Diet or improper use of medications such as Ozempic may contribute to eating disorders.

According to an American study, up to 72% of women and 61% of men are unhappy with their weight or body image. Every year, millions of people try to lose weight in hopes of improving their body, health and quality of life.

However, these people may have difficulty sticking to their diet or exercising. The emergence of semaglutide-based drugs such as Ozempic or Wegovy may seem like a quick and attractive solution to achieving weight loss goals.

Research from different teams, including ours, shows that trying to lose weight often does more harm than good and can increase your risk of developing an eating disorder.

Weight loss and eating disorders

Eating disorders are serious mental health problems that are primarily characterized by extreme forms of food deprivation or excess, concerns about shape and weight, or behaviors aimed at influencing them, such as intense exercise or vomiting.

Eating disorders were once thought to only affect white teenage girls, but we now know they can affect people of any age, sex, gender or race/ethnicity, and are estimated to affect about a million Canadians .

As a clinical psychologist and graduate student in clinical psychology, we focus our research on how eating disorders develop and what perpetuates them. Given the importance society places on weight, our research focused on the relationship between weight loss and eating disorder symptoms.

Eating disorders and “weight loss”

In eating disorder research, maintaining weight loss is called “weight suppression.” Weight loss is usually defined as the difference between a person’s current weight and the maximum weight they have reached in their lifetime (excluding pregnancy).

Despite the belief that weight loss increases body satisfaction, in a sample of more than 600 men and women, we found that weight loss had no effect on women’s negative body image and was associated with increased body dissatisfaction in men. It’s good to know that significant weight loss is correlated with the onset of eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia.

One hypothesis that helps explain the link between weight loss and eating disorders is that maintaining weight becomes increasingly difficult as systems that slow metabolism, reduce energy expenditure, and increase appetite are activated to promote weight regain.

We now know that weight regain is very likely after a traditional diet. This phenomenon can lead some people to adopt increasingly extreme behaviors to control their weight, or to alternate between extreme food restriction and episodes of binge eating or binge eating, characteristic of bulimia.

Ozempic and other semaglutide drugs

Semaglutide drugs, such as Ozempic and Vegovi, belong to a class of drugs called glucagon-like peptide-1 agonists (GLP-1A). These drugs mimic the hormone GLP-1 by interacting with neural pathways that signal satiety and slow gastric emptying, leading to decreased food intake.

Although GLP-1A is indicated for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, it is increasingly being off-label or purchased illegally without a prescription for its effectiveness in weight loss. Although medications like Ozempic often help you lose weight, the process may slow or stop over time.

Research by Lindsay Bodell, one of the authors of this paper, and colleagues on weight loss may explain the diminishing effect of semaglutide over time, since weight loss is associated with a decreased response to GLP-1. This means that after weight loss, a person may become less responsive to satiety signals activated by GLP-1A.

Also, weight loss occurs only while taking the drug. So, if the goal is to lose weight, you risk regaining most, if not all, of the pounds you lost when you stop taking the medication.

Risks of diets and medications for weight loss

The growth of the market for over-the-counter weight loss drugs is concerning given the rise in weight stigma and the serious health risks associated with uncontrolled weight loss, including the development of eating disorders.

Researchers and health care professionals have raised the alarm about the use of GLP-1A in children and adolescents due to possible effects on growth and development.

Additionally, popular weight loss methods, whether pills or crash diets, often mimic the symptoms of eating disorders. Thus, intermittent fasting diets, which involve long periods of fasting followed by short periods of eating, may increase the risk of developing overeating problems.

Taking diet pills or laxatives for weight loss has been found to increase the risk of developing an eating disorder within three years. People who already have an eating disorder may use medications such as Ozempic to suppress appetite, compensate for overeating, or cope with fears of gaining weight.

People who exhibit certain signs of an eating disorder, such as restricting food intake and increased concern about their weight, are most likely to develop an eating disorder as a result of dieting or taking weight-loss medications, even if they lose only a moderate amount of weight. amount of weight.

People who are unhappy with their weight or have repeatedly tried to lose weight may want to try more radical methods. However, any diet, exercise program or medication that offers a quick fix should be treated with extreme caution. At best, you risk regaining the lost weight; at worst, you put yourself at risk for serious eating disorders and other health problems.