Something has shifted in American pediatrics. After the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended in 2023 that doctors offer weight-loss medication to children as young as 12, prescriptions of GLP-1 drugs such as Wegovy and Saxenda for <a href="https://www.wsj.com/health/wellness/when-diets-dont-work-parents-turn-to-wegovy-for-elementary-school-kids-35aa9c05">kids jumped sharply</a> almost overnight, and they have climbed every month since. Clinical trials are now underway to push these drugs to children younger than 12. We are, in effect, deciding that the cure for a childhood spent eating processed foods and addicted to screens is a weekly injection that reengineers a developing brain&#8217;s hunger signals. Have we fallen so far off the cliff that we must inject our kids to lead them down a healthy path? This is not a solution.
There are some adults with serious metabolic conditions for whom these medications can be a genuine tool. But we have to address our cultural disease at the roots. “Let food be thy medicine” could never ring truer than it does at this pivotal juncture. 
Clearly, in this instance, GLP-1 drugs are a Band-Aid stretched over a wound not yet cleaned up. They suppress appetite; they do not teach a child what to eat and how to move. They lower a number on a scale; they do not change a home or a school cafeteria. The moment a child stops taking them, the weight tends to return because the underlying habits never change, and all of the issues will be exacerbated. Are we truly willing to commit a generation of kids to lifelong pharmaceutical dependence when basic, wholesome meals and daily outside play is usually all that’s needed?
The food put in front of children is the real scandal. Roughly 70% of the calories American children eat now come from ultra-processed foods, the engineered snacks and drinks designed in laboratories to override the body&#8217;s natural sense of fullness. We have built an environment that makes children sick and then act surprised when they are. 
The MAHA Commission&#8217;s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/MAHA-Report-The-White-House.pdf">report</a> last year, &#8220;Make Our Children Healthy Again,&#8221; named this plainly, pointing to poor diet, environmental toxins, physical inactivity, and the over-medicalization of childhood as the roots of a genuine crisis in chronic disease. It’s good to have a clear prognosis on the dire state of things, but the real shift needs to start at dinner tables and in schools. We need to bring back simple, time-tested wisdom and real foods from God’s green earth.
The good news is that the solution is not complicated, and it does not require a prescription. It requires basic foods. Start with protein at every meal, especially a real breakfast, the kind that steadies a child through a school morning instead of delivering the sugar spike and crash of a toaster pastry. Fill the plate with vegetables until they become ordinary rather than a negotiation. Get kids moving their bodies every day, not as punishment, but as play, the way childhood is supposed to be. And cut the processed foods and refined sugars that are doing the damage.
None of this is exotic. It is exactly how previous generations of healthy children were raised before their nutrition was outsourced to vending machines, cafeterias that offer mac and cheese or pizza, and drive-throughs.
We’ve been working with women and their families for the last 15 years, and our latest book, &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0736994610/?bestFormat=true&amp;k=7%20skills%20to%20lasting%20health%20by%20trim%20healthy%20mama&amp;ref_=nb_sb_ss_w_scx-ent-bk-ww_k0_1_8_di&amp;crid=11YSVR5IE2B7Y&amp;sprefix=7%20skills">The 7 Skills to Lasting Health</a>,&#8221; provides all of these tools in a simple, accessible way. We’d be happy to make it available as a curriculum for schools nationwide. But, if you don’t know where to start, this is an easy on-ramp.
This is not merely a matter of personal health. A nation whose children are growing up sicker, weaker, and more medicated than their parents is a nation weakening at its foundation. When military recruiters struggle to find young people fit to serve and when the cost to treat the epidemic of chronic disease consumes an ever-larger share of our economy, the health of our children stops being a private concern and becomes a question of national strength.
We may be celebrating 250 years of America, but a country cannot lead the world while its next generation is too unwell to carry it forward. We have a clear choice in front of us. We can keep treating the symptoms, normalizing injections for children addicted to their screens and hoping the bill never comes due. Or we can do the harder, better thing and address this at its root, one breakfast, one home-cooked dinner, one afternoon outside at a time.
The drugs will always be there for the few who truly need them for breakthrough. But for the millions who simply need real food and a healthier life, reaching for the syringe first is a failure. Our children are our future. They deserve more than a bandage. They deserve to be made well.
***
Pearl Barrett and Serene Allison are New York Times bestselling authors and the founders of Trim Healthy Mama.
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

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The Childhood ‘Solution’ That Should Terrify Every Parent

