Fad or Breakthrough? Onetime Skeptic of Weight-Loss Drugs Weighs In
Rich Weil, a longtime weight-loss clinician, was skeptical of most weight-loss drugs. He’s now a believer. As is Oprah Winfrey, who created a huge stir when she acknowledged taking one of the new GLP-1 drugs.
| 12 Aug 2025 | 04:25
Rich Weil, an exercise physiologist and diabetes educator who founded the weight-loss program at the New York Obesity Research Center at St. Luke’s Hospital, was long skeptical about weight-loss drugs. But he believes the GLP-1 drugs—Ozempic, Wegovy, Zepbound, and others—are truly breakthrough drugs that will be around a long time. He now heads the online Transformation Weight Control program. (
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Oprah Winfrey created a stir when she first acknowledged that she was using a weight-loss drug. In March, her special, Shame, Blame and the Weight Loss Revolution, aired on ABC and Hulu. (
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Oprah Winfrey, who said she has been fat-shamed throughout her public life, created a stir in January when she acknowledged her latest weight loss was due to a GPL-1 drug, although she won’t name the specific manufacturer. (
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Oprah Winfrey acknowledged she was taking a weight-loss medication several years ago and opened up about it on her own podcast in January. (
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You’ve probably seen the flashy commercials on TV. There’s been an explosive growth in the sales of weight-loss medications such as Ozempic, Wegovy, and Zepbound, known as GLP-1s.
In February 2024, new prescriptions increased nearly 600 percent from a year earlier. An estimated 13 to 20 million adults in the US are currently using GLP-1s, roughly 4 to 6 percent of all adults.
Oprah Winfrey, the country’s most famous dieter, acknowledges that she has been taking a GLP-1 (she won’t say which one), and now, at 71, the star, whose weight has seesawed dramatically over the years, is the slimmest version of herself.
“I was an anomaly when I was willing to [acknowledge] it,” she explained on a podcast in January 2025. And her announcement created quite a stir for the onetime Weight Watchers spokesperson. She said her social media adviser predicted: “All these haters are coming after you now. In a year it will be normalized.” Oprah’s admission has helped fuel more-widespread acceptance of the drugs. “I hope to continue to have an impact,” she said on the podcast. “Let the haters hate on.”
Obesity expert Rich Weil, a researcher and a clinician in the field for 44 years, was a longtime skeptic of weight-loss fads and medications. But he said the change since the introduction of these latest drugs has been seismic. Weil came from the traditional diet world; for 25 years, the exercise physiologist and certified diabetes educator was director of the weight-loss program he founded at the New York Obesity Research Center at St. Luke’s Hospital on the Upper West Side.
Says Weil, “I was never into the weight-loss medications. The brain always found a biological way to defeat most of them. But in the past two years, the GLP-1s have rocked the world. They are life-altering.”
Weil is now a passionate advocate for GLP-1s. Eighteen months ago, he launched the nation’s only weight-loss-medication support group with Transformation Weight Control, an online company he founded.
This week, we spoke with Weil, a longtime Upper West Sider, about these new medications:
What makes GLP-1s so special?
They restore normal appetite regulation like no other anti-obesity medication ever has.
Normal appetite regulation means you get full, you don’t get hungry all the time, you have less “food noise” in your head, fewer cravings, you leave food on your plate, and you definitely do not eat the volume of food that you used to.
Do they work for everyone?
Some people are very high responders, and some people are lower, thus some people lose more weight sooner than others.
Are these medications safe?
Side effects such as nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, or constipation—which can be serious if they are persistent—can be treated with over-the-counter or prescription remedies. A complaint I occasionally get is feeling tired or dizzy. There’s no mechanism for the GLP-1s to directly cause fatigue or dizziness. What is happening is that people are consuming too few calories and that’s why they feel tired or dizzy. I’ve calculated some people are consuming less than 500 calories a day because they’re not hungry. It’s like driving a car without gasoline.
Are these drugs expensive?
The GLP-1s that are not compounded can cost from around $500 to around $1,400 a month. But there are sometimes savings coupons, and Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk both have programs where the medication comes in a vial and a syringe and not a pen, and it’s less expensive, sometimes $350. Insurance is really an unknown—some insurance will cover them, some won’t.
I always suggest to people considering taking the medication to first call their insurance company to see which weight-loss medications they cover before they see their doctor. Because if their insurance doesn’t cover any of them, then they need to investigate savings coupons and other offers from the drug companies.
What prompted you to start a weight-loss-medication support group?
I found that many people taking the GLP-1s were unnerved and bewildered because after a lifetime of having obesity and dysfunctional appetite regulation, suddenly appetite regulation was working like it is supposed to. They just didn’t know how to cope with it.
I believe people who have had obesity all their lives have PTSD from childhood that tracks into adulthood. I believe they have never healed. Lots of people keep their thoughts and feelings and self-loathing and social isolation and shame to themselves. We create a safe place for people to undo the damage.
Do you think there are popular misconceptions about these drugs?
I have a huge problem with the media and how they sensationalize the GLP-1s.
I call it “medication bias.” CNN had a headline that a woman took a GLP-1, and her stomach was paralyzed. Impossible. Then the term “Ozempic face” became popular. People have had sagging skin after weight loss for decades, and suddenly it’s the fault of the GLP-1s.
Some people would say, Why do you need a medication to lose weight? Just eat less and exercise more.
It drives me crazy. I have seen the suffering, shame, blame, and so much more firsthand for 44 years for these people who suffer with obesity. It sickens me to know how badly they have been treated, all their lives. There is so much evidence to prove that this is a chronic disease and an addiction to food for so many. You would never hear anyone say, It’s cheating to take insulin if you have diabetes. Again, it’s only with people with obesity because that societal bias lives on.
What has happened to traditional dieting?
We have always offered a lifestyle-change weight-loss program for people who do not wish to take a weight-loss medication; however, this group has become increasingly difficult to recruit for since the rise in popularity of the medications
How should people taking these medications respond to people who feel that taking a weight-loss drug is “cheating”?
Do not let anyone shame you, blame you, or make you feel guilty about this. No one I know ever woke up one day and thought how cool it would be to have a problem with their weight, or have downregulated dopamine receptors, or addiction to food. This disease is not your fault. It is not a character flaw, a moral failing, a lack of self-discipline, nor a lack of willpower.
Do you see this as a major trend that’s going to continue?
Oh, these are not going anywhere. They’re only going to get better.
Email: rich@transformationweightcontrol.com
“I was never into the weight-loss medications. The brain always found a biological way to defeat most of them. But the GLP-1s have rocked the world.” — Rich Weil