Last fall, for the first time in decades, Beth made it through Yom Kippur services without thinking about food. That would be an impressive feat for many of the Jews who fast on the holiest day of the year. Beth, who requested that her last name be omitted to protect her privacy, admitted with a little guilt that hunger pangs had previously fostered a sense of solidarity with her fellow lightheaded, caffeine-deprived Jews.

But since starting weekly injections of a GLP-1 weight-loss drug six months earlier, the 46-year-old New York City mom was not only down three dress sizes—from a 12 to a 6—she was also finally free of the obses-sive thoughts about eating, or “food noise,” that had plagued her across a lifetime of failed diets and exercise attempts. Now, pounds were melting away with seemingly little effort.

Beth likely isn’t the only person now fasting more easily on Yom Kippur. “Everyone I know is on Ozempic,” she said, referring to one of the best-known injectable GLP-1 drugs developed to treat diabetes and which was among the first to be prescribed off label for weight loss.

The numbers help explain that observation: A July Gallup poll found that between 2024 and 2026, national usage of the drugs—formally known as GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) receptor agonists and popularly referred to as GLP-1s quadrupled, from 3 percent of Americans to more than 11 percent.

A 2025 Gallup poll found that use of these drugs among women outpaces that among men, and that studies have shown them to be more effective for women. According to the polls, the majority of those taking the drugs are between the ages of 50 and 64.

Familiar brands include Mounjaro, developed for diabetes, and Zepbound, for weight loss—both of which contain the active ingredient tirzepatide—and Wegovy, a version of Ozempic developed exclusively for weight loss that contains the active ingredient semaglutide. The dramatic efficacy of GLP-1s has transformed the landscape of weight loss. In just a few years, the medications have gone from breakthrough treatment to cultural phenomenon.

Today, it’s hard to scroll Instagram or turn on the television without seeing celebrities like Jewish comedian Amy Schumer touting their drug-driven weight loss. GLP-1 influencers and support groups abound on social media. The drugs have also driven the rise of myriad telehealth apps, such as Ro, that offer prescriptions of the brand-name drugs along with personalized weight-loss support.

Many online platforms also offer lower-cost compounded GLP-1s prepared by licensed pharmacies using the same active ingredients as the brand-names. These compounded versions, however, are not approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration, and recent moves by the FDA restricting the use of certain active ingredients could impact pharmacies’ ability to produce compounded GLP-1s.

Just this year, Eli Lilly announced positive trial results of an even newer class of weight-loss medication, which boosts overall weight loss to around 30 percent of body weight in 80 weeks—roughly double that of currently marketed GLP-1s like Wegovy and rivaling the results of bariatric surgery.

As new types of GLP-1s enter the market, including a daily pill as an alternative to injections, and Medicare expands coverage for the costly drugs, usage is poised to skyrocket. At the same time, some practitioners are concerned that the growing popularity of GLP-1s could further medicalize the natural diversity of human body shapes, reinforcing the idea that the only healthy body is a thin one.

First marketed in 2005 to treat type 2 diabetes, GLP-1s regulate insulin secretion and blood sugar by mimicking the effect of a naturally circulating GLP hormone produced in the gut that stimulates insulin release, slows digestion and curbs appetite. According to that July Gallup report, “after peaking at a record high of 39.9% in 2022, the U.S. adult obesity rate has gradually dropped to 36.4% thus far in 2026, a statistically meaningful decline that continues to inversely track with increased usage of GLP-1 medicine nationally.”

Designed for long-term or chronic use—those who stop taking the drug may regain their lost weight—the drugs could also revolutionize approaches to a wide range of diseases. New research affirms GLP-1s’ beneficial effects for conditions ranging from heart, kidney and liver diseases to breast cancer and even mental illnesses like depression.

And while weight loss itself is associated with lowering risks for many ailments, many of the positive effects appear to occur independently of weight loss, potentially opening up new avenues of treatment and prevention. While the precise mechanisms aren’t entirely clear, scientists point to the way GLP-1s tamp down systemic inflammation, which can contribute to many conditions like heart disease or arthritis.