Children

Food

glp-1

Health

Ozempic

Upstream

Victoria’s Secret angel and Sports Illustrated swimsuit supermodel Heidi Klum may be the last person you’d assume would have a healthy self-image. But at 53, after adding a few pounds to her former size 24 figure, she’s loving the woman she sees in the mirror.
“What makes a person sexy is knowing their self-worth and knowing who they are,” she told <a href="https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/heidi-klum-on-marriage-motherhood-and-confidence/">Us Weekly</a>. “When people are looking at every measurement of their booties, [or] at cellulite, it’s like, ‘Is this really what makes me who I am? There’s so much more to me.’ It’s about feeling great in your skin and knowing what you can do.”
If it all sounds like she’s just reading a Post-It on her bathroom mirror, this mom of four practices what she preaches. The host of “Project Runway” and “Germany’s Next Top Model” recently opened up about Ozempic culture and whether or not she would ever consider using GLP-1s in cult-like solidarity with the rest of Hollywood’s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/demi-moore-doesnt-look-toned-she-looks-like-shes-starving">shrinking celeb set</a>. While she asserts that she supports others who use weight loss drugs to feel good about their bodies, for her, the answer is a definite no.
“I’m not interested at all,” she explained. “I’ve gained weight over the years. I’m no longer a size 24 jean. But I think with age, we look better when we’re not as skinny.”
It was her husband, German pop-rock musician Tom Kaulitz of the band Tokio Hotel, who convinced her to eat a sandwich, so to speak.
“He said, ‘You should eat more; you would look better if you had more meat on your bones.’ I was like, ‘What?’ This is not something you’re told in the industry, ever, because you’re always supposed to be skinnier than you are. When I look back at photos, I’m like, ‘He’s right!” Proportion-wise, I look better bigger.’”
Klum launched her modeling career in the early &#8217;90s at a time when ultra-skinny “heroin chic” was en vogue. Klum didn’t fit the mold. At 5’9,” she was labeled as short, too “<a href="https://www.success.com/how-heidi-klum-created-her-multimillion-dollar-empire">bosomy</a>,” and “heavy.” She was even criticized for her “stupid” smile. She still beat out 25,000 other women to win a television competition called “Model &#8217;92” and has enjoyed massive success ever since.
“When I looked in the mirror, I was like, ‘I don’t know what the heck they’re talking about. I don’t look fat.’ I wore a size 24 jean, and I’m 5-foot-9-and-a-half; how is that fat? I never understood the size zero thing. You don’t exist if you are a size zero,” Klum says. 
“I had photo shoots back in the day where photographers would make me cry,” the TV personality recalled. “You can’t please everyone, and not everyone is going to like what you do, but you have to look in the mirror and be happy with who you are. I did find my niche, and look who’s still here.”   
But no amount of industry accolades could protect her from backlash in the press. Once she appeared with extra curves, some called her fat while the bobbling skeletons of Demi Moore, Olivia Wilde, and even Oprah were propped up and praised for being fit. Someone commented that Klum looked “<a href="https://news.amomama.com/470001-venice-film-festival-2025-opening-day-in.html?utm_campaign=604_1257894&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=facebook&amp;utm_term=page_com&amp;fbclid=IwY2xjawTLOaBleHRuA2FlbQIxMABzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeeqyOISVqa6XMkwAsDbgBNFdMB0MlVkRSpe84GOSyBomXyCPhTMFtLWBbhKw_aem_rpfy_FmoKim1f1VLlh6f6g">pregnant</a>” at the Venice Film Festival in 2025, and others seemed to suggest she was letting herself <a href="https://www.hola.com/us/celebrities/20260224885853/heidi-klum-menopause-weight/">gain fat</a> because of her age. Making matters worse, she’s openly happy about maintaining a healthy weight for her age. The nerve.
It’s a stark contrast to the time society spoke obesity to power during the so-called <a href="https://bebodypositive.org.uk/resource/body-positivity-and-reclaiming-bopo/">body positive movement</a> of the 2010s. Weren’t we just saying all bodies were beautiful? 
Klum’s take on her weight feels more balanced and middle-of-the-road than much of what Hollywood is currently trying to pump into our veins. Perhaps it’s an indication that the extreme pendulum swings of diet culture have left most of us wanting something realistic to believe in. Something more akin to good health.
While she seems to be enjoying married life with her much younger hubby (he’s 36), for Klum, the bigger story may have something to do with hormones. With most women entering menopause in their early fifties, Klum could be experiencing the symptoms of <a href="https://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/a65477131/musculoskeletal-syndrome-of-menopause/?utm_source=google&amp;utm_medium=cpc&amp;utm_campaign=mgu_ga_whm_md_dsa_prog_us_23624903445&amp;gad_source=1&amp;gad_campaignid=23624903445&amp;gbraid=0AAAAACrQpnyToUUMWsMX8qERoB7IIcg5M&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQjwjvfSBhDpARIsAEiOpStjkF77OJVqO1j0MNyg2pIa985LAwE5Z7lm-WF6VMkH9xiqAsc1QRoaAoVqEALw_wcB">musculoskeletal syndrome</a> as her body loses muscle with every passing year.
Noting that women often notice a weakening in muscle mass and strength, orthopaedic sports surgeon <a href="https://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/a65477131/musculoskeletal-syndrome-of-menopause/?utm_source=google&amp;utm_medium=cpc&amp;utm_campaign=mgu_ga_whm_md_dsa_prog_us_23624903445&amp;gad_source=1&amp;gad_campaignid=23624903445&amp;gbraid=0AAAAACrQpnyToUUMWsMX8qERoB7IIcg5M&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQjwjvfSBhDpARIsAEiOpStjkF77OJVqO1j0MNyg2pIa985LAwE5Z7lm-WF6VMkH9xiqAsc1QRoaAoVqEALw_wcB">Vonda Wright, MD,</a> said, “Although it&#8217;s critical at this time of life to make muscle, we make it less effectively.” 
Hormone replacement therapy, targeted nutrition, and weight lifting can be beneficial in maintaining muscle as the body naturally loses estrogen. Wright even recommends low-dose testosterone to her female clients.
“I encourage all of my patients to go on hormone optimization with estradiol [and] &#8230; with micronized progesterone,” she explains, advising that your own doctor can suggest the best intervention. “Women just want to feel like themselves and do what they&#8217;ve always done.”
For the record, it seems that Klum is doing what she’s always done, and more. She regularly <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DYX2-BGhz56/?hl=en">strikes a pose</a> for major brands including L’Oreal Paris, hits the <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DYRJwZRBh7t/?hl=en">red carpet</a> whenever she can, and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dac8ALAxGXG/">judges</a> aspiring fashion designers within an inch of their lives. Squeezing into a size 24 no longer fits into her packed schedule, and that’s okay with her. She even collaborated with German brand Funny Frisch for her own line of <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZzywmMRYS8/">potato chips</a>. 
“I love being with my husband on a beach, eating and drinking &#8230; and swimming through the water. I feel so free,” <a href="https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/heidi-klum-on-marriage-motherhood-and-confidence/">Klum said</a>. “I’m 53 and just getting started.”

