Ozempic, once just a type-2 diabetes medication, has hit the mainstream. Far from the domain of celebrities, it’s also used by your wealthy friends, colleagues and acquaintances, as well as many in the fashion industry and Westminster. However, the medication isn’t that easy to access. Currently, in the UK, you can’t get semaglutide products like Ozempic and Wegozy for weight loss on the NHS. While you can be prescribed them off-label, this is at the discretion of a doctor, subject to availability and, crucially, at a cost. In the US, meanwhile, the drugs have only just become available again after years-long shortages thanks to their popularity.
But for everyone unable to get their hands on the real thing, fear not, because a slew of sleek, colourfully branded, comparably affordable supplements claiming to “naturally enhance” weight loss have entered the market.
Kristian Jackson, 33, claims to have lost 12 pounds since taking GLP-1 Daily supplements from Kourtney Kardashian’s vitamin line, Lemme, in addition to working out. Over the last year, Jackson says she has been feeling increasing pressure to lose weight. “There’s the pressure to be skinny on top of getting older and looking bigger than what you used to. It’s huge.” Believing that her insurance would never pay for Ozempic, Jackson turned to Lemme – and she now has the product on subscription at £210 every three months.
Lemme was launched in 2022, but this September Kardashian controversially cashed into Ozempic’s chokehold by releasing a range of “weight loss” supplements. She’s not alone – even established vitamin and supplement brands are having a crack at filling the gap. In recent months, my Instagram feed has been inundated by ads for “metabolic boosters” like Artah’s Metabolic Fix, Arrae’s MB-1 and Ovira’s Curb Cravings; all housed in photogenic packaging, with scientific terminology and reams of glowing testimonials.
Of course, big wellness wants in. While “metabolism boosters” have been around for millennia, supplements marketing themselves as “nature’s Ozempic” and claiming to enhance GLP-1 levels – a hormone produced naturally in the gut that helps regulate appetite, and is used synthetically in medications like Ozempic – have seen a boom since the weight loss drug’s advent. According to the Business of Fashion, searches for GLP-1 supplements received 792.1 per cent year-on-year growth in 2024.
But while they may look new and shiny, there’s nothing particularly cutting-edge about most of these products. In fact, nutritionist Rhian Stephenson launched Artah’s hero product, Metabolic Fix, when she founded the brand back in 2021, before Ozempic went mainstream. “It’s always been our best-seller, but demand did increase with the popularity of Ozempic,” she tells Dazed. Claiming that 87 per cent of users report an improvement in appetite regulation after one week, Metabolic Fix includes a blend of chromium, berberine and carnitine, which have long been used in weight-loss supplements. Though Stephenson does add that consumers should have realistic expectations: “Food is the foundation. Just adding a supplement on top isn’t going to give you what you’re looking for.”
Dr Christine Ren-Fielding, the director of NYU’s Langone Weight Management Programme, is sceptical of any purported results, however. “From a medical standpoint, the effectiveness and safety of metabolic boosters warrant a cautious approach due to their status as dietary supplements, which are not subjected to the rigorous clinical trials required for prescription medications,” she explains. “Artah’s Metabolic Fix, for example, includes compounds like berberine and L-carnitine, known for their metabolic benefits, but again, the evidence largely stems from studies on the ingredients rather than the product as a whole.”
Daniel O’Shaughnessy, a certified functional nutritionist agrees: “These products are not groundbreaking, in fact, their ingredients have been used for years and years. They can be a ‘nice addition’ to a healthy routine, but they shouldn’t be relied upon.”
Metabolism boosters are accessible, cheap and there are influencers with millions of followers saying they have lost weight. The only trouble is, despite the clever marketing, they’re not actually a solution for sustainable weight loss – Dr Alasdair Scott
Without comprehensive clinical studies to guarantee they work, a motive as old as time emerges; these brands are explicitly marketing their products to be sold to people vulnerable in their desire to lose weight, quickly and cheaply. As Claudia*, 30, tells me, she would use Ozempic, if she could. “It’s a bit more difficult to get in the UK, which stopped me, but if a medical professional gave me something safe that could move those last stubborn pounds then frankly, I absolutely would.” She is now looking into metabolic boosters as an alternative.
