![\"Estimated](\"https:\/\/www.womenshealthmag.com\/_assets\/design-tokens\/fre\/static\/icons\/clock-regular.4ddebeb.svg\")
13 min read<\/p>\n13 min read<\/p>\n
In the lead-up to my memoir release in 2025, I was thrilled when my publisher said I could narrate the audiobook. I was less thrilled that the event coincided with the onset of dry mouth, something I\u2019d been experiencing since my recent start on the weight-loss drug Wegovy.<\/p>\n
Suddenly, this very exciting milestone plagued me with worry. Would audio readers hear the telltale tackiness in my mouth? Would I be able to make it through a paragraph without having to stop and hydrate?<\/p>\n
I armed myself with jugs of water, mugs of tea, and chewing gum (for the breaks) and got through, mostly because I had a great director who stopped me every now and then to say, \u201cTake a sip of water and try that line again.\u201d And because it\u2019s amazing what engineers can do in postproduction.<\/p>\n
As I\u2019ve adjusted my medication and my mouth has gotten even drier (compounded by other desiccating drugs I take, like fluoxetine, Vyvanse, and Claritin), I\u2019ve started thinking: I\u2019m just a writer. Other than the audiobook and occasional panel or TV spot, dry mouth doesn\u2019t affect my job much. Nor do the other side effects, like nausea, gastrointestinal pain, and fatigue, because I work in isolation and from home. If I feel wiped out or like I\u2019m going to puke, I just lie down.<\/p>\n
But side effects mean much more for the people I cover in my job as a culture and entertainment journalist: actors, singers, and athletes whose finely tuned, strong bodies are their instrument; who depend on unwavering stamina for their paycheck; who have to literally perform for others; and who are (as they\u2019ve always been) under immense pressure to be a certain type of fit and attractive.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s impossible to say conclusively how many famous folks are using the latest class of weight-loss drugs\u2014semaglutides<\/a> like Wegovy and Ozempic; tirzepatides like Mounjaro and Zepbound; and non-FDA-approved compounds\u2014but if stats about the general public are any indication (coupled with what\u2019s viewable on the red carpet), it\u2019s not a wild speculation to say that many are partaking. GLP-1 usage has nearly quadrupled since 2024, according to a Gallup survey released in July 2026. Which means it\u2019s also safe to assume that just as many are also experiencing side effects\u2014whether we hear about them or not.<\/p>\n To get answers on how GLP-1s are transforming Hollywood and adjacent industries, I went straight to the experts, the ones who see what\u2019s actually happening day in and day out.<\/p>\n Andrew B Myers<\/p>\n I asked vocologist Aim\u00e9e Steele<\/a>, production vocal coach on Broadway shows such as Buena Vista Social Club and Girl from the North Country, as well as a consultant for Peloton, whether she\u2019s seen the effects of these drugs in real time. She says yes\u2014but that she\u2019s seen it before; this is just another wave of it.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were dealing with dry mouth and vocal cord gravel way back when,\u201d she says. \u201cIt used to be the SSRI dryness, then decongestant dryness. Now it\u2019s GLP-1 dryness.\u201d She\u2019s also seen an uptick in nausea, gastro issues, acid reflux, and fatigue in performers since GLP-1 use exploded: \u201cYou\u2019re doing eight shows a week, you\u2019re dehydrated, your body\u2019s not possibly getting the nutrients, the vitamins, and the enrichment it needs, so the fatigue just comes right in.\u201d<\/p>\n All that sounds potentially catastrophic for a live performer, but Steele has solutions. For dry mouth, she tends to recommend glycerin-based sprays such as Clear Voice, Entertainer\u2019s Secret, and Biot\u00e8ne, along with VocalMist portable nebulizers. She calls the nausea component \u201charder to deal with\u201d but recommends peppermint sprays and inhalations, lozenges, and even applying eucalyptus oil beneath the nose before a stage entrance. \u201cThe other big one for singers is acid reflux, so we combat that with sleeping upright,\u201d she says, along with Pepcid and diet changes the day before a performance: no citrus, tomatoes, nuts, or dairy.