Heidi Klum Refuses To Follow The Latest Beauty Craze

Heidi Klum

“Ozempic ears” are all the rage in plastic surgery these days. They seem to be the new side effect of using GLP-1 meds such as Ozempic and Wegovy. Apparently, people are showing up with thinner, sagging earlobes and asking for fillers or reductions. The media have dutifully turned this into the latest reason to panic about weight-loss drugs. What the hysterics are missing, though, is that like most things in life, there are trade-offs. In this case, very, very big ones.
When I weighed 320 pounds at 5’4,” nobody cared about my earlobes. To be fair, they were one of my daintiest parts. Nobody worried about my jowls, whether my arms were toned, or whether my skin would someday sag. The message was simple: Lose weight. Now that millions are finally doing it, the media is hyping the side effects of weight loss with little discussion of what people are gaining.
I tried to play the weight loss and body image game for most of my life. As a kid, I survived the golden age of terrible weight-loss advice, programs, and how-to schemes. There were diet shakes, diet cookies, diet gum, diet pills, and enough public humiliation to fuel a lifetime of Gen X cynicism. I was the chubby kid who learned to fake being sick on school weigh-in days because at my elementary school, we were weighed in front of the entire class once a year.
I carried that weight into adulthood. Over the years, I tried physician-supervised programs, fad diets, fen-phen, Lap-Band surgery, and countless promises of easy fixes. Some worked for a while. Most didn&#8217;t. By my 40th birthday, I was over 300 pounds, unemployed, drowning in debt, and struggling physically and emotionally.
Eventually, after regaining weight following Lap-Band surgery, I made a different decision. I underwent gastric bypass surgery in 2018. That decision became the beginning of a long process of successful weight loss and lifestyle choices that include daily yoga, weightlifting, food tracking, accountability, and gradually building habits I can sustain. In total, I’ve lost 170 pounds in middle age, which makes me extra proud. I didn&#8217;t reach my high school weight; I reached my elementary school weight!
Now, having experienced all the “negative” cosmetic side effects of extreme weight loss myself, I find the latest panic over &#8220;Ozempic ears&#8221; fascinating.
According to recent reports, plastic surgeons are seeing patients concerned about thinner or sagging earlobes after significant weight loss from GLP-1 medications. Other cosmetic concerns have earned equally catchy nicknames: “Ozempic face,” &#8220;Ozempic breast,&#8221; &#8220;Ozempic butt,&#8221; and a growing list of body changes associated with fat loss.
As someone who has had them all and then some, I can say these are pretty good problems to have. 
For decades, obesity has been one of America&#8217;s most serious health challenges. We know excess weight increases the risk of heart disease, diabetes, joint problems, sleep apnea, and countless other conditions. And we know about it because we’re constantly bombarded with information and data and breathless reporting about how unhealthy Americans are — most of it weight-related.
Now that millions of people have access to medications that help them lose substantial weight and improve their health, the media present them with reasons not to do it. Fortunately, <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/696599/obesity-rate-declining.aspx">U.S. adult obesity rates</a> have ticked down recently (from a peak of around 40% to around 37% in 2025), and some see it coinciding with wider GLP-1 use.
The cosmetic concerns are real. Significant weight loss changes the body. But here&#8217;s the part many people miss: These changes aren&#8217;t unique to GLP-1 medications. They&#8217;re part of major weight loss.
Whether someone loses 100 pounds through surgery, semaglutide, intermittent fasting, CrossFit, Weight Watchers, or sheer stubbornness, skin that stretched over years or decades doesn&#8217;t snap back.
This is one of the reasons I wrote &#8220;<a href="https://amzn.to/4oNpyAE">The Gen X Handbook for Middle Age</a>&#8221; after losing 170 pounds in my 40s. I didn&#8217;t wake up looking like a fitness influencer. When I looked in the mirror, I saw someone who was melting. There was loose skin. There were body parts that no longer matched the picture in my head of who I was (goodbye, boobs). There were reminders of every pound I had carried. There were pre-weight loss clothes I still wore because they covered my arms and apron belly. That’s what led me to plastic surgery: not vanity, but completion.
After saving money for years and several consultations with my surgeon in Austin, Texas, I underwent a brachioplasty (arm lift), thighplasty (thigh lift), mastopexy (breast lift), and an abdominoplasty with a 360-degree body lift over a period of a year. Every scar represents a choice I made to improve my health. Every procedure came after years of effort, setbacks, plateaus, and persistence. To be honest, I have a couple more on my wish list as 50 approaches.
This is why I get frustrated when the media hype weight-loss medications, suggesting they cause unique side effects and raising questions in people’s minds about whether weight loss is worth it. Ozempic gets clicks. It, and weight loss in general, also saves lives.
People who have never struggled with obesity often underestimate how difficult long-term weight loss can be. If a medication helps someone lose 100 pounds, lower blood sugar, avoid diabetes, reduce joint pain, and add years to his or her life, I don&#8217;t want users to care about what happens to their earlobes. It seems like pretty small potatoes. Would you caution a friend struggling with obesity not to lose weight because of saggy earlobes and loose skin?
If people choose to have a facelift, body lift, arm lift, or no surgery at all afterward, that&#8217;s their decision, too. The benefits of weight loss far outweigh the negative side effects puffed up by the media.
The best weight-loss plan isn&#8217;t the hardest one. It&#8217;s the one that works. For some people, that&#8217;s strength training and meal prep. For others, it&#8217;s GLP-1 medications. For me, it was gastric bypass surgery and lifestyle changes. Most of us end up using a combination of tools to maintain weight loss. The media are focusing on the wrong side of weight loss, be it Ozempic or anything else. The obsession with &#8220;Ozempic ears&#8221; misses the bigger story: People are finally reclaiming their health.
I’m Gen X. I survived public weigh-ins, SnackWell’s, Jazzercise, fen-phen, and “just eat less” lectures from strangers on the street. I’ll survive “Ozempic face.”
***
Lisa De Pasquale is an author, columnist, and the former director of the Conservative Political Action Conference. She’s a frequent guest on Fox News and Fox Business, the founder of <a href="https://getbright.substack.com/p/david-keene-a-conservative-og-who" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“Bright” on Substack</a>, and the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Gen-Handbook-Middle-Age-Fulfillment/dp/B0F4PMD8J6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">author of</a> “The Gen X Handbook for Middle Age: The Pursuit of Health, Success, and Human Fulfillment.”
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

