My mind was poisoned by diet culture. Then I tried weightlifting | Zing Tsjeng

In the Ozempic era, the craze for thinness is everywhere. But if you concentrate specifically on what your body can do, it is sometimes possible to rearrange your brain

I have grown two hard lumps on my arms. They are deltoids, apparently. I have never been remotely aware of having deltoids before – I always assumed my shoulders simply elongated into a formless mass of flesh that eventually gave way to the rest of my limbs. But now I have deltoids. They are small, hard and perfect, and yes, even though they only occasionally emerge when I rest my elbows on hard surfaces, they’re a reminder that your body can still surprise you.

Right now, the ideal body has never looked more different. Bulking up is out; thin is back in. We are apparently living through the “Ozempic era of weight loss”. The celebrity slimming jab is so in demand that people with type 2 diabetes – who need it to regulate their blood sugar levels – are struggling to get enough of it. Famous people remain tight-lipped about whether they are on Ozempic or Wegovy (both are the brand names of semaglutide; the latter is licensed to treat obesity) but the craze for thinness is evident on catwalks, magazine covers and the Instagram grids of pretty much every Kardashian.