GLP-1 drugs: what physicians say about Ozempic and its successors, in their own words

Last updated September 20, 2026.

This page is a maintained record of what physicians have written about GLP-1 drugs, the class that includes Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound, on KevinMD.com, a physician-authored publication founded in 2004 by Kevin Pho, MD, a board-certified internal medicine physician in Nashua, New Hampshire. It draws on 74 essays and podcast transcripts in which these drugs are the subject, published between October 2022 and September 2026 by 52 named contributors, 42 of the posts bylined by physicians. Nearly half of them, 34, were published in the first nine months of 2026, more than in 2023 and 2024 combined. Every claim on this page is attributed to a named author with the date it was published and a link to the original.

Read together, the essays are a profession that agrees the drugs work and argues about everything downstream of that: whether obesity is a disease to be treated with a lifelong medication, what happens when patients stop, who should pay, whether teenagers should take them, what compounded versions are, and what the drugs mean for bariatric surgery and for the idea that weight is a matter of willpower. The record begins with a primary care physician’s frustration at insurers in October 2022 and ends, in September 2026, with an obesity researcher’s warning that spending on the drugs could reach $100 billion a year while almost nothing is spent on what happens after they stop.

The sections below are organized around the questions physicians, patients, employers, and journalists ask. Each opens with a direct answer, followed by what named authors have said, in the order they said it. Where authors cite trials or figures, the source is named alongside the author, and the figures are theirs as of the date they wrote. Contributors who sell services into this subject, weight-loss clinics, coaching, nutrition programs, and a book, are identified where they are cited. This is a page about physician opinion and experience, not prescribing guidance.

What do physicians say GLP-1 drugs do?

Physicians on KevinMD describe the drugs the same way in 2022 and 2026: a class of diabetes medications that mimics a gut hormone, slows stomach emptying, quiets appetite, and produces weight loss that used to require surgery. The trial figures they cite rise over the record, from 5 to 11 kilograms in 2023 to 15 to 20 percent of body weight in 2026, and the list of conditions the drugs treat grows with them. Benefits beyond weight, heart, kidney, sleep apnea, alcohol, appear in 46 percent of posts in 2022 to 2023 and 62 percent in 2026.

Christine Meyer, MD, an internist, wrote in October 2022 that the drugs “are all in the same class, have identical mechanisms,” that Ozempic, Wegovy, and Rybelsus are the same molecule, and that access had been difficult, “with out-of-pocket costs approaching $1600 per month and supply chain delays,” in “A personal mission to get obese patients on GLP-1 agonists.” Dinesh Arab, MD, wrote in June 2023 that “the average weight loss in this class was between 5 to 11 kg” in trials, and that the drugs “decrease stomach emptying time, making you feel full,” in “Unveiling the game-changing diabetic drugs: Revolutionizing weight loss and diabetes management.” David Ahn, MD, an endocrinologist at Hoag, wrote in November 2023 that the class “is not on its own a magic bullet” but “does represent the most significant remedy to obesity in a generation,” in “What we have to gain from weight loss drugs.”

Nisha Kuruvadi, DO, an obesity medicine physician, wrote in May 2025 that patients lose “5 to 20 percent of their body weight,” which “was once only possible with bariatric surgery,” in “The truth about GLP-1 medications for weight loss: What every patient should know.” Zehra Haider, MD, wrote in February 2026 that tirzepatide is now approved for obstructive sleep apnea and that in trials reductions in the apnea-hypopnea index “reached up to 29 events per hour,” in “Beyond weight loss: the expanding benefits of GLP-1 receptor agonists.” Quoc Dang, DO, a bariatric surgeon, wrote in May 2026 that semaglutide “produced average weight reductions of 15 to 17 percent of total body weight” and tirzepatide “over 20 percent in some trials,” in “How GLP-1 medications compare to bariatric surgery.” Timothy Lesaca, MD, a psychiatrist, wrote in July 2026 that a Swedish registry study linked semaglutide and liraglutide with “fewer alcohol-related hospitalizations among people with alcohol use disorder,” and that “GLP-1 drugs might not cure addiction,” in “Semaglutide and cravings: what the 2026 trial changed.”

