What body positivity means in the age of Ozempic

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The arrival of Mounjaro comes at an opportune time when you consider reports that peg India as a country with a high obese population. A 2021 Lancet report found that India had the third largest obese population following the US and China. A 2024 report, conducted by NCD Risk Factor Collaboration and published in Lancet, stated that around 80 million Indians, including 10 million children between the ages of 5-19 years, were classified as obese. 

“While (Eli Lilly’s ) injectables have got approval by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation(CDSCO), they haven’t been launched yet. Marketing and, consecutively, sales of these drugs will happen only by mid-2025," informs Mumbai-based Dr Rajiv Kovil, head of diabetology at Zandra Healthcare. He adds, however, that oral pills of semaglutide (a prescription glucagon-like peptide-1 or GLP-1) has been available in our country since the last 2.5 years, under the brand name, Rybelsus. 

Ever since the news of the obesity and weight loss drug’s launch in India broke, dinner party conversations have been revolving around the question, ‘would you take the pill if it meant you could lose weight easily?’ While the jury may be out on the right answer, a more pertinent debate the easy availability of the drug posits is: what happens to the body positivity movement? What happens to an entire stream of thinking that was centred on self-love and being happy in the body you have? Even more, will this push people, particularly women, to once again compare themselves to unhealthy beauty standards? 

While this writer has been struggling with yo-yoing postpartum weight, this entire conversation is significant when you consider that most women grow up with an unrelenting pressure to look thin, and sometimes, it takes a lifetime for them to feel good about themselves.  Take the case of 27-year-old Sanchia Eliza D’Souza. The Bengaluru-based copy writer remembers not being okay in her own skin in her late teens and early twenties. D’Souza, who tried the OMAD, or one meal a day diet when she was 22, says she used to have a very bad relationship with food. “I would barely eat anything. It was very messed up and I was really struggling." It was only when she turned 25 that she started fixing her relationship with food, and in turn, her body. 

“I started by cutting down sugar and carbs in moderation and I chose to surround myself with people, who are comfortable in their own skin. Today, I am okay even if I put on a couple of kilos," she says. As for how she deals with comments about weight, D’Souza says, “If someone makes a remark about my weight, I simply make it known to them that they cannot talk to me like that." 

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Krisha Advani, 21, based in Chennai is a typical Gen-Z kid who lives her life on the ’gram. The content creator leaned on the heavier side during her teen years and struggled with issues around her weight. “I was very conscious of the clothes I wore, I never wore anything sleeveless," she recalls. Her relationship with her body changed when she joined a gym to get fit. “Seeing results inspired me and I began developing a healthier perspective about my body," says Advani for whom the topic of ‘body positivity’ seems like a puzzle. “It has many layers" she adds, admitting that having friends and acquaintances who aren’t ashamed of their body type certainly helps. 

“Someone who grew up skinny and put on weight later will have a different self-image and relationship with their body compared to someone who grew up fat and lost weight later in life," says Niharica Shah, Pune-based psychologist. Shah’s work has her regularly interacting with women and queer folk, who struggle with their weight or body image. “Weight is not a good indicator of wellness. I never recommend that my clients take diet pills or do intensive workouts that prioritise weight loss over other aspects of their health," she reveals. Instead, her counsel to her clients is to cultivate a meaningful relationship with their body where they identify and reframe what true indicators of health are for them; focus on qualities that cannot be numerically measured like kindness and creativity; and challenge narratives that make them feel bad about something they cannot change about themselves. 

While Kovil underlines the ill-effects of obesity through ailments like fatty liver, respiratory disorders, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea and more, he strongly feels that obesity/diabetes drugs should be prescribed only by specialists who are aware of their side effects. “Weight loss is a slow journey, which should be sustainable, and be supported by behavioural change, cognitive therapy and pharmacological therapy, only if needed," he says. 

While it’s a little ahead of time to speculate how Mounjaro will be received in India, it’s probably a good idea to deliberate on, to quote US-based Aubrey Gordon, co-host of the Maintenance Phase podcast, “How do we design a better discourse that isn’t so wildly dehumanizing to fat people and diabetic people." 

Sumitra Nair is an independent journalist based in Kochi, Kerala. 

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