Kayla Itsines has criticised the off-label use of diabetic drug Ozempic to lose weight. Photo / Instagram@Kaylaitsines
Kayla Itsines has criticised the off-label use of diabetic drug Ozempic to lose weight. Photo / Instagram@Kaylaitsines
Fitness influence Kayla Itsines has criticised the off-label use of the drug Ozempic for aesthetic purposes, saying it’s an “eating disorder”.
The injectable drug, which was originally created to treat diabetes by regulating blood sugar levels, is now being dubbed a “magic pill” for losing weight due to its ability to suppress one’s appetite and slow the rate at which the stomach empties.
The drug, along with its sister treatment Wegovy, has become so popular over the last year among those trying to lose weight that global supplies of the medication have run out in most places.
During The Australian Financial Review Entrepreneur Summit on Tuesday, one of the most well-known and successful online personal trainers in the world slammed women who were taking the drug to stay skinny.
“They’re like: ‘Oh, well, I just don’t have to go to the gym anymore because it keeps me slim’,” Itsines revealed.
Kayla Itsines isn’t the first person to speak out against the misuse of the drug. Speaking to The Cut, an anonymous stylist revealed that it was the women who “never really have to diet” that were most taken by the treatment.
“Especially for women who have been thin their whole lives – but not skinny, not fashion thin – the idea of touching that without having to sweat [during a workout] is really fun,” she said.
“It’s really fun for them to have their jeans hang off of them like they’re [Gigi or Bella] Hadid. There is an addictive quality to it.”
However, as New York dermatologist Dr Paul Jarrod Frank pointed out, “Anyone who thinks they’re gonna take a shot of Ozempic and it’s gonna cure all their problems, then they’ll eat and do whatever they want, those are the people that are gonna be very disappointed in life”.
“No matter how skinny you get, you may still have your mother’s outer thighs”, he told The Cut.
Ozempic was originally approved by the FDA to treat people with Type 2 diabetes. In recent months, there has been a spike in demand due to its weight loss benefits. Photo / Getty Images
Dr Gary Wittert, a professor of medicine at the University of Adelaide and senior consultant endocrinologist at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, said that healthy people who are taking Ozempic are not only worsening its global shortage for those with diabetes who actually need it but could potentially be harming themselves as well.
“They are not aware they might be compromising their health,” Wittert told Financial Review earlier this year.
“They are robbing Peter to pay Paul. They’ll lose muscle and bone mass and when they stop the drug, they’ll put back the fat, and more, but won’t regain all the muscle or bone. This is a medication meant for people with serious health problems, and that’s how it should be used.”
He went on, “in terms of nutrition”, “if these people are eating a suboptimal diet, they are not getting the right nutrients”.
“On the drug, they’ll eat less of that diet which is not going to help them. By analogy, if you drive a Maserati, and you put ethanol blend in your car, and your car doesn’t go very well, putting less ethanol blend in is not going to help the situation,” Dr Wittert revealed.
