SHOT CALLER

Reality Star Who Dropped 50 Pounds Shares Her Controversial GLP-1 Tip

The reality star says she turns to the drug whenever the pounds start to pile back on.

Emily Simpson has found a new way to approach taking GLP-1 drugs after shedding roughly 50 pounds.

The Real Housewives of Orange County star, 50, revealed to Us Weekly on Friday that she no longer takes the breakthrough weight-loss medication every week. Instead, she waits until she feels the pounds creeping back on.

“I do still [use a GLP-1, but] not as much as I did,” Simpson told the outlet. “I use it now to just kind of, like, maintain. So I’ll go a few weeks and not use it, and then I’ll feel like I’m starting to gain weight, and then I’ll use it again.”

Simpson previously followed a far more regimented routine, injecting the medication weekly for about 12 weeks.

“Now, I just [use a GLP-1] every few weeks—I guess what they call microdosing, or whatever,” she said, noting she is on “kind of, like, a maintain kind of system now.”

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“Microdosing” GLP-1s has become a buzzy weight-loss practice, but it is not an actual medical term.

Dr. Amanda Velazquez, director of Obesity Medicine at Cedars-Sinai, said there is no evidence that shows taking low or intermittent doses of GLP-1 drugs provides sustained weight loss or broader health benefits.

The drugs exploded in popularity for weight loss in the early 2020s, with shortages prompting some patients to experiment with stretching out their prescribed doses.

Doctors also caution that repeatedly going on and off the craving-curbing drugs may have unintended consequences for patients.

A Penn Medicine study published this year found that overweight mice repeatedly taken off and restarted on semaglutide rapidly regained weight during the breaks and were unable to return to their previous lowest weights after restarting the drug.

Simpson, though, is not relying on injections alone.

The Bravo star said she still eats burgers and ice cream with her three children, but has stopped absentmindedly snacking throughout the day.

“I didn’t really eliminate everything,” she said of her diet. “It’s just in moderation, and that was where I always failed before.”

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She also cuts back on calories from alcohol, saying she rarely drinks aside from the occasional Aperol spritz.

Simpson said her wake-up call came after filming Housewives and Wife Swap and seeing photos of herself with a pig featured on the latter show.

“I was like, ‘Girl, you’re about to turn 50. You need to get your act together,’” she told Us Weekly in July. She responded by throwing herself into the gym.

“I just locked in, and I’ve been in the gym seven days a week for, like, two hours a day nonstop,” Simpson said on Friday.

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That habit has stuck.

“As soon as I get back home I go [to the gym] every day,” she said. “It’s therapeutic for me.”

She is also hardly the only celebrity dabbling in GLP-1 microdosing.

Watch What Happens Live host Andy Cohen has said he spent a summer microdosing a GLP-1, crediting the practice with helping curb his cravings as he lost 25 pounds.

Model Brooks Nader has been even more strategic about it.

On her Hulu reality show Love Thy Nader, Nader discussed adjusting her GLP-1 use around high-profile jobs, including taking more ahead of a Maxim shoot when she wanted to look “extra snatched.”

Simpson, meanwhile, said she is still about 10 pounds away from her goal—but admitted she is questioning whether her desired number is realistic.

“I don’t think it’s healthy to share my goal weight,” she said, adding that she has to ask herself “if my goal weight is reasonable or not.”

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Tamilore OshikanluContributor

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