“One shot makes you hot” is the tagline for the latest TV sequence from producer Ryan Murphy, “The Beauty”. It centres on a legendary injection that permits folks to change into immediately attractive, options Bella Hadid and premieres on Jan. 21.
The premise is maybe impressed by the 2025 movie “The Substance” (Tagline: “Have you ever dreamt of a better version of yourself?”), but in addition displays a rising obsession with the idea of an injectable transformation, and one that may not be so legendary in spite of everything.
In the US, the world chief basically consumption, and consequently of weight problems, glucagon-like peptide agonist (or GLP-1) medication have reached stigma-busting ranges of widespread utilization. An October Gallup ballot of 16,946 US adults discovered that a mean of 12 p.c — about one in eight — had been present customers, whereas consulting agency PwC stated that 14 p.c of US households had somebody taking a GLP-1 in October 2025, up from 9 p.c six months prior.
This determine is very outstanding contemplating the treatment’s excessive boundaries to adoption — a hefty value level (typically upwards of $1000 per thirty days earlier than reductions or insurance coverage), weekly injection format and gnarly unwanted side effects (generally nausea, hardly ever pancreatitis or gallbladder illness). Many of these hurdles, nonetheless, are coming down. While there’s nonetheless no clear up for the undesirable unwanted side effects, President Donald Trump introduced late final yr that GLP-1 medication from Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly will likely be provided for greater than half off via TrumpRx, the US authorities’s forthcoming direct-to-consumer web site providing discounted pharmaceuticals. Already this yr, Novo Nordisk launched its Wegovy capsule within the US, which might be bought immediately from the Swiss producer for $149 a month. Eli Lilly’s personal GLP-1 capsule is about to launch by March.
These adjustments are more likely to spur development once more: Morgan Stanley estimates GLP-1 drug gross sales will peak in 2035 at $150 billion, in comparison with $15 billion in 2024, however the financial institution has already needed to up its forecast as soon as.
The class has already had results on attendant industries — not solely magnificence and wellness however attire, meals, beverage, journey and hospitality, in accordance with Alison Furman, a client insights lead at PwC. These impacts vary from the plain (GLP-1 customers are likelier than non-users to e-book wellness-focused getaways) to the inexplicable (they purchase fewer condiments and a lot much less alcohol.)
“What we’re seeing now in terms of shifts in consumer behaviours and consumer preferences, we believe, is only scratching the surface,” she stated.
That could also be trigger for concern. While GLP-1s have been used to deal with diabetes for over 20 years, their use for weight reduction has solely come round lately. Studies on the long-term results of staying on GLP-1s, which is critical for them to work, have but to be carried out.
Apparel: More ‘Fluid Fit’ and Fewer Plus Size Influencers
GLP-1s are, by and massive, slimming down the inhabitants. A latest Gallup ballot discovered that the speed of weight problems within the US has decreased from a 2022 peak of 39.9 p.c to 37 p.c in 2025, or by about 7 million American our bodies.
This has prompted at the very least a minor recalibration in attire stock planning. A September 2025 examine by the retail consultancy Impact Analytics warned of a shrinking populace and billions of {dollars} in potential threat “unless brands start planning for the shopper of 2027, instead of the shopper of 2022,” chief govt Prashant Agrawal stated. Some analysts have suggested retailers to shift from the usual 1-2-2-1 measurement ordering mannequin — twice as many M and L sizes as S and XL — to a 2-2-1-1 proportion.
But a key threat for manufacturers “is treating GLP-1 adoption as a simple story of shrinkage,” stated Laura Yiannakou, a senior strategist at pattern forecasting company WGSN.
“While retail data does point to growing demand for smaller size curves in some markets, that is only part of the picture,” Yiannakou stated. It’s frequent for sufferers who cease taking GLP-1s to regain as a lot as two-thirds of their misplaced weight, and new analysis suggests they accomplish that sooner than these popping out of eating regimen and train programmes.
Yiannakou predicts an inflow of “dynamic fit solutions” in adjustable silhouettes, outsized clothes and “multi-size fit” sizes from M to XL. Good American, the Khloe Kardashian-founded denim model, as an example, sells a line known as “Always Fits” that claims to supply “one-size-fits-four” denims from 00-4 to 28-32.