Is obesity a disease, and who should get the drugs? Physicians disagree.

This is the record’s founding argument. Most physicians on KevinMD write that obesity is a chronic disease with, at last, an effective treatment, and that withholding it is the same as withholding blood pressure medication. A smaller number write that obesity is a risk factor rather than a disease, that the risks outweigh the benefits in people who are merely overweight, and that a drug for a condition produced by the food environment lets society off the hook. Both positions are on the site by name from 2022 and 2023 and neither has left.

Christine Meyer, MD, opened the record in October 2022 with the case for treatment: obesity is not the consequence of bad behaviors, she wrote, but “a disease that finally has effective, safe, lasting treatments,” in “A personal mission to get obese patients on GLP-1 agonists.” Jennifer Gauntt, MD, a pediatric intensivist who had gained and lost the same 60 pounds half a dozen times, wrote in March 2023 that after starting the drug she would not stop at a healthy weight because she finally had “a life free of brain chatter,” in ““Eat less and move more” is not the solution: What I wish my thin colleagues understood about obesity.” The dissent arrived a month later. Judy Butler and Adriane Fugh-Berman, MD, a professor of pharmacology, wrote in April 2023 that “weight loss drugs won’t cure obesity,” and that this is fine “because obesity isn’t a disease to be cured,” and that the risks “are very likely to outweigh benefits in healthy overweight people,” in “Why weight loss drugs are not the answer to obesity.”

Monica Ball-Zondervan, MD, wrote in November 2023 that she had been “overwhelmed with requests from my patients,” both those who met the criteria and those who did not, and asked what the drugs would do to society’s responsibility for the food environment, in “Will GLP-1s allow our society to eschew its responsibility to create a healthy environment?” Yasmine Kamgarhaghighi, then a medical student, wrote in July 2024 that the drugs “should be prioritized for patients who do not have other options,” in “How weight loss drugs are creating a medical dilemma.” Richard M. Fleming, MD, PhD, JD, a cardiologist, wrote in April 2026 that as “insurers increasingly define success by weight reduction,” medicine was repeating the mistake of “elevating a surrogate marker to the status of a biological endpoint,” in “GLP-1 agonists and weight loss: Treating the disease, not the number.”

What happens when patients stop taking them?

They regain the weight, and physicians on KevinMD have said so since the first year, citing the same trial: in the STEP 1 extension, participants who stopped semaglutide regained about two-thirds of what they had lost within a year. The record’s argument is about what follows from that. Some physicians conclude the drugs are lifelong therapy, like a blood pressure pill; others that the system is funding the drug and not the support that would let a patient come off it. Stopping or regain appears in 46 percent of posts in 2022 to 2023 and 41 percent in 2026, and the phrase “exit plan” enters the record in November 2025.

Natalie Muth, MD, MPH, a pediatrician, wrote in August 2024 that her adolescent patients know and fear that if the drug is no longer an option “the weight is very likely to come back,” and that in her clinic they stop because of shortages, coverage, cost, side effects, or the monthly coaching visits her practice requires, in “Many kids benefit from GLP-1s. What happens when they have to stop taking them?” Ricky Bloomfield, MD, wrote in October 2025 that in the STEP 4 trial “those who ceased semaglutide treatment regained two-thirds of their weight within a year,” in “Life after GLP-1s: How to sustain weight loss.” Holli Bradish-Lane, a health coach, wrote in November 2025 the list of reasons patients stop anyway: “Insurance coverage ends. Supplies run short. A job changes, or a deductible resets,” in “Why you need a GLP-1 exit plan.”

