The Skinny On The Great Celebrity Slim-Down And Their Dangerous Techniques

Three cheers for the unattainable, unhealthy BBL-booty finally falling out of fashion! But not so fast…its replacement might not be so innocent either. Between the fashion industry cycling through styles that used to adorn “heroin chic” bodies in the ‘90s and social media becoming oversaturated with overexaggerated curves on our timelines, many of pop-culture’s most infamous ladies appear to be slimming down quite a bit.

If you look back at the KarJenner clan a few years ago and then take a look at how the sisters look today, you’d see just how dramatic their recent transformations appear to be. Kim whittled down her waist to allegedly fit into a dress formerly worn by Marilyn Monroe for this year’s Met Gala. Then Khloe reached shocking levels of slenderness despite having always been the heaviest-set sister. When told that her supermodel sibling Kendall Jenner thought Khloe had gotten too skinny, Khloe appeared pleasantly surprised and said, “What?…Kendall said it? The model?”

While the KarJenners have been marketing themselves as fitness fanatics and trusted voices for health and wellness, sharing their workout routines and favorite equipment, and promoting diuretic “skinny teas,” it turns out they might have been achieving their slim physiques through weight loss medications and dangerous surgeries instead of the healthy lifestyle choices we’re all told they champion.

Hollywood Is Abusing Weight Loss Drugs To Set New Standards

Some have called it the “worst-kept secret in showbiz.” Others have gushed about their results on TikTok, hashtagging their viral transformation videos with #MyOzempicJourney and #Ozempic, the latter hashtag garnering 236.7 million views alone. Originally intended for diabetic patients, the injectable insulin-regulating drugs known as semaglutides are gaining major popularity for their dramatic weight loss effects. Semaglutides – known commercially by a few names like Ozembic, Victoza, and Wegovy – are beneficial for people with diabetes because they mimic gut hormones that release insulin, slow down how fast your body digests food, and balance out hunger hormones. 

Researchers have found that semaglutides are actually so effective in weight loss, causing some patients to lose up to 20% of their body weight in a 68 week period, that it could be used to treat obesity, an epidemic ravaging our country. As of right now, these drugs are only approved to be used for weight loss in cases where a person is obese (or if they’re overweight and happen to have high cholesterol or type 2 diabetes), but word of the stark results have spread to the image-obsessed entertainment industry.

Recently, talk show host and guardian of showbiz gossip Andy Cohen wrote a tweet insinuating that Hollywood celebs have been taking drugs like Ozempic for weight loss. Then, Elon Musk responded to a user on Twitter who asked him “What’s your secret? You look awesome, fit, ripped & healthy. Lifting weights? Eating healthy?” by initially saying that he fasts and then tweeting right after that he takes Wegovy.

Whether it’s Ozempic or Wegovy, diabetic drugs are now being incorporated into the beauty routines of cultural elites, and rumor has it that the Kardashians are supposedly leading the charge. It wasn’t enough for them to already have unbridled access to as many beautifying procedures, chemical concoctions, and appearance-optimizing products as they desired.

But the semaglutide craze doesn’t stop at Hollywood, as Town and Country reported that the drugs are the talk of the rich during their high society soirees. Naturally, the trendsetters then inspired the masses, causing legitimate drug shortages of the already expensive medication which ranges from $892 to $1,349 for just one month’s supply. As a result, Ozempic’s manufacturers Novo Dordisk expect to make upwards of $7.8 billion off the drug's increasing popularity.

There Are Physical Costs To Needlessly Taking Weight Loss Medications

Does it all sound too good to be true? It might very well be.

Let’s first establish that weight loss might make you feel more aesthetically pleasing, but if taken too far, getting too skinny can make you temporarily infertile, give you dry skin and brittle hair, dampen your mood, and leave you chronically exhausted, among other things. Not everyone who goes through dramatic weight loss will experience any or all those side effects, but it’s worth flagging the more well-known unintended consequences of losing weight.

If you’re inspired by Hollywood and are hoping to shed some pounds by using semaglutides, you’re in for a host of additional side effects which you should know about. I’ll leave it up to you to determine if it’s all worth it in the long run. 

