GLP-1 medications are changing how people experience food. What no one is telling you is they may also be changing how people experience everything else.

In this episode I sit down with Olivia Palmer, chartered health psychologist and behavioral science specialist, to look at what these drugs are actually doing to the brain. Not the metabolic picture — the psychological one. We get into anhedonia, the flattening of the reward system, and what happens when the drive that was dampened for food also dampens motivation, connection, and the desire to pursue a meaningful life.

Olivia also challenges one of the most common arguments circulating right now: that GLP-1 can serve as a behavioral kickstart that makes lasting health change easier. Her read of the behavioral science says otherwise.

In this episode:

• What anhedonia is and how GLP-1 interacts with the brain's reward circuitry
• Why the reward dampening effect is not selective to food
• What behavioral science says about building health behaviors while biology is altered
• The gap in research — and why no one is asking the right questions
• What to actually focus on for sustainable health behavior change, with or without GLP-1

Mentioned in the show:

Beyond GLP-1 Expert Podcast Series: https://program.stephaniedodier.com/beyond-glp-1

Website-Olivia Palmer: http://oliviapalmer.co.uk

Olivia Palmer Substack: https://substack.com/@oliviapalmerhealth

Instagram - Olivia Palmer: https://www.instagram.com/oliviapalmerhealth/

Coach Corner Vault: https://www.stephaniedodier.com/coach-corner/

Non-Diet Client Assessment Tool: https://www.stephaniedodier.com/clientassessment

Non-Diet Coaching Certification Waitlist: https://www.stephaniedodier.com/non-diet-coaching-certification/

Groundwork Waitlist: https://www.stephaniedodier.com/groundwork

The Ozempic era did not create weight stigma. It just showed us how shallow the acceptance always was.

Dr. Angela Meadows is a social psychologist, weight stigma researcher, and founder of the International Weight Stigma Conference. She has spent her career studying how weight stigma operates at the individual, relational, and systemic level. In this conversation, she brings her research lens directly to the GLP-1 moment.

This is the conversation mainstream health is not having.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Social identity theory — why the GLP-1 era exposed what body positivity was always missing
• What weight stigma actually is at the structural level, and why interpersonal niceness cannot fix a systemic problem
• The public health data on GLP-1 that is buried in supplementary materials and not being read
• How medicalized weight stigma is shifting — and why refusing GLP-1 is becoming its own form of clinical target
• Whether it is possible to live in this culture and not internalize weight stigma, and what intentional protection requires

Mentioned in the show:

Beyond GLP-1 Expert Podcast Series: https://program.stephaniedodier.com/beyond-glp-1

International Weight Stigma Conference: https://weightstigmaconference.com/

GLP-1 Informed Consent Resource — Size Inclusive Medicine: https://sizeinclusivemedicine.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/MSSI-GLP1-Informed-Consent-1-1.pdf

Related episode — Beyond GLP-1 with Ragen Chastain: https://www.stephaniedodier.com/episodes/glp-1-science-research-weight-loss/

Coach Corner Vault: https://www.stephaniedodier.com/coach-corner/

Non-Diet Client Assessment Tool: https://www.stephaniedodier.com/clientassessment

Non-Diet Coaching Certification Waitlist: https://www.stephaniedodier.com/non-diet-coaching-certification/

Groundwork Waitlist: https://www.stephaniedodier.com/groundwork

GLP-1 medications are being prescribed with no eating disorder screening and no monitoring. What could go wrong? According to eating disorder specialist and registered dietitian Marci Evans, quite a lot.

Marci has spent her career at the intersection of body image and eating disorder care. In this conversation, she shares what she is actually seeing in her clinical practice and why it frightens her.

