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Are We Judging Ozempians Too Harshly?

A few thoughts from a former personal trainer.

6 min readMay 22, 2025
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Man chiseling off his weight.
Pic via Lean Alvesan and Alex Meireles (Creative Commons License)

Stephen had always been a bigger guy, ever since I met him in high school. I didn’t know it at the time, but he took enormous flak for at home, with his overbearing father telling him, “You are embarrassingly overweight.”

Stephen did a good job of hiding any insecurity he felt, and even found a way to parlay his size into an advantage on the football team. Unfortunately, his weight grew quite significantly after entering the workforce and having kids — to the point that I worried about his long-term health.

He struggled with little, everyday things. For example, when we got up to walk to my car, or do something trivial, I noticed him breathing hard, which is never a good sign.

Stephen left my home city of Tampa a few years ago to get a better job. He was back in town and I was waiting for him recently in a restaurant lobby (he greenlit me writing this article, albeit with a different name).

Suddenly, I saw a man working his way through the revolving door entrance and felt a slight recognition, but wasn’t sure.

“There’s no way that’s Stephen,” I thought. His face was completely different. The shape and fullness was gone. His cheeks were hollowed out, his jawline sharpened. Even…

Sean Kernan
Sean Kernan

Written by Sean Kernan

All my articles are 100% human. No AI involved. Did I mention I hate AI writing?