Lemonade.

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Body collective podcast. We're here to change the conversation about weight. We're going to take everything we've learned about shame, unlearn it, and transform it into a source of power. And I'm doing it with some of my greatest girlfriends. You're going to love them. Who am I? I'm Katie Starino. I'm the founder of mega Babe Beauty. I'm a body acceptance advocate, and I am the co host of this podcast.

Hi, I'm Hunter McGrady. I am a mom of two, a plus size model body image advocate, and we are going to dive in.

And my name is Ashley Longshore. I'm an artist, an entrepreneur, an author, and an overall wild woman that loves chicken strips and ranch. Let's do this.

My name is Tracy Moore. I've been a broadcaster in Toronto, Canada, for over 20 years. And, man, has my body changed over my time on television. Let's face it, everyone, we are in a whole new era for the body. With medications on the rise, people seem to be talking about weight more than ever. But how do we do so in a way that feels healthy, empowering, and informed? In this series, we're chatting with friends and experts to help us navigate the hard conversations. They are hard so we can listen to our bodies, advocate for ourselves, and feel comfortable in our own skin. The most important thing. So, no matter what your journey with weight is, and I know we've all been there, please trust this is a judgment free zone.

And today we are talking about advocating for yourself. At the doctor's office, we have two special guests to help us. Doctor Melanie J. Who's the director of NYU's comprehensive program on obesity, and writer and editor Samita Mukhopati is here to discuss her firsthand experience with GLP one s and weight loss drugs.

Seriously, let's just get into this.

Well, I am very excited to talk to you guys today about our topic, which is the doctor. Ooh, yeah, the doctor. I know it. Like, for me. I don't know about you, but even when I feel healthy, most visits I've had when I go to the doctor always end up in. I don't know, me in tears, because I'm like, I came in to talk to you about a hang nail, and I left with a diet plan.

Yeah, I had a little thing on my eye, like, three weeks ago, and I went to an urgent care, and Michael came with me, and I walk in and this bitch tries to put me on a scale. I'm like, honey, I'm like, first of all, I'm gonna decline the scale. And by the way, I just.

For your eye?

Yeah, girl, you don't need to weigh me to know what kind of eye cream to put on my eye.

You don't.

But then it's like, okay, but why am I feeling that way? What am I avoiding? Why is this upsetting me? I'm a confident woman, Ashley.

I'm gonna guess so. You're not alone in this. And I am gonna guess it's because you've had so many experiences where your weight has been unnecessarily tied into a diagnosis. I hear all the time stories of people who don't wanna go to the doctor because they do not wanna have that same fight, and there's so much shame in it. And I am trying to destigmatize that. You guys are all trying to destigmatize that. One way to do it, I've seen, is actually to decline getting weighted. Have you guys found any tips or tricks to actually get attention or respect in the doctor's office?

Yeah. Date your doctors. Date them. Go around and do different doctors. Right. I literally almost interview them. So after I was pregnant with my son, we had. It was. We had moved about a year and a half earlier, and I hadn't found a GP yet. I went to three different doctors, and I told them this. I was pretty freaking fiery after I first had my son, I had just dealt with a ton of grief and then being a first time mom, and I was just, like, a little bit mad at the world. A little bit kind of cuckoo. Just in the world. So I was like, I'm gonna go and find a GP who's real and honest, but, like, is also just. Doesn't shame me. Bullshit me. So I basically went and interviewed three doctors, and I told them my whole spiel. Listen, I do not want to hear about my weight first thing. If you truly think if I'm coming in for a problem with my finger, do not mention my weight. I was so bold and brazen. The doctor that I ended up with was like, I've never had somebody do this before, but I appreciate it.

Wow.

And she's the one who I ended up with, and I recommend her to everybody. And now she's booked out until literally next April. But, you know, it just goes to show, like, people are literally, like, wanting that. They want support, right?

Feel safe.

You feel safe. That's what a doctor should be. You feel safe. Or the person you're hurt, you go there. Right? So I think, advocate for yourself right off the bat. Before you even sign the papers, before you even get into a relationship with them, figure out how they are by dating them almost.