GettyImages-1503694757

The Ozempic Freak-Out That’s Missing The Point

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
Almost a year ago, when my doctor recommended I <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/weight-loss-medication-may-have-dangerous-side-effects-i-dont-care">go on a weight-loss medication</a>, she asked what my goal weight was. After having six babies in nine years, I had trouble remembering what number the scale sat at before I started having children in my mid-twenties. Pregnancy, nursing, and the years of raising young children had blurred together. I could remember clothing sizes and life stages, but I rarely stepped on the scale.
I settled on what seemed like an absurdly low number, one I hadn&#8217;t seen in many years and wasn&#8217;t convinced I could reach. The truth, though, is that my real goal wasn&#8217;t the number on the scale at all; it was one in my bloodwork. Diabetes runs in my family, and after watching relatives struggle with the disease and seeing my own markers moving in the wrong direction, I knew I needed to act. If the end result was also looking better in family photos, I considered that a welcome bonus.
Months ago, I hit that supposedly impossible number. Now I&#8217;m faced with a different question: How low can I go? And, more importantly, when should I stop?
Like many women who have spent years pregnant or recovering from pregnancy, I carry the physical evidence of those years. There is extra skin and a pouch around my middle that no amount of wishful thinking seems capable of eliminating. Six pregnancies leave their mark, and no medication can entirely erase them. Could and should I continue losing weight in an effort to get rid of those reminders? Would I actually want to? That was the question my doctor posed last week as we discussed what to do next.
When I reached my goal weight, we moved from weekly injections to every other week. As we debated whether to continue on that schedule or space them out even further, I joked, &#8220;I&#8217;m not interested in looking like <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/demi-moore-doesnt-look-toned-she-looks-like-shes-starving">Demi Moore</a>, Ariana Grande, or Kelly Osbourne.&#8221;
My doctor immediately understood what I meant.
My bloodwork is dramatically improved, I have more energy than I did a year ago, and I am now well within the range of what any reasonable person would call a healthy weight. At a certain point, however, continuing to lose weight stops being about health and starts becoming about something else entirely: vanity. Our society has always struggled to recognize where the line between health and vanity lies, but it’s particularly bad now that medications have made it possible for millions of people to keep shrinking long after the health benefits have largely been achieved.
If you&#8217;re old enough, you remember the last time this happened. The 1990s gave us heroin chic, a look defined by hollow cheeks, protruding bones, and bodies that were alarmingly fragile. Fashion magazines celebrated women who looked exhausted and underfed, and our culture largely went along with it. Eventually, there was a backlash when Americans grew tired of pretending that obvious signs of ill health were aspirational, and the pendulum swung dramatically in the opposite direction, swaying violently too far in the other direction, embracing “fat positivity.”
The rise of body positivity brought with it some necessary corrections, but a great deal of our culture lost the ability to acknowledge the obvious reality that obesity carries genuine health risks, not to mention that there might be meaningful distinctions between acceptance and celebration. Any discussion of weight became suspect, and acknowledgment of health consequences was treated as cruelty.
Then came Ozempic, Wegovy, Zepbound, and the rest of the GLP-1 revolution, and almost overnight, the culture lurched in a different direction. Celebrities who had spent years insisting they were perfectly happy carrying extra weight no longer had to maintain the fiction. The pounds disappeared, and with them disappeared much of the rhetoric about body positivity that had dominated the previous decade. For many public figures, the process didn&#8217;t stop when they reached a healthy weight, and, for once, our culture is raising red flags.
Every night, Ariana Grande posts photographs from her performances while she’s on tour, and every night the reaction is remarkably similar: many of her fans seem genuinely, and rightfully, concerned. She is clearly terrifyingly thin, all sharp angles and jutting bones, and it is difficult to imagine anyone looking at those images and concluding that this could possibly be healthy.
What&#8217;s striking is not simply Grande&#8217;s appearance but the public reaction to it. For years, Americans have been lectured that noticing physical reality is judgmental, that commenting on obvious signs of poor health is cruel, and that discussing weight at all is beyond the bounds of polite society. Yet despite years of elites lecturing ordinary people about politeness, we have retained the ability to recognize when something appears off, and when celebrities appear in public looking like the victims of a starvation campaign, the comments light up with truth-telling.
The comments sections underneath celebrity photos may be one of the few places where cultural sanity still survives. Americans are looking at bodies that would have been celebrated on fashion runways 25 years ago and rejecting them. They are looking at collarbones that protrude dramatically and faces that appear increasingly gaunt, and they respond, rightfully, with discomfort. That discomfort is not evidence of cruelty; it is proof that most people still possess healthy instincts about what human flourishing looks like.
There is such a thing as too thin. That shouldn&#8217;t be controversial, yet increasingly it feels as though it needs to be repeated. Just as there is such a thing as carrying too much weight, there is also such a thing as carrying too little.
Weight-loss medications have transformed millions of lives, including mine. I am healthier today than I was a year ago, my risk factors are lower, and I am deeply grateful that modern medicine arrived at exactly the moment I needed it. But these drugs have also created a question that many Americans have never had to confront before. For decades, the challenge was figuring out how to lose the weight. Now, for the first time, millions of people are having to decide when enough is enough.
Sitting in my doctor&#8217;s office this week, I realized that I already knew the answer. The number on the scale had stopped mattering months ago. The victory wasn&#8217;t fitting into a smaller size or reaching some arbitrary number from my twenties; it was improving my health, and I achieved that.
The loose skin will remain — as a reminder that my body spent nearly a decade growing and nourishing six babies. That&#8217;s fine. Not every mark of a life well-lived is a flaw that needs to be corrected.
A year ago, I was trying to lose enough weight to avoid becoming diabetic. Today, I find myself resisting a different temptation; I’m not fighting the food noise anymore. I’m fighting an unhealthy aesthetic that has been in and out of fashion for most of my life. Medicine helped me lose the weight, but I’m grateful for the wisdom of knowing when to stop.
***
Bethany Mandel (<a href="https://x.com/bethanyshondark" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@bethanyshondark</a>) is a homeschooling mother of six and a writer. She is the bestselling co-author, with Karol Markowicz, of &#8220;Stolen Youth: How Radicals Are Erasing Innocence and Indoctrinating a Generation.&#8221; She <a href="https://themomwars.substack.com/">writes</a> and <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mom-wars/id1796727112">podcasts</a> at The Mom Wars.

83rd Annual Golden Globes – Arrivals

The Ozempic Question Nobody Wants To Answer

weight Loss

Move over, Ozempic. There’s a new weight loss shot everyone’s freaking out about.
A new experimental weight loss drug called “retatrutide” is suddenly blowing up online after clinical trial results showed patients losing an average of more than 70 pounds, with some people dropping nearly a third of their body weight.
Yes, you read that right.
The once-weekly injectable drug, currently being developed by Eli Lilly and Company, is already being called the next giant leap in the booming GLP-1 weight loss craze that has completely transformed Hollywood, social media, and, honestly, half the conversations happening in America right now.
And based on these numbers, people are definitely going to pay attention.
According to new trial data, patients taking the highest dose of retatrutide lost an average of 70.3 pounds over roughly a year and a half.
Some participants reportedly lost closer to 85 pounds during extended testing.
To put that into perspective, researchers say the results are starting to approach what doctors typically see with actual bariatric surgery.
That’s a huge deal.
Unlike current blockbuster drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Zepbound, retatrutide targets three separate hormone receptors instead of one or two.
Experts believe that the extra mechanism may help the body burn more energy while also reducing appetite and improving blood sugar levels at the same time.
In normal-person language? People feel less hungry while their bodies potentially burn more calories.
Which is why the internet and half the medical world are losing their minds over these numbers.
One endocrinologist reportedly called it “the largest weight loss” she had ever seen in a medication trial.
But before everybody starts sprinting to Google looking for prescriptions, there’s a catch.
Actually, several catches.
The drug is still experimental and has not yet been approved by the FDA.
Analysts don&#8217;t expect approval until late 2027 or 2028, though Eli Lilly has said it could happen as early as this year.
The trial data have also not yet gone through a full peer review.
And then there are the side effects.
A pretty significant number of patients experienced nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, skin discomfort, and urinary tract infections.  Some people dropped out of the study altogether because of how rough the side effects became at higher doses.
In other words, while it might sound like magic, it&#8217;s technically not.
Still, the numbers are so dramatic that retatrutide is already being viewed as a possible next-generation successor to the current wave of wildly popular weight loss injections dominating the market.
Which means America’s obsession with these drugs probably is not slowing down anytime soon.

