GLP-1 Medications for Weight Loss: Myths vs. Facts

Oprah Win­frey and Kel­ly Clark­son rave about them. Between 2019 and 2023, there was a 400% increase in pre­scrip­tions for them. The glob­al mar­ket for them is expect­ed to grow to at least $100 bil­lion by 2030.

If you’ve heard of med­ica­tions like Wegovy® or con­stant­ly get that ​“oh, oh, Ozem­pic®!” com­mer­cial stuck in your head, you already know: the GLP‑1 med­ica­tion era is in full swing.

These med­ica­tions, called GLP‑1 anti­gens, mim­ic the nat­u­ral­ly occur­ring glucagon-like pep­tide 1 (GLP‑1) hor­mone. The hor­mone plays a crit­i­cal role in reg­u­lat­ing blood sug­ar lev­els and is involved in appetite and digestion.

Using GLP‑1 med­ica­tion, espe­cial­ly to lose weight, has been all the buzz – but not every­thing that peo­ple buzz about is true. Here’s the truth behind some of the com­mon myths about GLP‑1 med­ica­tions for weight loss.

MYTH: GLP‑1 Med­ica­tions Are Just Weight Loss Drugs.

FACT: Since GLP‑1 ago­nists also decrease hunger and food intake, they can help peo­ple lose weight. But they were first devel­oped to treat type 2 dia­betes. GLP‑1 drugs cause your body to make extra insulin after you eat, which helps low­er blood sugar.

GLP‑1 med­ica­tions have oth­er ben­e­fits, as well. They can help:

• Improve lipid dis­or­ders and fat­ty liv­er disease
• Low­er blood pressure
• Reduce the risk of kid­ney and heart disease
• Delay the pro­gres­sion of a dia­betes com­pli­ca­tion called dia­betes-relat­ed nephropathy

Most of these drugs are giv­en through injec­tions, but there is one that comes in pill form.

Also read: 5 Dia­betes Myths — Debunked

MYTH: All Pre­scrip­tion Weight Loss Med­ica­tions Are the Same.

FACT: Cur­rent­ly (as of March 2025), there are 10 GLP‑1 med­ica­tions approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Admin­is­tra­tion (FDA).

There is some over­lap, but they all affect your body a lit­tle dif­fer­ent­ly. They also don’t all have the same treat­ment goals. For exam­ple, drugs like Moun­jaro® and Ozem­pic treat type 2 dia­betes, while ones like Wegovy and Zep­bound® treat over­weight and obe­si­ty in peo­ple with comor­bid con­di­tions like high blood pressure. 

Also read: How Obe­si­ty Impacts Your Health

MYTH: Any­one Who Wants to Lose Weight Should Take a GLP‑1 Agonist.

FACT: Whether or not you should take a GLP‑1 drug depends on many fac­tors, includ­ing your cur­rent health and med­ical his­to­ry. They are not rec­om­mend­ed if you:

• Are preg­nant or breastfeeding
• Are try­ing to get pregnant
• Have a per­son­al or fam­i­ly his­to­ry of medullary thy­roid can­cer or mul­ti­ple endocrine neoplasia

Also, GLP‑1 drugs are not designed for peo­ple who are just hop­ing to lose a few pounds for cos­met­ic purposes.

MYTH: Insur­ance Doesn’t Cov­er GLP‑1 Drugs.

FACT: Some insur­ance com­pa­nies do cov­er them, but nav­i­gat­ing cov­er­age can be a lit­tle tricky. In many cas­es, the drugs are only cov­ered if you have type 2 diabetes.

For weight man­age­ment, being over­weight alone isn’t always enough for insur­ance com­pa­nies to cov­er GLP‑1 drugs. They may only cov­er it if you also have an obe­si­ty-relat­ed con­di­tion, like high cho­les­terol or high blood pressure.

You might also have to jump through a few hoops. Many plans require pri­or autho­riza­tion, which is when your provider sub­mits infor­ma­tion about why you need the med­ica­tion, and the insur­er will decide if they will cov­er it. Your insur­er could also require step ther­a­py, where you try oth­er weight loss meth­ods first.

It may be a has­sle, but don’t let it stop you from con­sid­er­ing GLP‑1 drugs if you need them. If it’s right for you, it’s pos­si­ble to get cov­er­age. And if you decide to pay out of pock­et, there are coupons to make med­ica­tions a lit­tle more affordable.