We asked our social media followers how they felt about all this, and they had a lot to say. Roll the tape. So I went to my GP for my annual physical, and we did all of the things, the blood work up, and we even did an EKG. Let's just make sure that the body's in a good place. And it is. And it was. Everything was great. And the only thing that he was able to talk to me about was my weight. And he came to me this way, quote, we have to get you to lose weight, end quote. And for 20 minutes, he just proceeded to basically, yeah, shame me. And it was devastating. I have loved this doctor for so many years, and now it makes me not want to go back. I am going to go back. I'm going to have a conversation with him now that I feel like I've sort of collected myself and I'm going to let him know that it really hurt my feelings and that I just feel like there's a better way to have the conversation. But for the first time in my life, a grown woman, I absolutely felt shamed by my doctor.

And that just doesn't feel okay.

It makes me sad that the onus is on us to go in there and steal ourselves and gather all of our confidence in order to have this conversation with an authoritative figure that should know better. That's what's sad to me. And I see my parents going through that as octogenarians, like the kind of healthcare my father has been getting. I see the nurses using certain language with him because he's a big guy and they have to move him from, like, the stretcher to the chair, and they're like, oh, you're a big guy. Or they're like, don't worry if you want to skip a meal. You know, like, all of that kind of stuff. And I call them on it. I think healthcare professionals need to understand that we are putting so much, like, importance on their role, and so there's a deference. And when they abuse that and make us feel really small and, like, we can't advocate for ourselves, you might. People might lose their lives. This woman is saying she doesn't want to go to the doctors anymore. Yeah, that's bad.

Yeah.

I also think kind of what we've talked about before is a complete lack of attachment to the emotional psyche, part of who we are, and then the way that we look and the whole, like, you know, science of our bodies that they're looking at. I mean, it's like, you know, if you've gained some weight, is there ever a conversation about, like, how are you feeling? Are you. Are you doing. Do you feel healthy? How's your energy level? How's your energy level?

How's your energy level? Someone fucking asked me that. Yeah. I think it's so interesting also, what you. Both of you have said this thing about feeling powerless in the room. I went in for a feeling of what felt like heart palpitations to me. And I me recently with all the things, you know, we do here on the Internet and how confident and everything we are online. I sat in a room with a male doctor and had him say, well, your breasts are quite large, and, like, make that movement with his hands. And he's like, so could just be muscular. Like, didn't even want to run any tests. Just was like, you got big tits.

That is literally infuriating.

And I took that. I took that. I was like, oh, okay.

Because we've grown up to believe, don't question doctors. They know what they're doing. And it's like, no question. No one should ever walk into any room and be the smartest person in the room. Question people, ask questions, and continue to do so. Just because they have a degree doesn't mean they're the end all be all right. That is absolutely insane. That instead of being like, you know what? Let's run EKG. Let's, like, see what's going on there, just to make sure.

We are so skewed. We are so far from understanding what good health actually means. I want to know if I'm healthy.

I feel very mean.

I can squat 200 pounds. I can deadlift 215. I can walk up the stairs. Okay. I'm a little breathless, but still, like, I want to know, what is health? What is it that, like, my stress levels are good. I sleep well. I cannot wait to get into that in this conversation.

So when we come back, we are sitting down with doctor Melanie J to answer some of our burning health questions. I am so excited to welcome you. Doctor Melanie J. Hello.

Hi. Thanks for having me.

Yes. Doctor J. Is an associate professor and the director of NYU's comprehensive program on obesity. Welcome to the body collective, Doctor J.

Thank you. It's great to be here.

I want to know how this is. Okay. I know what this is. This is a question I get asked all the time. It's a problem I've had myself. How do people find a doctor who will actually treat them with dignity.