Many people are newly fluent in the language of GLP-1s, but Jewish endocrinologist Dr. Daniel Drucker, a professor of medicine at the University of Toronto and senior investigator at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute at Sinai Health in Toronto, has been studying GLP digestive hormones for 40-plus years. His groundbreaking discoveries of the physiological and pharmacological mechanisms behind the way these hormones regulate metabolism earned him in 2023 the Wolf Prize in Medicine, considered one of the most prestigious awards in the science world.

The son of Holocaust survivors who met in Israel and a proud Zionist, Dr. Drucker, who frequently collaborates with Israeli colleagues, began researching intestinal hormones in the 1980s as a research fellow at Harvard Medical School. Over the years, observing the effects of GLP-1s on metabolism, he started wondering which other parts of the body might respond to them and discovered that the heart and other organs also had hormonal receptors sensitive to GLP-1s.

After Ozempic debuted in 2017 to treat diabetes, it wasn’t long before patients and doctors noticed that significant weight loss—typically 15 to 20 percent of body weight—was a common side effect. By 2021, GLP-1s had earned FDA approval as a treatment for obesity.

Tens of millions globally have now taken GLP-1s—some for as long as 20 years. Large clinical trials of successive iterations of these drugs show that patients suffer “fewer heart attacks, fewer strokes, lower rates of death,” Dr. Drucker said in an interview. “And, with rare exceptions, nothing bad happens to offset them.”

Nevertheless, “we shouldn’t pretend that this class of medicines helps every single disorder,” said Dr. Drucker, who was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in 2024. Among the disappointments so far, he said, have been the lack of GLP-1 benefits for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other neurological disorders.

Still, health experts say that few medications have the potential to do so much good with so few downsides. Most side effects tend to be digestive—principally nausea, but also diarrhea, constipation and vomiting—and often subside over time. Physicians recommend that GLP-1 patients maintain a high-protein diet and practice strength and resistance training, as muscle mass can decrease alongside weight loss.

GLP-1s’ economic side effects have been more significant. The listed retail price for some of the drugs exceeds $1,000 per month, and while almost all insurance plans cover GLP-1s for type 2 diabetes, many will not pay for GLP-1s for weight loss, though some make exceptions if a patient has other conditions, such as sleep apnea or hypertension.

But GLP-1s are so effective that, despite the cost, their broad integration into medicine seems inevitable. Increasingly, they are being used to curb obesity and other metabolic diseases in children, with “really, really positive effects,” said Dr. Liya Kerem, a pediatric endocrinologist at the Hadassah Medical Organization in Jerusalem, where she directs the Multidisciplinary Pediatric Obesity Treatment Program.

Dr. Kerem’s research at HMO contributed to the FDA’s decision to retract a prior warning about the risk of suicidal ideation in children taking GLP-1s. With numerous comprehensive studies showing an overall lack of harm to minors, “we feel safe to prescribe this medication,” she said.

In Israel, national health care funds subsidize some GLP-1s for weight loss. Pediatric use, Dr. Kerem noted, was approved earlier this year. Her research is among several trials at HMO on GLP-1s.

As beneficial as GLP-1s may seem, not everybody who takes them experiences weight loss. Scientists estimate that around 10 percent of patients simply don’t respond to the drugs.

“All the press and the drama around these medications lead people to have certain expectations that, when they’re not met, are very, very frustrating,” said Dr. Jody Dushay, an endocrinologist at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

As a Harvard fellow in the late 2000s, she conducted the first-ever study of GLP-1 weight loss. Nearly two decades later, “what continues to still surprise is that we don’t have good predictors of who’s going to respond and to what degree,” said Dr. Dushay, who created a behavioral weight loss program at Beth Israel Deaconess called WellPowered.

Dr. Dushay has also observed the complications involved with suppressing appetite in the Jewish community, which has so many communal and religious rituals around food and fasting. “Particularly for Jews,” she said, “removing your ability to participate (fully) in those holidays and events can be very problematic.”

“We’re talking about memories, hospitality, mitzvahs, belonging,” agreed Brian Pollack, a social worker and certified eating disorder specialist who treats an overwhelmingly Jewish clientele at Hilltop Behavioral Health in Summit, N.J. “What once caused us to feel connected in terms of the shared experiences is now changing.”

