Ozempic use rose 40 times after 2017, Greg Davies Ozempic
Greg Davies ozempic began as a diabetes treatment after the FDA approved it in 2017, but users quickly reported a different effect: rapid weight loss. A study by Indiana University School of Medicine found U.S. use rose 40 times from 2017 to 2021, with about 9 million Americans, or 2 to 3 percent of the population, regularly using some form by the end of that period.
FDA approval in 2017
Ozempic is a GLP-1, short for glucagon-like peptide, and GLP-1 medications are used predominantly for type-2 diabetes and obesity. That drug class gave Ozempic a medical entry point in 2017, before the public conversation shifted toward weight loss. The change in use came from reported effects, not from the original approval.
Novo Nordisk later created Wegovy in 2021 with semaglutide to trigger weight loss, and Wegovy became an approved treatment for obesity-caused heart disease in 2024. The sequence shows how semaglutide moved from diabetes care into a broader obesity market, with Ozempic at the center of that shift.
Indiana University study
The Indiana University School of Medicine study puts the scale in concrete terms: 40 times more Americans using Ozempic from 2017 to 2021, and roughly 9 million regular users by the end of the study period. That is the most measurable part of the story, because it turns a popular drug into a population-level habit in only four years.
The same period also tracked a surge in search behavior. Queries with the hashtag Ozempic drew 70 million views on TikTok, while Google searches for weight loss reached a peak in May 2024 and searches for GLP1 peaked in March 2025.
Fat Liberation and body standards
The article places that rise alongside earlier fat activism. Bill Fabrey founded the National Association to Aid Fat Americans in 1969, and a group of California feminists formed Fat Liberation in 1973. Their manifesto demanded “equal rights for fat people in all areas of life.”
That history matters because the article says body positivity began with the idea that all bodies are good bodies, while later versions lost intersectionality and began shutting out concern for fat, Black, or queer people. It also says the diet industries were guilty of reducing and marginalizing fat, Black or queer people, which helps explain why Ozempic landed in a culture already organized around weight loss and body judgment.
For readers, the practical point is simple: Ozempic is no longer just a diabetes drug in public life. It sits inside a larger market for weight-loss treatment, and the strongest documented signs of that shift are the 40-fold rise in U.S. use, the 9 million regular users, and the continuing spike in search interest tied to semaglutide.