Yeah. I mean, when you go to the doctor's office, you know what dignity looks like. You know, who is going to listen to you, who sounds like they have expertise, who's been recommended by other people. So I know this question comes from a history of people in larger bodies experiencing shame and judgment when they go to the doctor. And ideally, all doctors would be trained, all health professionals would be trained to recognize their own biases, because healthcare providers have the same biases that the rest of society has. And ideally, we would have systems set up that make people feel comfortable where the scale is not in a open place. But that doesn't always happen. But they are.

Does it happen at all?

Oh, yeah, sure. There are a lot of people, and it's getting better. You know, I do a lot of work trying to train doctors to provide more compassionate care. Most people, that's what they intend to do. You know, it's just that people don't recognize the biases that exist. And so we do a lot of training about that. But, yes, it exists, but it doesn't exist everywhere. And so people have to kind of advocate for themselves as well and be able to ask the questions that they need to get the healthcare that they want.

I want to talk about GLP ones. What are the benefits? What are the risks?

The medications are not miracle drugs, and they're not taken to make someone skinny. They're taken if they can improve your health. And what's exciting for me as an obesity medicine specialist and primary care doctor as well, is that they can really been shown to improve health and improve obesity related disease. So they have been shown that in people with cardiovascular disease, it decreases risk of heart attack and stroke, and all cause mortality over four years. In people with kidney disease, it decreases risk of kidney disease, heart failure, sleep apnea, you know, prevents diabetes. It keeps being shown to help with lot of different medical conditions that are associated with obesity. So they are really exciting drugs, but they are not the desperation that people have. And I totally understand it because we live in society that values thinness. And also, people are sick of being sick. If they have excess weight, that's making them sick. So I can totally understand it, but it need to be under good medical supervision for these medications.

Hunter, are we gonna talk about bmis?

Yeah, I want to talk about it. I want to talk about it, too.

I thought you were gonna say bowel movements.

No, because, Ashley, you sent me an interesting article yesterday, and, yes, it was.

In the New York Times and actually have it pulled up right here on my phone because I wanted to bring it up, but it said the headline, time to say goodbye to the BMI. A replacement has been gaining support, the body roundness index. Do you know about this?

Yeah, I've been looking into it. I don't know if that's going to solve all our problems. I mean, basically, just to give some background, is that body mass index is a measure of your weight in kilograms over your height meters squared. It approximates in most people a level of adiposity, or how much fat one has in our body, and especially visceral fat around the abdomen is the fat that can cause inflammation and health problems and disrupt kind of the access between our brain and our gut that regulates fullness and appetite and metabolism. And so these things are, you know, it is a decent measure. And the benefit of body mass index, by the way, is that it's not as invasive because, you know, you're talking about the trauma of getting on a scale for body roundness index, you would have people actually measuring your waist circumference.

I want to go back to the indicators, because we talked about BMI, we talked about measuring the middle. What is a better indicator or what indicator would you suggest that we should be using if we don't love BMI and you don't really love the measuring. The middle.

Metabolic health.

Yes, exactly. I use BMI, I use waist circumference, just to say those are all important. But we also use all the tools. Our disposal history really counts, like what's been someone's experience, what are someone's family history? What diseases do you currently have? Do you have high blood pressure? Do you have prediabetes? Yes. Metabolically, do you get your blood tests done? And we look at their lipids and we look at their glucose, and we look at all those kinds of things as well. And we screen for sleep apnea and see if they're having sleep problems related to weight. So it has to be comprehensive care. And then it's a conversation, because first of all, not everybody can afford the medications nor have their insurance pay for it. And we have other options for everybody, whether they have obesity or not. Lifestyle is incredibly important. And having enough sleep, managing stress, eating well, physical activity. But I think that's universal. And it's not just for people in larger bodies. It's like universal precautions, but it's always the basis of weight management, because even on the medications, we have to make sure people are getting one of the things, the other on the medications, we have to make sure, people are getting enough protein, that they're drinking enough fluids, and also that they're doing resistance training so that they don't lose muscle mass with the medicines.

