inc.com Science Says People Who Lose Weight on GLP-1 Drugs Face More Stigma Than People Who Stay Overweight. That’s Just Weird Bill Murphy Jr. 4–6 minutes

Recently, I wrote about a major new study linking GLP-1 drugs to significant reductions in depression, anxiety, and substance use disorders — and I mentioned that I’ve been taking one myself for about a year and a half.

Today I want to talk about a separate study that came out last week, because it genuinely surprised me — and, I’ll admit, got my Irish up a little.

Researchers at Rice University, publishing in the International Journal of Obesity, studied how people perceive those who lose weight using GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic or Wegovy.

Their finding: people who lose weight on these medications face more social stigma than people who lose the same weight through diet and exercise. In some cases, more than people who don’t lose weight at all. The explanation the researchers point to: a widespread perception that GLP-1 drugs are “the easy way out.”

I have thoughts. Thank you for the compliment

Allow me to offer a metaphor.

I have a full head of thick hair in my mid-50s, and I didn’t do anything to earn it — genetics, luck, whatever.

But I also don’t have strong feelings about men who are losing their hair. I’m glad they’re trying to explore medical options to address it.

Rogaine exists. Finasteride exists. People make their own choices about their own bodies, and I genuinely couldn’t care less what those choices are.

See what I mean?

The idea that someone who is biologically predisposed to carry more weight should be judged more harshly for using a medical tool to address it than for simply staying overweight strikes me as really weird.

I wouldn’t hesitate to tell you I took a drug for high blood pressure or high cholesterol.

I’d tell you about a knee surgery or a course of antibiotics.

I don’t get why a medication that happens to affect weight and metabolism would be treated differently — or why losing weight with its help would make someone more of a target for judgment than not losing weight at all. ‘The easy way out’

The Rice researchers ran a series of experiments in which participants evaluated people who had lost weight via GLP-1 drugs, via diet and exercise, or not at all.

Across the board, GLP-1 users were rated more negatively.

The stigma compounds if someone stops the medication and regains weight — which is common, because these drugs work while you take them, and stopping them often reverses the effects.

In that scenario, the researchers found, the judgment gets even harsher.

“There’s a narrative that using these medications is ‘taking the easy way out,'” said lead researcher Erin Standen. “And that belief seems to shape how people are judged.”

Caveats: this is experimental research using study participants rating hypothetical scenarios, not a longitudinal study of real-world social outcomes. You do you

The researchers flag something practical: Stigma around these drugs may be contributing to the spread of misinformation about their risks.

If people are motivated to believe GLP-1 users are doing something wrong, they may be more receptive to exaggerated claims about side effects.

There’s also a more direct consequence.

If someone is on the fence about a medication that a growing body of research suggests can meaningfully improve physical and mental health — and they’re hesitating partly because of what other people might think — that’s a real cost.

I told my doctor when she first prescribed the drug that even without insurance coverage I’d consider paying out of pocket, because I felt like I was buying myself extra years of healthy life expectancy.

She said she wished everyone had that attitude. Heck, I think she was about to hug me, except for things like propriety, and patient-doctor relationships and all of that.

But we hugged in spirit.

As always — or at least as often — I’m not telling anyone what to do.

Using these drugs is a personal decision that involves doctors, insurance, individual health histories, and a lot of factors I’m not qualified to weigh in on.

But if you’ve been thinking about it and the “easy way out” framing has been any part of what’s holding you back — I’d encourage you to set that aside.

The people making that judgment probably haven’t thought very hard about what it actually means.

See you at the gym and the ski slopes, I hope.