadian study of adolescent health behaviors.” Eating Behaviors 54 (August). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eatbeh.2024.101886.
7. Flament, Martine F., Katherine Henderson, Annick Buchholz, Nicole Obeid, Hien N. Nguyen, Meagan Birmingham, and Gary Goldfield. 2015. “Weight Status and DSM-5 Diagnoses of Eating Disorders in Adolescents From the Community.” Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 54, no. 5 (May): 403-411. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2015.01.020.
8. Cleveland Clinic. 2023. “GLP-1 Agonists: What They Are, How They Work & Side Effects.” Cleveland Clinic. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/13901-glp-1-agonists.
9. Karakasis, Paschalis, Dimitrios Patoulias, Nikolaos Fragakis, and Cristos S. Mantzoros. 2025. “Effect of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists and co-agonists on body composition: Systematic review and network meta-analysis.” Metabolism, (March). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.metabol.2024.156113.
10. Reiss et al., “Weight Reduction with GLP-1 Agonists and Paths for Discontinuation.”