So it's like a bucket of indicators that we need to use together rather than just looking at a few specific things. And then now back to the GLP ones. One thing that I find really comforting about this is that we've taken away this onus of, you know, the shame of feeling that people that have larger bodies just have terrible willpower and terrible discipline. And so if GLP's, would you put them as part of that narrative that if you have obesity, it may be something that you are genetically predisposed to? It may not be because you're sitting on your couch every day piling back fast food?

Absolutely. I mean, willpower and motivation are not part of the process, actually. So obesity, like any other chronic disease, is an interaction between our genes and our environments, including our food environments. And, of course, personal decisions and choices do play a role, but they play. But they're affected by our environments and what's available to us. And also, once someone has obesity, like we said, the adipose tissue signals to the brain and the gut and kind of affects how people feel hungry or sadiated. And so all that plays a role. So it's not the person's fault. And I think the GLP ones just kind of magnify that, because it shows that people who've been struggling their whole life have lost hundreds and pounds in their lifetimes and gained it back, had so much willpower to do that. It takes so much willpower to treat obesity, whether you are using lifestyle alone or lifestyle and plus medications. But it's not a driving force in terms of the success of the. In terms of the pathways for developing obesity and how we can support people, if that makes sense.

I would say that we've been hearing a lot that, like, BMI is actually bullshit and that it's dated. And you did say it's an important metric of health. And so I'm. I'm saying that out loud because that was interesting to hear, because you were like, yeah, I know it is important, but the Internet keeps being like, it's not.

Yeah, it will. I mean, it's problematic, right? It's problematic to say, like, you need to be this bmI. People. People will look at the BMI and say, oh, I look at the way they label it, like, BMI being. And maybe that we could say this. It's the fact that BMI is labeled as normal weight.

Yeah.

Overweight and obese, right?

Yes. Morbidly obese.

Yeah. And then, well, we don't use class three, severe obesity. So class, you know, class one, two and three. I do not use that m word because I feel like that's like, really?

That's nice.

Yeah, that's kind of you. Yeah, yeah.

But, but like. But people think that because of that, our goal is to be normal BMI. Well, it's not actually, like, in the overweight range. People actually sometimes have lower risk of disease depending on where they keep their fat than when they're at low bmis. So it's really the higher bmis, and that's mostly who we see in healthcare these days. A lot of it is bmis of 35 and 40. Then that's usually a higher risk, and that's usually where the conversation has to go.

So what if you're really quickly, what if you are 35? Right?

Yeah.

But your blood test is great, your cholesterol is great, your blood pressure is great.

Yeah.

Everything is checking out.

Yeah.

Right. Everything is good.

What do you tell that patient?

Well, I ask them what their goals are. Right. I mean, there's no urgency at that point because they are healthy. Right. But it's same thing for any other disease. Like if you have high blood pressure, for instance, you know, a little bit high blood pressure, but it's not causing headaches, it's not causing anything at this moment in time. It's still at risk in the future of causing problems. Like, you're still at higher risk in the future of having weight related diseases in the future, you know, so you might not, all your numbers might look good now, but you still probably have increased risk of cancer. I have a family history of breast cancer. Right. So I don't have breast cancer right now. I'm completely healthy. But that family history makes it that I need to, you know, do things and screening tests and other things to keep myself healthy. And so when someone has a bmi of 35 and everything is great, there's no urgency. We talk about what they prefer to do, but, you know, doing things to optimize health, eating well, doing physical activity, not gaining more weight. Right. Like that. A lot of it is just like keeping the weight neutral.

And then in terms of treatment, then we can talk. We can talk about what, you know, is shared decision making of what they want to do. As a result, there's no then urgency.

I think that part of the problem is that we. We have to accept a bit of nuance in this situation. So BMI. As much as the Internet is now telling us to throw it away, it is still an indicator, and it might just prove to be absolutely nothing of concern in a whole bucket of indicators. And I think part of the issue, and I know I have this issue when I'm trying to be on top of my health, I'm trying not to make it an all or nothing weight thing. And I think that's where the mental health issue comes in. So can you give us a little bit of guidance? If there's someone there that wants to lose weight but they do not want their mental health to go off the, like, just off the chart, how can they gently do that? How can they take care of themselves instead of just looking at a number? Any advice?