Lemme has pushed things one step further, though, by using the same terminology as weight loss injections. Despite being named after it, their “GLP-1 Daily” supplement explicitly states that it “does not contain synthetic GLP-1 and is not a GLP-agonist drug”. So, what’s going on? Lemme claims that three clinically studied and patented ingredients – Eriomin lemon fruit extract, Supresa saffron extract and Morosil red orange fruit Extract — naturally enhance the body’s GLP-1 hormone. However, when I reached out to Lemme, they said that they could not share any case studies since the product was only launched a month ago. It is also worth noting here that Lemme is currently under investigation over claims that the brand “violated consumers’ rights by misleadingly and deceptively marketing its products”.
“GLP-1 agonists [like Ozempic] are complex peptides that require precise delivery,” says Dr Ren-Fielding. “These products include ingredients that claim to stimulate the body’s own GLP-1 production, but again, their effectiveness often relies on the general benefits of their ingredients, rather than the specific and proven actions of GLP-1 itself.”
This perhaps explains Nikki Compton’s results. The 27-year-old says she shed five pounds in the first two weeks of using Lemme’s GLP-1 Daily. “As a person who has been unhappy with my weight for a long time, wishing I could get on Ozempic, this seemed like the perfect, safe alternative,” she says. Dr Ren-Fielding is unconvinced. “For all we know, it may be a placebo effect. If someone loses a significant amount in a few weeks, it is most certainly water weight.” Lemme’s own website would seem to support this opinion, since the brand says it takes until month six for someone to experience “healthy fat loss”.
Kardashian’s celebrity is clearly a draw, having made clean living a cornerstone of her brand in recent years. In 2019, she founded the Goop-adjacent lifestyle brand (unironically) titled Poosh. Then there’s the marketing, which is something out of Glossier’s millennial-friendly playbook; curved, peppy lilac bottles emblazoned with bubble text, which would look perfect on a kitchen countertop.
“It added a sense of security knowing Kourtney put her reputation on the line and has been an advocate for healthy living. She really had to get it right to not encounter severe backlash,” says Rachel*, 34, who uses Lemme Debloat for IBS symptoms. For Zachary Spencer, 29, anything the Kardashian’s promote is a “gravitational pull”: “As a die-hard Kardashian stan, I can’t resist anything they sell. Lemme is no exception, the packaging alone is stunning. I saw it as an alternative to Ozempic, which I chose not to go on because Lemme’s supplements felt like a more natural approach and were cheaper.”
They’re accessible and easy on the wallet, but they also claim to work fast – a big perk in our results-driven world. Frieda*, 35, opted for Ovira’s Curb Cravings (£39 a bottle) out of sheer “laziness”: “I just hadn’t been exercising over summer when I was travelling, so I tried to approach it the fast way. It was supposed to be an easy way to lose weight, but I didn’t really. All it did was stop my cravings for sweet things.” This is a sentiment that is all too familiar to Dr Alasdair Scott, Selph’s science director. “Going to the gym three times a week and not eating when you’re hungry is hard! So people turn to the ‘next best thing’. Metabolism boosters are accessible, cheap and there are influencers with millions of followers saying they have lost weight, with photos to prove it. The only trouble is, despite the clever marketing, they’re not actually a solution for sustainable weight loss.”
It’s unsurprising that brands are jostling to fill the gap created by Ozempic as the shift to thin gains momentum and there is huge money to be made. With the real drugs being hard to access and expensive, wellness supplements offer hope to vulnerable people who are feeling huge pressure to lose weight. But, most of the time, it seems this hope is just an illusion created out of clever marketing language and flimsy scientific credentials. If you are considering taking supplements, consult with a doctor, especially if you have an existing health condition or are taking other medications – and always remember to stay critical.
*Rachel, Claudia and Frieda chose not to share their full names for the purposes of this article.
