{"id":46161,"date":"2023-12-27T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-27T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foodrevolution.org\/?p=46161"},"modified":"2026-09-15T00:45:50","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T07:45:50","slug":"is-semaglutide-for-weight-loss-safe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foodrevolution.org\/blog\/is-semaglutide-for-weight-loss-safe\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Wegovy and Ozempic Safe and Effective for Weight Loss?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many people have had a long and complicated relationship with their weight. And it doesn\u2019t help that popular culture is constantly trying to sell us a new \u201cideal\u201d body weight. In April of 1967, Twiggy, a rail-thin supermodel, appeared on the cover of Vogue<\/i> magazine and quickly rose to stardom. Soon that Twiggy-like body type was seen as the ideal look and dieting culture gripped the Western world, with doctors prescribing diet pills that were little more than methamphetamines<\/a>. Commercial weight loss programs cashed in on the dieting fervor.<\/p>\n

But by the end of the 20th century, the dieting trend was starting to decline. The reality that diets very rarely produce sustained weight loss started to sink in. People gradually shifted their emphasis from shrinking their size to improving their health.<\/p>\n

The Health at Every Size<\/a> and Body Positivity<\/a> movements were central to this shift. And the Dove brand received widespread praise for its Real Beauty campaign<\/a>, featuring models with full-figured bodies.<\/p>\n

By the 2010s, polls were showing record lows<\/a> in the percentage of people who wanted to lose weight, and news outlets<\/a> were reporting that fewer than 1 in 5 people in the US was dieting.<\/strong> All this spelled trouble for the weight loss industry.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to the present day, and \u2014 shazam! <\/i>\u2014 the semaglutide drugs Ozempic and Wegovy have hit the scene. It turns out that people still want to lose weight after all.<\/p>\n

The New Weight Loss Drugs<\/h2>\n

\"Weight<\/p>\n

If companies needed reassurance that weight loss can still be big business, they\u2019ve gotten it. Novo Nordisk<\/a>, the Danish corporation that makes Ozempic and Wegovy, is now the most valuable company in all of Europe, with a market capitalization of $425 billion dollars, an amount greater than the entire economy of Denmark.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But what are these drugs, and how do they work? Are they really that effective for weight loss? What are the benefits of being on them, and what are the side effects? And, more importantly, are they safe?<\/p>\n

There are indeed some surprising benefits \u2014 and also eye-opening risks \u2014 to semaglutide drugs for weight loss. And in this article, we will cover all of them. We\u2019ll even introduce you to an alternative approach that research shows produces weight loss results equal to Ozempic and Wegovy, without the negative side effects. (Hint: it\u2019s not weight loss surgery, and Big Pharma is not involved).<\/p>\n

But first, we need to start at the beginning. Should people even try to lose weight in the first place? And why have conventional approaches to weight loss failed them?<\/p>\n

A Rise in Obesity and its Health Effects<\/h2>\n
\"Cardiologist
iStock.com\/Antonio_Diaz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over the last 50\u201375 years, the average weight of the human population has risen steadily, in lockstep with dramatic changes to our food supply.<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to the World Obesity Atlas<\/a>, by 2035, fully one-half of all people worldwide<\/i>, over four billion people, will be living with overweight or obesity. And that\u2019s not good news, for many reasons.<\/p>\n

There is still a tremendous stigma<\/a> associated with excess weight, making overweight and obesity difficult to live with, both socially and psychologically. Obviously, we should continue to strive to reduce that stigma. And people should aim to be healthy, and to love and respect themselves, their bodies, and the people around them, no matter their size.<\/p>\n

If negative stigma were the only issue, universal size acceptance and body positivity would be the straightforward answer. However, research continues to confirm that body size is not at all irrelevant to human health.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, health-promoting efforts like exercise do not fully offset the risks of carrying excess weight. For example, in a large study of over 50,000 people, researchers found that even robust levels of physical activity don\u2019t neutralize the profoundly damaging toll that obesity takes on cardiovascular health<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Alas, excess weight is simply not benign. It\u2019s linked with mental health conditions like depression<\/a> and anxiety<\/a>, conditions of poor well-being like fatigue<\/a> and chronic pain<\/a>, potentially life-ending conditions like heart disease<\/a> and 13 forms of cancer<\/a>, and, of course (as we were all reminded by the media over and over in 2020 and 2021), severe illness and potential death from diseases like COVID-19<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bringing our body composition in line with the body fat ratios that our ancient ancestors used to have may well be the healthiest for longevity<\/a>, not to mention quality of life along the way.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Truth Behind Weight Gain and Weight Loss<\/h2>\n