I think in true, for anything that, like empowerment and self worth comes from within, it's harder if you have a stigmatized condition to not internalize the stigma. And also talking about expectations like losing weight's not going to solve all your problems. Right. It's going to, it's, it's, it's for health reasons that, you know, I talk to my patients about the even, and it's hard to do in a, in a time we have about positive self talk, you know? Yes, stop losing weight. You don't blame yourself. Like the, like, maybe the treatment that we're giving you is not working for you.

Right.

That, or maybe it's really bad timing. There's a lot of stress in your life. You're not taking care, you know, able to eat as well, but you and getting help. If you're having emotional eating, for instance, if you eat as a way to deal with emotions, then that needs to be addressed. Right. Because you need to have other ways of dealing with emotions if you're gonna do weight.

Weight management, the self loathing never gets you anywhere.

Yeah.

And we've talked about this so much throughout all this. That inner monolog has got to be the reasons why you love yourself, not the reasons why you don't. And I think that's just such a good jumping off point to love who you are, to love your body, and to get you on the way to whatever that. I hate using this word journey is, you know?

Yeah. And we're trying to get to more precision medicine. Like what things can we do to better describe individual risks, both genetically, biochemically, and then based on their unique, what we call social determinants of health, which are what environment. Social environments do they live in? What is their home life like? What are their communities like? And so those things are very important, too.

Doctor J, thank you so much again. Lovely. Yeah.

Hey, listeners at Weight Watchers, we're all.

About building a community to support you.

Through any stage of your life journey. That's why we created the body collective. Here's a clip from a real weight Watchers member speaking about their experience sharing how vital that power of community is when it comes to health. Take a listen.

After struggling with my weight my entire life, I finally turned to the Weight Watchers clinic to get access to a GLP one medication. And I also got an incredible support system through the care coordinators and clinicians and dietitians, but also the incredibly diverse Weight Watchers community, I've been able to connect with people from all over the country and world who are in similar situations that I'm in that have also struggled with their weight. They're also on GLP one medications, and through Weight Watchers connect and social media and workshops, we've been able to talk and share. Share. Our journey is share our struggles and to not feel alone. And I think that has really helped me with my journey, knowing that my situation isn't unique, that my struggles aren't alone and I don't need to carry those alone. I can connect with others who have experienced that, and we can upload a uplift each other and help each other when we're struggling and celebrate each other when we're succeeding.

Do you ever get hit with a cringy memory of your 13 year old self out of nowhere and suddenly you're panic, sweating and laughing at the same time?

Don't worry, don't worry. We all get that.

It's because being an adolescent is one of the most visceral, shared experiences we have as people, and we want to talk about it. Join me, Penn Badgley, and my two friends, Nava and Sophie, on podcrushed as we interview celebrity guests about the joys and horrors of being a teenager and how those moments made them who they are today? New episodes of podcast are out now, wherever you get your podcasts.

And we're back. Okay, we need to talk about GLP ones. This drug has really shifted the way we talk about willpower, weight loss, and healthcare in general. I think this is such an interesting and nuanced conversation, and I'm glad that we have my girl, Samhita Mukhopadhai, the best selling author of the myth of making it and a regular columnist at New York magazine's the Cut, where she actually documented her own journey with these new meds.

Hey, Samita.

Hi.

She's a badass.

Yes, she's here. Samita, welcome to the collective.

It's so good to be here.

So, Samhita, let's go right into this. How did you come to the decision to get on the shot?