The GLP-1-driven shift in appetite can also complicate social relationships. Dr. Dushay has had clients whose partners, unaware of their GLP-1 use, suspected them of developing eating disorders; others who are new to the drugs might avoid socializing because they feel awkward in dining situations. “The sweet spot is to be able to enjoy a variety in smaller quantities,” she said, “to be able to live fully, to enjoy the festive meals—just by eating less.”

Another concern expressed by some practitioners is that the popularity of GLP-1s may unintentionally promote the view that normal variations in weight are problems requiring medical solutions.

“There are two sides to this coin,” Pollack said. Direct-to-consumer GLP-1 marketing preys on people’s self-consciousness around weight, he said, pushing some to consider using the drugs even if they are not medically obese.

Pollack noted that GLP-1 patients have reported that “they start to feel more secure and confident”—observations borne out by studies, he added. But he cautioned that a focus on weight loss in this way “can reinforce rigid, perfectionistic control.” He has seen patients on GLP-1s whose worries about losing muscle along with fat are driving “a compulsion in the gym.”

“There’s a lot of research still needed around the long-term effects on mood,” Pollack concluded.

Indeed, a flurry of recent articles has also called attention to a phenomenon known as “Ozempic personality,” an emotional flattening that some report while taking GLP-1s. Others, meanwhile, fret about “Ozempic face,” the gaunt appearance that can result from fat loss in the cheeks after rapid weight loss.

For the latter, dermatologist Dr. Julia Schwartz recommends down-titrating (keeping the dosage low or extending injection intervals) GLP-1 use under medical supervision to slow weight loss, boosting protein intake and, if patients are still unhappy, using facial fillers. “Especially someone who’s in their 40s or 50s and already losing structure in their face,” she said, “any amount of weight loss will definitely show in the face.”

The Dorado, Puerto Rico-based doctor knows about this effect personally: In addition to serving as a consultant for Ro, the telehealth company whose GLP-1 weight-loss ads feature celebrities like Serena Williams, Dr. Schwartz has taken GLP-1s since 2021 and is currently on a maintenance dose. She estimates that roughly half her dermatology patients in Dorado’s affluent community—many, like her, are Jewish—are now taking GLP-1s.

Most people on GLP-1s for weight loss are hoping to maintain a healthy weight, lower their cholesterol or reverse borderline pre-diabetes in the process. But others are like Jamie Maftali of Hollywood, Fla., who in 2022 was diagnosed with breast cancer and turned to Sharsheret, an organization that supports Jewish women facing breast and ovarian cancer.

After a bilateral mastectomy, Maftali decided against implants, opting instead for DIEP (deep inferior epigastric perforator) flap surgery, a complex procedure that recreates breasts from the tissue and skin in a patient’s lower abdomen. The abdominal incision is then closed in a procedure similar to a tummy tuck. The obstacle was that Maftali, who had tried unsuccessfully to lose weight all her life, was 20 pounds too heavy to safely undergo the surgery.

“I was so disappointed,” she recalled. At her endocrinologist’s suggestion and after consultation with Sharsheret, Maftali began taking a GLP-1. After losing 25 pounds, she had the surgery, which was a success. Now nearly 40 pounds lighter, she has also seen improvements in routine bloodwork, including lower cholesterol and triglycerides. She has more energy, has experienced few side effects and, she added, has been liberated from the “food noise” that plagued her for decades.

“It’s very weird. I used to think about food all the time,” Maftali said. “And I don’t anymore.”

Cassie, a Jewish Washington, D.C.-area nonprofit professional, is yet another example of a longtime dieter who said she has finally found a solution to a seemingly intractable weight problem.

Cassie, who did not want her last name published, pays more than $500 out of pocket every month for Zepbound, which her insurance does not cover. It’s worth it, she said.

“I just could not get control of it,” said Cassie, 47, who over the years had tried calorie counting, Weight Watchers, the Mayo Clinic Diet and other plans. In a little over a year since beginning Zepbound, she has lost 40 pounds and now weighs 135 pounds.

Discovering GLP-1s “has been absolutely mind-blowing,” Cassie said. “If I go up three flights of stairs, I don’t feel like I’m out of breath. And I enjoy getting dressed more.” 

---

Hilary Danailova writes about travel, culture, politics and lifestyle for numerous publications.