So, what\u2019s driving all this weight gain?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to assume that our sedentary lifestyles are to blame. But research shows that active people in hunter-gatherer tribes actually burn no more calories<\/a> than sedentary people in the Western world.<\/strong><\/p>\n

How can that be?<\/p>\n

It turns out that, when we\u2019re very active, the body compensates by burning significantly less fuel the rest of the time, resulting in little to no change to overall daily energy output.<\/p>\n

Keep that in mind the next time you think you\u2019ll go to the gym to \u201cburn off\u201d the food you\u2019ve just eaten. You can do that workout, and it will absolutely be healthy for you overall. But when you come home afterward, your body will shift into low gear. (And after a few days, you will have burned no more total calories than if you had just stayed home.) This is part of the reason why exercise won\u2019t make you thin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ultra-Processed Foods<\/h3>\n
\"Homemade
iStock.com\/Anastasia Dobrusina<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

More and more experts are starting to converge on the opinion that the true cause of the obesity pandemic is all the ultra-processed food we\u2019re eating. And indeed, solid research shows that ultra-processed foods drive us to eat more<\/a> and gain weight quite rapidly.<\/p>\n

In fact, even when controlling for total presented calories, energy density, and grams of protein, carbohydrate, fat, fiber, sugar, and salt, on a processed foods diet (versus an unprocessed diet of nearly identical composition), participants in the above trial ate significantly more and gained weight in as little as two weeks.<\/p>\n

People eating ultra-processed foods don\u2019t just gain weight, though. Their brains and bodies change. Inflammation rises, baseline insulin levels go up, and triglycerides increase. Together these changes are associated with leptin resistance<\/a>, a condition that means the brain never gets the signal to stop eating.<\/p>\n

Plus, ultra-processed foods are addictive<\/a>, creating the same deficit in dopamine receptors that\u2019s characteristic of cocaine and heroin addiction.<\/strong> And this change in brain chemistry causes powerful food cravings that further drive people to overeat.<\/p>\n

This is all bad news for humankind because ultra-processed food consumption is only becoming more and more prevalent.<\/p>\n

Today, a full two-thirds<\/a> of the calories children consume is not what their grandmothers would have called \u201cfood\u201d at all, but rather industrial concoctions born in a factory and poured into a plastic wrapper. And the trends aren\u2019t stopping \u2014 they\u2019re just going global.<\/p>\n

Every 10 hours in 2023, a new McDonald\u2019s opened in China, with a record 900 new franchises added by the end of the year. That\u2019s on top of the roughly 1,200 new KFC and Pizza Hut stores that opened in China as well. The US has spread its \u201ccuisine\u201d around the world \u2014 with devastating effects.<\/p>\n

How the Brain Can Sabotage Weight Loss Efforts<\/h3>\n

On a personal level, for the 70% of people in industrialized countries today carrying excess weight, the conundrum is that once weight is gained, it\u2019s incredibly difficult to shed for good.<\/strong> And this is by design.<\/p>\n

The brain is happy to allow us to gain weight. After all, fat stores are what will keep us alive when food becomes scarce over a long winter. But the brain fiercely protects our current body weight (even if it\u2019s too high for optimal health) by launching a full-fledged hormonal assault<\/a> when we lose weight. It very deliberately toggles our hormonal dials: lowering thyroid hormones (reducing our metabolism), increasing ghrelin (triggering hunger pangs), and lowering leptin (so the brain comes to think we\u2019re starving), making sustained weight loss about as easy as holding our breath while climbing a long staircase.<\/p>\n

Many people engage in yo-yo dieting and ultimately find themselves demoralized. In a nutshell, diets don\u2019t work<\/a>. People tend to lose perhaps 2\u20137% of their starting weight (when they might be aiming to lose several times that much). And then, almost always, they gain it back. Indeed, weight loss programs don\u2019t tend to publish results beyond one year, because after that, weight regain<\/a> is the norm.<\/p>\n

Enter Ozempic and Wegovy<\/h3>\n
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A post shared by E! News (@enews)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n