Ozempic, Body Image and Eating Disorders: The New Thinness Trends

Yes, I am seeing this in my clinical practice. Over the past couple of years, I have noticed increased anxiety around weight, body image, and food among some clients who had previously reached a much more stable and healthy place in their recovery.

One client stands out in particular. After years of moving away from restrictive dieting and developing a more balanced relationship with food, she began questioning whether she should be trying to lose weight again.

Much of that was triggered by the growing visibility of weight-loss conversations, whether around GLP-1 medications, restrictive diets, social media content, or short-term goals tied to holidays and special events. It brought back a level of self-monitoring and anxiety that she had worked very hard to leave behind.

What concerns me most is how easily the conversation shifts back to weight as the primary measure of health. In reality, changes in body weight can be influenced by many factors, including hormones, stress, sleep, inflammation, medications, and overall health status.

For people recovering from disordered eating or chronic dieting, the renewed cultural emphasis on thinness can make recovery significantly more challenging. While the language may have evolved from traditional dieting to wellness trends or weight-loss medications, the underlying message is often very similar: that being smaller is somehow better.

For many individuals, that message can undermine years of progress toward a healthier and more sustainable relationship with food and their body.

Words like "clean eating," "optimising," and even "food noise" sound positive and health-focused, which is why they often go unquestioned. The challenge is that these terms can subtly create rules around food.

When we label foods as ‘clean,’ it can imply that other foods are somehow ‘bad,’ and that can change the way people think and feel about eating.

I see this frequently in conversations around carbohydrates and protein. Carbohydrates are often portrayed as something to avoid, while protein is presented as the solution to almost everything, thanks to the constant feeds on our screens.

In reality, both are important. Good nutrition is rarely about eliminating a food group. It is about balance, variety, and choosing foods that meet an individual’s needs.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to eat nutritious food or understanding how food affects your health. The concern arises when healthy habits become rigid rules.

If someone feels anxious about eating certain foods, experiences guilt when they eat something outside their plan, or starts avoiding social situations because they cannot control the menu, or judge their family or friends for their food choices, the focus has shifted from health to restriction.

As a nutritionist, I always remind clients that food should support their wellbeing, not dominate their thoughts. Healthy eating should make life better, not add more stress!

The line often comes down to intention, flexibility, and the role these behaviours play in a person’s life. For athletes and highly active individuals, tracking protein, carbohydrates, or calories can be a useful tool to support performance, recovery, and training goals.

There is nothing inherently unhealthy about that. The concern is when those behaviours become rigid, anxiety-driven, or difficult to switch off.

Orthorexia is not simply about wanting to eat well. It is an excessive preoccupation with eating only foods considered ‘healthy’ or ‘clean.’

What often differentiates it from healthy nutrition habits is the impact it has on wellbeing. If food choices start creating stress, guilt, social isolation, or fear around eating, that is a red flag.

The same applies to exercise. I often ask clients: Can you take a rest day without feeling guilty? Can you enjoy a meal without feeling the need to ‘burn it off’ afterwards? Are you exercising to support your health and performance, or to compensate for what you have eaten?

For me, the key difference is flexibility. Healthy habits should enhance your life, not control it. When food and exercise become driven more by fear than by health, it is worth taking a closer look at the relationship.

This is an area where we still need much more research. GLP-1 medications can be useful and effective treatments for obesity and metabolic disease, so I do not think the conversation should be about being for or against them.

The more important question is whether they are appropriate and safe for the individual.

A 2026 systematic review of 25 randomised trials involving more than 8,000 participants found that GLP-1 medications were associated with reductions in binge eating, loss-of-control eating, and emotional eating. However, they were also associated with greater dietary restraint, and the researchers could not determine whether that restraint was problematic. The studies also had important limitations, including concerns about bias and substantial variation in their findings (Emptage et al., 2026).

Most of the encouraging evidence relates to binge-eating behaviours in people with obesity. We know far less about their effects in people with bulimia, restrictive eating disorders, or a previous eating disorder (Radkhah et al., 2025).

We also lack good long-term evidence on relapse risk and the psychological effects of sustained appetite suppression (Emptage et al., 2026).

A 2026 expert consensus recommended screening for current and previous eating disorders and monitoring symptoms when GLP-1 medications are considered (Keshen et al., 2026).

So the question should not only be, “How much weight is someone losing?” We should also ask whether they are meeting their nutritional needs, preserving physical health, and developing a healthier relationship with food and their body.

Comparison becomes a problem when it stops being harmless curiosity and starts affecting how you feel about yourself, your body, and your relationship with food.

We all compare ourselves to others from time to time. The concern is when that comparison starts driving behaviour.

For example, are you changing how you eat after scrolling through social media? Skipping meals, exercising excessively, or feeling guilty about food because someone else looks a certain way? Those can be early warning signs.

Social media can make this even harder because we’re often comparing our real, everyday lives with carefully curated snapshots of someone else’s. It’s not a fair comparison, but when we’re exposed to it constantly, it can start to feel normal.

Question yourself: How does this content make me feel? If certain accounts consistently make you feel inadequate, anxious about food, or pressured to change your body, it’s healthy to unfollow them.

If you, or someone dear to you, is experiencing patterns of disordered eating and distorted self-image, seeking help is the first step to recovery.

Reaching out can feel overwhelming, but starting by talking to someone you trust—whether that’s a close friend, a family member, or a supportive person in your life—can give you the strength and reassurance you need.

Sharing what you’re going through is an important milestone, and when you feel ready to take the next step toward guidance and care, connecting with a professional can make all the difference.