‘You throw up all the time.’ 4 celebrities on the Ozempic side effects no one talks about.

It's no secret Ozempic, a drug used to treat Type 2 diabetes, is being widely used for weight loss. It's been trending on social media for a while, with speculation that a number of celebrities use it for weight loss.

Many celebrities have even spoken out about their use of the drug. 

Take Sharon Osbourne, for example. She recently shared her experience on Bill Maher’s podcast, Club Random, where she talked about taking the medication to lose weight.

She said, "You have a weight problem and you’ve tried everything, and then somebody says take this injection and you’re going to be skinny."

Read more: 'Everyone is on Ozempic': Why Hollywood's newest weight loss trend is so concerning.

The former reality TV star went on to share the side effects of the drug, telling listeners she felt constantly nauseous for the first few weeks.

"For me, the first few weeks was f**king s**t because you just throw up all the time. You feel so nauseous," she shared. "After a couple of weeks, it goes."

Watch: In need of a chuckle? Here's what horoscopes look like working out. Post continues below.

After taking the medication for four months, Osbourne shared she lost 30 pounds (around 13 kgs). While she's no longer taking it, she said she still feels the effects and her appetite is much smaller than it used to be.

"I’ve been off it for a while now. Your stomach shrinks."

See a snippet of the interview below:

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A post shared by Sharon Osbourne (@sharonosbourne)

The 70-year-old also recently spoke on UK talk show The Talk, again, sharing the nauseating side effects of taking the medication.

"I was very sick for a couple of months," she said. The first couple of months, I just felt nauseous. Every day I felt nauseous, my stomach was upset."

She continued, "I’ve just shoved two chips in my mouth, while we had the break, and I eat normally now, and I haven’t put on a pound. Nothing."

Amy Schumer also recently spoke about taking the drug on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, sharing that it made her so sick she had to stop taking it.

"I couldn’t play with my son," she said. "I was so skinny and he’s throwing a ball at me and I couldn’t."

Schumer also talked about other celebrities who refuse to admit they are on the drug, telling viewers the drastic changes they see are more than people "eating smaller portions". 

"You are on Ozempic or one of those things or you got work done. Just stop. Be real with the people. When I got lipo, I said I got lipo," she said.

There's also Chelsea Handler. 

She shared on a podcast, "My anti-ageing doctor just hands it out to anybody. I didn't even know I was on it."

Recently, TikTok creator and model Remi Bader also opened up about her experience with taking the drug.

Speaking on Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast, the 27-year-old shared how she originally was prescribed the drug for her pre-diabetic, insulin resistance, and associated weight gain. 

However, she shared that long-term use of the medication eventually made her binge eating worse.

"I’m, like, almost annoyed that it’s this trendy thing now, when I went on it for actual issues," she told host Amanda Hirsch.

"I saw a doctor and they were like, ‘It’s 100 per cent because you went on Ozempic,’ because it was making me think I wasn’t hungry," she explained. 

Check out a snippet of the interview below:

@dearmedia @Remi Jo’s experience with #ozempic was a little different than others today 👀 #ozempicweightloss #hollywoodsecrets #weightloss #notskinnybutnotfat #podcastclips ♬ Flying (Two AM Music Global) - Oliver Stutz

If you're not across the effects of Ozempic - also known as semaglutide - host of Mamamia's daily news podcast The Quicky, Claire Murphy, spoke with Dr Michael Cowley and asked him the ins and outs of the medication.

As Dr Cowley explained, the drug acts in several ways when it comes to weight loss, including, "reducing, slowing down, the rate at which food leaves the stomach into your intestine," which "will cause feelings of fullness from one level." 

"Additionally, though, actions in the brain suppressed cells that stimulate appetite," he added. "So, there's a direct action to decrease appetite in the brain."

"Those two sectors, I think, is what primarily drive the weight loss that occurs."

While Ozempic is obviously not a new drug and was initially not intended to have this side effect, Dr Cowley noted it's become a more and more prominent feature. 

"We don't understand why some cause more weight loss than others - it may have something to do with where the drugs are distributed in the brain," he shared.

"It seems that semaglutide, for reasons we really don't understand particularly well, is especially good at causing weight loss, whereas others have the same effect on diabetes, but without quite as much weight loss."

With that in mind - how much do we know about the long-term effects of the use of drugs like this if we're really just discovering what effects they have?

For example, as Bader shared, "I lost some weight. I didn’t want to be obsessed with being on it long-term, and I was like, ‘I bet the second I go off, I’m going to get starving again,’ and I did."

"My binging got so much worse, so then I kind of blamed Ozempic," she said. "I gained double the weight back after."

As any medical expert will tell you, this drug should not be seen as a 'quick fix' - and there are some important side effects people should know about. 

"What people need to understand is that with any chronic illness, and any medication you take for chronic illness, if you stop taking that medicine, the effect will go away," warned Dr Cowley.

"So we're not making permanent changes to the way people process appetite signals in their brain.

"While they're taking these drugs, their appetite will be suppressed and they will have weight loss, but we know when you stop taking semaglutide weight returns."

Claire Murphy also spoke to Dr Brad Mackay on tomorrow's episode of The Quicky. 

He agrees that 'long term' use of the drug is quite difficult.

"Our understanding is that if you've been on the medication for a while, and then if you have lost weight, and then you're stopping the medication, generally you will tend to go back to the top weight that you've been previously - your body will just go back to its usual habits," he explained. 

"I've had a number of patients who have used it," he continued. "They haven't been able to get a supply of it over time, so they've had to stop it. Generally, I've found that people's appetite starts to come back after a few weeks of stopping it.

"They noticed the difference in just the way they behave around food. And then after that time, they start to gain kilograms again."

Dr Mackay said on the one hand, experts hope people are able to get into healthier habits, "if they're able to move more and exercise more just because they have less weight onboard them. If they've changed their eating habits due to the medication, we hope that would be giving them a longer-term ability to keep that weight under control. But that's still not proven."

Meaning? It's an area still lacking evidence that it will benefit patients' habits long-term.

"Our understanding at this point in time is that your body just sabotages and tries to get back to what you were," said Dr Mackay. "It is a matter of like weeks or months for that process to happen."

As for other potential side effects, as with any drug, these are numerous - the most common of which is nausea.

"I've had some patients that have started it and stopped it because they've felt so horrible on it - it can cause lots of nausea, and it can also cause constipation. So, some people get really surprised at how profound that can be, and they just can't continue the medication," Dr Mackay said.  

Off the back of recent global shortages of the drug, Dr Cowley said while there's a variety of conditions that qualify for off-label use - it must be in the best interests of the patient.  

"I think the question is, are doctors prescribing it for people who are not overweight? And I would hope not. Because that would be a pretty, pretty challenging position to put a doctor in - to say I'm not overweight, but I want this medicine," said Dr Cowley.

"And we know there's a shortage of it. And people who need it are not getting it. So, I'm struggling to understand how people who are not overweight are getting it."

For help and support for eating disorders, contact the Butterfly Foundation‘s National Support line and online service on 1800 ED HOPE (1800 33 4673) or email support@thebutterflyfoundation.org.au. 

You can also visit their website, here.

Feature image: Getty.

This article was originally published on 6 February 2023 and has since been updated with new information. 

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