Talking with Emma: Stop fighting food & weight

53: Before you take Ozempic, listen to this. With Guest Louise Adams

Emma Wright

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0:00 | 55:58

The marketing around Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound is relentless — and is only telling you one very small part of the story.

Louise Adams is a clinical psychologist, author, podcaster and founder of Untrapped. She has spent more than 20 years in the non-diet and Health at Every Size field. She recently co-authored a peer-reviewed paper — GLP-1 Medication for Weight Loss: A Triumph of Marketing Over Patient Care — which cut through the noise to look at what the clinical trials actually show, what the drug companies are not highlighting, and why informed consent is so critical before taking a weight loss medication.

This episode is not about telling you whether to take a GLP-1 medication or not. It is about making sure that whatever you decide, you have the full picture.


In this episode we cover

  • Why almost everyone talking about GLP-1s in a positive light has a financial relationship with at least one drug company — and what that means for the information you are receiving
  • What the clinical trials actually show about weight loss outcomes — including the significant variation in results, the plateau at around 12 months, and what happens when you stop
  • Why GLP-1 medications are weight suppression drugs, not a cure — and why your body's response to that is not a personal failure
  • The side effects that are not getting the spotlight they deserve, including gastric paralysis, pancreatitis, and the growing number of lawsuits citing lack of informed consent
  • How the framing of larger body size as a disease was built — and why the comparison to how other conditions have been pathologised throughout history matters
  • The difference between weight-dependent and weight-independent health outcomes — including why cardiovascular benefits from GLP-1s appear to occur regardless of whether you lose weight
  • How to ask better questions of your health provider, and which weight-inclusive resources can help you do that
  • A practical framework for making a genuinely informed decision: what do you actually want from this, what are the short and long-term pros and cons, and which of your goals are truly weight-dependent



Resources mentioned in this episode

Louise Adams' paper: GLP-1 medication for weight loss, a triumph of marketing over patient care -- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21604851.2026.2646492

Louise Adams -- meet Louise and her work: https://untrapped.com.au/meet-louise/

Louise Adams untrapped academy, newsletter and podcast All Fired Up:  https://untrapped.com.au

Ragen Chastain's Weight and Healthcare Substack: https://weightandhealthcare.substack.com/

AWIM GLP-1 Informed Consent document: https://sizeinclusivemedicine.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/MSSI-GLP1-Informed-Consent-10.pdf

HAES Health Sheets: https://haeshealthsheets.com/

Association for Size Inclusive Medicine: https://weightinclusivemedicine.org



If this episode resonated with you

Share it with a woman in your life who is being targeted by the GLP-1 marketing machine — and who deserves the full story before she decides.

Learn more about feminist health coaching and a completely different approach to your health and your body. The Wait.What? newsletter is a good place to start.

https://emmawright.co.nz/waitwhat/