One in every eight American adults is currently taking a GLP-1 drug — including some celebrities. Many A-listers have spoken openly about how these medications have helped them lose weight.
But are their takeaways medically accurate?
To separate fact from hype, we spoke with Dr. Neil McDevitt, a bariatric surgeon at Novant Health General Surgery & Bariatrics - Mount Pleasant, who has not treated any of the celebrities mentioned.
Here’s what he said they got right.
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Oprah Winfrey said: Obesity is a disease — and GLP-1s ‘manage’ it.
In late 2025, Oprah Winfrey, 72, publicly confirmed that she had been using a GLP-1 drug for several years.
Her decision was a long time coming.
Winfrey told CBS Sunday Morning that she once blamed herself for her weight struggles and was “so motivated by shame” that when GLP-1s came out, she refused them — telling herself to “just get more willpower.” She exercised daily and limited herself to one meal a day, but her weight continued to yo-yo.
In 2023, she learned that obesity was a disease — “and I wasn’t treating the disease.”
Deciding to treat obesity as a medical problem, she began taking a GLP-1 drug in addition to working out six days a week, eating a healthy diet and eliminating alcohol.
After reaching a healthy weight, she stopped the GLP-1 drug but maintained the lifestyle changes. Her weight climbed again.
This experience confirmed what she now believes: that GLP-1 drugs help “manage” obesity, not “solve” it, and that she’ll likely need to stay on the medication long-term.
She said she’s learned, “There’s nothing easy about it or cheating about (using GLP-1s).” Instead, “there is this great opportunity to change the health profile for millions of people in the world who have struggled.”
McDevitt agrees: Obesity is a disease — and GLP-1 drugs are one tool to treat it.
In 2013, the American Medical Association passed a resolution that classified obesity as a disease.
While this was controversial, McDevitt said this designation matters: “It allows us to have open conversations about the medical impact of obesity.”
He said obesity worsens high blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and increases the risk of stroke, kidney failure, the need for dialysis, and even amputations. It can exacerbate sleep apnea and arthritis, and cause pregnancy complications and issues with fertility.
“Obesity doesn’t exist in a vacuum,” McDevitt said. “Its tendrils reach into every aspect of our existence.”
People with obesity don’t need lectures, he said — they need treatment.
“When we look at the amount of lost life, lost productivity and lost experience because of the compounding effect that obesity has on your health — it’s clear that obesity is an insidious disease that erodes your health quietly and slowly until finally, it becomes problematic,” McDevitt said. “So anything we can do to reverse it, we need to do.”
GLP-1 drugs are one more tool in the toolbox, alongside diet, exercise, sleep, stress management, other medications and bariatric surgery.
And like Winfrey, many people who lose weight on GLP-1 drugs may need to be on GLP-1 drugs for the rest of their lives — typically at the lowest dose that maintains their weight loss.
Tracy Morgan said: ‘I out-ate Ozempic.’
In 2023, comedian Tracy Morgan, 57, shared he was using the GLP-1 drug semaglutide (brand names Wegovy and Ozempic).
Like many people on GLP-1 drugs, Morgan said his appetite dropped. “It cuts my appetite in half. Now I only eat half a bag of Doritos,” he quipped.
But in 2024, Morgan told Jimmy Fallon that he had gained 40 pounds even while continuing to take the medication, joking, “I out-ate Ozempic.”
McDevitt’s thoughts: GLP-1 drugs are not a silver bullet. You still have work to do.
Eating habits begin in childhood, so most adults have spent decades in the same patterns unless they’ve actively worked to change them.
To help patients understand those habits, McDevitt teaches about two different types of hunger:
- Body hunger builds gradually as the body needs fuel. Your stomach growls, you start to feel shaky or have a headache, and any food will improve things. Once your physical needs are met, you’re no longer hungry and you’ll stop eating.
- Brain hunger is when you eat to feel positive emotions or to reduce negative emotions. It often feels like a craving for a specific food — and only that food will do.
With brain hunger, you’re likely to override your body’s signals and overeat, because eating highly processed, starchy or sugary foods “triggers serotonin and dopamine in our brain much like tobacco or alcohol,” McDevitt said. “You’re eating for your brain chemistry, and you don’t even know you're doing it.”
Many patients with obesity have constant thoughts about food — called “food noise” — that are driven by brain hunger.
GLP-1 drugs reduce that noise, but they don’t eliminate it, McDevitt said.
People on a GLP-1 drug still have to be mindful before eating, asking questions like: Why am I eating? Am I eating for nutrition, or am I eating for want?
They must also prioritize fiber-filled produce, eat over 90 grams of protein a day and strength-train regularly so they don’t lose muscle mass.
“Anyone who says, ‘Weight loss is easy on a GLP-1 drug’ just doesn’t get it,” McDevitt said. “You still have to make thoughtful decisions every day and find new ways to decompress your brain. You have to create an alternative lifestyle that's better than the one you left behind. It’s real work.”
Amy Schumer said: ‘I lost 30 pounds … but I couldn’t lift my head off the pillow.’
Comedian and actress Amy Schumer, 44, tried the GLP-1 drug semaglutide (brand names Wegovy and Ozempic) and said she experienced severe side effects including vomiting, extreme fatigue and being bedridden.
“I lost 30 pounds so quick,” Schumer said, “But I couldn’t lift my head off the pillow. So what’s the point?”
McDevitt agrees: GLP-1 drugs aren’t for everyone — and they're not the only option.
Common side effects of GLP-1 drugs include nausea, vomiting, headaches, diarrhea, constipation, stomach pain, heartburn or headache.
Some patients only experience side effects when starting the GLP-1 drug or increasing their dose. Others don’t get them at all. And some, like Schumer, have side effects that are severe enough that they stop treatment.
Other patients don't qualify for a GLP-1 drug due to medical conditions — or can’t afford them. Without insurance, the drugs can cost hundreds of dollars a month.
That’s why it’s important to seek care at a comprehensive weight management center, McDevitt said.
“Every patient presents with their own unique individual set of struggles, and a single lane is not going to be enough to manage them,” McDevitt said. “You have to look at every patient individually and then provide the full gamut of support — starting with diet and nutrition, utilizing medication in patients in whom it’s appropriate, and then having surgery as an alternative for those in whom medicine may not be ideal.”
A comprehensive center like Novant Health General Surgery & Bariatrics - Mount Pleasant lets patients move fluidly between treatment options, adjusting as needed.
“You might come in planning on bariatric surgery, but respond so well to GLP-1 drugs that you don’t need it,” McDevitt said. “Or you might be working your butt off with lifestyle changes and still need medication — or have complications from medication and decide to have surgery,” McDevitt said.
“The important thing is that you don’t want to start over. You want to keep the momentum going — and be treated with dignity and understanding throughout your whole journey.”
In Schumer’s case, a few years after discontinuing semaglutide, she tried a different GLP-1 drug, tirzepatide (brand name Mounjaro). This time, she said she was “having a really good experience.”
The takeaway: “Stars: They’re just like us.”
As celebrities’ experiences show, GLP-1 drugs are a tool — not a magic wand — that work for many, but not everyone. If you’re interested in trying them, seek care from a comprehensive weight management center and be prepared to make lifestyle changes.
