Ozempic: The END of Diet and Exercise?

The problem with Ozempic is that it works too well. Imagine losing weight simply because you're not hungry. Imagine suddenly disliking the taste of your favorite junk food and preferring healthy low calorie foods instead, because your brain itself has literally been rewired. That's Ozempic.

I've never seen anything like Ozempic.

As a fitness coach, that may sound irresponsible of me, but if we're going to talk about it, we might as well do so honestly. Ozempic is so good that some people can't eat enough to keep musc their bones, even their face. Others get horrible nausea or stomach issues. And in very rare cases, people lose weight so fast they get permanently blinded. These side effects are scary, but the craziest part, people still say it's worth it. Because the real struggle when losing weight isn't just your appetite, it's the fight against yourself. That's where OIC changes the game by helping you instantly overcome the rare levels of willpower and that's traditionally needed to lose weight. Picture 10 people. Your neighbors, your friends, your co workers on a normal weight loss program. Only one of them will manage to lose a significant amount of weight and keep it off. But if you instead gave those same 10 people the latest, most powerful versions of OIC, all 10 of them will lose weight and keep it off as long as they continue taking it. But if OIC is making diet and exercise look like outdated advice from a textbook, then we have to understand why and what else it's doing to your body. Good and bad.

I've been following decades worth of fat loss research and I've never seen anything like Ozempic.

That's Dr. Eric Trexler, a metabolic scientist from Duke University who has studied the drug ever since its inception.

So Ozempic is just a brand name, just like Tylenol or Advil. And Ozempic is kind of the most popular of what is really a developing class of drugs. But essentially this whole class of drugs works by mimicking something called GLP1. And GLP1 is a hormone. Our body naturally produces it in the gut after we consume food. It tells us, hey, you're full and it's time to stop eating. And so Ozempic, by mimicking that effect, has a really dramatic impact on energy intake.

But the crazy part about Ozempic is that it doesn't just make you full, it also rewires what your brain actually wants to eat.

There's all sorts of studies where we can look at brain activity when People eat these really high calorie delicious foods and we can see these reward centers really light up and become more active. But when you're on Ozempic, those same calorie dense, really delicious foods, they just aren't quite as satisfying. You don't have this really dramatic reward response to it and it's really altering the way that your brain is processing those food related rewards.

So instead of craving a burger and fries, an Ozempic you might actually prefer and be more satisfied with a small plate of chicken and broccoli. This is one of the major reasons why on average Ozempic users naturally eat 16 to 39% fewer calories without even trying. In fact, Ozempic is so good at curbing your appetite and cravings that junk food sales have taken a noticeable hit. So much so that there's speculation the baked food industry is scrambling to outsmart these drugs, developing hyper palatable snacks that trigger cravings even on Ozempic. So by this point, Ozempic sure sounds like it's making diet and exercise obsolete, right? But the only way OIC could replace diet and exercise is if it caused zero harm to your health.

What I will say is that they've had extremely large studies that have now spanned four to five years and there are actually these GLP1 receptors all over the body and including the heart that it's thought that these drugs help reduce a lot of this risk of stuff. It just turned out people had a trend for living longer, having fewer heart attacks. So it's possible someone like me, I don't need to lose weight, but a little dose might actually help prevent a heart attack. So it looks like this drugs are pretty, pretty awesome.

But in most cases, anything that sounds too good to be true probably is. And to be completely transparent with you, Dr. Spencer isn't just familiar with the research on Oz Epic. He prescribes it regularly. So if we're going to be honest about its benefits, we should also be honest about its side effects. You've probably heard of Ozempic vase and Ozempic butt. Now people act like these are new side effects, but in reality these are the changes that rapid weight loss brings to your appearance.

We can see it with keto face or just dieting. I mean bodybuilders, you see that fine look, sucked in look and it's, it's because they're just losing adipose tissue everywhere and you're starting losing the fat in your, in your face, an Ozempic butt, same thing, you're going to lose adipose tissue from everywhere. And it's nothing about the drug that eats away at that fat.

