Ozempic, Weight Cycling, and ARFID: The Risks of GLP-1s | ANEW Ep 110

In this episode of the ANEW Insight Podcast, Dr. Supatra Tovar and eating disorder expert Robyn Goldberg explore how the hype around GLP-1 weight loss medications like Ozempic connects to broader issues in health. While science advances on one end, everyday people are facing malnutrition, weight cycling, and disordered eating as they chase quick fixes.

Robyn shares what she sees in her Beverly Hills practice: younger patients starting GLP-1s, hidden side effects like kidney stones, GI paralysis, and hair loss, and the deeper emotional toll of diet culture. Together, we discuss how to help clients navigate the risks of GLP-1s, break free from weight cycling, and reclaim a healthier relationship with food.

Episode Highlights

• Why Ozempic and GLP-1s create malnutrition and energy crashes
• The role of weight cycling in long-term weight gain
• FOMO, celebrity culture, and pressure from peers and doctors
• How ultra-processed foods hijack satiety and fuel cravings
• Natural ways to support GLP-1 hormones through real food and meal timing
• ARFID and picky eating: what it is and how to expand food choices
• Why compounding pharmacies and “gray market” injectables are risky

Timestamps

00:00 – Introduction with Dr. Supatra Tovar and Robyn Goldberg
 01:00 – The Ozempic era: side effects and misuse
 04:00 – Malnutrition, fatigue, and hidden health costs
 07:00 – Weight cycling and why dieting always rebounds
 10:00 – Peer pressure, FOMO, and celebrity diet culture
 14:00 – Compounding pharmacies and the underground drug market
 18:00 – Supporting GLP-1 hormones naturally
 21:00 – ARFID, picky eating, and strategies for variety
 26:00 – Final reflections and how to find Robyn’s work

📚 Resources & Links

📖 Read my book Deprogram Diet Culture: Amazon Link

📘 Read Robyn Goldberg’s book: The Eating Disorder Trap. . Here are her social media platforms links:https://askaboutfood.com/,  https://www.yelp.com/biz/robyn-l-goldberg-rd-cedrd-los-angeles,  https://share.google/W7x5rysYIFZLyxjTp , https://share.google/jetwJkPq3YENcA6IU 

 🎓 Join the Deprogram Diet Culture Course: anew-insight.com/deprogram-diet-culture
🎥 Watch this full episode on YouTube: ANEW Insight Podcast

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Thank you for joining us on this journey to wellness. Remember, the insights and advice shared on the ANEW Body Insight Podcast are for educational and informational purposes only and do not constitute medical advice. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making any changes to your health routine. To learn more about the podcast and stay updated on new episodes, visit ANEW Body Insight Podcast at anew-insight.com. To watch this episode on YouTube, visit @my.anew.insight. Follow us on social media at @my.anew.insight on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Threads for more updates and insights. Thank you for tuning in! Stay connected with us for more empowering stories and expert guidance. Until next time, stay well and keep evolving with ANEW Body Insight!

Transcript

Dr. Supatra Tovar: 0:00

Welcome back we're back for the second half of our interview with amazing registered dietitian certified eating disorder specialist, intuitive eating counselor HAES practitioner Robyn Goldberg. Robyn gave us some really invaluable insight into her extensive background and eating disorder treatment philosophy. I have been a part of several groups on Facebook where people talk about their journeys with these weight loss medications and I see a lot of issues and problems when it comes to eating disorders and disordered eating around these medications. So I really wanted to focus on this so that maybe we can find ways that we can help people navigate

Robyn Goldberg: 0:02

Like that scares me out of everything. 'cause I'm almost legally blind, Like, oh, I'm going on a vacation. I have a high school reunion to be able to shed quote unquote a few pounds. And I was actually discussing with someone the other day was who who is a provider actually, and who is on the medication and was telling me that, she has all these medical issues that have come up. And I said, well. I don't think you would wanna be on this forever. You can't be. And she was like, Robyn, it is worth for me having all these medical issues because I do not wanna find out what it would be like to have my body rebound and regain that weight back and then some. It saddens me because. Yes. they might feel more confident internally, but also not talking about like chunks of hair are falling out. I'm finding that I don't feel relieved when I'm taking a poop. I'm not really going to the bath. I mean, it's sort of like just the intake is less for many people than what a newborn is consuming.