Jessica Duncan, MD, an obesity medicine physician, wrote in March 2026 that stopping “abruptly and expecting maintenance of weight loss is not realistic,” and that a standard eat less, move more plan “is not sufficient as it ignores what we know about hunger regulation,” in “GLP-1 weight regain: Why stopping medication leads to weight return.” Mani Habibi, MD, a bariatric surgeon, wrote in April 2026 that after discontinuation “the rate of weight regain can be up to four times faster” than after dieting, in “How weight-loss injections are changing obesity treatment.” Hana Kahleova, MD, PhD, MBA, a diabetes researcher at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, wrote in September 2026 that “these drugs work only for as long as they’re taken,” that analysts project spending “could eventually top $100 billion a year,” and that coverage should be conditioned on reimbursed nutrition and behavioral support, in “GLP-1 weight regain: We are funding the wrong half.”

What side effects and risks do physicians describe?

Nausea, vomiting, and constipation in every year, and then a widening list as the drugs reached more patients: delayed stomach emptying that interferes with other medications and with anesthesia, muscle loss, malnutrition, a psychiatrist’s account of patients who lose appetite for food and for everything else, and, in 2026, a rare eye condition. Side effects appear in 62 percent of posts in 2022 to 2023 and 59 percent in 2026, and muscle or lean mass, absent from the 2024 posts, is in 56 percent of the 2026 ones.

Osmund Agbo, MD, wrote in September 2023 that the Ozempic label lists “nausea, the unsettling dance of vomiting, the discomfort of diarrhea,” in “Contemporary weight loss: Unveiling the quest for elusive elixir.” Jennifer Jonsson, a patient taking oral semaglutide, wrote in May 2024 that it can interfere with absorption of other medications, and that of the reports of women whose birth control medication stopped working, “you’ll see that it does happen,” in “Can weight loss medication interfere with ADHD meds?” Deepak Gupta, MD, an anesthesiologist, wrote in July 2024 that “the primary perioperative safety concern affecting anesthesia management is the risk of aspiration due to gastrointestinal stasis,” in “To anesthetize, or not to anesthetize: a pervasive dilemma of the GLP-1 era.”

Farid Sabet-Sharghi, MD, a psychiatrist, wrote in December 2025 that the drugs are not psychologically neutral, that some patients experience “muscle wasting, which contributes to fatigue,” and that “a medication that dampens all desire may come at a cost,” in “GLP-1 psychological side effects: a psychiatrist’s view.” Maureen McBeth, PT, wrote in February 2026 that “up to 38 percent of patients taking GLP-1s showed signs of malnutrition” in a 2025 study, in “Beyond BMI: Why weight management must look inside the body.” Shiv K. Goel, MD, said on The Podcast by KevinMD in April 2026 that the drugs require monitoring “including for rare events like ischemic optic neuropathy,” in “Oral Wegovy sounds easy, but the reality is more complicated.” Sanjeev Sharma, MD, MBA, wrote in September 2026 that “current research does not establish that GLP-1 therapies broadly cause falls,” but that lean-mass loss is a reason to measure balance in older patients, in “Balance as a vital sign: 4 reasons to track it routinely.”

What do physicians say about compounded GLP-1s and peptides?

That they are not the approved drugs, and that the shortage and the price created the market for them. Compounded versions do not appear in the record before December 2024; they are in 43 percent of 2025 posts and 18 percent of 2026 posts, and by 2026 the subject has widened to the peptide market the drugs made respectable. The physicians who write about it prescribe the approved drugs and say the compounded ones are a symptom of cost.

