Up to 72 per cent of ladies and 61 per cent of men are dissatisfied with their weight or body imagein keeping with a U.S. study. Globally, hundreds of thousands of individuals try to shed weight yearly with the hope that weight reduction can have positive effects on their body image, health and quality of life.
However, these motivated individuals often struggle to keep up recent diets or exercise regimens. The rise of medicines akin to semaglutides, like Ozempic or Wegs, is likely to be viewed as an appealing “quick fix” alternative to fulfill weight reduction goals.
Research led by our team and others suggests that such attempts to shed weight often do more harm than good, and even increase the danger of developing an eating disorder.
Weight loss and eating disorders
Eating disorders are serious mental health conditions primarily characterised by extreme patterns of under- or over-eating, concerns about one’s shape or body weight or other behaviours intended to influence body shape or weight akin to exercising excessively or self-inducing vomiting.
(AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Although once thought to only affect young, white adolescent girls, eating disorders don’t discriminate; eating disorders can develop in people of any age, sex, gender or racial/ethnic backgroundwith an estimated a million Canadians affected by an eating disorder at any given time. Feb. 1 to 7 is National Eating Disorders Awareness Week.
As a clinical psychologist and clinical psychology graduate student, our research has focused on how eating disorders develop and what keeps them going. Pertinent to society’s deal with weight-related goals, our research has examined associations between weight reduction and eating disorder symptoms.
Eating disorders and ‘weight suppression’
In eating disorders research, the state of maintaining weight reduction is known as “weight suppression.” Weight suppression is usually defined because the difference between an individual’s current weight and their highest lifetime weight (excluding pregnancy).
Despite the assumption that weight reduction will improve body satisfaction, we found that in a sample of over 600 men and ladies, weight reduction had no impact on women’s negative body image and was related to increased body dissatisfaction in men. Importantly, being more weight suppressed has been related to the onset of eating disordersincluding anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.
One proposed explanation for the connection between weight suppression and eating disorders is that maintaining weight reduction becomes increasingly difficult as body systems that reduce metabolic rate and energy expenditure, and increase appetiteare activated to advertise weight gain.
There is growing awareness that weight regain is very likely following conventional weight loss program programs. This might lead people to interact in increasingly extreme behaviours to manage their weight, or they could shift between extreme restriction of food intake and episodes of overeating or binge eating, the characteristic symptoms of bulimia nervosa.
Ozempic and other semaglutide drugs
Semaglutide drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy are a part of a category of drug called glucagon-like peptide-1 agonists (GLP-1As). These drugs work by mimicking the hormone GLP-1 to interact with neural pathways that signal satiety (fullness) and slow stomach emptying, resulting in reduced food intake.
(Shutterstock)
Although GLP-1As are indicated to treat Type 2 diabetes, they’re increasingly prescribed off-label or being illegally purchased with out a prescription due to their observed effectiveness at inducing weight reduction. Although medications like Ozempic do often result in weight reduction, the speed of weight reduction may decelerate or stop over time.
Research by Lindsay Bodell, considered one of the authors of this story, and her colleagues on weight suppression may help explain why effects of semaglutides diminish over time, as weight suppression is related to reduced GLP-1 response. This means those suppressing their weight could turn out to be less conscious of the satiety signals activated by GLP-1As.
Additionally, weight reduction effects are only seen for so long as the medication is taken, meaning those that take these drugs to attain some weight reduction goal are prone to regain most, if not all, weight lost once they stop taking the medication.
Risks of weight-reduction plan and weight-loss drugs
The growing marketplace for off-label weight reduction drugs is concerning, due to the exacerbation of weight stigma and the intense health risks related to unsupervised weight reduction, including developing eating disorders.
Researchers and health professionals are already raising the alarm in regards to the use of GLP-1As in children and adolescents, as a consequence of concerns about their possible impact on growth and development.
Moreover, popular weight-loss methods, whether or not they involve pills or “crash diets,” often mimic symptoms of eating disorders. For example, intermittent fasting diets that involve long periods of fasting followed by short periods of food consumption may mimic and increase the danger of developing binge eating problems.
The use of weight loss program pills or laxatives to shed weight has been found to extend the danger of being diagnosed with an eating disorder in the subsequent one to a few years. Drugs like Ozempic may additionally be misused by individuals already battling an eating disorder to suppress their appetite, compensate for binge eating episodes or manage fear of weight gain.
Individuals who’re already showing signs of an eating disorder, akin to limiting their food intake and intense concerns about their weight, could also be most susceptible to spiralling from a weight reduction weight loss program or medication into an eating disorder, even in the event that they only lose a moderate amount of weight.
People who’re dissatisfied with their weight or have made multiple attempts to shed weight often feel pressured to try increasingly drastic methods. However, any weight loss program, exercise program or weight-loss medication promising a fast fix for weight reduction needs to be treated with extreme caution. At best, it’s possible you’ll gain the load back; at worst, you set yourself in danger for far more serious eating disorders and other health problems.