Dubbed a ‘wonder’ weight loss drug, Ozempic has recently proved popular among many Hollywood stars for a quick and easy way to lose weight. The injection, made up of semaglutide, increases insulin levels in your body and decreases blood sugar (glucose). Together this helps to banish hunger pangs and aid rapid weight loss. 
But experts have warned about the dangerous side effects of using Ozempic recreationally. While Ozempic is licensed in the UK for managing blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes only, it is not licensed as a weight loss aid. Pharmacist Dr Randall Higgins explains some of the most common side effects. “Ozempic influences the rate of gastric emptying and can significantly impact gut hormones that regulate digestion and appetite. As a result, side effects like severe nausea, vomiting, gallstones, and pancreatitis are increasingly being reported,” he says. “Additionally, discontinuing Ozempic can lead to significant weight regain, as its appetite-suppressing effects wear off, risking a harmful yo-yo cycle. Any medication capable of such powerful systemic changes deserves medical caution, not promotion as some new fad diet.”
Former X Factor judge Sharon Osbourne lost three stone after using Ozempic, but she recently warned people against using it as she feels she’s lost too much weight and is struggling to put it back on.
The 71-year-old said, “Everybody was on it and I thought, ‘Well, I’ll have a bit of that.’ And so this is the outcome,” she said. “It’s been a year since I started to diet and I’ve lost 42lb. I can’t seem to put weight back on, which is a luxury, but also it’s like, be careful what you wish for.”
Describing her symptoms in detail, Sharon – who at her heaviest was 16st but says she now fluctuates between 7st and 7st 2lb – said she felt nauseous for two-three weeks and was left feeling very thirsty and not wanting to eat.
“That’s why I keep saying you’ve got to keep this stuff away from younger people because they will go berserk on it, and it’s not right,” she explained.
“Ozzy’s concerned because he says I look like Nancy Reagan. I’m like, ‘Oh dear.’ He gets worried because he says I don’t eat enough and my son’s worried too.”
Comedian Amy Schumer, 42, also shared that she tried taking Ozempic for weight loss but stopped after she developed side effects that left her feeling weak and fatigued.
“I was one of those people that felt so sick and couldn’t play with my son. I was so skinny and he’s throwing a ball at me and [I couldn’t],” she said.

Oprah Winfrey sparked controversy last month when she admitted she uses a weight loss drug. The chat show queen, 70, once said that taking drugs to aid weight loss would be “the easy way out”. But she revealed in an interview that she uses the new Hollywood craze “as a tool”.
She said, “I now use it as I feel I need it, as a tool to manage not yo-yoing. The fact that there’s a medically approved prescription for managing weight and staying healthier, in my lifetime, feels like relief, like redemption, like a gift, and not something to hide behind and once again be ridiculed for. I’m absolutely done with the shaming from other people and particularly myself.”
Oprah also revealed she took the medication before Thanksgiving. She admitted, “I knew I was going to have two solid weeks of eating”. She added, “Instead of gaining eight pounds like I did last year, I gained half a pound.” Oprah, who claimed she once weighed 17 stone, said of the unnamed drug, “It quiets the food noise.” 

Real Housewives of New Jersey star Jennifer Fessler revealed that she was hospitalised for an ‘impacted bowel’ due to a semaglutide, but it hasn’t stopped her from continuing to take it. 
Last month, the 55-year-old shared the side effects she has experienced using the weight loss drug.
“I have been on, and I’m not going to call it Ozempic — that’s been the umbrella name. But I’ve been on semaglutide for over a year now, and I’ve lost maybe 22 pounds,” she revealed on her podcast Two Jersey Js.
She added, “I’m not afraid of Ozempic and I will tell you I have had an experience that was not good and I’m pretty positive it was about the semaglutide — where I had to go to the hospital for an impacted bowel … and I’m still not nervous about it.”
She went on to say she didn’t drink water or eat vegetables because she was able to eat whatever she wanted and still lose weight. “Maybe for the first time in my life, I’m losing weight on pizza and bagels and ice cream,” she said.
She continued, “Having said that, I noticed there was constipation, I didn’t do anything about it. I wasn’t taking Miralax, that you take every morning, or any kind of stool softener.
“I hadn’t gone in a week, then it was a week and a half.” 

Actress Maria Bello revealed she tried Ozempic to keep the menopause ‘at bay’ but was hit with harsh side effects. The 56-year-old former ER star told fans on Instagram she had tried numerous ways to combat the difficulties of menopause.
“I went through the first half of menopause during Covid and tried everything to keep it at bay,” she wrote. She added that she been taking bio-identical hormones and tried to diet ‘hard’ and ‘fast’, but still managed to gain 15 pounds. She explained, “I tried Ozempic for a week but gave up after the constant nausea and vomiting, got rid of the waddle on my neck, tried Botox, fillers and lasers, face creams, cellulite machines, face threads, teeth straightening and more.” “I did copious amounts of therapy, including micro-dosing psilocybin, left Hollywood and all social media and at the end of it all finally moved to Paris. That was October of 2021.”

Another US celeb who has used Ozempic is Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Heather Gay. The 49-year-old said, “I’ve been on it for a long time, but hadn’t really seen much results. And I haven’t had massive results, but enough for people to notice, which is great.”
The reality star then went on to reveal that people have started acting differently around her since she started dropping the pounds, which she has found “discouraging.” 
“You lose five pounds, people are nicer to you,” she continued. “I don’t know why. It’s just the way the world works and that makes me sad for women. But happy that I’m down five.
Heather also commented that women put too much pressure on themselves and she fears for her daughters’ future.
“I have three daughters that I love and I don’t want them to have my genetics or have to struggle with society’s standards of beauty. I just wish that there was a solution for all of us,” she said. “But I’m feeling like I’m coming into my own a little bit and I think the glow up might be a little bit from that, too.”

90 Day Fiance star Darcey Silva has been open about using Ozempic to shed weight.
She told fans on instagram Stories last month: “Just got my Ozempic shot, so excited. It’s going to be amazing and transformational,” the 49-year-old said during her visit to a luxury New York City medical spa.
“It’s gonna help curb my appetite and lose weight.”
In another story, the star wrote that she is “feeling slim and healthy,” as she was injected in the abdomen by a nurse.