Karla Lester, MD, a pediatrician who runs a telehealth obesity program for adolescents, wrote in June 2025 one sentence on the subject: “I do not prescribe compounded GLP-1 medications for adolescent patients,” in “An effective treatment using an effective care delivery model: Using telehealth to treat adolescents with obesity with GLP-1 medications.” Shiv K. Goel, MD, who runs a wellness clinic, wrote in January 2026 of a 45-year-old who arrived asking “can you prescribe me some BPC-157 with sermorelin, and maybe semaglutide too,” and had not mentioned that his last meal was at 11:30 p.m. in front of a laptop, in “Why lifestyle matters more than BPC-157 and semaglutide.” Benjamin González, MD, wrote in May 2026 that “many people using GLP-1 medications do not realize they are already using peptide therapeutics,” and set out the four regulatory lanes, approved, compounded, research grade, and illegal, in “Peptide regulation: 4 lanes every physician must know.” The Obesity Society wrote in July 2026 that a product marketed as compounded semaglutide may sound like the approved drug “but patients should not assume the products are identical,” and that the growth of compounding “cannot be separated from the failures of the broader health care system,” in “Compounded GLP-1 drugs are not the same as approved ones.”

What do the drugs cost, and who pays?

The record’s most changeable question. Physicians cite $1,600 a month out of pocket in 2022, a list price near $936 a dose in 2024, a direct-to-consumer price of $350 in January 2026, and $50 a month under Medicare’s new program in July 2026, in the same months that a state Medicaid program and a state employee plan stopped covering the drugs for obesity. Cost or insurance appears in 62 percent of posts in 2022 to 2023 and 71 percent in 2025.

Christine Meyer, MD, wrote in October 2022 that some insurers were “labeling all patients on these drugs as diabetics” because the drugs were approved for diabetes and not weight loss, and that “We will never tell an insurer that a patient has diabetes to get these medications covered because that is fraud,” in “A personal mission to get obese patients on GLP-1 agonists.” Janese S. Laster, MD, a gastroenterologist, wrote in February 2024 that “While Ozempic (semaglutide) is covered for diabetes treatment,” Wegovy, the same molecule approved for weight loss, lacks similar coverage, in “Beyond Ozempic: Why one size doesn’t fit all in weight loss.” Martha Rosenberg, a health writer, wrote in August 2024 that the drugs “can be listed at $935.77 per single dose,” in “Are rapid weight loss drugs hiding the real obesity problem?” Rodney Lenfant, a patient and health plan board chair, wrote in September 2025 that after a sleep apnea diagnosis, “That alternative diagnosis unlocked insurance coverage and led to a life-changing outcome,” where a weight-loss diagnosis had not, in “Why GLP-1 drugs should be covered beyond weight loss.”

Howard Smith, MD, who runs a medical weight loss practice, wrote in December 2025 that under the direct-to-consumer platform negotiated that November, injectable GLP-1s “will start at or below $350 per month in January 2026,” in “The economics of medical weight loss,” and in April 2026 that “as of July 2026, the cost may be as low as $50 per month,” in “The evolving standard of medical weight loss and obesity treatment.” Joseph Zucchi, PA-C, wrote in May 2026 of a Massachusetts teacher whose state employee plan switched her drug in April and then announced that “starting July 1, 2026, they are eliminating GLP-1 coverage for obesity entirely,” in “The hidden cost of GLP-1 insurance coverage mandates.” The American Medical Women’s Association wrote in July 2026 that under the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge program patients “will pay a $50 copay for each 30-day prescription,” in “What is the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge program?” The same month, Tom Peteet, MD, MPH, MEd, wrote that MassHealth had stopped covering the drugs for obesity alone, “affecting around 22,000 patients,” and that his patients with spinal cord injuries would be hit hardest, in “GLP-1 coverage cuts hit disabled patients hardest.”

Should teenagers take GLP-1s?

The pediatricians on KevinMD say yes for adolescents with severe obesity, cite the STEP TEENS trial, and describe a practice that is far behind the evidence: fewer than 1 percent of eligible teens received the drugs in 2023. The counterargument on the site is not that the drugs are wrong for teenagers but that a lifelong medication started at 13 raises a question nobody has answered. Teens or children appear in 38 percent of 2024 posts and 36 percent of 2025 posts.