MYTH: GLP‑1 Drugs Are the Easy Way Out.

FACT: No mat­ter how hard some­one tries or how many lifestyle changes they make, there are fac­tors like genet­ics or med­ical con­di­tions that can make los­ing weight very dif­fi­cult. In these cas­es, GLP‑1 med­ica­tions can be a game changer.

And remem­ber – obe­si­ty is a dis­ease. Just like bariatric surgery, GLP‑1 drugs are med­ical treat­ments rather than cos­met­ic ones.

MYTH: If You Take a GLP‑1 Med­ica­tion, That’s All You Need to Do.

FACT: GLP‑1 drugs might be key for help­ing peo­ple man­age dia­betes or lose weight, but they are not mag­i­cal. Main­tain­ing a healthy diet and get­ting plen­ty of phys­i­cal activ­i­ty is still important.

Ready to explore if GLP‑1 med­ica­tions could be right for you? These break­through treat­ments are help­ing thou­sands of peo­ple achieve their health goals, from bet­ter blood sug­ar con­trol to mean­ing­ful weight loss.

Your Duly Health and Care pri­ma­ry care provider can walk you through your options and help you under­stand if GLP-1s fit into your health jour­ney. Look­ing specif­i­cal­ly for weight man­age­ment sup­port? Our spe­cial­ized physi­cians at the Obe­si­ty Clin­ic are here to cre­ate a per­son­al­ized plan that works for your lifestyle.

Take the first step toward feel­ing your best, sched­ule your appoint­ment today, and dis­cov­er what’s pos­si­ble for your health.

Addi­tion­al­ly, get plen­ty of pro­tein and add strength train­ing or weightlift­ing to your exer­cise rou­tine. This can help pre­vent mus­cle loss, which some­times hap­pens when you lose weight.

Also read: Every­thing You Know About Start­ing a New Diet is Iffy (Well, Maybe)

MYTH: Once You Hit Your Weight Goal, You Should Stop Tak­ing Your GLP‑1 Drug.

FACT: Stop­ping a GLP‑1 med­ica­tion is like stop­ping any diet. There is a high like­li­hood of regain­ing weight. If you start one, know that it’s best to be on it for the long term.

How­ev­er, if the thought of hav­ing to be on some­thing for­ev­er scares you, rest assured that it is safe to stop a GLP‑1 drug if you don’t like it. And while regain­ing weight is like­ly, it’s not guar­an­teed. You may be able to keep the weight off or con­tin­ue los­ing weight by mak­ing cer­tain lifestyle changes or try­ing a dif­fer­ent med­ica­tion. (Just make sure you only stop tak­ing med­ica­tion under your provider’s supervision.)

MYTH: Tak­ing Com­pound­ed GLP-1s Is a Great Way to Save Money.

FACT: Com­pound­ed med­ica­tions are drugs pre­pared by spe­cial­ly trained phar­ma­cists. The phar­ma­cists mix, change, or com­bine ingre­di­ents to cre­ate a cus­tomized med­ica­tion. Recent­ly, com­pound­ed med­ica­tions have made their way to the GLP‑1 market.

The two com­mon ones are com­pound­ed semaglu­tide and tirzepatide. Phar­ma­cists pur­chase semaglu­tide (the active ingre­di­ent in Ozem­pic, Wegovy, and Rybel­sus®) or tirzepatide (the active ingre­di­ent in Zep­bound) and mix their own med­ica­tions. Some sell them at med spas or on tele­health web­sites as cheap­er alter­na­tives to peo­ple who have to pay out of pock­et, some­times at a sav­ings of $1,000 per month.

But if that old say­ing ​“if some­thing is too good to be true, it prob­a­bly isn’t” is ring­ing in your ears, lis­ten to it. Com­pound­ed med­ica­tions are not FDA-approved, mean­ing they haven’t been rig­or­ous­ly test­ed for safe­ty or effi­ca­cy. They may also be pre­scribed at dif­fer­ent dos­es than what’s usu­al­ly prescribed.

If you’re inter­est­ed in tak­ing a GLP‑1 drug, make sure to stick with the brand-name med­ica­tions and get them through your provider rather than from a web­site. Med­ica­tions are safest and work best when your provider can super­vise and help you use them safely.