(BPT) - By Sami Inkinen, CEO and co-founder of Virta Health
Few pharmacological therapies have captured public attention like GLP-1s.
Originally developed as a medical intervention for diabetes patients to lower their blood sugar, they are now part of everyday conversations about health and weight loss. For many people, these medications have been transformative, helping manage blood sugar, supporting meaningful weight loss, and even lowering the risk of heart attacks, stroke and death.1
At the same time, the 2026 Virta Vitals report from Virta Health, a provider-led digital health clinic that specializes in metabolic disease reversal, found most Americans surveyed still remain hesitant about these medications, even when recommended by a doctor. High cost, side effects, uncertainty about long-term use, and questions about maintaining results after discontinuing the drugs were among the most common concerns. Those concerns point to a larger question: How do people improve metabolic health, and how do you maintain the results from sustained weight loss to Type 2 diabetes reversal?
Many people have heard terms like "metabolism" and "metabolic health," but they're rarely explained. At its simplest, metabolic health refers to how well the body processes and uses energy from the food we eat. When that system begins to break down, blood sugar regulation, hunger signals, fat storage, and many other biological processes can become disrupted. Over time, those disruptions often contribute to weight gain and development of many chronic diseases from type 2 diabetes to liver disease and more.
Metabolic disease is now one of the largest health challenges facing our country. More than 90% of U.S. adults are metabolically unhealthy and affected by one or more chronic metabolic conditions,2 including obesity, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, cardiovascular disease, and chronic kidney disease. CDC reports that more than $4 trillion of our $5.3 trillion healthcare spending is driven by chronic disease.3 That's four times our annual military spending.4
While medications can help manage many of these chronic conditions, long-term success depends on sustainable changes that improve the underlying drivers of disease. Research has shown that most people regain weight after stopping GLP-1 therapy, not because the medications failed, but because the metabolic dysfunction remains. Lasting health improvements often require lasting changes.
That's where nutrition, behavior change, and ongoing support become essential to building healthy habits. While GLP-1 drugs do change 'how much' one eats by suppressing appetite, only by changing 'what one eats' can one achieve metabolic health and sustained results.
Food is one of the most powerful inputs into human metabolism. The way we eat — most importantly 'what' we eat — directly influences blood sugar, insulin levels, hunger, body weight, and many other factors that affect long-term health. When nutrition improves metabolic health, the benefits can extend far beyond weight loss alone.
A growing body of peer-reviewed research has also become increasingly important. Studies with peer-reviewed results have shown that a nutrition-focused intervention like the Virta Method™ — Virta's personalized nutrition-based approach — reduces inflammation, improves glycemic control and reduces weight, improves cardiovascular risk factors, is associated with reduced incidence of liver disease, and even supports pancreatic cancer treatment. Research published in Diabetes Therapy also demonstrated that patients were able to maintain meaningful weight loss even after discontinuing GLP-1 therapy, suggesting that nutrition can play an important role before, during, and after medication use.
One finding in the latest Virta Vitals report stood out to me: 61% of Americans said they would prefer to improve their health through behavior change rather than relying on a prescription.
This statistic reflects something important. While GLP-1s are an important advancement and useful tool for some patients, people still want to play an active role in their own health. They want practical tools, support, and guidance that will help them make changes they can sustain.
The future of metabolic health is not a binary choice between medications and lifestyle change. The more compelling issue is how to best help people address the root causes of disease and give them the tools to build lasting health.
Whether someone uses a GLP-1, chooses not to, or eventually stops taking one, the same principle applies: sustainable metabolic health requires sustainable habits and primarily changing 'what' one eats, not just 'how much.' Medications can be powerful accelerators, but nutrition, behavior change, and ongoing support are what help turn short-term results into lifelong health.
Americans deserve a path toward better metabolic health that actually lasts.
[2] Aggarwal R, Ostrominski JW, Vaduganathan M. Prevalence of Cardiovascular-Kidney-Metabolic Syndrome Stages in US Adults, 2011-2020. JAMA. 2024;331(21):1858-1860. doi:10.1001/jama.2024.6892
