Kartik Ahuja has everything a 30-year-old could hope for – independence, professional success, decent salary, and a soul mate. And yet he needed to belong. In conversations, so he would not be singled out. In photos, so he would not stand out. In jokes where his size was not, for a change, the subject.Overweight for most of his adult life, the Delhi-based marketing professional didn’t care as he went through college in Bengaluru and Mumbai and then landed a job. “I loved food and was comfortable in my own skin,” he says. But constant comments on weight brought body image issues and affected his confidence.And then came a remark he simply couldn’t shrug off. It was a joyous occasion. Kartik was getting engaged to a family friend. “Amid the celebrations, someone said, ‘Is mote ko itni sundar ladki kaise mil gayi (how did this fat guy find such a beautiful girl)?’” he says.At 5 feet 11 inches and 110kg, Kartik had never faced any health issues. “But that was the day I decided enough is enough and I had to lose weight,” he says. “I felt horrible looking at my engagement photos.”Kartik signed up for a six-month weight loss programme with a doctor, who administered GLP-1 injections to him. He has lost 30kg since and is currently maintaining a body weight of 80kg.Size was also a problem that Delhi-based doctor Rahul Mehta hadn’t foreseen till his partner told him he needed to lose weight. The cardiologist in his 30s had put on extra kilos because his high-stress job and long hours gave him little time for himself. “My now wife told me I should lose weight before the wedding because she wanted us to look good in our photos,” he says.Rahul says he saw relatives balk at pictures of the pre-wedding photos of the couple. “She would be told things like ‘you look so fit and the boy is chubby’. Some relatives also directly asked her, ‘Isn’t he too fat for you?’”Rahul tried diet and exercise. But as the wedding date came closer, he felt pressure to lose kilos quickly and the only viable option he saw was to get into the Ozempic regime. “Since I wanted quick results, I went for GLP-1 injections,” he says. He lost 10kg in three months.Dheeraj Singh (50) became conscious of his weight when he started dating a model a decade younger than him. With a failed marriage behind him, the Gurgaon-based businessman did not want anything to be a hindrance to his second chance at love.He has lost 10kg since beginning GLP-1 injections and is set to get married later this year. “I was never obese, just overweight. But I do not want people telling my future wife that she made the wrong choice and that she could have got someone much better than me,” Dheeraj says.Lab technician Pranav Arora (31) from Noida says he was very conscious of his protruding belly. “I wanted to get rid of it before my wedding this year because it was hampering my confidence. A friend suggested GLP-1,” he says. After a month, Pranav lost 5-6kg and most of his belly fat. He says he has been maintaining his new weight for nearly a year and feels no side effects.This apparently growing trend of people taking Ozempic, Mounjaro and other GLP-1 shots to get into shape for their wedding and meet conventional standards of ‘looking good’ — and not because of real health concerns — has caused alarm in the medical community.GLP-1 drugs can only be taken, or stopped, under medical supervision. “GLP-1 agonists like Wegovy, Mounjaro and others are excellent medicines for obesity but I am scared that taking injections will become fashionable. Additionally, widespread use in this manner raises chances of counterfeits being produced,” says Dr Deepali Bhardwaj, a Delhi-based dermatologist who has seen several of her clients go down this route.The injections are available for anywhere from Rs 8,000-Rs 20,000 a month, depending on the brand. While a cosmetologist can prescribe them, they are supposed to be administered only by an authorised physician. “The drugs bring with them risk of high acidity and pancreatitis. This is a lifelong treatment for morbid obesity, so once you start this, there’s a lot of maintenance required,” says Bhardwaj.Preeti Banerjee, a 28-year-old sales executive in Noida, however, says it felt like her only option. “In 2022, I realised I had put on a lot of weight. While no one in my immediate circle said anything, my confidence dipped,” she recalls. Preeti started going to the gym to feel healthier. “I tried to be regular,” she says. “But people stared. It felt like they were constantly judging me, even though I was trying to lose weight. I felt too self-conscious to keep going.”She then started going to a park for walks, choosing times when it would be empty. But this was not enough exercise. “After trying everything, I did some research and started taking GLP-1 injections,” she says. Preeti lost nearly 50kg and felt confident enough to socialise again. She met someone and is getting married later this year. “I never expected to attach so much of my self-worth to losing weight, but I did,” she says.Partyasha Guha, a Delhi-based fashion designer, says her parents had found it difficult to arrange a match for her because she was fat. She is getting married later this year, but not before losing 40kg, she says. Partyasha is halfway to her target. “Of course the weight was a problem for my future in-laws. I also want to have a child soon because my biological clock is ticking. This is also a big reason I opted for GLP-1,” the 37-year-old says.Delhi-based wedding planner Ramneek Kaur Bhalla says in her 15 years in the profession, she has never seen brides and grooms “losing their heads over looks” at this level. This is largely because, she says, weddings have shifted from being deeply personal celebrations with loved ones to highly curated social media events.“Social media has amplified expectations; everything is put online and there are constant comparisons. The pressure to achieve the ‘perfect’ bridal image has never been greater. We are increasingly seeing people turn to rapid weight-loss solutions, including medication, in the hope of looking a certain way for their wedding day and getting photographs that will live on the internet forever,” says the co-founder of Band Baja Bliss. “In my opinion, a wedding should celebrate love, commitment, and individuality, and not be about the pursuit of an online ideal,” Bhalla adds.Jyoti Kapoor, psychiatrist at Manasthali in Gurgaon, says there is so much shame attached to being called fat that people are willing to go to any lengths to get an “ideal body”. On top of this is the performative pageantry of social media. “If going to the gym and healthy eating aren’t giving them what they want to see, they turn to medication. All in the pursuit of a picture-perfect body that can look good on social media,” says Kapoor.She says body image issues get especially aggravated around a wedding because this is a ceremony that makes one feel like the centre of the universe. “It’s like the bride and groom are the heroine and hero in their own personal movie, and they need to play the part perfectly,” she says.Interestingly, Kapoor says, many of her patients have reported feeling sad after beginning weight loss medication, because it was food that gave them joy. “They wanted to lose weight to gain approval from society; they thought being accepted would give them happiness,” she says. “It turned out to be counterproductive.”Dr Anoop Mishra, chairman of the Fortis centre of excellence for endocrinology in Delhi, says the wedding weight loss trend is a worrying one. “There’s no question GLP-1 receptor-based drugs like semaglutide and tirzepatide are among the most effective tools we have for obesity. The wedding weight loss trend worries me for these reasons. Rapid weight loss over a few weeks disproportionately depletes muscle rather than fat, with a few nutritional deficiencies as well,” he says. “This is a particular concern in Indian patients, who tend to have relatively low muscle mass and some nutritional deficiencies. Secondly, many people are sourcing these drugs without proper medical supervision, which raises real safety concerns, including counterfeit products, incorrect dosing, and no monitoring for side effects like nausea, gallstones or pancreatitis. Third, weight regain is common once the drug is stopped, particularly when it’s used as a short sprint rather than a sustained treatment integrated with nutrition and resistance training.”(Some names have been changed on request)