RP – Move Over Ozempic

Move Over, Ozempic. There’s A New Weight Loss Shot Everyone Is Freaking Out About

Overweight

The following is an edited transcript excerpt from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mks-ep-1947-sub?elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Recent+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel">The Michael Knowles Show</a>.
* * *
Everyone’s hot on the fat shots. Everyone’s taking them. 
They say it’s for health reasons. Maybe in some cases it is, but for a lot of people, they just want to look better.
Well, as it turns out, there is a real downside to the practice, namely, people are now getting divorced because of them.
This is <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/04/05/fat-jabs-to-unleash-divorce-boom/">from The Telegraph in the UK</a>: 
<blockquote>Fat jabs to unleash divorce boom.
Couples undergoing rapid weight loss are twice as likely to end “unhealthy relationships,” the study finds.</blockquote>
Now, what’s an “unhealthy relationship”? Generally, that just means a relationship I no longer enjoy being in. Does that mean one of the spouses is beating you? Or does it just mean you’re sick of your husband or wife? It can mean any of those things.
The article continues:
<blockquote>The growing popularity of fat jabs is expected to increase Britain’s divorce rates as slimmed-down partners look for new love, health experts have said. According to research from academics in Sweden, people who undergo rapid weight-loss are twice as likely to divorce. The study focused on people who had been fitted with gastric bands, known as bariatric surgery, the risk of weight-loss drugs will trigger an even larger divorce trend in the future, researchers said.</blockquote>
This brings me back to a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8qj9RNA938">conversation I had</a> with that “looksmaxx” guy, Clavicular, before everything went south, before he was arrested, before all that.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mks-ep-1947-sub?elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Recent+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-1054531" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/MK-watch-now-1-1024x171.jpg" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/MK-watch-now-1-1024x171.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/MK-watch-now-1-300x50.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/MK-watch-now-1-768x128.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/MK-watch-now-1-1536x256.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/MK-watch-now-1.jpg 1800w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
I asked him: What are you after? What do you want?
He said: I just want to look as good as I possibly can. I want to “looksmaxx.”
I said: Okay, that’s interesting.
I found him very thoughtful for a 19-year-old. He was going down a bad path, but he thought about things. And I asked him a question he couldn’t really answer — but also kind of did.
I asked: What is looking good for? What’s the goal?
And he didn’t have an answer. The answer he gave was: “I just want to mog.”
And what is “mog”? Entire dictionaries could be written on that word. Basically, it means to dominate, to be better than others, to outshine them.
But I always thought, if you’re a guy, you want to look good to get a girl. Or, if you’re an actor, you want to look good in order to get a part in a movie. Or to get a job, or win votes, or something. But mostly, men want to look good to get a girl. Same for women, to attract a guy.
But he said no, it’s looksmaxxing for its own sake. Even if it has negative effects.
He was taking so many hormones that he was impotent. Couldn’t have kids.
Well, that defeats the purpose, right? If the point is to look good to get married and have a family, you just undermined that.
But he said that’s not even the point.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="&quot;I Would Hit Myself In The Face With A Hammer&quot; Michael &amp; The Looksmaxxer | Clavicular" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/e8qj9RNA938?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
And that’s how I feel about the fat jabs. Why are people getting them? What’s it for?
They’ll say it’s for health — but there are downsides too. So, I don’t know — talk to your doctor.
If you’re single, I kind of get it. It’s tough out there. But if you’re already married, isn’t there something kind of fitting about getting a little plump? You’re not on the market anymore. You want to look good for your spouse, but you’re no longer competing at the clubs every night.
And if you make an idol out of your looks, that might actually undermine your marriage.
Our Lord says, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?”
What does it profit someone to lose all that weight but lose their marriage?
What does it profit a man to looksmaxx but lose his family, his legacy?
What’s it for? You’ve got to ask that question about anything in life.
Back before modern philosophy scrambled everyone’s brains — back to Aristotle — we understood that to know what something is, you have to know what it is for.
So what’s the fat jab for?
Put it down and ask that.
What does it profit a man to mog the whole world but lose his, maybe slightly chubby, wife?
Not a good trade.