Karla Lester, MD, wrote in April 2024 that STEP TEENS showed greater reductions in weight, waist circumference, A1c, and lipids with semaglutide, and that a mother “called around to what seemed like 100 pharmacies” during the shortage to find a starting dose, in “GLP-1 medications like Wegovy are effective metabolic health tools for teens with insulin resistance.” Natalie Muth, MD, MPH, wrote in August 2024 that the trial showed “16 percent weight loss in adolescents with obesity” over 68 weeks, and that a JAMA research letter found “a 600 percent increase in pharmacological treatment in the past three years,” in “Many kids benefit from GLP-1s. What happens when they have to stop taking them?” V. Sushma Chamarthi, MD, a pediatrician and obesity medicine physician, wrote in August 2025 that the CDC found “less than 1 percent of teens with obesity got these medications in 2023,” and that Black adolescents were “39 percent less likely to get these medications” despite being 27 percent more likely to have severe obesity, in “Why new obesity medications for teens could be a game changer.” Lester wrote in June 2025 that of 44 adolescents seen in her telehealth program, “34 percent are from rural areas,” and listed as an open question “the ethical considerations of starting a potentially lifelong medication in an adolescent,” in “An effective treatment using an effective care delivery model: Using telehealth to treat adolescents with obesity with GLP-1 medications.” Chrissie Ott, MD, a pediatrician who is also the parent of a child with obesity, said on The Podcast by KevinMD in September 2025 that it is a both-and situation, in “When a pediatrician becomes the parent navigating childhood obesity.”

Are the drugs a substitute for diet and lifestyle? Physicians disagree.

No, on both sides of the argument, but for opposite reasons. One group writes that diet and exercise never worked at scale, that the drugs finally do, and that lifestyle advice is what patients need after starting them. The other writes that the drugs excuse a food environment that produces obesity and that a medication for the consequences is a gift to industry. Diet or lifestyle appears in 86 percent of 2025 posts, the highest share of any term in any year of the record.

Judy Butler and Adriane Fugh-Berman, MD, wrote in April 2023 that analysts predicted obesity treatment “could grow from a $2.4 billion category in 2022 to $54 billion by 2030,” in “Why weight loss drugs are not the answer to obesity.” Martha Rosenberg wrote in August 2024 that a ban on junk food advertising on London transport had been credited with preventing 100,000 cases of obesity, and that “the U.S. love affair” with the drugs “gives junk food advertising and availability a huge pass,” in “Are rapid weight loss drugs hiding the real obesity problem?” Shiv K. Goel, MD, wrote in January 2026 that he asks patients “Before we talk about prescriptions, can you walk me through a day in your life,” in “Why lifestyle matters more than BPC-157 and semaglutide.”

Deanne Brandstetter, MBA, RDN, a nutrition executive, wrote in April 2026 that “nearly 40 percent of health care providers and nutrition and dietetics professionals report” that patients on the drugs “feel less motivated to make lifestyle changes,” and that combining the drugs with obesity care “could lead to more than $35,000 in lifetime health care cost savings per person,” in “Why GLP-1 medications require expert nutrition guidance.” John La Puma, MD, wrote in May 2026 that Americans on the drugs “are falling in love with exercise for the first time,” a man who could not walk to his mailbox now hiking seven miles a day, in “GLP-1 agonists and the hidden power of outdoor exercise.” Hana Kahleova, MD, PhD, MBA, wrote in June 2026 that “diet may be the most overlooked way to enhance their effect,” in “Diet and GLP-1 drugs work better together.” Carrie Friedman, NP, who runs a psychiatry practice, wrote the same month of a 59-year-old who lost nothing in seven weeks on tirzepatide, and argued that chronic stress and cortisol can blunt the drugs, in “When GLP-1 doesn’t work, look at chronic stress.”

What do the drugs mean for bariatric surgery?