What you will learn in this episode:

• Why weight loss does not reliably improve body image, even for people who want it
• How GLP-1 medications can fuel and accelerate existing eating disorder behaviors
• Why there is almost no research on GLP-1 and body image, and what that tells us
• What the absence of screening and monitoring means for eating disorder risk
• How weight-neutral practitioners can hold space for clients on GLP-1 without abandoning their clinical ethics

Beyond GLP-1 Expert Podcast Series: https://program.stephaniedodier.com/beyond-glp-1

Marci Evans Newsletter on her website: https://marcird.com/

Marci Evans on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marcird/

Research — GLP-1 and body image: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40267815/

Research — GLP-1 and binge eating disorder: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11156433/

Coach Corner Vault: https://www.stephaniedodier.com/coach-corner/

Non-Diet Client Assessment Tool: https://www.stephaniedodier.com/clientassessment

Non-Diet Coaching Certification Waitlist: https://www.stephaniedodier.com/non-diet-coaching-certification/

Groundwork Waitlist: https://www.stephaniedodier.com/groundwork

The science on GLP-1 drugs is not what the marketing says it is.

Ragen Chastain has been studying weight science, weight stigma, and healthcare practice for over 20 years. In this episode, she gives us the clearest breakdown yet of what the research actually supports — as of May 2026 — and how to tell the difference between evidence and pharmaceutical strategy.

This is part of the Beyond GLP-1 expert interview series on It's Beyond The Food.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• Why GLP-1 drugs are solid for type 2 diabetes but how the weight loss dose is a fundamentally different use
• What the weight regain data actually shows — including what happens while people are still on the drug
• How secondary use claims get built and why the cardiovascular trial results apply to far fewer people than the approval suggests
• What the death data shows — and why Novo Nordisk was cited for under-reporting serious adverse events
• Specific questions to ask your provider before starting a GLP-1 medication — and how to ask for weight-inclusive care

Mentioned in the show:

Beyond GLP-1 Expert Podcast Series: https://program.stephaniedodier.com/beyond-glp-1

Ragen Chastain's Weight and Healthcare Substack: https://weightandhealthcare.substack.com/

Dances With Fat: https://danceswithfat.org/

Ragen's speaking website — Sized for Success: https://www.sizedforsuccess.com/

Dr. Rachel Fox's anti-obesity assemblage dissertation: https://www.rachelefox.com/research.html

GLP-1 Informed Consent (Medical Students for Size Inclusivity, 2023): https://sizeinclusivemedicine.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/MSSI-GLP1-Informed-Consent-1-1.pdf

Louise Adams on GLP-1 — listen to the earlier episode in the Beyond GLP-1 series: https://podcasts.apple.com/ph/podcast/468-beyond-glp-1-a-triumph-of-marketing-over/id1172102796?i=1000766587046

GLP-1s did not just change medicine. They changed a movement.

Virgie Tovar is a weight stigma expert, activist, and journalist who has been watching this unfold from a perspective most voices in this conversation don't have. In this episode, she traces exactly what happened to body positivity and fat activism when Ozempic entered the room, and she does not soften the analysis.

In this episode:

• The real difference between body positivity and fat activism, and why that distinction has never mattered more
• How body autonomy became a political shield for choices that carry collective consequences
• What "lab coat washing" means, and how GLP-1 marketing uses it to disguise a financial machine as a health intervention
• Why GLP-1s work through starvation states, and what that does to desire, mood, and the capacity to resist
• The intergenerational fallout Stephanie is already seeing coming in the next wave of clients

Mentioned in the show:

Beyond GLP-1 Expert Podcast Series: https://program.stephaniedodier.com/beyond-glp-1

Virgie Tovar's Substack: http://virgietovar.substack.com

Virgie Tovar's Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/virgietovar

Virgie Tovar's GLP-1 Truth Serum Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/1t00VeiyyzD7ITDxjDzGnC

Coach Corner Vault: https://www.stephaniedodier.com/coach-corner/

Non-Diet Client Assessment Tool: https://www.stephaniedodier.com/clientassessment

Non-Diet Coaching Certification Waitlist: https://www.stephaniedodier.com/non-diet-coaching-certification/

Groundwork Waitlist: https://www.stephaniedodier.com/groundwork

The reason the non-diet approach didn't work isn't the approach. It's that the work stayed too surface level.