Government  Aims To Make Weight Loss Jabs Available To All Through The NHS

The Weird Downside Of The Fat-Jab Craze That’s Quietly Reshaping Marriages

The Weird Downside Of The 'Fat-Jab' Craze

divorce

Great Britain

Michael Knowles

Opinion

Hollywood’s ‘Heroin Chic’ Comeback Has One Not-So-Secret Ingredient

Celebrity

Oprah Winfrey

Online telehealth company Hims &amp; Hers on Saturday reversed course on its launch of a $49 compounded version of Novo Nordisk&#8217;s Wegovy weight-loss pill after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it would take action against it.
&#8220;Since launching the compounded semaglutide pill on our platform, we’ve had constructive conversations with stakeholders across the industry. As a result, we have decided to stop offering access to this treatment,&#8221; the telehealth firm said.
The FDA said on Friday that it plans to restrict GLP-1 ingredients used in compounded drugs that companies such as Hims and online pharmacies have marketed, citing concerns over quality, safety and potential violations of federal law.
The Department of Health and Human Services said on Friday it would refer the company to the Department of Justice but did not make clear whether it could quickly halt the sale of the Hims&#8217; product, the cheapest GLP-1 therapy on the U.S. market.
Reuters reported on Thursday that Hims would begin offering copies of Novo Nordisk&#8217;s new Wegovy pill at an introductory price of $49 per month, about $100 less than the brand name.
The news caused a selloff in shares of Novo and rival Eli Lilly, whose own pill is expected to launch in April. The shares recovered some of the losses on Friday after FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary tweeted his concern after the market&#8217;s close on Thursday while Hims&#8217; shares fell.
&#8220;No one should be mass-compounding or selling knockoff GLP-1 products regardless of how they’re administered,&#8221; a Lilly spokesperson said in a statement to Reuters on Saturday after Hims &amp; Hers said it would stop offering its GLP-1 pill.
Compounding, in which pharmacies mix ingredients for specialized medicines or to copy a drug but at different dosages, has flourished as Americans chase cheaper prices for drugs. The practice is legal under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act in certain circumstances.
Novo on Thursday responded to Hims&#8217; launch by threatening legal action against the company while Lilly, which has battled compounded copies of its injectable drug Zepbound, said that patients deserved better than copies with no clinical evidence.
Hims&#8217; compounded drug is not FDA-approved and has not gone through clinical trials to prove efficacy.
Novo did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Saturday.
Hims &amp; Hers did not respond to a Reuters query about whether it would continue selling compounded semaglutide injections on its website. The company, alongside Novo and Lilly, is spending millions during Sunday&#8217;s Super Bowl to promote its offerings.
Novo has been losing share in the weight-loss market to rival Lilly and telehealth firms like Hims. Novo and Hims had a partnership in 2025 allowing Hims to sell injectable Wegovy, but the two companies walked away with Novo saying Hims had wrongfully marketed copycats of Wegovy. Hims&#8217; CEO Andrew Dudum accused Novo of attempting to control how clinicians at Hims make decisions.
Makary said in a statement on Friday that the agency will &#8220;use all available compliance and enforcement tools within its authorities to address unsubstantiated claims and associated public health concerns.&#8221;
HHS, which oversees the FDA, was not immediately available for comment.
(Reporting by Anusha Shah and Amina Niasse; Editing by Caroline Humer and Andrea Ricci)

Hims Drops Fat-Loss Pill After FDA Warning

U.S.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday it would take action against telehealth provider Hims &amp; Hers for its $49 weight-loss pill, including restricting access to the drug&#8217;s ingredients and referring the company to the Department of Justice for potential violations of federal law.
Federal action to limit the production of compounded drugs would be a win for Novo Nordisk, which has been losing share in the weight-loss market to rival Eli Lilly and telehealth firms like Hims. However, the FDA did not make clear whether it could quickly halt the sale of Hims&#8217; product, the cheapest GLP-1 therapy on the U.S. market.
Shares of Hims fell 14.1% in after-hours trade.
The FDA said it plans to restrict GLP-1 ingredients used in non-approved compounded drugs that companies such as Hims and other compounding pharmacies have marketed as alternatives to authorized treatments. The agency cited concerns over quality, safety and potential violations of federal law.
On Thursday, Reuters was first to report that Hims would begin offering copies of Novo Nordisk&#8217;s new Wegovy pill at an introductory price of $49 per month, about $100 less than the brand name.
Novo Nordisk later said it would take legal action against the telehealth company over its plan to sell compounded copies of the drug.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services&#8217; General Counsel, Mike Stuart, also said on Friday he has referred Hims &amp; Hers to the Department of Justice for investigation over potential violations.
Hims said in a statement that the company &#8220;has always operated with a deep commitment to the safety and best interests of consumers and in compliance with applicable law.
&#8220;We have a long history of successfully working with regulators, and look forward to continuing to engage with the FDA to ensure safe access to affordable healthcare.&#8221;
A Lilly spokesperson said the company applauded the FDA action. &#8220;For years, compounders have been putting patients at risk by unlawfully mass-producing knockoff drugs using substandard ingredients from illicit foreign suppliers and selling them without clinical evidence that they’re safe or even work. Patients deserve better, and we look forward to decisive action by FDA, other regulators, and law enforcement.”
Compounding, in which pharmacies mix ingredients for specialized medicines or to copy a drug but at different dosages, has flourished as Americans chase cheaper prices for drugs.
The practice is legal under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act in certain circumstances, like when prescribed by a physician to address patient side effects or during a drug shortage.
Hims&#8217; compounded drug is not FDA-approved and has not gone through clinical trials to prove efficacy.
The FDA&#8217;s enforcement actions against Hims could include sending a warning letter, pursuing a court injunction or conducting an administrative seizure of products, said Joanne Hawana, a member at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.
The agency would need the help of the Justice Department to pursue an injunction, as it lacks independent litigation authority, Hawana said.
The FDA&#8217;s statements suggest that &#8220;this announcement by Hims, to the government, is concerning enough that they decided they’re going to escalate,&#8221; Hawana said.
Thus far, the FDA&#8217;s actions on weight-loss drugs have been limited to warning letters sent in the fall of 2025 to combat misleading direct-to-consumer advertising and marketing.
Commissioner Marty Makary said in a statement on Friday that the agency will &#8220;use all available compliance and enforcement tools within its authorities to address unsubstantiated claims and associated public health concerns.&#8221;
The health regulator said that, in promotional materials, companies cannot claim that non-FDA-approved compounded products are generic versions or the same as drugs approved by FDA.
It added that &#8220;they also cannot state compounded drugs use the same active ingredient as the FDA-approved drugs or that compounded drugs are clinically proven to produce results for the patient.&#8221;
(Reporting by Siddhi Mahatole in Bengaluru and Leah Douglas in Washington; additional reporting by Amina Niasse in New York; Editing by Alan Barona and David Gregorio)