The most common side effect when taking semaglutides is nausea, with up to 20% of Type 2 diabetes patients reporting feeling nauseous during clinical trials. What’s more, people who take higher doses of semaglutides for weight loss reported higher instances of nausea than diabetic patients. Next, there’s diarrhea, which up to 30% of semaglutide users for weight loss reported experiencing. Other common side effects include stomach pain, vomiting, and fatigue.

Though extreme side effects are rare, you can’t discount them when weighing the pros and cons about so-called revolutionary pills. Life-threatening pancreatitis has been reported with semaglutide users, as well as gallbladder disease and kidney damage, particularly with users who already have kidney problems. Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention how semaglutides genuinely has a black box warning straight from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about its potential risk of causing thyroid tumors. While those tumors were found in rodent studies, it’s not recommended to take semaglutides if your family has a history of specific thyroid cancers.

The Rumor Mills Suggest More Invasive Tactics Than Medications

While the current buzz online surrounding how celebrities are slimming down is focused on semaglutides, another risky maneuver may be slipping by unnoticed. Earlier this year, Insider reported that celebrity chef Martha Stewart was visiting Kris Jenner, who served her and daughter Khloe lunch. Stewart recalled how little both Kris and Khloe ate of the meal, saying, “I ate at her house. She served me a very fancy, nice lunch, which she ate very little because they all eat very little [...] It was all very, very nice. But as I said, they didn't eat anything.”

Not eating is a behavior indicative of many different things, but rumor blogs and surgery experts started questioning whether or not certain members of the KarJenner clan have actually achieved their scarily slim figures through surgical methods. Though there’s no proof, some suspect that both Kim and Khloe had a mini gastric sleeve using the endoscopic approach, which means going down your throat rather than slicing into your abdomen. This more minimally invasive version of a gastric sleeve works wonders for overweight and obese patients looking to shed weight by removing about half of their stomach size, instead of the up to 85% which is removed during the traditional gastric sleeve.

Hypothetically, it would be easier for a celebrity to recover from an endoscopic sleeve since it’s less invasive but still delivers results. Patients who have had this surgery now have smaller stomach sizes and therefore cannot eat much without getting too full too fast or even throwing up, hence why people thought that Martha Stewart’s comments alluded to this procedure. 

While some celebrities admit to having undergone various gastric sleeve procedures as a solution to their obesity, it’s worth wondering if – given the endless budget that celebs have to work with – more familiar faces opt for surgical procedures in order to stay slim. We won’t ever know for certain if they don’t make public comments about it, and we know that the elite more often than not dodge the truth about their various tweakments anyways.

Closing Thoughts

Between common side effects, lack of long-term studies, and the potential for serious, life-threatening conditions with both semaglutides and surgical methods, you really begin to wonder if Hollywood’s obsession with thinness has gone too far. Body dysmorphia is real and only worsening for influencers and us common gals alike with the warped standards that social media perpetuates. While losing and keeping off unwanted weight to get your body in a healthier state is a noble mentality, if you let it consume your being to the extent that you’re willing to undergo radical measures to achieve it…well, something seems off.

The truth about weight loss and even toning up an otherwise healthy body is that it’s a long but rewarding process. Having the drive and dedication to stick to sustainable exercise routines and nourishing dietary choices strengthens your internal locus of control. You take the reins and responsibility, and you run with it. The results don’t come easily, but when they do, you feel accomplished. 

Unfortunately, many of the celebrity slim-down strategies simply just remove your internal locus of control and potentially leave you more susceptible to reversing your progress in the future since you’re more dependent. Think about it: What good does it really do for you to pawn off your problems to a pill, procedure, or popular injection? If it’s a life-saving effort that your doctors strongly recommend then, by all means, please seek out the right intervention to get you on a path to success. But if you’re willing to drop fat stacks of cash to fix a potentially imaginary problem, you should re-evaluate your priorities and instead look into more fulfilling ways to feel the best you can in your own body.

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