Have we turned a corner with GLP-1s?

As the conversation shifts, the first wave of eating disorder concerns is beginning to surface.

Feb 25, 2026

Yes, perhaps I’m projecting my own personal desires by asking this question, but I keep wondering if we’ve reached the peak of the hype around these drugs. During Eating Disorders Awareness Week, it feels especially urgent.

I asked this question a few weeks ago during my interview with registered dietitian Deb Benfield (which I promise is coming soon), and she was decidedly less optimistic:

“One of my clients just told me she pulled up her MyChart, her electronic health record. And there was a box. It’s like, do you want to talk to your provider about GLP-1s? It’s just like part of the system now.”

While nearly one in five Americans have tried a GLP-1, I was surprised to read in the latest piece from UK-based eating disorder therapist Harriet Frew that it’s one in 46 in the UK. It’s inevitable that we’ll see more people trying these medications as the prices come down and now that they are available in pill form. The next iterations of these medications are already being tested.

It’s safe to say we have entered a new era for weight loss, and these medications are not going away.

But what is changing is the conversation around them.

And it’s not just in the doctor’s office. While it’s still whispered in certain social circles, in others it’s almost become as common as sharing what your children have been up to lately. The tone is still confessional, but also one of relief: I no longer feel like my body is the problem.

But in the media, where the first few years felt like all hype and upside, with cautious mentions of side effects, what I’m seeing now is a growing number of warning calls from experts sounding the alarm about the one side effect that should have been part of the conversation all along:

Eating disorders. Both the rise in first-time diagnoses and relapses.

I think most eating disorder experts, along with those of us who have first-hand experience with them, saw the potential dangers from the beginning. And yes, in some cases, GLP-1s are being used successfully in the treatment of bulimia.

But the concern about developing an eating disorder, or relapsing into one, is real and needs to be made more clear. Dr. Zoe Ross-Nash, a licensed clinical psychologist, got right to the point a January article in the New York Post:

“No one says, ‘Here’s your GLP-1. By the way — you might get an eating disorder. People get blindsided by it, and that’s where informed consent needs to be much stronger.”

This is the side effect that isn’t on the box and rarely makes it into conversation.

When you’ve lived with a lifetime of body shame, it can be easy to convince yourself the risk feels acceptable. But most people simply do not understand how devastating and deadly eating disorders can be. Anorexia nervosa continues to have one of the highest mortality rates of any psychiatric illness.

It’s easy to glaze over statistics, but if you’ve had a loved one with this illness, or two like me, you understand the stakes.

Eating disorders, anorexia in particular, are complex, often misunderstood illnesses that cause physical, mental, and physiological changes in the body and brain. They can be triggered or intensified by nutritional deficiencies, even in a person who is still considered overweight or at a normal weight.

Complicating this is the ease with which these medications can be obtained, and the lack of general mental health and eating disorder screening for those who wish to go on them. This was the focus of a piece from NPR in January that centered primarily around one patient who was struggling with an anorexia diagnosis and taking a GLP-1 for weight loss.

Unfortunately, it’s not an isolated story.

Amanda Banks, a physician and biotech executive who has a daughter in recovery from anorexia, writes:

“A growing proportion of people using GLP-1s are healthy people with normal weight, or even are underweight. And perhaps most disturbingly, while GLP-1 drugs show anecdotal evidence in the treatment of binge eating disorder, these drugs are also widely recognized to exacerbate eating disorders characterized by restriction, most notably anorexia nervosa.”

A major concern is for those with atypical anorexia, which accounts for between 25 and 40 percent of all anorexia cases. These are individuals who meet the diagnostic criteria for anorexia but are not underweight.

With increased access, cheaper prices, and growing off-label use, it’s inevitable we will see more people with eating disorders. And it is not just personal GLP-1 use contributing to this moment.

We saw a massive spike in anorexia and other eating disorders during the pandemic, spurred by physical isolation, loneliness, and communication through cameras that distorted our view of ourselves. Now we are in another period of intense collective preoccupation with body size.

Middle-aged woman with gray hair walking outdoors on a leafy path, photographed from behind

This is especially true for women in midlife, whose bodies naturally change during this time. Weight gain attributed to hormonal transition is framed as something to fix. For women who were already struggling quietly with disordered eating, this cultural pressure can intensify everything. The New York Times outlined these tensions in a piece last summer, noting how midlife women are navigating both hormonal change and heightened pressure to shrink. Oddly, GLP-1s were absent from that conversation.

Also missing from the conversation until very recently is another trigger for eating disorders: what happens when people come off these medications. Though they are intended to be taken long term, most people stop within a year or two, often because of the cost or side effects.

Couple weight gain with the return of food noise once the medications wear off and a culture that feels less body positive than it did even two years ago, and the intensity is next level. It can fuel even more intense body shame and restrictive measures.

Eating disorder therapist Frew writes:

“In the therapy room, I am seeing increasing numbers of clients who were taking Mounjaro, Ozempic, Saxenda or Wegovy but have now stepped away for these reasons. They are understandably struggling in the aftermath, as their bodies readjust and normal physiology returns. Food noise returns and it’s challenging to sustain the significant weight loss.”

Frew believes we need psychological support alongside the meds, a recommendation that feels like a necessary counterbalance to the cultural pressuring surrounding them.

We are not at the end of the GLP-1 era. If anything, we are still at the beginning. What we may be seeing now is the first wave of eating disorders in this era. At this scale of use, even a small percentage translates into a significant number of people, and without better safeguards, it’s sure to increase.

It’s time that risk becomes a more visible part of the conversation.