<\/p>\n If this seems like an intricate puzzle, it is, but not one Steele\u2019s performers would trade. They \u201cfeel more confident in their body, and therefore more energetic and more easily able to live out loud,\u201d she says, of the positive changes experienced from GLP-1s. \u201cOur world is a very technical one, but it\u2019s also mental and physical. So when you have a human being that feels better in their body, they\u2019re going to feel that confidence and that mental burden that\u2019s lifted.\u201d<\/p>\n Reality TV star and podcaster Savannah Chrisley has been open about her use of weight-loss meds, and in 2025 she founded telehealth platform GoodGirlRx, which dispenses them. \u201cI was on a GLP-1 before GLP-1s were cool,\u201d she says. She first took the drugs about five years ago, after a 40-pound weight gain due to endometriosis meds. \u201cI absolutely loved it. It gave me more self-confidence,\u201d she says of the GLP-1.<\/p>\n As a public figure with nearly 7 million followers across her social media platforms, she needs to look, sound, and actually be strong, so I wondered how potential side effects have impacted her. \u201cFor me, it was extremely important to work out and to try to eat better and up my protein intake,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s why so many people are feeling fatigued or nauseous, because they aren\u2019t supplementing protein.\u201d<\/p>\n So I ask Chrisley: Aren\u2019t she and her other Hollywood friends who are on weight-loss drugs exhausted, given how hard they work? \u201cAt one point, I did feel that way, but that was when I was just relying on the drug to lose weight and not all of these other things. The moment I started combining proper nutrition and a proper workout regimen, my energy was great. I felt phenomenal, because my body was getting what it needed.\u201d<\/p>\n As for other side effects, \u201cI definitely have had some nausea and some constipation, which I feel like a lot of people have,\u201d she says. \u201cFor me, I just take magnesium and solve the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n Chrisley also says that playing around with injection sites has helped mitigate her nausea: \u201cDoing it in the back of my arm, I have fewer side effects vs. if I were to do it in my stomach.\u201d She got the idea after seeing doctors talking about injection-site rotation on TikTok.<\/p>\n So as Hollywood eats less thanks to these pharmacological interventions, is the rest of the industry feeling it? Kinyarda Wright, owner of Around the Clock Craft Services<\/a>, which specializes in catering for film and television productions and live events, sure thinks so. She\u2019s been in the business for 17 years, and when we talked, she had just wrapped the Gucci 2027 Cruise campaign and was gearing up for June\u2019s Tribeca Film Festival. Though it\u2019s difficult to make a direct correlation to increased weight-loss meds, one clear change she\u2019s seen recently is an increase in leftover food.<\/p>\n On the Gucci shoot, she witnessed folks in all departments, not just the talent, consuming less\u2014and differently. \u201cA lot of the production people wouldn\u2019t even eat. Some were living on bare-minimum snacks. People were eating a lot of apple chips and sugar snap peas and artichokes.\u201d That in itself is a change from just five years ago. \u201cWhen we had healthy stuff,\u201d she says, \u201csometimes production companies would call us up and be like, \u2018They\u2019re not eating it.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n Wright also mentions a GLP buzzword Chrisley used: protein. (Nneoma Oparaji<\/a>, MD, an internal medicine, obesity, and lifestyle physician, stresses to me that everybody is talking about the importance of protein intake on GLP-1s but that fiber is also important.) When it comes to large catering spreads, says Wright, \u201cthey tend to be heavier on the protein side. There\u2019s definitely a lot of requests for keto-based diets and gluten-free.\u2026 There\u2019s no more Diet Coke and Sprite.\u2026 Now it\u2019s Saratoga, Perrier, different types of spring water and sparkling water.\u201d<\/p>\n Andrew B Myers<\/p>\n There is, however, still plenty of coffee. \u201cPeople are heavy, heavy coffee drinkers, and that\u2019s how they replace their sugar rush\u2014through the caffeine boost.\u201d As to whether there\u2019s been an increase, she says, \u201cWe\u2019ve always done a lot of coffee, but yeah, I think we do a lot more coffee now.\u201d<\/p>\n Since starting on a GLP-1, I\u2019ve had days in which I\u2019ll have nothing but coffee until the afternoon and barely notice. That\u2019s never happened to me before in a lifetime of different diets. \u201cI would describe this as a plausible behavioral pattern, not a proven effect of GLP-1,\u201d Dr. Oparaji levels with me. \u201cGiven that medications like Zepbound can significantly decrease appetite, people can often unintentionally rely on coffee to power through, especially when they work in high-pressure environments.