Dr. Supatra Tovar: 0:05

hungry. And that is very scary because your body wants to be telling you that it needs nutrition. And that's what a lot of these hunger hormones will be doing for you. They're telling you need nutrition, but people who say that they, are in larger bodies or they have type two diabetes and they do need this medication they've gotten to that place more often than not because of their diet. So let's start there. What usually leads people to gain unwanted weight? In terms of nutrition? What are the culprits usually?

Robyn Goldberg: 0:06

And I think for many that have gone down that path, time and time again, they like, I always use example, Oprah Winfrey. You can have all the chefs, trainers, dietitians. People at your fingertips, but if you're not willing to change your thought process, it's all going to be temporary. And that's the piece too. Like our bodies changes as we age. They're not meant to remain the same. We get a little grayer, we have a little more cellulite, we get more wrinkle. I'm listening to a client's like, oh yeah, I was with these moms and we're all talking about food and everybody's on a GLP but me, I think maybe I should go on one too. There's that FOMO of it too. So I think different circumstances that get the person to essentially like drink the Kool-Aid.

Dr. Supatra Tovar: 0:08

So you see people going on these very strict, high protein, low carb diets that are unsustainable and that's what creates the weight cycling. In addition, you have so many other influences like ultra processed foods. I'm a person who doesn't like to vilify foods. I think that all foods fit.

Robyn Goldberg: 0:09

Maybe a person has a history of trauma and they're eating is a way to soothe and protect themselves. Maybe they have a metabolic condition, maybe they're on different psychotropic medications that we don't know what's going on with someone. I think it's explaining to them just the fundamentals of the, just if you were bedridden, and I rarely speak about calories in my practice, but I can say, I talk about if you were bedridden, just what our bodies need to be able to have your brain function, your heart, your liver, your kidneys, and really understanding that's without taking into consideration their activity, a stress factor, And each time it's like, I always like to quote Evelyn Tripoli, the co-author of Intuitive Eating. She has a great quote that, dieting is like getting a haircut. What does that mean? I get a haircut, I schedule my appointment a month later. How come? Because my hair's growing back and then some, and that's literally what happens. Well, I think oftentimes too, it's finding options that a person feels like they could be open to trying. But I think with this, it really comes down to them establishing trust and a rapport with me, with you, whomever they're sitting with. It's not a 1, 2, 3 model. I mean, might be talking about this for multiple weeks. But I think too, it's for them really being able to put any kind of like body shift on the back burner, because if they're finding they're having a problem existing in day-to-day life, to me that's the pressing issue that they would want to address as opposed to putting on, a different pair of jeans. I mean, there's a whole underground world to this. I think it's the gray market is what it's called. And I mean people that are purchasing these medications, not from their providers off label. Where it's affordable. And I think honestly it's just gonna get worse and worse. And you know this as well as I do, you can't help someone get to their bottom. Maybe their bottom is something scary happens to them. Maybe, they're having an allergic reaction, they're having a medical issue, but it's everyone's on their own journey and has to get to a point where it's like, this is not the place for me, and especially when you're getting it from another country or a random website, people go through these extreme measures to try to fall into what, society, states is, an ideal body shape or size. And it's I always like to describe, you wouldn't ask a chihuahua to look like a great Dane, just like genetically, in the

Dr. Supatra Tovar: 0:15

So we have to be really careful about where we're getting our medications and it certainly says a lot about the pressure that comes from diet culture if people are willing to kind of take that chance and not really know what they're, getting in terms of their medication. A lot of people also don't know and really don't understand the medication itself, and they don't understand that we actually.

Robyn Goldberg: 0:16

So I just wanted to start off with that. Similarly to what you were referring to before. I am someone that really does not say like, oh, eat this because this will happen. It seems very diet culture, but kind of like we were talking about before, for example, being able to have like real food, like, oh, I'm gonna have in the morning my, my eggs and my toast and fruit, like I'm having real food versus, I'm grabbing a shake or a bar or freeze dried fake food. I mean, essentially like having real food I think is important with helping with the production of these hormones. And the other thing too is not skipping meals, not going long durations without eating. And I can't emphasize enough that like caffeine is not water.

Dr. Supatra Tovar: 0:17

What Robyn?

Robyn Goldberg: 0:18

And you might say, well, I don't like water Robyn. It's bland, it's boring. Well, I could put, lemon, lime, I, oh, what if I'm putting crystal light, I'm putting my xylitol sweetener. It's because how they've trained themselves. So that's like another problem that I see with people that are so dependent on any food or beverage, putting these fake sweeteners on, and that to me is an issue too.