Pharmaceutical Companies in India

Hims Stock Tumbles As FDA Targets Its Discounted Weight-Loss Drugs

Prescription Drugs

Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk is launching its once-daily Wegovy pill in the United States on Monday, offering doses of 1.5 milligrams and 4 mg at $149 per month for self-paying patients in an intensely competitive weight-loss drug market.
The pill was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last month, a boon to Novo Nordisk as it looks to regain ground lost to U.S. rival Eli Lilly. Lilly has previously said it expects a decision in March for its own weight-loss pill.
Novo&#8217;s pill will also be sold in 9 mg and a higher long-term dose of 25 mg. The two higher doses will be priced at $299 for a month&#8217;s supply, while the 4 mg dose will rise to $199 from April 15, the drugmaker&#8217;s website shows.
The Wegovy pill could attract new consumers as Novo looks to revive its fortunes after profit warnings and sliding shares last year. The treatment offers more flexibility and an alternative for those who dislike needles used in injectable medication.
The once-daily pill is also under review by other regulators, with a UK decision due by year-end.
Denmark-listed shares of the drugmaker closed 5% higher on Monday. U.S.-listed shares of Novo were up 4.6%, while Lilly slipped 3.5% in afternoon trading.
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The success of Novo&#8217;s pill will be tied to attracting cash-paying consumers who cannot get insurance coverage, a stark shift from the dominant business model where drug pricing is managed through health insurance plans.
Novo said the treatment would be available through U.S. pharmacies CVS and Costco, as well as through telehealth providers including Ro, LifeMD, WeightWatchers, GoodRx and its own NovoCare Pharmacy.
Shares of the telehealth firms rose between 3% and 14% in afternoon trading.
The low 1.5 mg dose is the starter dose for the Wegovy pill, which is made up of semaglutide, the same active ingredient found in its blockbuster injectable weight-loss and diabetes treatments marketed under the brand names Wegovy and Ozempic.
Novo also offers the 1.5 mg dose for its oral semaglutide drug for type 2 diabetes, sold as Rybelsus.
The remaining doses of the Wegovy pill will be available for patients by the end of this week, Novo said.
Lilly plans to cap higher doses of its obesity pill, if approved, at $399 a month for repeat cash buyers. Lilly&#8217;s injectable drug Zepbound has largely been ahead of Novo&#8217;s Wegovy in weekly U.S. prescriptions over the past year.
U.S. list prices for the injectables are about $1,000 per month or more. Both companies have reduced prices of their injectables for customers paying in cash rather than using health insurance.
Novo began selling its Wegovy injection at $349 a month to cash payers in November.
Under a deal with U.S. President Donald Trump, Novo and Lilly also agreed to offer starter doses of their weight-loss pills at $149 per month for Medicare and Medicaid enrollees, and to cash payers via the White House&#8217;s new direct-to-consumer TrumpRx site, which is expected to be launched this month.
Novo had faced repeated supply shortages after launching its Wegovy injection in the U.S. But having built up supplies for its new pill for some time to prevent similar challenges, Novo said it was confident it could meet supply needs.
(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen in Copenhagen, Bhanvi Satija and Maggie Fick in London, writing by Anna Ringstrom; Editing by Terje Solsvik, Adam Jourdan, Bernadette Baum and Alan Barona)

Pills

No More ‘Fat Shot’: Wegovy Now Launching In Pill Form

Obesity

Pharmaceuticals

Celebrities spent years singing “love yourself” from the stage and lecturing all of us about radical body acceptance. But then, a funny thing happened: weight loss drugs hit the scene.
Now, some members of Hollywood have lost half their body weight and have been scrubbing the evidence from their feeds, rewriting the script about what “self-love” actually looks like. It’s all been very revealing for fans who fell for their lies about being happy at any weight. Because the second a quick-fix, injectable weight loss solution came along, these celebs dropped the “fat can be beautiful” act like a loaded baked potato.
One prime example is Amy Schumer. The comedian recently wiped her Instagram clean, deleting every pre-transformation post and replacing it with a single shot of her newly thinned-down physique, which included the caption, “Who’s proud? I’m feeling good and happy. Deleted my old pics for no reason.”
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The Instagram sweep came on the heels of a very public weight-loss journey and candid interviews about her struggles with GLP-1 drugs. Schumer <a href="https://pagesix.com/2025/03/22/celebrity-news/amy-schumer-back-on-weight-loss-drugs-after-horrible-experience-with-wegovy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">admitted</a> having a “horrible experience” when she tried Ozempic at first, saying the shots left her bedridden and vomiting.
The comedian said while Ozempic was a no-go, she had very different results after switching to another popular drug, Mounjaro.
Fans complained, saying it was one thing to be outspoken about your health journey, but that deleting those old photos felt like trying to erase the past.
Schumer <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DQ-SUGFDkpb/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">addressed</a> the controversy by insisting she was justified in scrubbing her socials.
“I didn’t delete my old photos because they were pre me losing weight. That’s a narrative you created. I’m proud of how I’ve looked always,” she insisted.
“I have been working to be pain-free and I finally am,” the comedian explained. “My endometriosis is better. My back is healing. I no longer have Cushing syndrome so my face went back to normal. I am grateful to be strong and healthy especially for my son.”
But the social media purge itself said something different. No matter how she tried to play it, deleting those photos sent a clear message: Who I was before is not who I am now. All praise Mounjaro!
Perhaps the most egregious example of this phenomenon is pop singer Meghan Trainor, who built her whole career around worshipping her curvy body and rejecting the thin-is-best messaging. Her 2014 hit single “All About That Bass” includes the line, “Yeah, it’s pretty clear, I ain’t no size two.”
But then Trainor discovered weight loss drugs and with it, a newfound appreciation for, well, being a size two. During a performance in May 2025, Trainor swapped that lyric for “I got some new boobs” and received a ton of heat for rejecting her status as a curvy role model for the masses.
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<section><a title="@1027kiisfm" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@1027kiisfm?refer=embed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@1027kiisfm</a> <a title="MeghanTrainor" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/MeghanTrainor?refer=embed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">#MeghanTrainor</a> is playing ALL the hits!!! 😍🙌✨ <a title="WangoTango" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/WangoTango?refer=embed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">#WangoTango</a> <a title="iheartradio" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/iheartradio?refer=embed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">#iheartradio</a> <a title="♬ original sound - 102.7 KIIS FM" href="https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-7503222033334848287?refer=embed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">♬ original sound &#8211; 102.7 KIIS FM</a></section>
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Like Schumer, she’s openly discussed using weight loss drugs.
“I’ve been on a journey to be the healthiest, strongest version of myself for my kids and for me,” Trainor <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DH4nStgyl_p/?hl=en&amp;img_index=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> in a lengthy Instagram post. “I’ve worked with a dietician, made huge lifestyle changes, started exercising with a trainer, and yes, I used science and support (shoutout to Mounjaro!) to help me after my 2nd pregnancy. And I’m so glad I did because I feel great.”
Fans were annoyed, and as she stated recently, the pop singer could not understand why.
One popular TikTok comment under the <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@1027kiisfm/video/7503222030515375390?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">video</a> of Trainor singing the new version of her hit song said, “‘Big is beautiful until you’re rich enough to change it.’ — story of the entertainment industry.”
Another person agreed, writing, “She has every right to change and nobody is hating on her. But because her body was a little more relatable it hit with a specific audience. Now it doesn’t hit the same. No shade just is what it is.”
Trainor spoke about the backlash during a conversation with iHeartRadio’s Kayla Thomas on November 14.
“I’m getting a lot of hate online just posting who I am. Everyone’s just being like, ‘Why are you thin now? You were ‘All About That Bass’ girl,’” she said.
“I was 19 when I came out with that song, and I’ve been on a fitness journey since I got healthy,” Trainor added. “It started when I was pregnant. I had gestational diabetes. I was like, ‘Oh, I gotta learn about health and fitness. If I wanna tour forever, I wanna be at my strongest. If I wanna lift up my kids from their crib and not pull out my back.’”
“So now I’m strength training three times a week in the gym and I am so focused on health,” she went on. “But I got a lot of hate for being thinner. That confused me, rattled me, so I wrote the song ‘Still Don’t Care,’” she added.
The phrase “fitness journey” keeps coming up. While these celebrities admit to using Mounjaro, they credit the weight loss to good habits and better workout schedules.
Lizzo’s case is different, but also egregious. She’s the most vocal pop star version of the body positivity movement, with many songs praising her voluptuous figure. When rumors first started circulating that she’d used Ozempic following some noticeable weight loss, she pushed back publicly, but what she said wasn’t exactly a denial.
“I’ve tried everything,” Lizzo said. “It’s just the science, for me, calories in vs. calories out. Ozempic works because you eat less food.”
“It makes you feel full. So, if you can just do that on your own and get mind-over-matter, it’s the same,” she added.
Interestingly, Lizzo also credited eating meat after being vegan as helping her shed pounds. “What did it for me was — actually it was not being vegan,” Lizzo said, as The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lizzo-says-ditching-vegan-diet-for-beef-helped-her-lose-weight" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. “Because when I was vegan, I was consuming a lot of fake meats. I was eating a lot of bread. I was eating a lot of rice, and I had to eat a lot of it to stay full. But really I was consuming like 3,000 to 5,000 calories a day.”
“So for me, when I actually started eating whole foods and eating, like, beef and chicken and fish, I was actually full and not expanding my stomach by putting a lot of, like, fake things in there that wasn’t actually filling me up,” she continued.
Lizzo addressed some of the backlash in a May 2023 TikTok video.
“Once I started working out for mental health, to have balanced mental health or endorphins, so that I don’t look at myself in the mirror and feel ashamed of myself, and feel disgusted with myself, exercise has helped me shift my mind, not my body,” she said at the time. “My body is gonna change, everyone’s bodies change. That’s life.”
Shaming people for making healthier choices is never a good idea. But when celebrities build their brands on body positivity and then do an about-face after discovering drugs that promote weight loss, it’s fair to call out the gap between what they said and what they’re doing.
The central complaint from fans is about consistency. If “body positivity” means unconditional acceptance of fatness, then it’s not fair to start slimming down and pretending their past selves never existed.
Right or not, fans absorb messages from influencers and pop stars. These public figures oscillating between “love the body you’re in” and “I changed my body for confidence” lead to frustration for their followers, who believe whatever they say.
One solution is just being honest from the start and admitting that being overweight is not an ideal to aspire to. Then, when weight loss happens, everyone can celebrate the accomplishment instead of being mad at the blatant hypocrisy.