\u201d<\/p>\n She adds, \u201cCaffeine does not provide the protein, vitamins, minerals, healthy fats, or fiber that our body needs to thrive. When I occasionally notice that patients are leaning toward drinking more caffeine as a source of energy, I recommend that they prioritize small-size, protein-rich, nutrient-dense meals.\u201d<\/p>\n To that end, Wright predicts an increase in nutritional supervision coming to craft services: \u201cThere is a nutritionist that I\u2019ve been in contact with, and she creates specific meals that are more health-conscious for people who have ailments. This is the first time someone reached out to me regarding creating these types of menus. I could see in the coming years it being even more specific in terms of diet.\u201d<\/p>\n This is not the wardrobe department\u2019s first rodeo. For costume designers James Nguyen and AC Gottlieb, whose work includes multiple Broadway shows, as well as Chappell Roan\u2019s Visions of Damsels & Other Dangerous Things tour and some recent pieces for Zara Larsson, adapting to weight fluctuation is just part of the job.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen people get into performance mode, their body starts to change anyway, and so we\u2019re constantly adapting and taking in and letting out.\u2026 It\u2019s not a new thing,\u201d says Gottlieb. \u201cPerformers are athletes, and it\u2019s a really hard job. Your body changes so much, even if you don\u2019t change anything, just going through rehearsal and performance.\u201d<\/p>\n Nguyen says he can think of one client in the past year who lost weight due to meds. \u201cThey came in and they were like, \u2018By the way, I\u2019m on Ozempic,\u2019 and they\u2019re very proud of it, which is great. They were like, \u2018I\u2019m gonna lose weight,\u2019 and then they did.\u201d In terms of a broader industry-wide shift, he says, \u201cIt could be happening, [but] we\u2019re so used to adapting and people\u2019s bodies changing.\u201d That happens in multiple ways: Sometimes guys do a cycle of steroids to get bigger, or a woman gets pregnant. The pregnancy and postpartum costume-fitting experience for a performer requires constant adjustment; in comparison, weight fluctuations due to GLP-1s are nothing.<\/p>\n Perhaps the biggest change Gottlieb and Nguyen have noticed is a willingness to talk openly about weight-loss meds, something Gottlieb\u2014who takes the drugs himself\u2014appreciates. \u201cIf anything, what it\u2019s done is it\u2019s given a lot of people new language to talk about their body,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen I meet other people that are on GLP-1s, they seem, at least in the last year, so much more willing to talk about it. When I first started, I didn\u2019t want anyone to know, and now I don\u2019t really care. So I think maybe that is positive, because people aren\u2019t afraid to share their journey.\u201d<\/p>\n Like Steele, Los Angeles\u2013based registered dietitian Ashley Koff<\/a>, author of Your Best Shot: The Personalized System for Optimized Weight Health\u2014GLP-1 Shot or Not<\/a>, has seen entertainers and professional athletes benefit physically, emotionally, and mentally from GLP-1 use. The key to success, she says, is using the drugs as just one part of a closely supervised regimen. She believes that people get into trouble when they treat the meds as an all-encompassing, one-size-fits-all weight-health solution.<\/p>\n She mentions her work with the NBA. \u201cI went to training camp, and I was with some of the coaches there, and they\u2019re like, \u2018We have several athletes who are on this who can\u2019t eat enough.\u2019\u200a\u201d That\u2019s a problem, but Koff is more concerned with the 360-degree picture than any discrete component when trying to optimize an athlete\u2019s performance and well-being: \u201cI\u2019m worried about their hydration when they really push it. I\u2019m worried about the fact that heart rate variability may be down, so they think they\u2019re recovering, but they\u2019re actually not sleeping as deeply.\u201d<\/p>\n For an elite athlete, it can take incredibly nuanced biohacking to make sure the drugs are working for\u2014not against\u2014the user, like thoughtfully planning when to take the meds, says Koff. \u201cDo you do [the injection] first thing in the morning? Do you do it in the evening?