If you’re following nutrition, weight loss, or food-related content on social media, there’s a good chance you’ve already come across the rising TikTok trend called ‘Oatzempic’.
This supposed weight-loss hack is a wordplay on the popular drug Ozempic’s name. Similar to the Ozempic craze, it promises fast weight loss: up to 40 pounds within 2 months. But as with many restrictive weight loss trends, it comes with its fair share of issues that may drive the weight loss pendulum in the exact opposite direction of what you’d want to achieve.
What Is Oatzempic?
Oatzempic is a viral TikTok weight loss drink inspired by the popular drug Ozempic. It has nothing to do with Ozempic itself, though—it’s just TikTokkers’ way of catching some attention by playing with words.
The Oatzempic drink contains 3 ingredients:
- 1/2 cup of oats
- 1 cup of water
- 1/2 lime juice
These should be thrown into a blender to achieve a drink-like consistency.
According to TikTokkers, the Oatzempic drink should be consumed on an empty stomach instead of your regular breakfast (and once again at night before going to bed, as suggested by some people).
Does Oatzempic Weight Loss Drink Work?
The theory is that Oatzempic drink helps to lose weight because of the fiber in oats and citric acid in lime juice, which are both supposed to suppress appetite.
There is some truth to that, especially fiber, which tends to create a feeling of fullness. Naturally, if you feel full, you’ll eat less, thus resulting in an overall lower calorie intake and potential calorie deficit, which then results in weight loss.
Some research also suggests that citrus fruit may, indeed, help with fat loss to some extent or at least help with complications that obesity may bring.
However, even the currently available studies haven’t provided any concrete evidence and say that further research is still needed.
Neither fiber nor citrus fruit are magic pills that somehow melt off fat cells from the body.
The main reason why the Oatzempic weight loss drink may bring some weight loss results is simply related to your calorie intake, like with any other diet.
Weight loss always comes down to your energy expenditure: if your calorie intake is lower than your energy needs for the day, you’ll lose weight since your body has to burn fat stores for additional energy.
People who swap out their regular breakfast for the Oatzempic drink will likely consume far fewer calories than normally.
Lime juice itself hardly has any calories: half a lime may give you only about 5 calories. The Oatzempic drink’s calories will come from oats and only oats, as there are no other ingredients.
Here’s what the nutrition information for 1/2 cup of oats looks like:
- 154 calories
- 27.5 grams of carbs
- 4.1 grams of fiber
- 2.7 grams of fat
- 5.5 grams of protein
This means that the Oatzempic weight loss drink will contain only 160 calories at most—almost the same as 1.5 bananas!
An average breakfast will most likely contain at least 400-500 calories to give your body proper energy, especially after an overnight fast. It’s usually recommended that your breakfast provide about 20% of your daily calories, so if you would normally consume 2000 calories per day, your breakfast would at least need to provide 400 calories.
If you swap out your normal 400-calorie breakfast for Oatzempic (and otherwise eat as usual), you’ll cut your calories by 240, which means you’d reduce your calorie intake by 1680 calories over a 7-day period.
However, if your normal breakfast is larger and you jump on the Oatzempic challenge, you’ll reduce your calorie intake even more, which will inevitably lead to weight loss.
In the end, everything comes down to your calorie intake. Since the Oatzempic drink contains so few calories, it’s quite likely to lose weight. But that fact alone doesn’t mean the drink is healthy, and it’s most definitely not a long-lasting solution for weight loss.
Downsides and Dangers of the Oatzempic Trend
The good thing about the Oatzempic drink challenge is that it’s based on whole-food ingredients like oats and lime juice, so in a nutshell, it’s not the worst weight loss trend out there.
Oats and citrus fruits should be a part of your daily diet anyway, but having just a bland cup of raw oats will not get you any closer to your wellness goals.
Here are a few reasons why you shouldn’t jump on the Oatzempic trend bandwagon.
Blood Sugar Spike
Most nutrition experts don’t recommend the Oatzempic drink on an empty stomach, especially for diabetics, for one reason: since it’s predominantly made of carbs, it will cause a bigger blood sugar spike compared to a breakfast that contains fats and proteins.
