Weight Loss Season: Faded, but Neither Gone nor Forgotten

It used to be that this was the time of year when popular culture turned its attention to weight loss season. The release of U.S. News rankings of “Best Diets” commanded media attention. Weight loss tips were everywhere.

But no more is this true.

No, idle talk about weight loss has not disappeared. But it is very different in this January. The talk is not about faddish diets. Instead, we have self-conscious jokes about the Golden Globe Awards being “Ozempic’s biggest night.”

Ozempic or Zepbound?

Though Ozempic got the tag from comedian Nikki Glaser, it was in fact the maker of Zepbound, Eli Lilly and Company, that sponsored the broadcast of these awards. And from the perspective of metabolic health, the center of attention was Kathy Bates – not a stereotypically thin Hollywood starlet. Rather she is someone who is both comfortable in her own skin and has worked over time to improve her health. Hers was a seven-year process that involved lifestyle changes, weight loss, and, yes, Ozempic to gain control over her diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.

Seasonal Weight Gain Is Real

This attention to weight and health surfaces for more than superficial cultural reasons at this time of year. In fact, research tells us that our bodies tend to gain weight in the transition from fall to winter. But people follow a different pattern when it comes to keeping track of their weight. In people actively engaged with weight management, self-weighing is most frequent in the spring and then fades through of the rest of the year to reach its nadir in the winter.

So there are reasons why people might be starting to think about their body weight about now.

What remains to be seen is whether the culture will catch up and let go of lame jokes about people – like Kathy Bates – who are seeking medical care to improve their metabolic health, including their body weight.

This will be a big change. But there are signs that it’s happening, albeit with incremental progress that can be frustratingly slow.

Click here and here for more on GLP-1s at the Golden Globes and here for reflections on the decline of preoccupation with dieting. For the study of seasonal patterns of weight gain and self-weighing, click here.

Maarja Nuut in the Spotlight, photograph by Vaido Otsar, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

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January 7, 2025