So it was a really long. Like, I took a really long time deciding. And, you know, similarly, 2010 to 2020 was a great time, and especially for someone who. My body changed profoundly in that time. And I was working in fashion, and I was. It was a moment when brands actually wanted to dress plus bodies, and I had met all these amazing influencers. And so when my doctor, you know, when my blood work came in that I was pre diabetic and my cholesterol had gone up and I was having stress and weight related health issues, she suggested Manjaro, which is a trizapeptide, which is similar to a GLP one and another, you know, and now is also on the market. It's known as zep bound. But in the same class of drugs, that kind of works the same way. It's a shot that you take weekly, and it helps with your food urges and cravings. And I first was like, wow, I'm a failure. Like, I cannot believe that I let myself get to a place where they are prescribing a weight loss drug. Like, how could I have let this fully transparently? It was not a body positive moment.

I was riddled with shame and guilt that I had kind of.

Because you're human.

Yeah. That I had, quote, let myself go. And, you know, I had done quite a bit of research to find a doctor who was not a fat shamer. Like, I actually looked for someone who understood obesity science that, like, was. Wasn't going to be like, you need to diet and exercise. But what I faced instead was a completely new narrative, which I think has surrounded these drugs, which is, weight gain is not your fault, and certain brains are wired differently. And this is a hormonal intervention. This is not fenfen. This is not a crash diet. This is a different type of medical intervention. I went about it like a reporter. I took six months. I talked to different people. I think the thing why I ultimately decided to do it is things were feeling out of control. I was really scared. My father had just died of diabetes related complications, and the anxiety of that happening to me was, like, so front of mind. And so I decided to take the leap and go on the medication.

I'm also going to say, so you have this career at Teen Vogue and in the fashion industry, there's, like, four plus size editors. Would you say four.

I would say less than that.

I think four is generous.

I know.

And I. I think it's so interesting also to come from that perspective of truly being, like, in that time, being one of the only women who is plus size in that industry.

Yeah. And, you know, I will say my background wasn't in fashion. Right? Like, I'm a feminist writer. I've been writing about politics for, like, 20 years. And, you know, teen vogue at the time was covering politics, and so I had gone there to help with their political coverage. But I've always been a fashion girlie, and I was a plus fashion girly before, so I. But I hadn't really, like, I understood the language of body positivity, but I don't think I realized how much I personally didn't identify with so much of it, because, again, like, I. Most of my weight I gained later in my life. And so I had never, even though I would, like, fight to the death for fat inclusivity, I realized that I never fully seen myself in it. And so when I got the teen vogue job, all of a sudden, I'm getting all these interview requests. Like, this is a historic moment. Like, what does it mean to be a fat woman in fashion? And I was like, wait, I'm fat? And it was like this moment where I hadn't reflected on it in that way. And I write about this in my book where it's like, I'm going into vogue.

And literally, before I'm going on the Anna interview, I'm thinking, do I need to go on a crash diet? I mean, the rumors about this woman are crazy then to get in there and be celebrated for it, but have this kind of fraught relationship with it. And I will say, that was such a big entry for me because it was people like you, Katie and Hunter, people that I would see at fashion week that would be like, girl, you look so good. And I'd be like, oh, my God, there's a community for me to be a part of. And really gave me the language to actually, like, it was like, I've been in all these social justice spaces, but it was really, like, the plus girlies in fashion that were the most radical about this and the most kind of inclusive and really gave me a language, I think, prior to that, and, like, you know, to then be, like, asked all these, you know, kind of invasive questions and be like, oh, wow, this is actually a big deal. Like, there are so few of us that it's worth putting in the article about, you know?

I mean, it was historic because I was the first outlandish asian woman. Like, there was all these other things and. But it was like, I was fat, and that was a big deal for. Cause that's how few fat editors there are, is there?

So, like, of course there's the shame of being someone who is overweight, but then do you feel the shame being on the shot? Like, we really can't win in this world, right? Like, that's what I'm really coming to terms with is it's like, you just can't win. Do you feel that shame now, being on the shot and being like, well, okay, yeah.

So, you know, for what it's worth, I've now been off the shot for about nine months.

Oh, interesting. Can I ask? You mentioned that you have to. You have to stay on it your whole life to maintain. Is that, like, what was your. What was the choice to get off of it?