Specifically, these side effects are made even more visible when you combine muscle loss to the equation. On average, the typical person loses about 20% of their weight as muscle mass if they don't lift and don't eat plenty of protein on a diet. Normally, the best way to preserve muscle while losing weight is simple. Eat enough protein, don't lose weight too quickly, and lift heavy. But on Ozempic, you still might struggle to eat anything at all. Lots of people say they're full, even just after a few bites. Some even force themselves to eat because they know they should. But their body isn't sending the hunger signals to make it easy. And if you're barely getting in enough calories to function low, let alone hitting a high protein intake, what do you think happens to your muscle? Your body quickly starts breaking it down for energy. Then stack that on top of the other big problem, low energy. Because overeating becomes more difficult, OIC can unintentionally put you in a severe calorie deficit. As a result, if you do manage to lift weights, you probably won't be pushing anywhere near your usual intensity. But Dr. Spencer also highlighted how in some cases, the, the low energy might be caused by the drug itself.

Have some biomedical researcher friends that talk about how maybe it's hitting the same receptors like in the brain of like chemotherapy makes people tired. So it's possible there's certain, certain parts of the brain that maybe are making people tired when it hits.

Dr. Spencer also discussed the most commonly reported side effects. Nausea and vomiting. While more serious and long lasting for some individuals in general, this seems to subside as your body adapts to the drug. But he also highlighted what's arguably the most alarming side effect. Blindness.

Yeah, there's, there's some cases, again, extremely rare. If you lose weight quickly and your blood pressure goes low at night, you know, your blood vessels go to all your different organs and you have these blood vessels in your eye. If you don't get enough blood to your eye and your blood pressure is going too low and all these different.

Things, you're sleeping at night.

That might be a risk.

That's kind of the thought.

But it's extremely like it's not been shown in any of the studies. We're just kind of seeing some cases coming out. Are there a potential rare risk of stuff like that? Yeah, maybe. So that's why we only want to use it in people where we know that they're Going to get a clinical benefit versus potential risk.