\u2026 Do you do it the day of a game?\u201d She and her clients figure it out through trial and error, because every client is different.<\/p>\n For some, weight-loss meds can feel like a performance-enhancing stimulant; for others, they may cause nausea. It takes an expert like Koff to fine-tune things for each individual. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of tools in the tool kit. It might be leaning into things like liquid nutrition; it might be leaning into naps; it might be leaning into body treatments, like cold plunges, lymphatic drainage massage, and Epsom salt baths,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n She adds that even when an athlete or a performer is dealing with drug downsides, the side effects aren\u2019t so extreme that fans would notice\u2014nobody has passed out on the court or faced a bathroom emergency onstage. \u201cWhat we\u2019re talking about is what\u2019s happening behind the scenes,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Koff likens the performer body to that of a race car: A team of people is needed to keep things running and for check-ins at pit stops. But that doesn\u2019t always happen. Even though the drugs are not new\u2014the GLP-1 Byetta received FDA approval for treatment of type 2 diabetes way back in 2005\u2014the demystification, cost drop, and increased accessibility mean less personal oversight.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve seen the shift firsthand. When I started Wegovy in 2023, I first had a video visit and multiple conversations with my longtime general practitioner, who knows every detail of my medical history. Once I started the drug, I was required to have additional visits every few months, as well as check-ins with the hospital pharmacist.<\/p>\n My insurance changed recently (it no longer covers my general practitioner or the hospital pharmacy), so I turned to a telehealth site. I filled out a questionnaire about my weight-loss goals and medical history and was assigned a health practitioner who approved the drug within a few days. When I need refills, I fill out another questionnaire about my goals and side effects, and the medication is dispensed. It\u2019s not that different from when I was seeing my own physician, but it\u2019s certainly not as personalized. I will never lay eyes on the doctors and nurse practitioners dispensing my meds\u2014I\u2019ve had a new one each time, and they all send the same form letter to my patient portal approving the renewal\u2014and I feel more like a customer than a patient.<\/p>\n Once, I messaged to ask whether I could up my dosage to increase weight loss, and they said okay. When I changed my mind and messaged again, saying, \u201cActually, let\u2019s please keep it the same,\u201d they said okay. I\u2019m not knocking how easy it is to get the drugs now\u2014I\u2019m ecstatic, actually\u2014but it all seems a bit too easy, or reverse-engineered. As the patient, I feel like I\u2019m calling a lot of the shots on my shots. And when you\u2019re talking about elite performers or athletes, like Koff\u2019s clientele, it\u2019s harder to risk that experimentation.<\/p>\n It\u2019s all so complicated, and I personally wish we lived in a post-size world, one that doesn\u2019t elevate certain body types over others, instead of one where drugs are perfected to help us all get thinner. I want that for myself and for celebrities and for society at large. And I really, really want it for women, who cannot win.<\/p>\n Koff shares the story of a client who has faced intense public scrutiny over her declining weight and hair quality\u2014and who is actually battling cancer. \u201cShe was not ready to talk publicly about it,\u201d she says. \u201cEverybody is out there saying, \u2018Look at this person\u2014 they\u2019re using Ozempic and they\u2019re using too much of it.\u2019 \u201d Meanwhile, \u201cwe are doing everything we can to put weight on her body.\u201d<\/p>\n She\u2019s quick to add that the person in question is not Demi Moore, who has been the recent recipient of cruel weight-loss critique. Of course she has: We demand that women be thin and then eviscerate them when they are. \u201cIt\u2019s not new,\u201d Koff reinforces.<\/p>\n So just how much is the rapidly expanding world of weight-loss meds altering Hollywood? My sense is: a great deal, but not in ways we haven\u2019t seen before, and not in ways we might automatically think. Wright cites celebrities she\u2019s worked with who\u2019ve been health-conscious for a long time, like Queen Latifah and Kevin Hart, who\u2019ve had riders packed with healthy food lists; and people like Tom Brady, for whom she\u2019s made acai bowls with avocado ice cream, and Steve Martin, who likes specialty green teas.