[PREVIEW] Is Weight Loss Surgery the New Ozempic?

When fat influencers get...even thinner.

You’re listening to Burnt Toast!

We are Virginia Sole-Smith and Corinne Fay, and it’s time for your April Extra Butter.

Today we’re talking about plus size influencers getting weight loss surgery. We’ll get into:

⭐️ Is this the start of the Ozempic backlash?

⭐️ How much do public figures owe their audiences?

⭐️ How to hold space for body autonomy with weight loss journeys.

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Episode 189 Transcript

Corinne

Today, we’re doing a follow up episode on the episode that we did about plus size influencers losing weight.

Virginia

Yes, the plot has thickened, shall we say? In terms of some of these folks’ trajectories. I said that and realized it sounded like a weight comment, and I didn’t mean it that way. I’m not talking about whether their bodies have thickened.

Corinne

The plot has thinned.

Virginia

The plot has twisted. There are developments to discuss.

Corinne

I can’t believe that that episode was a year ago!

Virginia

yeah, it’s wild. I think you kind of called it where it was, like, there’s all this ozempic talk and like, when is it going to take a take a turn?

Corinne

There’s always a lash and a backlash.

Virginia

If we were in the lash, are we now in the backlash?

Corinne

We might be in a backlash.

A few weeks ago, I was scrolling on Tiktok for three hours before bed, as is my wont, and Tiktok fed me a video by Rosey Beeme—who we talked about in our last episode, she is not someone I follow—and it was a video of her talking to the camera.

Virginia

Before we talk about this new video, I’ll just say that if you didn’t listen to the last episode, you could certainly go back and listen to if you missed it. The TLDR is that Rosey became very well known as a plus size fashion influencer, and then was very public about her ozempic health journey. I don’t think it was actually ozempic she was on, but one of the GLP1s and about losing a lot of weight on it.

Of course, Rosey can do whatever she wants with her body. Body autonomy is fundamental, but she was narrating her journey with a lot of very ableist rhetoric. She had a line about how she had to lose the weight because she couldn’t wipe her own ass, which I think lots of folks who rely on mobility aids for basic personal care tasks felt was an indictment of them and the idea that your body is worthless somehow if you need these extra supports, which is, of course, not, where we would land on that.

So the last episode was us discussing how Rosey had gone on this journey and how she was narrating and justifying the journey through a lot of very ableist rhetoric. And now Corinne, what is happening with Rosey?

Corinne

So this video that popped up for me, the caption says, “Getting bariatric surgery! I’m feeling so joyful and I want to meet more bari friends!”

Virginia

Ah, your bari friends.

Corinne

She goes on to talk about how she has been on a GLP1 since 2022 and while she initially lost some weight and was really excited about it, it stagnated. She talks about starting an antidepressant1. And then she talks about how she’s made the decision to get bariatric surgery, and she’s feeling joyful. She also talks about how, in the past she has felt like weight loss surgery was admitting defeat, but having made the decision to do it, she’s experiencing joy.

She also talks a little bit about her own history, and she says,

For a while, I was deeply against weight loss. But I experienced physical setbacks as well as physical pain due to my body size. And I know that’s not everyone’s story out there. There are plenty of people larger than me that are completely happy in their body. And to those people, I celebrate you, I stan you. That just has not been my particular experience being in a larger body, but I’ve decided to move forward with weight loss surgery.

Virginia

So much here. Such a rich text.

I mean that chunk at the end is interesting because it tells me she actually did hear some of the feedback, and she has taken the note that it’s important to talk about this as her experience of her body, not anyone who can’t wipe their own ass due to body size needs to lose weight, which was definitely much more the focus in the earlier videos. So I’m encouraged to see that shift.

Corinne

The tone here feels very different, less sort of like gleeful mocking than some of the the stuff a year ago that was on Instagram. And also, my, my immediate reaction to watching it was just feeling so sad. You’re watching someone struggle with their reality that weight loss often isn’t maintainable, you know?

Virginia

She was so pro GLP1s, now she’s saying they worked until they didn’t, so now it’s time for the surgery. And it feels like she’s restarting a cycle that she’s been on many times before. There’s a different mechanism this time, but will there be anything different is an open question? I had the same feeling of sadness of listening to someone in that hopeful, optimistic place that’s so familiar to all of us, right? Like anyone who started any kind of diet, you remember that feeling of like you’re giddy in the beginning, like this is going to be it, it’s all going to be great. This is so different from everything I’ve done before, and it’s so interesting that we don’t always recognize how familiar that is when we’re in that beginning stage.

