There’s a long list of products that companies and influencers claim can deliver quick and dramatic weight loss, just like Ozempic. There are gummies filled with fruit extract, neon yellow berberine tablets, green teas, even jars of oatmeal and rice steeped in lime water. The latest addition to that list: a weight loss pill released this week by Lemme, Kourtney Kardashian’s supplement company.
Weight loss hacks have been around for decades. But they have taken on new life in the Ozempic era, chasing the success of blockbuster medications and promising “natural” or “side-effect free” alternatives. These Ozempic dupes, as they’re referred to online, are now “a dime a dozen,” said Joe Schwarcz, director of the Office for Science and Society at McGill University in Canada. But he and other experts said there is no evidence to suggest that any of these products could match, or even come close to matching, the results patients obtain through prescription weight loss drugs.
“They take smidgens of scientific fact and blow it out of proportion,” he said.
Ozempic has become so popular that much of the public is now far more familiar with the scientific language of weight loss, and many of these products have capitalized on that. They use phrases like “metabolic health” and “gastric emptying,” and often mention GLP-1, the gut hormone that helps you feel full, and that drugs like Ozempic simulate to suppress appetite. Lemme’s new supplement is called GLP-1 Daily, and its website explains how the hormone functions in the body.
“I didn’t know what GLP-1 was until, like, third year of medical school,” said Dr. Scott Hagan, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Washington who studies obesity. Using that kind of technical language, typically reserved for doctors and drugmakers, can give these products a “sheen of science,” said Adrienne Bitar, a lecturer in American studies at Cornell University who is the author of a book on diet culture.
“They’re marketing a capsule as if it was a prescription drug that’s been well studied and is well regulated,” Dr. Bitar said. She noted that comments on Lemme’s Instagram posts announcing their GLP-1 line were already filled with questions about whether people could switch from a name-brand drug to the supplements.
On its website, Lemme points to four studies that suggest some of its ingredients, including several plant extracts, can increase GLP-1 levels, suppress cravings and lead to minor weight loss. But experts cautioned that those trials are very small and only look at individual ingredients, not the pills themselves. “They’re not credible studies,” said Dr. Pieter Cohen, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School who studies supplements.
Even if the pills did promote GLP-1 production, that alone does not necessarily translate to significant or sustained weight loss — after all, eating food also stimulates the hormone.
Dr. Cohen said no supplement currently on the market can lead to significant weight loss. “It just doesn’t exist,” he said. “If it existed, if it was also safe, it would be widely used and purchased.”
Doctors say they worry these supplements will find a large audience, particularly among those who can’t access or afford the brand-name drugs, which can cost around $1,000 a month without insurance.
“I’m sure now my patients will be coming in and being like, ‘I’m on the Kardashian one,’” said Dr. Melanie Jay, director of the N.Y.U. Langone Comprehensive Program on Obesity.
That troubles experts for several reasons. The Food and Drug Administration does not verify that supplements are safe or effective before they hit the market, Dr. Cohen said. That means consumers have no guarantee any given pill they take works, or that it even contains what’s advertised on the label, which many patients may not realize is a risk.
And these products can be pricey: A month’s supply of Lemme’s GLP-1 capsules are currently on sale for $72.
“You want to believe that things are easy and are going to help and, hey, maybe they won’t hurt,” Dr. Jay said. “But it does hurt if you live paycheck to paycheck, and now you’re spending $70 a month.”
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