Mikayla Nogueira has been forced to deny she dropped 30 pounds using Ozempic.
Mikayla Nogueira says using Ozempic would be damaging for her recovery from binge-eating
The 25-year-old TikToker - who has 15 million followers on the video-sharing app - has struggled with an eating disorder and insists there was no shortcut to her weight loss, but even if she had used the injections intended for those with type 2 diabetes, that would be "fine" too.
She began a response to trolls who slammed her for allegedly using the drug: “If you’re on Ozempic or any of those weight loss medications or drugs, that’s fine."
Mikayla continued: “If you are on Ozempic for an [eating disorder], I do not judge that for you at all."
On why she would never take Ozempic, she said: "For me. I don’t believe that would be good for my recovery. Therefore, I will never do it.”
The beauty influencer warned it's damaging to accuse someone who has put themselves under "extreme mental strain" to "get healthy" of using Ozempic as a bypass.
She went on: "When you go through recovery and stop binging, sometimes you lose weight with that.
But to just put in all that work for months to recover from something that has literally nearly taken your life away multiple times, to just be hit with ‘Laugh my [butt] off, she’s on Ozempic,’ it just like sucks.
“I just feel like it takes away from anyone who puts in the extreme mental strain to get healthy.”
Several celebrities have spoken out after facing similar questions over their weight loss.
Oprah Winfrey, who didn't state if she used Ozempic, insisted her weight-loss drug use is part of a balanced health and fitness regime.
The chat show veteran, 69, shocked fans by admitting to People she has been on pharmaceuticals to control her figure as she considers them a “tool” for life – and hit out at trolls by saying she was sick of the body “shaming” she's faced.
She stressed: “It’s everything. I know everybody thought I was on it, but I worked so damn hard. I know that if I’m not also working out and vigilant about all the other things, it doesn’t work for me.”
Oprah has been hiking to help her reach her fitness goals, adding: “I could eventually hike three to five miles every day and a 10-mile straight-up hike on weekends.
“I felt stronger, more fit and more alive than I’d felt in years.”
She admitted: “I now use it as I feel I need it, as a tool to manage not yo-yoing.
“The fact that there’s a medically approved prescription for managing weight and staying healthier, in my lifetime, feels like relief, like redemption, like a gift, and not something to hide behind and once again be ridiculed for.”
Turning to trolls, she added: “I’m absolutely done with the shaming from other people and particularly myself.”