I’m also interested in how she says weight loss surgery always felt like admitting defeat. That language comes up a lot about weight loss surgery. It also comes up about GLP1s. What it’s really saying is that controlling body size should be a matter of willpower, and that I just can’t do it myself or do it the old fashioned way people will talk about.

Instead, what I appreciate about GLP1s and weight loss surgery is that they are acknowledging the reality that intentional weight loss through diet and exercise is not achievable for most people. It’s definitely not sustainable for almost anyone. And so, it’s not defeat, it’s just being like, this is how it is. This is what my body is. But then, instead of saying, well, this is what my body is, end of sentence. She’s saying, well, this is what my body is so now I’m going to do this other thing to change. That’s the heartbreak to me, that she has accepted that her body will not become thin through just diet and exercise alone—which is a really hard thing for a lot of us, so many people fight that truth for so long—but that doesn’t mean she shouldn’t keep trying to change it.

Corinne

And I think that’s where we get into the lash / backlash thing that I was talking about. We’re seeing people who felt this joy and hope about being able to become thin on GLP1s not achieve that, and then what happens from there?

Virginia

It’s interesting that it’s happening quite quickly, that it is only a year later is sort of surprising to me! Because the narrative around GLP1s is not only are they magical at achieving their weight loss, but that as long as you stay on them for life, you’ll keep the weight off. It’s interesting to see that folks are finding no maybe they can’t buffer against a change in medication or other other things that cause bodies to change.

Corinne

So that’s Rosey. And not long after I saw that video, I saw an article about Remi Bader. Remi is a Tiktok influencer who gained a huge following around 2020 doing plus size fashion hauls.

I think people like her because she’s kind of relatable. She’s been very open about mental health struggles and having an eating disorder, also about going on Ozempic or GLP1s. She was famously quoted as saying that when she went off of Ozempic, she gained, doubled the weight back—I think that was early 2023.

But since then, her body size has changed dramatically. She posts frequently on Tiktok, people have been asking her about it in the comments, and she has been not addressing it, and she has been blocking people who mention it.

And then I think the same day or the same week, she went on Khloe Kardashians podcast. And then this article came out in SELF magazine called “Remi Bader Chose Herself,” where she talks about having gotten weight loss surgery.

Do you want to read this quote here from the Self magazine article?

Virginia

It was the fall of 2023, and Bader decided to act fast. She’d watched TikTok videos about weight loss surgery. The idea was scary, but she knew she needed a change and felt out of options. She asked herself: “If no one existed, what would I do? I would get the surgery.

This also makes is just making me think how hard it is to be an influencer where your body receives this kind of scrutiny! I really respect the move of blocking followers who are commenting on your body size changes. I don’t think she owed us a Khloe Kardashian podcast episode and a Self magazine interview to describe and discuss it all. Like, your body doesn’t need to be content.

Corinne

At the same time, this is someone who gained a following and gained fame through being plus size. Like, she was a fat person. She was trying on plus size clothes. And honestly, it was really relatable and funny, because she would try them on and be like, these are so weird and ill-fitting. And she has been really open about mental health, eating disorder up and downs, and now is thin. She’s really thin, and the dramatic change, I think she just hadn’t made a statement. I do think people’s audiences feel like they’re owed some kind of explanation.

Virginia

People do feel that way, and I feel complicated about that. As someone who is also a public figure, not on her level of fame. But, when I was working on that essay about is everything a diet, I was looking at Reddit threads about myself, which is something I do extremely sparingly. And there is a whole thread out there and people speculating about why I got divorced, and being mad that I’ve never spoken in a lot of detail about why I got divorced. And being like, well, it would be one thing if she just never talked about it, but since she mentioned it, why isn’t she giving us the full story? And like, fuck right off! Nobody owes you their full story. So I feel so complicated that these women feel like they have to invite us into the entire experience, which, of course, puts them in the cross hairs of people who feel owed the entire story.

