The rise of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy has triggered a fresh wave of body image anxiety, even among women who will never take them, a former personal trainer turned psychologist has warned.

Speaking to Daily Mail columnist Bryony Gordon, Dr Charlotte Ord said most people who take GLP-1s eventually regain the weight, creating a cycle of restriction and shame.

The therapist went further, claiming there is ‘no proven safe way of losing weight‘ and that people should instead focus on body acceptance rather than extreme transformations.

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Dr Ord, who has battled bulimia and anorexia herself, worked as a personal trainer on The Biggest Loser UK before retraining as a psychologist, specialising in eating disorders and body image. She has written a new book, Body Confident You, Body Confident Kid.

‘If you grow up in a body that has been stigmatised, it makes absolute sense you’d want to get out of that stigmatised group’, she told The Life of Bryony podcast.

‘I understand using whatever means are possible – because that’s an awful experience.

‘There’s almost this assumption that, if I lose weight, I will be healthier. I will feel better myself.

‘Of course, you are going to feel better about yourself because you have been stigmatised. The trouble is that it’s making the individual body the problem rather than the system itself.

‘What’s happening is a complete disconnection from our bodies and stakeholders. Pharmaceutical companies are just cashing in on people’s shame and fear.

‘These drugs are making us feel like it’s not normal for our bodies to change across our lifespan.

‘The term food noise, for example, is really frustrating. Food noise is just a buzzword for food preoccupation, and one thing we know causes food preoccupation is restriction.

‘I find it incredible that we’re now pathologising something that is a direct cause of what people have been told to do for their health.’

While acknowledging that GLP-1 drugs can be ‘transformative for those with medical need’, Dr Ord expressed concern about what happens when people eventually stop taking them.

Weight loss jabs work by mimicking a naturally occurring hormone that regulates blood sugar and appetite, slowing digestion which creates feelings of fullness.

‘We just don’t know what the long-term implications are’, the therapist said.

‘Either people stay on these medications long term in a chronic way, that obviously has cost implications, as well as potentially biological and psychological effects, or they taper off.

‘My concern then is, what happens next?

‘A lot of people just put the weight back on just like they would following an extreme diet or bariatric surgery. That’s how the body responds.

‘Our bodies fight really hard to get back up to a set point.

‘What concerns me about GLP-1s is that the GLP pathway is not the only one that affects appetite.

‘If you influence one pathway, you are almost certainly going to influence the others too. What metabolic adaptations are happening whilst people are taking these medications?’

The therapist also warned of the societal impact of weight-loss jabs, having observed ‘a massive regression back into diet culture’ since their widespread adoption.

She said constant media coverage of body transformations from the jabs, alongside celebrities like Serena Williams fronting advertising campaigns for the medications, has left people feeling they must ‘join in’ on the trend.

‘It has gotten so much harder to ignore’, Dr Ord said.

‘That doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to just give up and join in.

‘I think we need to be particularly mindful of protecting ourselves from it. We need to surround ourselves with people who support a body acceptance journey.

‘You need to remind yourself that your body is a good body, no matter what size it is. It does all these wonderful things for you.’

To listen to the full conversation, search for The Life of Bryony wherever you get your podcasts.