Those who already have blood sugar issues should definitely avoid anything too carb-heavy.
This doesn’t mean carbs are bad in any way, but carbs should ideally be paired with some fats and protein to create a more balanced meal that doesn’t cause your blood sugar to go on a rollercoaster.
Not a Balanced Breakfast
As mentioned above, having just plain raw oats is not exactly a balanced breakfast.
Oats are still completely healthy and should be consumed regularly due to various health benefits (like different vitamins, minerals, and fiber), but having oats alone is not the best solution.
Oats should be paired with some fats and protein to create a more balanced breakfast that supports your body’s various functions.
If you’d like to have some oats in the morning, try overnight oats that have been made with Greek yogurt or milk, and top your oats with berries, fruit, nuts, and/or nut butter.
Or even better, have some eggs with veggies – any breakfast that provides you with various nutrients is a good way to go. Oats alone, however, aren’t the best idea, especially in the long term.
Stressing Your Body
Undereating and not fueling your body properly in the morning will put your body under stress, especially if practiced regularly.
Several studies have shown how dieting increases cortisol – your body’s stress hormone. By elevating your cortisol levels through undereating and dieting, you’re actually preventing your body from losing weight since your body is chronically stressed.
High cortisol levels can also cause water retention and slow down your metabolism since your body is essentially kept in the ‘fight-or-flight’ mode.
Slow metabolism is exactly the opposite of what you’d want, not to even mention water retention.
Many women have found their general health and well-being improving once they stopped dieting and restricting food intake. After switching to a more balanced breakfast, their cortisol levels started normalizing, thus removing all the other negative symptoms.
Only having half a cup of raw oats in the morning may stress your body, wreaking havoc on your hormones and worsening your health.
Unsustainable, Restrictive, and Exacerbates Your Relationship With Food
The worst part of the Oatzempic weight loss drink is its unsustainable and restrictive nature, which makes your relationship with food and your body even worse, keeping you in imaginary diet shackles that dictate your life and stop you from enjoying anything.
How would you prefer to live your life: having a bland-tasting (or even downright disgusting) cup of blended raw oats in the morning that makes you want to puke or having a wonderful luxurious breakfast with your family? A breakfast that gets you excited every morning?
Starting your day with a tasteless, disgusting food you don’t enjoy is a form of self-deprecation and punishment. In a way, you’re sending your brain a message: “I hate my body so much that I’m willing to put myself through this so that I could love myself.”
Self-love, however, isn’t behind the other side of suffering through the Oatzempic drink every single morning for months.
Life is about so much more than your weight or your body and your value isn’t tied to your body in any way. Your value comes from your heart and soul, but if you punish yourself with another fad diet, hoping to find self-love from the other side, you’ve already put yourself up for failure.
Restrictive and unsustainable diets keep you in the endless diet culture loop, where you constantly hope for results, despite the fad being rigged for loss.
Do yourself a favor, and instead of trying the Oatzempic weight loss drink, try having a balanced bowl of warm, nurturing oatmeal that’s topped with some yummy things you enjoy.
Is Oatmeal Good for Breakfast?
The main reason the Oatzempic trend is harmful is its unbalanced, restrictive nature. Just having bland raw oats is not the way to go, especially for your hormones.
However, oatmeal itself is a wonderful breakfast choice that could easily be enjoyed every single day, either as warm oatmeal or even as overnight oats.
The key to a healthy breakfast oatmeal (or overnight oats) is balance: your oats should be paired with protein and fats, topped with some berries or fruit for vitamins and antioxidants.
You can combine oats with Greek yogurt and nut butter for a tasty breakfast option. Some people also enjoy a salty version with some egg whites whipped into the oatmeal. No matter which way you go, always think about ways how you can “dress up” your oats with other nutrients.
The key to a healthy, happy life is balance, not restriction, so ignore the TikTok Oatzempic challenge and, instead, have a nice bowl of oatmeal.