And at the same time, they’re also making career choices. Their body story is a part of their fame. She kind of did have to do it because, as you’re saying, so much of her platform was built on being a certain body type and making a certain kind of content, which she literally now can’t make anymore, because now the clothes fit her.

Corinne

To me, this feels a little more similar to plastic surgery, or honestly, photo editing. Like, I wish there was a way to say, it’s not achievable for everyone, you know? Because I think without saying that, it sort of feels like, oh, if I just eat right and diet, then I will be able to achieve the weight loss Remi has.

Virginia

Oh, but don’t you think everyone’s just assuming any newly thin person is on Ozempic at this point? Do we think anyone’s still dieting?

Corinne

Well, she famously went off Ozempic.

Virginia

Oh, so now for there to be another thing. I see.

Corinne

I mean, this has been going on for years.

Virginia

Oh, Remi, girl. Okay.

Corinne

I know. And this is where, it also just starts to feel really sad, like we’re watching these people really struggle. That is the part of the article that really got to me. Remi goes really deep into detail. She talks about the surgery she had, she names the specific surgery, and she talks about how horrible it was! She says, quote, “I need to say that it was the most brutal thing.” And she talks about having two plus months of intense recovery where she was “not fucking okay.” I just felt so sad!

Virginia

I felt tremendously sad. I also felt her sharing those details. I felt like there was more value in the way she’s sharing this story than the way Rosey is in the”it’s going to be so great when I have the surgery” place, and so giddy, similar to the “it’s so great how well the drug is working” place. And then not showing us the parts where it falls apart. Like, I appreciate that when she did decide to share this, she’s like, let me share it all so you can know how rough this is.

Of course, SELF magazine, being SELF magazine, still puts that story next to photos of her highly styled, looking gorgeous and thin. It’s hard not to read it as a testimonial for weight loss surgery. At least there’s more reality in there, I guess.

Corinne

And the title: Remi Bader Chose Herself.

Virginia

I don’t know how to feel about that! I respect that that feels true for her, that losing this weight was choosing herself. And yet, there are also quotes in the article where she says something like, I’ve always loved being curvy. I’m probably the only person who had this surgery who’s saying to the doctor, can I still be curvy? So it’s not clear what she was choosing. I mean, she makes an argument that she needed it for all these health reasons and that weight loss would resolve all these health issues. There’s murky research on how true that is, of course. But I can understand feeling like that is going to be true. Maybe she felt very clear in her mind of I’m doing this for these health reasons. I actually don’t want to lose the aesthetic of being a curvy person. But then, is that really choosing yourself? Or is that like, this is a necessary evil in order to get my blood work under control?

Corinne

It’s so complicated.

Virginia

I struggle with, what do they owe us? I struggle with, why are they using their bodies to make content in this way? They’re also both quite young, and I just struggle with how much of their personal lives they’ve lived out publicly like this. That’s hard.

Corinne

I think it’s interesting to look at both Remi and Rosey and see the ways in which these GLP1 drugs gave so many people so much hope about weight loss. And again, we’re really only talking about using these for weight loss, not people who are using these to manage chronic conditions. But it was kind of a promise of easier weight loss and maybe you can achieve thinness. And now people are seeing it not work, and then turning to weight loss surgery.

Virginia

We were all Rosey, right? Like, we were all caught up in this moment of this drug is clearly the drug that’s going to work so well and be the easy solution, and that we’re not that far out from that. Like, I would say early 2023 is when Ozempic Mania started. Now it is spring of 2025, so we’re two years into this story. We’re kind of right where I expected us to be. Like every other diet, the weight loss stops working after 12 months, and you see the regain. This is the story of dieting. It’s like this 2-5 year cycle that people are always on. So, we’re right where we expected. And again, that’s not to discount that some people are having different experiences. There’s always going to be a range. But it’s interesting to see this turn. I’m intrigued that we’re now turning to the surgery, instead of turning back to diet and exercise or to some other new cleanse, or, I don’t know. I mean, we will. There will be something trendy like that.

But the hard pivot to surgery is a really dramatic step, because no one can pretend the surgery is the easy way out. Assholes will say that, but like, of course, it’s not. You’re going through major surgery. It is not an easy procedure at all. I mean, there’s a variety of procedures, but none of them are easy. They fundamentally change your anatomy forever, is the goal. People do have them reversed, but it’s supposed to be a permanent change in your anatomy that’s going to permanently change how you’re able to absorb food and nutrients for the rest of your life.