So it was less a choice and more. Thank you, America's terrible healthcare industry. So, yeah, I. Hunter, to your point, I think, yes. Like, I had a tremendous amount of shit. Like, when I came forward with that cut piece, I knew people were gonna be talking behind my back. Like, I knew, like, it meant so much to me that, like, those of you that did post it, because I just knew that people would be like, oh, they got her too. And really, like, what I was trying to do is make an intervention around the shame that so many of us in larger bodies feel when we make any decision about our body, right? And now it's like, okay, we can't stick to thinness, but now we have to stick to some invisible line of, like, I have to embrace my fatness, even if it's at, you know, at cost of my health, I have to still be like, yes, queen. Like, I'm so proud of this. And it's like, there has to be an in between space. The reality is most women are actually somewhere in between, right? Like, they're somewhere in between the, like, coming off of the shame and cycle of dieting and the embracing the self, you know?

And that was part of why I wanted to come forward with my story, because I think there is so much shame around fat people getting any kind of medical help and advocating for ourselves and actually getting the care that we need to. Ultimately, my decision to take it was seeing it as an act of care for myself that, like, from the information that I had in the moment, that was an act of care for myself. But, you know, as the. As the conversation evolved and the kind of panic and I think, Katie. You put it so right at the top of the segment, like, no one can fucking stop talking about it. You know, it's like the fact that we became fixated on it as a miracle drug for weight loss really removed what the actual power of the drug is, which is a profound intervention for people that struggle with diabetes or are on the path to diabetes. And that is not the same thing as trying to be a size four from a size eight, right? Those are two. And we have fixated so much on the latter conversation, and understandably, that we've actually missed this much broader issue around accessibility and how this could profoundly.

I mean, both of my parents struggle with diabetes. Father died of diabetes related complications. And I always say this. If he had had access to a drug like this, if it wasn't so cost prohibitive, if it was made and not just marketed to people as a miracle weight loss drug, so many more people could actually have it. And that's where I sat. I was in the intersection of those two things. So I get on the drug, my health outcomes start to get better. My numbers go down, my sugar goes down. I'm feeling better in my body. I was having some, like, mobility issues, and I'm starting to feel better. I'm starting to be more in touch with my body through it. And then it turns out that it had been on some kind of coupon, and the company revoked the coupon, as these pharmaceutical, you know, companies do. And all of a sudden, they wanted $800 a month for me to get the shots.

Yeah, but let me ask you something.

Yeah.

So, you write this incredible, very vulnerable, unbelievable article. Why would anybody be mad at you about that? You're making a personal decision. I'm a plus size girl over here, rocking these titties and all of this. Why would I ever be upset with you for. Why would I feel abandoned as a plus size person just because you made a decision about your own body? What the hell is going on?

But I think that's the answer, right? That the answer is the abandonment. And I think that we, you know, we check off everyone we've got in the community because there's some strength and power in numbers, and it's so complex that what I loved in your article was that, Samita, you talked about having to figure out how to make health changes without hating your body. And I think that's where. That's where I see the tension in this whole conversation, because I have no problem with my body, but I also believe everyone has a right to good health. So how do we get people on that road to good health without having them slamming their body as this the enemy?

Samita, how have you been feeling being on a GLP one and really seeing your numbers go down? And I'm sure a lot of that had probably brought up a lot of, oh, like, worth thoughts and feelings. And then now being off of it, and especially as someone, you know, I'm so sorry for your loss with your dad, but of course, I'm sure that, you know, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but that might be in the back of your mind, right? God, if my dad had had this. This is a life saving drug, right?

Yeah, that's a really good question. I, you know, I have felt the full gamut of emotion, as you can imagine. I think at first I was just really angry. I was angry that I was basically told that this was a short term intervention only to learn that for. So for GLP one or Teresa peptide, like a manjaro, to be effective. Essentially what it's doing is it's making an intervention to the way that your brain communicates with your body. Right. So your hunger cues are shifted because you. It tells you hilariously, this is my second ozempic interview today.

You're educated on the topic.