Dr. Supatra Tovar: 0:19

But you can kind of alter and shift your circadian rhythms, especially if you decide not to eat in the morning when you're hungry. And I think that's really important for people to understand that, and we don't tell them what to eat. But certainly when you look at the science whole natural foods help that production the best, help your digestion the best, help, alter and fundamentally change your gut microbiome. Exactly. So I think that's a way that we can help people navigate if they are on these medications, is really giving them the education that they may need as far as what foods will, help their gut microbiome, the best help boost their own GLP, especially if they're people that don't want to be on this for life.

Robyn Goldberg: 0:21

150%. I think so many people I speak with providers and clients before they come to me is like, I don't need to make changes with my nutrition. I'm on, this injectable. But it's like you have to be able to change, not just your mind. I mean, choices, like you said too. So they've developed different, biases regarding various foods too. And, somewhere along the way they're, not getting all the vitamins and minerals, let alone calories that they're needing too. And they're becoming fearful. Well, maybe not in the beginning, fearful, but it can turn into it of these different foods because they feel like that's making them have a queasy stomach. It's, contributing to them not being interested in eating or they're lacking social plans and they're canceling because like, ah, there's not gonna be anything on the menu I can eat. They're not open to being curious around food. I think first and foremost, and with some of these people I've heard them say, oh, my doctor has now changed me to Zepbound. And, oh, okay I'm not nauseous, but no, I don't need to work in X, Y, and Z in my diet and I find it's important for me to explain the reasons it would be helpful to be able to work X, Y, and Z. So ARFID is avoidant, restrictive food intake disorder it's known as the unquote picky eater. It was recognized in the DSM February of 2023. And it's not pertaining to weight. It could be texture, sensory, perhaps they've had some sort of trauma or incident with a various food or food group. And I think those that are on these different medications, I have not personally, as someone who's developed ARFID from being on it, they maybe were picky eaters before going on it or even seeing, kids, tweens, adults that have ARFID, I mean, really the way that I help them, there's a lot of exposure therapy. It could be starting out and just walking down the, bread aisle of the store. Maybe it's not even, touching the bread or was listening to a client the other day and he was like, okay, Robyn, I, held the cauliflower in the house and I was chatting with the cauliflower. I was like, fantastic. So I think the first thing is really being able to rate like what their level of fear and openness is to, trying any of these foods or even just like being in the environment or space of it versus, it's not about sneaking a food in to your diet. So ARFID is avoidant, restrictive food intake disorder it's known as the unquote picky eater. It was recognized in the DSM February of 2023. And it's not pertaining to weight. It could be texture, sensory, perhaps they've had some sort of trauma or incident with a various food or food group. And I think those that are on these different medications, I have not personally, as someone who's developed ARFID from being on it, they maybe were picky eaters before going on it or even seeing, kids, tweens, adults that have ARFID, I mean, really the way that I help them, there's a lot of exposure therapy. It could be starting out and just walking down the, bread aisle of the store. Maybe it's not even, touching the bread or was listening to a client the other day and he was like, okay, Robyn, I, held the cauliflower in the house and I was chatting with the cauliflower. I was like, fantastic. So I think the first thing is really being able to rate like what their level of fear and openness is to, trying any of these foods or even just like being in the environment or space of it versus, it's not about sneaking a food in to your diet.

Dr. Supatra Tovar: 0:26

Yes, and I believe too, ARFID can be a little bit more prevalent in the autism spectrum population as well because of the sensory issues. It's heartening to know that, to see that you haven't necessarily seen ARFID developing out of the use of these weight loss medications, but certainly if they were picky before

Robyn Goldberg: 0:27

Thank you. My website is askaboutfood.com. I have on there information about me and my private practice. I am in person as well as virtual. I have links on my book on there. My book comes in audio, ebook, paperback, I have a free online course for parents, partners and caregivers that have a loved one struggling called Your Recovery Resource. It was developed over COVID with my colleague Becca Clegg, who's an eating disorder therapist in Atlanta. And it was developed for I would say the family or caregiver is the most important team members and oftentimes the forgotten team members. And we have 35 modules of videos and handouts. And then I have my podcast the Eating Disorder Trap podcast, which now drops every other Monday, just coming up on five years of it. And each episode's 15 to 25 minutes. I have all types of individuals on in our field, some not in the field, but have a lot of wisdom that I thought was important to be able to share. And I always like to kind of come in from my angle about disordered eating and or eating disorders, and it's on every platform where podcasts can be found.