So it’s also taking on this management to make sure you aren’t nutrient deficient afterwards. For years post surgery, you’re going to be checking your micronutrient levels to make sure you’re not in some kind of deficit, because it’s harder to absorb food now.

There’s a big chapter on weight loss surgery in my first book, The Eating Instinct, that is a few years old now, but we can link to it anyway. There’s a lot of research that shows that people who have this surgery are at higher risk for substance use disorders afterwards. There’s a higher risk of relationships breaking down, divorce. And people think that’s because you got thin and hot. But I think it’s more complicated than that. And there’s an increased risk of suicide afterwards, too, which is pretty scary.

With all of that, I will hold space for, like, I have people in my own life who’ve had the surgery, who’ve had good experiences with it. There is a range of experiences. And, yeah, I don’t judge anybody who decides to do it, because very often this surgery is a barrier people have to overcome in order to access health care, in order to access ways of being in the world. And that is what it is.

The fact that we’re going from the drug that was supposed to be this easy thing to this pivot into something that is going to be really hard. Like, nobody is going to pretend that surgery is going to be like fun and easy breezy. That saddens me, because it shows how deep in the cycle so many people are, I guess.

Corinne

I looking for some research to like, support or disprove what I feel like I’m seeing with people who are finding that GLP1s don’t make them thin, and then turning to to weight loss surgery, and I found some studies showing that Weight Loss Surgery had dropped by one quarter between 2022 and 2023 which was the start of the GLP1 boom.

Then I found this article called State of the Union: weight loss surgery in 2024 from the Columbia surgery website, which is an interview with Dr. Marc Bessler, MD, Chief of the Division of Minimal Access/Bariatric Surgery and Director of the Center for Metabolic and Weight Loss Surgery. And do you want to read this quote?

Virginia

Dr Bessler says,

In our experience, about a third of the patients we're seeing have tried these medications, and they're either having side effects or they're not effective enough. So, for whatever reason, they're still coming on to have surgery. So, I don't think weight loss surgery is going away anytime soon.

Caveat, this is a man whose livelihood is based on performing weight loss surgeries, so he has a real vested interest to convince us that that’s still necessary to do. But he’s also speaking honestly about, like, bariatric surgeons don’t have to do a lot of marketing. Plenty of people are seeking them out.

Corinne

Absolutely, yeah. And I was remembering also that, I think when we were doing some initial research on the GLP1 drugs, one of the creators of the drugs had also said, like, a lot of people aren’t able to stay on these drugs longterm for whatever reason.2

Virginia

Yes, I do remember him talking about that.

Corinne

I just thought it was interesting that this doctor is sort of seeing that these GLP1 drugs had caused a temporary lull in people seeking weight loss surgery, but that he expected to see more people wanting to have it.

Virginia

I think it just underscores how we’re kind of nowhere in terms of progress. I don’t mean to end so depressingly, but yeah, of course. If you did Ozempic because you were hoping for weight loss, and it doesn’t deliver the weight loss, it makes total sense you’re going to keep leveling up to more aggressive things.

That’s what you really see in like Rosey’s and Remi’s stories, is that they have been on this conveyor belt their whole their whole life. Remi talks about starting dieting at age 10. That’s deeply relatable to so many folks! And there is this inability to release from the conveyor belt. It’s different for everyone what keeps us on there. I don’t know that it’s possible for any of us to fully divest from it.

But what makes it feel more possible for some of us to say I’m off that conveyer belt, like I might I might have bad body image days, I might struggle here and there. It’s a perpetual frustration to come up against anti-fatness in seating, in healthcare, and I’m going to choose to stay in this body and not keep pursuing thinness and for other folks that doesn’t feel like a tenable choice.

Corinne

For me, so much of the reason that I’ve stopped following people like Rosey and Remi is jus how sad and painful and uncomfortable it is to watch these people continue to pursue weight loss when it does sort of feel like, yeah, it’s not working. And maybe it will work when they get surgery.

Virginia

I mean, I can’t help but feel with these two cases that we’re talking about in this episode, but I think to some extent this is true for lots of folks: The way they are performing their bodies in public makes it that much harder to get off the conveyor belt.