Now, given the extreme rareness of this, and assuming longer term research continues to support Ozempic safety, the benefits seem to outweigh the risks. Especially if you take the initiatives to lift weights and eat enough calories and protein. But what happens to your body and brain when you stop taking it well on a typical diet without Ozempic? Based on a 2019 meta analysis that reviewed 29 long term weight loss studies, on average, Most people regained 50% of the weight they lost within two years. And after five years, almost all of their weight loss is regained. So while a proper diet and exercise are the keys to losing weight, most people can only do both for a short period of time before old habits creep back in. And the same is true with oic. In a very real sense, OIC removes the part of you that makes you overweight. But when you go off of it, you find yourself in a position where you've spent the past several months barely thinking about food. No hunger, no cravings, no no struggle. Eating was just something you had to do, not something you wanted to do. Then all of a sudden, your old self is back. The constant hunger, the dopamine hit you get from eating. The urge to snack, to binge, to eat. Like you're making up for lost time. That's why, on average, after hopping off drugs like oic, most people regain two thirds of the weight they lost within the first year. And this is why most patients end up staying on the drug indefinitely. For pharmaceutical companies, that's a billion dollar win. But for patients, it's a lifelong commitment. But lifelong commitment is actually what the drug was designed for. Think of it like testosterone. If a person has clinically low T levels, a doctor may prescribe TRT to bring him back to normal so they can function like everybody else. That's not the same thing as a fistful of steroids to blast past human limits. And the same goes for Ozempic. Most people that struggle with obesity aren't just overeating because they have insufficient willpower to stop. They have hormonal and neurological dysregulation that makes controlling their appetite far more difficult. Ozempic simply helps restore these people to a state of normal. And once people with obesity attain the state of normalcy after years of struggling, they're in a great spot to create momentum. Lots of it. If you're obese and you see yourself lose 5 to 10 pounds quickly, this not only creates a mental shift, but it puts your body in a better position to exercise. But because they're on Ozempic, even if they remain open to the idea of exercising, but never actually get around to exercising, they'll still lose weight. Which is one of the reasons why I think so many people, especially in the fitness industry, are against the idea of Ozempic. Ozempic gets you results without the suffering. So if you pride yourself on hard work and discipline, like myself, the idea of taking a drug to overcome willpower is kind of like cheating. I without a doubt would have felt this way about Ozempic back when I was younger, but now I understand something that I didn't back then. Many people who are obese or overweight, they want to change. Yes, obesity can be environmental, but obesity can also be, in many cases, genetic. In either case, it can be much harder for an obese person to lose weight. Oftentimes they have much higher hunger cravings and constant thoughts of food than the average fit person does. The way their brain responds to food is different. And I think naturally fit people have a hard time seeing this. It's something that even myself, who is naturally lean and doesn't struggle much with controlling my food intake, has a hard time relating to. But it's the truth. And with Ozempic, even people with severe obesity can become thinner and healthier by stimulating sticking an injection in their thigh. So if you're overweight and you meet the criteria, Ozempic can be a game changer. But what if you're not very overweight, you're healthy, and you just want to take Ozempic to get leaner? Well, this is actually becoming more common than you think. Aside from the many celebrity Ozempic transformations we see in online, the drug seems to slowly be making its way into the bodybuilding community. Bodybuilders are not overweight. They're usually already lean, and when they compete, they get to extremely low levels of body fat. But based on recent conversations I've had with professional coaches in the sport, some competitors are now using Ozempic in place of more dangerous fat burning drugs like Clebuterol or dmp. Or simply just as a way to bypass the intense cravings on hunger that are normally experienced at such low levels of body fat. Is this bordering the line of abuse? Arguably, yes. But what we define as abuse of the drug, I predict will very quickly change. It started as a treatment for diabetes and now it's being used for weight loss. Which brings me to the future. In the future, I believe Ozempic and a handful of other drugs like it will be used by many many people because Ozempic is a very special weight loss drug. It's special because it's a drug that one causes you to lose weight better than anything else out there and two for now, doesn't seem to be dangerous for your health and if anything will improve it. So assuming you qualify for it, there's really only one objective reason to not take Ozempic right now. Cost. It's expensive, currently around $1,000 a month if you don't have coverage. This is the main reason why 50 to 75% of people stop taking it within the first year of treatment. But the primary patent protecting Ozempic United States is expected to expire in December 2031. Shortly after that, I predict we'll not only start seeing cheaper Ozempic generics at the market, but more effective ones. I also predict the rules to qualify for the drug will be far more relaxed. And when that happens, who knows, maybe Ozempic will become the new Malta, by the way, maybe America will finally reverse its obesity epidemic and drop its average BMI back down to the global average. But one thing is true. Whether you're on OIC or not, you can't outsource a healthy lifestyle to a prescription. There are countless benefits provided by a proper diet and regular exercise that no drug can ever replace. Not just to your body, but your brain, your mood, your confidence and the discipline that it creates that transfers to all areas of your life. And if you're serious about making lasting changes without relying on the drug and instead using the most effective science backed approach, then I highly recommend that you check out my new built with Science plus app. It's a little assistant that lives in your phone. It measures every aspect of where you're at right now and creates a plan to get you to where you want to be. It's even got a powerful meal scanner that can make tracking your food so much easier and gives you a workout program customized to what you're able to stick with. If you fill out the questionnaire over@builtwithscience.com, which I'll also link below, you can you'll get two weeks free so you can try it out yourself. Then give this video watched next for a step by step guide on how to beat the odds of getting lean without having to rely on a weight loss drug. Thank you so much for watching. I'll see you next time.