The bariatric surgeons on KevinMD wrote in 2023 that surgery was the most effective and durable treatment, and in 2026 that the drugs now produce numbers “we previously only associated with surgery” and that they are still operating, on patients with a BMI above 40 or several comorbidities. Between those dates the argument is about uptake, marketing, and which specialty owns obesity. Bariatric surgery appears in 31 percent of 2024 posts and 12 percent of 2026 posts.

Maria Iliakova, MD, a bariatric surgeon, wrote in September 2023 that bariatric surgery is “the most effective and durable weight management method” for patients with excess weight, and that over 70 percent of patients achieve diabetes remission after it, in “5 things to know about weight from a bariatric surgeon.” Michael Kirsch, MD, a gastroenterologist, wrote in July 2024 that surgery “is obviously a less attractive option than an effective pill or a weekly injection,” and that pharmaceutical research on next-generation drugs is supercharged, in “Are Ozempic patients on a slow-moving runaway train?” Mani Habibi, MD, wrote in April 2026, after 15 years in bariatric surgery, of “a shift that should make us all pause,” and asked, “Is science shaping the future of obesity care, or is pharmaceutical marketing now in the driver’s seat,” in “How weight-loss injections are changing obesity treatment.” Quoc Dang, DO, wrote in May 2026 that the trial figures “are numbers we previously only associated with surgery,” that “I am still performing bariatric surgery,” and that “Increasingly, these tools are complementary rather than competing,” in “How GLP-1 medications compare to bariatric surgery.”

What do physicians say about the “Ozempic body,” stigma, and identity?

That rapid weight loss produces a body and a life the patient did not plan for. A physician coined “Ozempic body” on the site in January 2024 for the loose skin and dysmorphia after fast loss; by 2026 the subject is stigma that makes patients hide the drug from their doctors, a thinner body ideal, and what a nurse who took the drug calls an identity crisis when the food noise stops. Psychological terms appear in 38 to 50 percent of posts in every year of the record.

Osmund Agbo, MD, wrote in January 2024 of a former classmate who lost the weight and then grappled with what he named the Ozempic body and “the emotional demons that came with it,” and that the term “encapsulates the pervasive dysmorphic body types following rapid weight loss,” in “The “Ozempic body” phenomenon.” Sarah White, APRN, who runs an aesthetics practice, wrote in June 2025 of a patient who had changed her mind after a TikTok video, and of another “who, after starting tirzepatide, lowered her A1C from 8.2 to 5.9,” in “Beyond the TikTok hype: Rebuilding trust in evidence-based weight loss medicine.” Farid Sabet-Sharghi, MD, wrote in December 2025 that among younger patients with eating disorders many love the drugs because the food noise has stopped, and that “the total silencing of this internal signal is not always a positive development,” in “GLP-1 psychological side effects: a psychiatrist’s view.” Tom Lavin, MD, wrote in May 2026 that “the pendulum is swinging back toward a thinner body ideal” and that use “has surged, particularly among young adults,” in “How GLP-1 medications shift modern weight-loss trends.” Patience C. Ennis, a nurse, GLP-1 user, and founder of a coaching platform for people on the drugs, wrote in August 2026 that the medicines “are not the 1990s diet-pill era repeated” but “entered a culture that still treats weight as a referendum on character,” in “GLP-1 weight loss stigma changes what patients disclose,” and in September 2026 that reaching her target weight left her “frightened of what I might see,” in “When the food noise stops, the identity crisis begins.”

What do physicians say about the marketing and the money?

That the drugs sold themselves before anyone had to sell them. The record opens in 2023 with a drug representative’s smile and closes in 2026 with a psychiatrist comparing the moment to the arrival of SSRIs. In between, physicians describe stock prices, a bankruptcy, a direct-to-consumer marketplace, and a pill that will travel farther than an injection. Pharma or advertising appears in 54 to 69 percent of posts in every year.

