GLP-1 Medications: Weight Loss Tool, Treatment, or Temporary Fix?

GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Wegovy are powerful weight loss tools, but they do not address the emotional and nervous system patterns that drive lasting change. The Shift, is the solution that integrates neuroscience, identity, and nervous system regulation to create sustainable results with or without medication. 

GLP-1 medications are everywhere right now. Clients ask me about them almost daily:

• Should I use one?
  
• What happens if I want to go off?
  
• Is this the solution I’ve been waiting for?
  

Let me start here: If you’re using a GLP-1 medication and it’s going great, you feel good, you’re seeing results, you’re not struggling - yay! If it’s working, that’s wonderful. Keep going. This article isn’t meant to dissuade you in any way. 

But if you’re feeling unsure… conflicted… worried about what happens next… or sensing that something deeper still isn’t resolved, this conversation is for you.

GLP-1 Medications Are an Effective Tool

Let’s be clear: For most people, GLP-1 medications are incredibly effective. They reduce appetite.They quiet “food noise.” They make it easier to reduce caloric intake. And for many people, that piece of the weight loss puzzle has been the hardest part for decades. It is not cheating. It is not taking the easy way out.

Anyone who has tried to consistently reduce food intake while battling biology, cravings, stress, and emotional load knows how mentally exhausting that can be. GLP-1s reduce that cognitive burden. And that is powerful.  But here’s the key distinction: A ‘tool’ is not the same thing as a solution.

The Bandaid vs. The Wound

The best way I can describe it is this: GLP-1 medications can act like a very strong bandaid. They stop the bleeding (so to speak) so you can focus on healing. They help stop the behavioral pattern of reaching for food. They reduce hunger signals. They dampen reward pathways. They ‘stop the bleeding’ - but they do not automatically heal the underlying wound. 

They make it easier, so you can do the healing that led to weight gain in the first place. If food has been a coping strategy: emotional soothing, stress relief, a habit wired through years of repetition, then removing food does not remove the reason you needed it in the first place. And when the original wound isn’t addressed, it doesn’t disappear. It simply looks for another place to show up.

Why Some People Feel “Meh” on GLP-1s

One of the common experiences I’m hearing about is something subtle but significant: a sense of emotional flatness. Clinically, we call it anhedonia, a reduced ability to feel joy from things that used to make us happy.

People describe it as:

• “I just feel… blah.”
  
• “Life doesn't feel like it used to.”
  
• “Food used to bring me joy, and now I just feel neutral about everything.”
  

It’s easy to assume the problem is that food is gone, and food was what brought the pleasure with it. But more often, food was functioning as emotional regulation. If food was soothing stress, calming anxiety, buffering loneliness, or numbing frustration and now it’s removed, the nervous system doesn’t automatically know what to do instead.

The emotions don’t disappear. The signals are still there. They’re just no longer being pacified with food.

Losing Weight Does Not Automatically Create Happiness

This is one of the hardest truths for people to accept: losing weight and feeling joy are not the same thing. They often get bundled together as if they’re inseparable, “If I just lose the weight, everything will be better.”

I’ve worked with countless individuals who reached their goal weight and discovered:

• They still argue with their spouse.
  
• They still feel stuck in their job.
  
• They still struggle with self-worth.
  
• They still feel anxious or dissatisfied.
  

Sometimes it’s even more destabilizing because they believed weight loss would finally fill the void. And when it doesn’t? That can feel devastating. If the emotional patterns underneath aren’t addressed, they don’t vanish when the weight does. They resurface somewhere else.

What Happens When You Stop the Medication?

Current evidence suggests GLP-1 medications are assistive, not corrective. They help regulate pathways while you’re taking them. But when you stop, most people experience rebound effects: increased cravings, heightened hunger, and a surge in food noise.

If no emotional or behavioral skills were built during the time on medication, it can feel overwhelming. 

This is where I see the biggest opportunity for lasting change: When someone uses the medication as a tool while simultaneously doing psychological and nervous system work, they build lasting and sustainable skills.

They develop:

• Skills for emotional regulation
  
• A new relationship with food built on self-trust
  
• Nervous system stability through increased flexibility and capacity
• Sustainable habits that last
  

So whether they stay on the medication long-term or choose to titrate off, they’re not left feeling helpless, reliant on the medication for their wellbeing. They have agency. That’s freedom and the recipe for long term success.

Weight Is Never Just About Food

In over 20 years of clinical practice, I have never met someone who struggled with weight without some degree of emotional entanglement with stress and/or trauma.  Not once.

Sometimes it’s wrapped up in:

• Chronic stress
  
• Trauma
  
• Burnout
  
• Childhood wounds
  
• Relationship instability
  
• Work pressure
  

Sometimes it’s subtle. Sometimes it’s profound. But it’s always there. Weight is NEVER just about willpower or calories. It’s often about coping.

The Case for Healthcare Integration

An unfortunate truth about the way our current medical system operates is that we live in a siloed healthcare system.  

You see:

• A General Practitioner for physical symptoms
  
• An endocrinologist for hormones
• A psychiatrist for anxiety medication
  
• A therapist for mental health
  

And rarely do these providers coordinate with one another. That’s not a slam on the providers themselves, our current healthcare system does not support proper integrative healthcare and practitioners are limited in our ability to to provide a wraparound care model. 

But GLP-1 medications open a unique window of opportunity. By reducing food noise and cognitive load, they create mental space. 

And that space can be used to: process trauma, heal emotional wounds, build new identity patterns, develop self-trust, create sustainable change. The medication handles one piece of the puzzle, while the psychological work handles the rest.

The truth is……We are better together.

The Real Question

The real question isn’t: “Should I take a GLP-1?”

It’s: “If I use this tool, how can I also heal the underlying patterns that contributed to my weight in the first place?”

If you treat GLP-1 medications as the solution, you may solve the symptom but not the root. If you treat it as a tool, alongside emotional and nervous system work, you create the possibility for long-term change, with or without medication.

Final Thoughts

GLP-1 medications are an incredible tool, they are helping millions of people and I’m so excited about that. They reduce suffering. They reduce mental load. They are reducing the risk of obesity related conditions and making MANY people healthier! 

However, they do not automatically create peace, joy, or emotional freedom. Weight loss and wellbeing are two separate paths.

The good news?

You can absolutely pursue both. And when you do  — the results are transformative.

What’s Next?

If you’re considering GLP-1 medications…
If you’re currently using them and wondering what happens next…
Or if you’re afraid of coming off and don’t want to feel out of control again…

I created a brand new GLP-1 masterclass just for you!

In this free LIVE online training, I’ll walk you through:

• How to know if GLP-1 medications are right for you
• The most common emotional and nervous system pitfalls people don’t see coming
• What actually happens when you stop taking them (and how to prepare)
• How to use GLP-1s as a tool instead of mistakenly treating them as the answer
• The exact framework I use with clients to create sustainable results, with or without medication

Because this isn’t just about losing weight. It’s about not ending up in that quiet, confusing place where you’ve lost the weight… but you still don’t feel whole.

👉 Reserve your spot for the GLP-1 Masterclass here:
https://www.elizakingsford.com/glp1masterclasso

Join me live so you can ask questions, get clarity, and walk away knowing your next right step.

If you’re finding yourself nodding along as you read this — wondering how all of this shows up in real life, in real clients, and in real nervous systems — then you’re going to want to hear the full conversation. I dive even deeper into these topics on the Brain Powered Weight Loss Podcast, where I unpack the science, the stories, and the strategies behind sustainable change and weight loss that actually lasts.

🎧 Listen now on your favorite platform: Search Brain Powered Weight Loss Podcast or click here