Even though they both had a lot of success as fat people, and a lot of their platform was built on “I’m going to talk about being a fat person who wears clothes” so it’s complicated for them to get slimmer and suddenly not be able to make that particular type of content. They are still offering up their bodies for consumption and objectification. I think that sometimes even when I take my little outfit photos, you know? For like the once a month newsletter I do on clothes—and I’m curious if you ever feel this way with

Big Undies

. Like, just the act of constantly recording your body can trigger a lot of hyperfixation on certain things that can be hard to step back from.

Corinne

I think, especially for for Rosey & Remi where I’m sure both of them get comments that are, like, “your body has changed,” or whatever.

Virginia

Yeah, and negative comments when they were bigger, and negative comments now that they’re smaller! I mean, the onslaught of living with that kind of negativity is really hard.

Well, this is a downer of an episode. It’s a messy place, and I’m trying to simultaneously hold space and compassion for everyone just trying to survive this hellscape. And I do think people with large followings have a responsibility to think carefully about the language they use to discuss these things.

Corinne

Okay, do you have a butter?

Virginia

I do have a butter. My butter is, it is April and it is officially springtime, and just gardening. Gardening is the butter. No one is shocked. It’s all I want to talk about, it’s all I’m thinking about.

To be more specific, this year, I’m starting things from seed, which I don’t do every year. And it is more work, but I’m actually having a lot of fun with it this year. So I’m not saying you have to. If that sounds intimidating, I’m also here to say I don’t think it’s cheaper, because you do have to buy the lights and the trays and the soil and all of it. If I remember to start seeds in future years and save all of this, it will eventually become cheaper. But it’s not right now. But it is a really fun way to grow the exact, specific varieties of things you want to grow.

So I’m really down for that. I’m growing some specific colors of zinnias I’ve talked about, cosmos. I’m going to start some Torch Tithonia. Do you know that flower? It’s kind of like a cross between a Zinnia and a sunflower. It’s red. I’ve wanted to grow them forever, and they’re never in my local garden centers as annuals for whatever reason. So I was like, this is a reason to start from seed. And we’re doing many kinds of tomatoes and a lot of basil and some of the watermelons, I think.

Corinne

Oh, fun! Did you start stuff from seed last year?

Virginia

No, I haven’t done it for a few years. I did it maybe three years ago. And then last year, my life was far too messy. I was in no headspace for that. You know, you have to have the lights on a timer and check them and water them. But some stuff sprouted really fast. We sowed all the seeds on Sunday, and the cosmos sprouted the next day. And I was like, oh, I forgot how satisfying this is.

Corinne

Yeah, that’s really cool.

Virginia

I will forever be pro just buying your seedlings at the local garden center. It’s totally fine. I think you break even cost-wise. I really don’t think it’s a savings, but just being able to be that specific about what you want to grow and plan it all, if you really want to nerd out on it. Seed starting is actually really fun.

Corinne

That’s cool. I’m glad that we’re back in the time when we can have garden butter.

Virginia

I mean, just expect nothing but garden butters from now till November. That’s where we are.

Corinne

Great. I can’t wait.

Virginia

What about you?

Corinne

Well, I have a toxic relationship with coffee, where I love it and it doesn’t love me back. But I’ll periodically get re-addicted to it, and then be in this situation where I don’t want to be drinking coffee, but I have to, because otherwise I get a horrible headache.

So anyways, right now I’m trying to ease back off the coffee, and in the meantime, have been drinking black tea. And I found this black tea I really like, called Black Snail from the Little Red Cup tea company,

Virginia

That’s an adorable name!

Corinne

Yes, they are a Maine-based brand. One of the people runs it is a friend, and they import tea from China, and it’s all really good. This one is called Black Snail because the tea leaves are kind of curled up like a little snail. But it’s also just very delicious, and I like that the bags tell you what temperature and how long to brew it for. It just makes things very easy. And whenever I drink it, I’m noticing that this tea is notably delicious.

Virginia

Interesting. I’m excited for you. I don’t know that I’ve ever had that with Black Tea. I feel like I don’t notice a lot of difference in flavors. I’m not a refined tea palette. I’ll own that, but.

Corinne

I don’t have a lot of tea knowledge, but I do really enjoy a delicious tea.

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1. Corinne here just popping in to say I wish we had talked about this more!

2. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7708309/