Dinesh Arab, MD, opened his June 2023 essay with a drug representative who “had a smug look; she knew she had a winner,” and wrote that Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly “have already seen their stock prices climb to new extraordinary heights,” in “Unveiling the game-changing diabetic drugs: Revolutionizing weight loss and diabetes management.” Martha Rosenberg wrote in September 2024 that news media “repeat medical claims from drug makers found in journals like they are news,” in “Why isn’t medical advertising regulated like other advertising?” Olumuyiwa Bamgbade, MD, wrote in July 2025 that WeightWatchers’ bankruptcy “was driven by mounting debt and pressure from newer weight-loss therapy products,” in “WeightWatchers shifts to value-based care with GLP-1 strategy.”

Shiv K. Goel, MD, wrote in February 2026 that with oral Wegovy the noise “is about to get louder, because pills travel farther than injections,” and that “pills also encourage a dangerous assumption” that what is swallowed is lighter and safer, in “Oral Wegovy: the miracle and the mess of the new GLP-1 pill.” Jessica Duncan, MD, wrote in March 2026 of “a marketplace that treats them like consumer products rather than chronic disease therapies,” in “GLP-1 weight regain: Why stopping medication leads to weight return.” Farid Sabet-Sharghi, MD, wrote in August 2026 that “For the pharmaceutical companies, that popularity was an incredible financial windfall,” and that he had seen the pattern before with SSRIs, whose sexual dysfunction and rebound depression took years to surface, in “GLP-1 weight rebound: We have seen this before.”

How has the GLP-1 conversation changed since 2022?

The record has four years and a prologue. Before 2022 the archive’s obesity treatment posts are about bariatric surgery, Kevin Pho’s short 2006 to 2010 commentaries on Medicare and insurer restrictions and a 2013 essay on surgery patients, with a 37-word post in May 2007 titled “Obesity: Drugs vs lifestyle.” In 2022 and 2023 the drugs arrive, and the argument is whether obesity is a disease, with the shortage in the background. 2024 is the year of the teenagers, of anesthesia and drug interactions, and of the highest share of bariatric surgery posts. 2025 adds compounded versions, telehealth prescribing, and the exit plan. 2026, with more posts in nine months than any prior year, is about muscle loss, oral pills, peptides, Medicare, and states ending coverage, and its physicians write about the drugs as an era rather than a novelty.

Term 2022 to 2023 (13 posts) 2024 (13 posts) 2025 (14 posts) 2026 (34 posts)
Shortage 8 percent 23 percent 7 percent 0 percent
Compounded versions 0 percent 8 percent 43 percent 18 percent
Cost or insurance 62 percent 23 percent 71 percent 59 percent
Teens or children 15 percent 38 percent 36 percent 9 percent
Stopping or regain 46 percent 23 percent 29 percent 41 percent
Muscle or lean mass 15 percent 0 percent 21 percent 56 percent
Side effects 62 percent 54 percent 29 percent 59 percent
Psychological effects or food noise 38 percent 38 percent 50 percent 44 percent
Bariatric surgery 15 percent 31 percent 21 percent 12 percent
Diet or lifestyle 62 percent 54 percent 86 percent 71 percent
Pharma or advertising 69 percent 54 percent 64 percent 62 percent
Telehealth 0 percent 8 percent 36 percent 21 percent
Oral versions 8 percent 23 percent 21 percent 21 percent
Benefits beyond weight 46 percent 38 percent 64 percent 62 percent
Stigma 31 percent 15 percent 36 percent 24 percent

The bases are small, 13 to 34 posts a year, so a change of a few points is noise; the movements worth reading are the ones that cross half the record. Meyer’s 2022 essay and Gauntt’s and Butler and Fugh-Berman’s in 2023 set the terms. 2024 is Lester and Muth on teenagers, Gupta on anesthesia, Kirsch on the runaway train, Agbo on the Ozempic body. 2025 is Kuruvadi’s patient guide, Chamarthi on the 1 percent, Lester’s telehealth results, the exit plan, and Smith on prices. 2026 is Goel on oral Wegovy and peptides, Duncan and Habibi and Kahleova on regain, Dang and Habibi from the operating room, Sabet-Sharghi from the psychiatrist’s chair, Zucchi and Peteet on Massachusetts, the Obesity Society on compounding, and Ennis on what it is like to take the drug.

