New Trend in Weight-Loss Drugs: 'Casual' Users

She didn't want to overhaul her body—just lose a few pounds. In New York magazine, Melissa Dahl profiles an emerging group of "casual" users of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and newer compounds such as retatrutide. They are not obese, not diabetic, and often not working with a doctor at all. These mostly women are buying vials through med spas, Instagram distributors, online compounders, and the like, then tinkering with microdoses learned from YouTube, TikTok, and friends to drop relatively modest amounts of weight. Some now treat the injections like Botox: something to cycle on and off when their jeans feel tight, a tool as much about mood and self-image as health.

"I mean, as a physician, I wouldn't recommend doing that," Dr. Jennifer Manne-Goehler of Brigham and Women's Hospital tells Dahl. But she adds that she knows people in medicine also experimenting with their own dosing. Users, meanwhile, cite manageable side effects, better lab numbers, and a relief from the "inordinate amount of mental energy" they would otherwise devote to their weight, writes Dahl. The story makes clear that the drugs are so new that the health risks of DIY use have not been well established. For example, Manne-Goehler worries about the accumulation of "visceral fat" linked to heart trouble for those using a stop-and-start approach similar to crash dieting. Read the full piece.