Ozempic and the great fitness industry freak-out
This week's newsletter comes with a nod to my client, Sofia, who wondered what my take was on the "miracle" drug
The rise of Ozempic (semaglutide) and Mounjaro (tirzepatide) for weight loss has sent the fitness industry into meltdown. Celebs are on it, influencers are pushing it, and formerly “big” stars have quietly dropped half their body weight while everyone pretends not to notice.
Meanwhile, personal trainers, nutritionists, and fitness pros are side-eyeing the whole thing, fairly concerned that what they teach and have invested potentially their lives into could simply be replaced by a drug.
Let’s get into what Ozempic actually does, why the fitness industry is bricking it, and whether it’s really the game-changer people think it is.
How do Ozempic and Mounjaro work? what even are they?
Both belong to a class of drugs known as GLP-1 receptor agonists – medications originally developed to treat type 2 diabetes by helping regulate blood sugar levels. They also suppress hunger, slow digestion (so food sits in your stomach longer), and reduce blood sugar crashes. Some people even report that their food preferences change – suddenly, ultra-processed food just doesn’t hit the same.
Sounds great, right? In theory, yes. But what does this mean for body composition, training, and long-term health? Let’s get into it.
The impact of GLP-1 receptor agonists on muscle mass
Losing weight is easy when you don’t feel like eating. But here’s the problem – up to 40% of the weight lost on these drugs can come from muscle mass. And muscle is the key to a higher metabolism, strength, long-term health, and actually looking good after weight loss.
If you’re not resistance training and getting enough protein, you’re not just losing fat – you’re losing the tissue that keeps you burning calories at rest. That means when you stop the drug, your body burns fewer calories than before, and the weight piles back on faster.
Appetite suppression isn’t always a good thing
GLP-1 agonists make you eat less, which is the goal for weight loss. But here’s where it backfires:
People under-eat protein meaning more muscle loss.
People miss out on vitamins and minerals leading to deficiencies, low energy, and crap recovery.
People eat too little overall resulting in low energy, fatigue, and the motivation to train disappearing.
Hunger is often painted as the enemy, but your body actually needs food. If you're eating like a toddler and expecting to deadlift personal bests, let’s be real – it’s not happening.
The side effects no one talks about
Weight loss? Sure. But GLP-1s aren’t magic, and they come with their own issues.
Gastrointestinal chaos
Nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, constipation – pick your fighter. Because when digestion slows down, so does… everything else. Eating, training, and just feeling normal can become a challenge.
Detachment from food (and life)
Some people say they lose all enjoyment in eating. And while that sounds great if you’ve struggled with cravings, it’s also a fast track to disordered eating habits and a weird relationship with food.
Gallbladder and pancreas problems
Losing weight too fast can increase the risk of gallstones and pancreatitis – both of which are serious enough to land you in a hospital bed instead of the gym.
Nobody knows the long-term risks
GLP-1 drugs were developed for diabetes. Their long-term effects on otherwise healthy people? Still a question mark. What happens if people stay on them for years? No one knows yet.
What happens when you stop taking Ozempic or Mounjaro?
If you don’t build good habits while taking the drug, here’s what happens:
Hunger returns with a vengeance. Your appetite wasn’t “fixed”– it was just chemically suppressed.
Muscle loss means your metabolism is slower than before. So you regain weight faster.
Without new habits, old eating patterns come back. If the drug was the only thing keeping you in check, expect to backslide hard.
If you’re using these drugs without strength training and a solid diet, you’re setting yourself up for a cycle of weight loss and regain.
The (temporary?) silence of the body positivity movement
The body positivity wave seemingly peaked during lockdown, when being overweight was more contextualised – gyms were closed, movement was limited, and everyone was dealing with collective stress.
Now? We’re outside again. The pressure to be lean is back, celebrity weight loss transformations are front-page news, and the “heroin chic” aesthetic has crept back in.
It’s not just that people have left their houses – it’s that the conversation has changed. Instead of “love your body,” a disquieting undercurrent now is “fix it with miracle drugs”.
Did body positivity phase in when celebrities were heavier than they wanted to be and phase out when they could access drugs that the general population wasn’t yet aware of?
Ozempic vs. the fitness industry: the real reason PTs are nervous
There’s been a lot of resistance to Ozempic in the fitness space. Some of that is valid – muscle loss, health concerns, and the potential for abuse. But there’s also a deeper, unspoken fear:
If fat loss becomes easy, what happens to an industry built on coaching people through it?
PTs, nutritionists, and fitness pros have spent years helping people lose weight the old-fashioned way – through training, movement, and structured eating. Ozempic seems to bypass all of that, which is threatening if your job revolves around it.
But here’s the reality: Ozempic won’t replace coaching any more than ChatGPT will replace trainers, BBLs will replace squats, or liposuction will replace long-term fat loss.
ChatGPT can write you a great workout plan – but it can’t coach you like a real PT.
BBLs can give you bigger-looking glutes – but they won’t make you stronger.
Liposuction can make you “look leaner” – but keep overeating, and you’ll still store fat elsewhere.
All of these change aesthetics – but not habits. Ozempic is the same. If people don’t learn how to sustain the results, the weight comes back.
Final thoughts
Ozempic and Mounjaro might be life-changing for some, but they’re not a shortcut to a lean, strong body. The real game-changer? The same, old, game-changer! Strength training, movement, and eating enough food while in a sustainable calorie deficit.
Like performance-enhancing drugs, GLP-1s have a place in the industry – but they’re not a free pass to a better body and, just as importantly, they shouldn’t be used to profit from people’s ignorance and/or lack of access.
If you want lasting results, it’s not about the drug. It’s about what you do while you’re on it. If you want to profit from your results, please have the decency to tell people it wasn’t just “hard work” that got you to where you are.
Aside
I’d never heard of Mounjaro until this week. But, in the North East of England, there’s a mid-tier chain restaurant called Manjaro’s, known for their chicken parmos – breadcrumbed chicken breast, béchamel sauce, a disrespectful amount of cheese. If Mounjaro could enable you to lose weight and keep it off while succumbing to the late-night parmo, it’d be doing the Lord’s work…
What do you think? Would you consider these medications as a weight loss tool, or do you think they create more problems than they solve? Reply below and let me know!
And I’m spent!
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Much love, and I’ll see yas in the next one
Jack x
References
AOL. (2024). 10 Celebrities Who Have Lost a Lot of Weight and How They Did It. Retrieved February 20, 2025, from https://www.aol.com/10-celebrities-lost-lot-weight-095537204.html
FDA. (2017). Semaglutide Injection (Ozempic) Approval for Type 2 Diabetes. Retrieved February 20, 2025, from https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/nda/2017/209637Orig1s000TOC.cfm
Wilding, J.P.H., et al. (2022). Once-Weekly Semaglutide in Adults with Overweight or Obesity. The New England Journal of Medicine. Retrieved February 20, 2025, from https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2032183
Thanks so much for this, Jack. Overall, I agree with you—these ‘miracle’ drugs don’t replace traditional methods, especially the shift in mindset that comes with it. I think what people often overlook is how to come off them. I imagine there must be a gradual approach to tapering off, but even then, the psychological fear of stopping must be huge. After years of dieting, finally finding something that works and then facing the possibility of regaining the weight must be awful. It seems like it could be quite addictive and would require a great deal of self-reflection to step away from it, knowing that you might gain back what you lost. Which is ever more dangerous considering that we don’t know the long term side effects.