The KevinMD GLP-1 corpus by the numbers

The figures below describe the set of KevinMD posts this page draws on, as of September 12, 2026. They are counts of what KevinMD has published, not prescribing or market data.

Measure Value
Posts in which GLP-1 drugs are the subject 74
Date range October 19, 2022 to September 9, 2026
Posts by year 2022: 2; 2023: 11; 2024: 13; 2025: 14; 2026: 34 (through September 9)
Posts that mention the drugs in passing, counted but not cited 18
Bariatric surgery posts before 2022, held as prologue 10, 2006 to 2018
Named contributors 52
Posts bylined by an MD or DO 42
Podcast episodes with full transcripts 11
Peak year 2026, 34 posts in nine months
Most frequent contributors Martha Rosenberg (6, a health writer, not a physician); Patience C. Ennis (3); Shiv K. Goel, MD (2); Farid Sabet-Sharghi, MD (2); Karla Lester, MD (2); Howard Smith, MD (2)

How this page was built and how it is updated

The corpus was assembled from title searches for GLP-1, Ozempic, semaglutide, Wegovy, Mounjaro, tirzepatide, Zepbound, liraglutide, incretin, weight loss drug, weight loss medication, obesity drug, obesity medication, anti-obesity, weight loss injection, and bariatric, plus full-text relevance searches for Ozempic, GLP-1, semaglutide, and tirzepatide. That returned 161 posts. The 74 in which the drugs are the subject, named in the title or at least five times in the text, are the record; 18 that mention the drugs in passing are counted in the year totals above but not cited; 10 bariatric surgery posts from before 2022 are held as prologue; the remainder were unrelated and dropped. Term frequencies were computed against the full text of each post on the corpus assembled for the September 12, 2026 build; this page was converted to the current standard on September 20, 2026 without rebuilding that corpus, so the counts and figures are as of September 12, 2026. Quotations are taken verbatim from the original posts. Author credentials are as they appeared in the byline at publication. Contributors who sell services into this subject are identified where they are cited: Shiv K. Goel, MD, runs a wellness clinic; Karla Lester, MD, runs a telehealth obesity program; Howard Smith, MD, runs a medical weight loss practice; Sarah White, APRN, runs an aesthetics practice; Carrie Friedman, NP, runs a psychiatry practice; Deanne Brandstetter is a nutrition executive; Holli Bradish-Lane is a health coach; Patience C. Ennis runs a coaching platform for people on the drugs and has published a book on them; Hana Kahleova, MD, PhD, MBA, is a researcher at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, which advocates plant-based diets. Martha Rosenberg, the most frequent contributor, is a health writer and is cited at the same weight as any other author, not more. Physicians on KevinMD agree the drugs produce weight loss; where they disagree, on whether obesity is a disease and on whether the drugs substitute for lifestyle, both sides are cited. Every source is linked in the sentence that cites it, and the full list appears at the end of the page. The closest archive is the Endocrinology tag. Related records: Prior authorization: what physicians say, in their own words and Medical school: what students and physicians say, in their own words.

This page is updated as new GLP-1 essays are published on KevinMD. When it is updated, the date at the top changes, the counts in the tables are recomputed, and new named claims are added to the relevant section. Nothing is removed unless the original post is removed. An author who believes a quotation on this page misrepresents them can write to Kevin Pho and the page will be corrected.

To cite this page: Pho K. GLP-1 drugs: what physicians say about Ozempic and its successors, in their own words. KevinMD.com. Updated September 20, 2026. https://kevinmd.com/glp-1

The 55 KevinMD posts cited on this page, in order of publication