Most weight-neutral health coaching teaches behaviors. It doesn't touch identity. And without identity work — without building the version of yourself you are becoming — the old patterns always come back. This episode is about the piece that's been missing.

What you'll learn:

• What future self work actually is and why it's grounded in behavioral science, not manifesting
• The two phases of future self work — unintentional model first, future self construction second
• Why the future self feels like a stranger and what neuroscience says about why
• The specific socialization patterns that make this work harder for women
• The daily question to use in micro-decisions to start aligning with who you are becoming

Mentioned in the show:

The Groundwork: https://program.stephaniedodier.com/groundwork

The Stranger Effect study: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2656877

Connecting to our future self & behavior change study: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666518223000323

Beyond GLP-1 expert interview series: https://program.stephaniedodier.com/beyond-glp-1

Free Non-Diet Coaching Assessment: stephaniedodier.com/clientassessment

Your clients are going to bring GLP-1 into the room whether you are ready or not. The only question is whether you have a clinical framework for it.

In this episode, I sit down with Sam Previt — registered dietitian, certified intuitive eating counselor, and founder of Find Food Freedom, the largest intuitive eating dietitian practice in the US — for the conversation our field has been avoiding.

We go through what this intersection actually looks like clinically: how GLP-1 affects hunger, fullness, satisfaction, food noise, and body image — and what weight-neutral coaching looks like inside all of it. Sam's team is already seeing the first wave of clients coming off these medications. The work you do with clients now determines what happens when they do.

What you will learn:

• Why turning away a client on GLP-1 who wants intuitive eating support may be unethical
• How GLP-1 disrupts interoception and what that means for eating cue coaching
• Why food noise on GLP-1 is a muted symptom — not a solved problem
• What body image work looks like with a client still pursuing intentional weight loss
• The beach ball effect: what happens when clients come off without having done the belief work
• How to prepare clients for life after GLP-1 before they ever make that transition

Mentioned in the show:

Sam Previte: Find Food Freedom:https://find-foodfreedom.com/about/

Episode on Sam's podcast that sparked this conversation (February 2025): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/can-you-take-a-glp-1-on-an-intuitive-eating-journey/id1561021438?i=1000751327153

Coach Corner Vault: https://www.stephaniedodier.com/coach-corner/

Non-Diet Client Assessment Tool: https://www.stephaniedodier.com/clientassessment

Non-Diet Coaching Certification Waitlist: https://www.stephaniedodier.com/non-diet-coaching-certification/

Groundwork Waitlist: https://www.stephaniedodier.com/groundwork

What if your client wants to lose weight—but you don’t coach weight loss?

In this episode, I’m giving you the exact tools and mindset shifts to navigate that moment with confidence and compassion.

You’ll learn how to coach through the desire to lose weight—without gaslighting your client or abandoning your non-diet values.

We’ll explore where this desire comes from and how to respond in a way that builds trust and drives real behavior change.

You’ll learn:

• Why the desire to lose weight is a thought—not a fact
• How to uncover what’s really behind your client’s weight loss goals
• The truth about “putting weight loss on the back burner”
• What to say when a client says, “But I need to lose weight”
• Why intrinsic motivators create lasting health changes
• The one question that changed my life—and how it can shift your client’s journey too
• A free script you can use in your next client session

Mentioned in the show:

1. In a study of midlife women, those exercising for weight loss walked 2.5x less than those motivated by stress relief or energy (Segar et al., 2006). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21884579/

2 People who exercised for well-being reasons (e.g., better mood) stuck with it 1 year later.

Those who exercised for appearance or weight loss reasons did not maintain the habit. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30314419/

The Groundwork: https://program.stephaniedodier.com/groundwork

Non-Diet Coaching Certification Waitlist: https://www.stephaniedodier.com/non-diet-coaching-certification/

Free Guide - What to Say When Clients Want to Lose Weight: https://www.stephaniedodier.com/guide

Weight-Neutral Coaching Training: https://www.stephaniedodier.com/shop/

Work With Me: https://www.stephaniedodier.com/work-with-stephanie/