TikTokers Claim Viral 'Oatzempic' Drink Helped Them Drop 40 Lbs. — Here's What an Expert Says

Fans of the meal-replacement shake say drinking blended oats, lime juice, and water leads to rapid weight-loss

Can you really lose 40 lbs. in two months?

Some TikTokers swear they did by drinking #Oatzempic. They say replacing your breakfast with a blended shake of oats, water, and lime juice — cheekily named after the diabetes medication Ozempic that many people use for weight loss — will help you stay full while you rapidly lose weight.

But while it might work in the short-term, it’s “a double-edged sword,” Karina Chiddo, a registered dietician and nutritionist with Northwell, tells PEOPLE.

“It's not a long-term fix, it's a trendy diet fad that's not going to work forever, because not everyone's going to stay on oatmeal, lime juice, and water,” she says.

The reason Oatzempic works, she says, is because “they're probably now in a calorie deficit than before [when] they were eating a breakfast meal that's probably higher in calories, and they're feeling fuller longer. So they're probably not eating as much when it comes to their afternoon meal.”

As she points out, “A cup of oats is relatively low in calories." There are only 300 calories in a cup of Quaker Oats — and according to the Cleveland Clinic, a moderately active woman aged 30 should consume 2000 calories a day.

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“So overall, it's a calorie deficit,” Chiddo says, adding, “It may be a placebo effect as well, thinking, ‘This is gonna be filling and I won't have to eat anything else.’”

And while it may be effective, she says “I wouldn't recommend this to anybody.”

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Instead “I would tell somebody who is interested in pursuing something like that to consider eating it first as regular oatmeal, and trying other fiber-rich breakfast ideas that are easy to make.”

She also points out that the rapid weight-loss goal isn’t only unhealthy — it’s not sustainable.

“I don't think it's a safe or ideal goal for the regular person. Typically, we encourage a slow weight loss of 1 to 2 lbs. per week.”

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And for those who find success with Oatzempic, she warns it won’t last.

“They're going to gain the weight back most likely,” Chiddo tells PEOPLE. “And there is a potential risk of them gaining more weight than they had lost.”

But aside from the health risks, Chiddo points out that “It's really dangerous to associate the word Ozempic or any other weight-loss medication with food.”

“It's a fad diet,” she says. “And we know that fad diets don't work.”

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