Today, let’s take a look at how weight-loss drugs are marketed in the U.S. as a way to lower healthcare costs, and whether they really deliver on those lofty promises. What if you could lose a few pounds with simple injections under your skin?

Sounds like a pipe dream, but it really does happen!

Denmark’s Novo Nordisk, the pharmaceutical company behind the magic weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, and U.S.-based Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro have made it a reality.

Add to that the fact that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved them, and they’re being prescribed left and right all over the U.S. To put that in perspective, about 7 million Americans are taking these weight-loss drugs, and that number could reach 24 million by 2035.

But here’s the thing. These drugs were originally designed to treat type 2 diabetes. They help regulate blood sugar by reducing appetite and stimulating the release of insulin. But patients who took them started to notice something unexpected. They were losing a lot of weight. This is how these drugs emerged as a solution for weight loss.

If you’re wondering how this works, let’s break it down a bit. GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) is a hormone that your gut secretes after you eat. It tells your brain, “Hey, you’re full.” It also helps release insulin, basically helping to balance glucose levels when your blood sugar is high.

The drugs in question (Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro) are GLP-1 agonists, or drugs that mimic the hormone. These drugs boost the natural signals that tell your body to stop eating. The results are impressive. Clinical trials have shown that people can lose up to 15% to 20% of their body weight when they take them regularly.

But here’s where it gets even more interesting. These drugs have shown promise in treating a number of other chronic conditions. Some early studies suggest that GLP-1 agonists may help reduce alcohol or nicotine dependence, opening up new possibilities for addiction treatment. There’s also evidence that these drugs can help with sleep apnea, chronic kidney disease, and even cardiovascular issues. Researchers are even looking into their potential to treat Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

This basically means that one drug could address multiple issues, potentially reducing people’s healthcare costs. And guess what? Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are claiming exactly that.

Think about how much it could reduce long-term healthcare costs! After all, more than 1 billion people worldwide are classified as obese. Obesity rates have doubled for adults and quadrupled for children since 1990. With the growth of these drugs, analysts predict that the market for these drugs could be worth $130 billion by 2030. That’s a lot of potential.

In fact, just last week, Elon Musk took to social media to argue that these drugs need to be made more affordable because they’re not cheap. A month’s supply can cost more than $1,000, which is out of reach for many people. To put that in perspective, for the average American, that’s about 17% of their annual household income.

That’s why he’s been pushing through the Office of Government Efficiency (DOGE), suggesting that reducing obesity-related health care costs could save billions of dollars in the long run. Musk’s point is simple. Obesity is already a major public health problem. About 70% of American adults are obese or overweight. So if we spend wisely on prevention today, we can reduce health care costs in the future.

But does it really work that way?

Not exactly. Because here’s where it gets tricky. While these GLP-1 drugs may help people lose weight, they don’t seem to reduce overall medical costs. A recent study found that while people on the drugs may lose weight, their medical costs actually increase. For example, the average annual medical cost for obese patients was about $12,695 before they started the drug. Two years later, that number jumped 46% to $18,507.

In contrast, those not on medication had costs that increased by only 14%. Perhaps most worryingly, there was no apparent decrease in obesity-related health problems, such as heart attacks, strokes, or type 2 diabetes. People still needed medications for high blood pressure and cholesterol, just as they did before.

So while these medications may help people lose weight, they don’t improve their overall health.

The problem lies in what happens after you stop taking them. Their appetite-regulating magic wears off, and for most people, the hard-to-lose weight gradually comes back. Experts believe this happens because the drugs don’t address the underlying issues with appetite control; they just mask them for a while. So technically, you’re not actually losing weight, and it can’t help you control other health problems related to obesity.

To be clear, weight loss happens when you create a calorie deficit. Your body then taps into the energy stored in your fat cells. But here’s the thing. When you lose weight, your body isn’t just burning fat; it’s also burning some muscle tissue, with a few exceptions. So whether you’re losing weight through exercise or with the help of GLP-1 drugs, you’re losing muscle mass and fat.

The catch is that studies show that 20 to 40 percent of the weight lost from these drugs is actually muscle. And if you lose too much muscle, it can slow your metabolism and leave you feeling run down.

Yes, these drugs could be groundbreaking, but we need much more research before we can say for sure whether they are a sustainable solution to the obesity crisis.