Mary lost 55 lbs in 5 months
Trial participant Mary lost 55 pounds in just 5 months on Ozempic, ultimately having to stop due to excessive weight loss, but she maintained her sobriety afterward.
Snapshot · TED Talks Daily
Can Ozempic end addiction? | Dhruv Khullar | Your Body on Tech
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Jun 26, 2026
Where this was said
Post-Talk Interview: Mary's Full Story and the Clinical Trial
At 19:25 · chapter starts 18:57
Manoush Zomorodi opens the post-talk conversation by asking whether Mary was a patient or a journalistic contact. Khullar explains she was introduced through a clinical trial researcher. Mary's case was extreme: eating only 300–500 calories a day, she lost 55 pounds in five months and had to be taken off the drug due to excessive weight loss [1] — Dhruv Khullar "Mary lost 55 lbs in 5 months: Trial participant Mary lost 55 pounds in just 5 months on Ozempic, ultimately having to stop due to excessive…" 19:25 . But crucially, she maintained her sobriety after stopping. It's a nuanced data point: the drug worked dramatically, produced side effects serious enough to force discontinuation, and yet the behavioral change outlasted the medication. Manoush reflects on how this sounds miraculous to a general audience — and asks what, as a physician, made Khullar treat these stories as more than anecdote.
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