While extra “body-confident” choices — like comfy shapewear — may also take maintain, the GLP-1 wave has had a regressive impact on the “body positivity” motion that started gaining steam within the late 2010s.
“People are more bothered about being thin again, even if they’re not using GLP-1s,” stated Mollie Quirk, a UK-based plus-size style blogger. Many of her friends have pivoted to wellness content material, showcasing their exercise routines and meals extra as they shed weight; others, like Remi Bader, have seen their careers grind to a halt for not correctly disclosing their GLP-1 utilization.
Beauty: Firming, Toning, Nipping and Tucking
From weight reduction apps to the White House, everyone is attempting to promote GLP-1 medication. But the most important alternative could also be on the med-spa: In 2025, gross sales of GLP-1 medication had been already value greater than gross sales of Botox and filler mixed and doubled.
“It has a head-to-toe effect,” stated Dr. Bob Basu, the president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, whose Houston, Texas follow is break up 40/60 between facial aesthetics and physique work.
Cautionary story of “Ozempic face” comes from the drug’s deleterious results on the pores and skin’s structural proteins like collagen and elastin, however fast weight reduction also can contribute to a lack of bone density and muscle mass. These unwanted side effects are sending each males and ladies to clinics in droves, bolstering not solely facial injections however extra invasive liposuction.
“I call this the American GLP weight loss revolution,” stated Basu, who expects demand for cosmetic surgery to “skyrocket” because the capsule format launches.
As filler gross sales proceed to rebound from “undetectable-era” deflation, sufferers usually are not injecting much less however injecting otherwise. More are choosing facial fats injections or so known as “regenerative” injectables, like MTF Biologics’ Renuva, that makes use of donated fats tissue. Meanwhile, cryolipidosis or fat-freezing procedures like Coolsculpting and Kybella are on a precipitous decline, in accordance with Basu and the ASPS.
Topical merchandise that promise firming or tightening advantages are on the up: the Israeli bodycare label Maëlys, recognized for its body-toning lotions and serums, loved an 85 p.c gross sales surge in 2024, in accordance with PwC. Other winners embrace Sono Bello’s in-clinic physique contouring system (up 42 p.c) and Rodan and Fields’ suite of dermatological skincare merchandise (up 83 p.c).
GLP-1s and Wellness: The New-Old Weight Loss Club
No market has been upended by GLP-1s as quick as the burden loss business, which has quickly reworked to make manner for essentially the most promising weight problems intervention since Fen-Phen.
Weight Watchers, the 62-year-old firm, has embraced weight reduction medication as central to its latest rebrand. The platform has returned to its community-forward, meeting-based format partly in effort to create one thing like a assist group for GLP-1 customers. (In 2023, the corporate acquired the telehealth agency Sequence, permitting it to prescribe weight reduction medicines on to customers.)
It launched a GLP-1 Success Programme in Dec. 2025. Julie Rice, the co-founder of SoulCycle who was appointed Weight Watchers’ chief expertise officer in August 2025 calls GLP-1s “a tool in the toolkit.”
“They give you a little bit of a running start,” she added. “You can quiet the food noise, you can regulate your blood sugar. They give you this opportunity to really make the change alongside these medications.”
In this mild, organisations like Weight Watchers and apps like Noom have been all however pressured to supply the drugs alongside telehealth opponents like Hims & Hers or Ro. At the identical time, these companies are uniquely primed to supply the sort of “holistic” care — together with dietary and health suggestions — that physicians say are important to success on GLP-1 medication. It’s been a boon financially, too: More than half of Noom’s revenues, for instance, now come from GLP-1s.
The subsequent 10 years will see not solely a deluge of recent weight reduction medicines however might additionally see new approvals for GLP-1s to deal with substance abuse or continual irritation. But analysts usually are not ruling out the chance that extra analysis might reveal different downsides of utilizing these medication.
“There could be something out there that causes a reversal in the trend,” Furman stated. “But barring that, we think that this is creating a new appetite economy. We think it’s a physiological disruption, akin to a technological disruption, like Netflix or the iPhone, that’s going to have broad societal implications, many of which we don’t know yet.”
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