Yeah. And so. And actually, I'm not a doctor, so probably this is the very high level, my understanding of how it works, basically. And so when that no longer. When you're no longer taking it, when you're not on it, those hunger cues come back. Right. And one of the things I really experienced was this, because while I was getting more in touch with my body, I was more disassociated from my actual hunger cues. And so since it is an appetite suppressant, however you want to frame it medically, that's fine. At the end of the day, it is an appetite suppressant, and it works as an appetite suppressant. It makes you want to eat less. And so once that is gone, all those hunger urges come back. And so I spent the first couple of weeks, first of all, there's a lot of side effects. I had a lot of side effects. So my stomach was in really crazy shape. I had some digestive issues for, like, three months after I came off the medication, and I had digestive issues the entire time I was using it. And so I kind of felt like I was angry.

I felt like the system had let me down for sure. And I also felt like I had an opportunity to reconnect with my body after having put it through this experience. And to really get in touch with a much more authentic sense of my own health and to really work on not judging myself as I started to put the weight back on, which I have. So I've gained back about. I lost almost 50 pounds, and I've gained back almost 20 to 30. So I. You know, and everyone was a mind fuck, like, absolutely right. So all of these clothes that were big on me are, like, small. You know, like, that whole journey has been really hard. And I actually. I wrote a follow up piece that. About my decision to go off of it or decision to go off of it, and then kind of what's come from that. And that's where I feel like. That's where I feel like the conversation needs to go. Because the reality is, this isn't actually a sustainable intervention if what we're trying to solve for is fatness. Because at the end of the day, if we still live in a culture that prioritizes thinness over everything else, then these are not effective interventions.

Because what I need more than anything is social support. Right. I need community support to remind me that it's okay to live in this body and that when I have a health issue come up, that it's okay. And I'm not gonna blame myself. Cause I gained a little bit of weight.

Yeah.

Samita, I'd say so much of what you said, like, it is a bomb to a lot of the noise that I hear in my head, and it's not even that you've got the solution. But I wish more people were saying, what I need is not necessarily to fit in the little jeans. What I need is a community that understands that I'm good now. And I think a lot of us understand that we're good now, but it's not affirmed. We don't get that back. And I feel like we have to.

Feel that within ourselves, though, too.

I know I feel it, but the influences that I'm getting, it is, like, it is so hard to hold that back, and it's so hard to keep telling myself that I'm good without that reflected anywhere else. Absolutely. It starts with us, but wouldn't it be great if, like, everyone was on board? So, I think that that was great reflections.

Well, that is why this podcast is so important. And conversations like this are so important so that people still feel like they have a place to belong.

Yeah.

Yeah, I know it.

Yeah.

Thank you. Thank you, Samhita. Thank you so much for having this complicated and sometimes very difficult conversation with us today. Thank you to my fellow collective members. Hunter, Ashley and Tracy, and our guest, Samhita Mukhopadhai. We hope you learned a few things today and you can keep unlearning with us this season too. We want you to feel empowered at the doctor's office right? And we want you to know that health and happiness are an important ingredient in each of your individual journeys. You're a part of the Body Collective club, so please keep listening. Give us feedback. We'll see you soon. Bye bye. There's more of the body collective with lemonade Premium subscribers get exclusive access to bonus content like outtakes that didn't make it into the show. Subscribe now in Apple Podcasts the Body Collective is a production of lemonade media and Weight Watchers. Your hosts are Hunter McGrady, Ashley Longshore, Tracy and me, Katie Starino.

The body collective series is sponsored by Weight Watchers. The content in this podcast should not be taken as medical advice. Please consult your healthcare professional for any medical questions. This series is produced in sound design by Mariah Gossett. Additional sound design and engineering from Ivan Karaev.

Music by APM and our senior supervising producer is Kristin Lepore.

Our vp of narrative content and production is Jackie Danziger. Executive producers include Stephanie Whittles Wax and Jessica Cardova Kramer. Serious consulting and production support from Anna Pascal, Kelsey Merkel, Lauren Seinfeld, and Vivian.

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