The Problem with “Getting Your Shot” at Weight Watchers
The use of weight loss medications Ozempic and Mounjaro is increasingly going mass market, with companies like Weight Watchers, Ro, and Him/Hers dedicating multi million dollar media campaigns to marketing the drugs on TV and billboard ads that feature celebrities, offer discounted programs, and tease the prospect of dramatic results (“78 pounds in one year!”)
The biggest problem with Weight Watchers GLP-1 programs and similar mass market programs is that they construct and broadcast a misleading basic idea of GLP-1’s. The idea is that these drugs will let you lose a lot of weight, after which, newly thin, you can get on with your life.
“That kind of therapy takes maintenance, monitoring and management by a qualified clinician. But that crucial aspect of weight loss on GLP-1’s is not part of the WW message.”
That first part is true: these drugs are capable of causing a significant amount of weight loss, up to [20% of body weight]. The problem is with the second part: the implication that it’s like a definitive cure over a set time (78 pounds in one year!) What Weight Watchers and similar companies invariably fail to mention is that these drugs are effectively hormone replacement therapy, similar to taking medication for a thyroid deficiency. Like medication for a thyroid deficiency syndrome, GLP-1’s step in to make up for a shortfall in certain naturally occurring gastric peptides that help regulate caloric intake. There’s a categorical difference between taking medication for an illness and taking medication for a syndrome like a hormone imbalance or deficiency. I let my patients know that, just as you need to take hormone medication to maintain a healthy thyroid, you need to take GLP-1’s indefinitely if you are to maintain weight loss. That kind of therapy takes maintenance, monitoring and management by a qualified clinician. But that crucial aspect of weight loss on GLP-1’s is not part of the WW message.