<\/p>\n Koff remembers having clients with far less healthy habits when she started her practice more than 20 years ago: young girls using Adderall and film actors snorting cocaine for weight loss. Judy Garland famously took pep pills (a.k.a. speed) when the studio told her she was too fat. Celebrities going to great lengths to be thin may be the oldest story in Hollywood.<\/p>\n The biggest change I\u2019m observing is a purely speculative and theoretical one: I think we\u2019re seeing an uptick in already-thin stars getting even smaller because of the democratization of weight-loss meds. For the first time in our lives, everyday folks who have tried and failed to lose weight and keep it off now have a doctor-cosigned tool that seems to work. Sustained, substantial weight loss without surgical intervention, which once was available only to the rich and famous\u2014because they could pay for private trainers, and chefs, and accountability coaches, and other outsourced weight-management providers\u2014is now available to all of us, which means famous folks have to get even thinner to stand out.<\/p>\n I think we\u2019re seeing an uptick in already-thin stars getting even smaller because of the democratization of weight-loss meds.<\/p>\n A more dramatic and punk rock response would be if everyone allowed themselves to get fat or medium or whatever size their body naturally wants to be. But I don\u2019t have much hope that will happen. I did, for a moment a few years ago, when society was briefly enamored with so-called body positivity.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t think we\u2019ll ever really know how many people in La-La Land are officially taking weight-loss drugs, and I don\u2019t think we should. Their body, their choice\u2014negative side effects and all. In a way, there\u2019s something empowering about having so much control over our meds, especially for women, who often know our bodies best but are routinely dismissed and ignored by doctors. But it\u2019s also a little scary and disheartening that we spend so much of our lives fighting our bodies\u2019 natural sizes and shapes. My hope is that, somehow, somewhere, we figure out a happy medium\u2014one that involves bodily autonomy and real medical professional support, no matter what happens on Hollywood sets and in celebrity homes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"13 min read In the lead-up to my memoir release in 2025, I was thrilled when my publisher…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":922309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[49,48,213087,206610,2910,317460,24271,787,84,237154,1642,377,317461,317459,273948],"class_list":["post-922308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-collection-vital-reads","tag-collection-weight-loss-drugs","tag-content-type-feature","tag-contentid-a8e130e9-7d2d-47fb-bf52-09257d1569ac","tag-displaytype-long-form-article","tag-hasproduct-true","tag-health","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-locale-us","tag-medication","tag-read_time-15","tag-shorttitle-how-glp-1s-are-changing-hollywood-and-beyond","tag-sponsored-false"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=922308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/922309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=922308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=922308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=922308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/2720732d-2f41-463b-9537-cd0203449c52.jpg\" "\\"A")
<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/86bf8cd8-4802-4c50-95b0-f7d003a9d740.png\" "\\"A")
The Voice Coach<\/p>\n![\"Stylized](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/c161f987-8659-40c2-9bc7-b668b2cbcd03.png\" "\\"Stylized")
The Celebrity<\/p>\n![\"Quote](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/7dad8954-c5ff-421c-87bd-60e7f31ebfca.png\" "\\"Quote")
<\/p>\nThe Craft-Services Professional<\/p>\n![\"Miniature](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/13589e3e-31a2-4662-a0d2-3fa7a631a54d.jpg\" "\\"Miniature")
<\/p>\nThe Costume Designer<\/p>\nThe Dietitian<\/p>\n![\"biohacking](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1db747de-fef5-4c59-8cf4-5917eb61a5a0.png\" "\\"biohacking")
<\/p>\nWhere Does This Leave the Rest of Us?<\/p>\n