Meghan Trainor

Body Positivity For Thee, Ozempic For Me: Slimmed Down Celebrities Ditch The Self-Love Narrative

Body positivity

Celebrities

Fat Acceptance

Hollywood

President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he&#8217;s reached deals with major pharmaceutical companies to lower the costs of popular weight loss drugs known as GLP-1s.
Pharma companies Eli Lilly, which makes Zepbound, and Novo Nordisk, which makes Wegovy and Ozempic, have agreed to lower prices of their drugs to the tune of hundreds of dollars, Trump said. Notably, Ozempic is primarily a type 2 diabetes medication, but is often prescribed off-label for weight loss.
Now, monthly out-of-pocket costs of the drugs will range from $50 to around $350, depending on a person&#8217;s dosage and insurance coverage. The drugs currently cost at least $1,000 a month.
Medicare patients will cover a $50 copay each month for the injectable drugs, no matter if the medications are used for obesity or diabetes.
Through Trump&#8217;s direct-to-consumer government website, called TrumpRx, Americans will pay $350-a-month for Wegovy, Zepbound, or Ozempic. Moreover, the cost is expected to soon drop to $245 a month, according to the administration.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
🇺🇸 President Trump announces another HISTORIC PRICE SLASH on top drugs that help Americans struggling with diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and more.
💉Ozempic: $1,000 → $350/mo via TrumpRx 
💉Wegovy: $1,350 → $350/mo
MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN! <a href="https://t.co/9lezvtZ6q0">pic.twitter.com/9lezvtZ6q0</a>
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) <a href="https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1986517540500115548?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 6, 2025</a></blockquote>
Additionally, both Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are working on oral GLP-1 medications for the public. The companies plan to make those available on TrumpRx for <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/11/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-announces-major-developments-in-bringing-most-favored-nation-pricing-to-american-patients/">$150</a> per month, the White House said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
🚨 BREAKING: <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a> announces that pharmaceutical companies Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk have agreed to offer their most popular GLP-1 drugs &#8220;at drastic discounts.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/PG9ffacUJf">pic.twitter.com/PG9ffacUJf</a>
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1986481440482087010?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 6, 2025</a></blockquote>
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. praised the deal.
“This is the biggest drug in our country, and that’s why this is the most important of all the announcements we’ve made,&#8221; he said. &#8220;This is going to have the biggest impact on the American people. All Americans, even those who are not on Medicaid, Medicare, are going to be able to get the same price for their drugs, for their GLP-1s.”
&#8220;The American public, because of this agreement, will lose 125 million pounds by this time next year — so it is going to have dramatic effects on human health in this country,&#8221; RFK added.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/SecKennedy?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SecKennedy</a>: &#8220;The American public, because of this agreement, will lose 125 million pounds by this time next year — so it is going to have dramatic effects on human health in this country.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/Wq2nrKUdUG">https://t.co/Wq2nrKUdUG</a> <a href="https://t.co/GTKc0vjfdi">pic.twitter.com/GTKc0vjfdi</a>
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1986485104135295203?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 6, 2025</a></blockquote>
Eli Lilly will also provide Emgality, a treatment for migraines, for $299 per pen, which is $443 lower than the current list price. Also, a diabetes medicine from Eli Lilly called Trulicity will be discounted by $598, now costing $389 per month.
NovoLog and Tresiba, popular insulin products from Novo Nordisk, will now cost $35 per month.
The president has also secured a $10 billion investment from Novo Nordisk to &#8220;to strengthen its domestic footprint&#8221; in the U.S. and $27 billion from Eli Lilly in new U.S. manufacturing investments.

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