Her Campus Logo Her Campus Logo
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at U Mass Boston chapter.

With the rising popularity of more holistic approaches to health and fitness in the wake of intense 2000s era diet culture, I was unsurprised when Kourtney Kardashian Barker’s latest venture, lemmelive supplements, was launched in 2022. Coupled with the Kardashians’ notorious participation in beauty standards and related health trends over the past few decades, the promotion of such a product by one of the family members was almost expected entering this new era of wellness. The line of capsules and gummies among other forms, creatively named things like “lemme Sleep” and “lemme Glow,” is specifically on brand for Kardashian Barker who already has skin in the health and lifestyle game with her multimedia platform, Poosh.

However, it was not until I saw lemmelive’s most recent product drop this past September that I was taken aback — “lemme GLP-1 Daily” is now available for $90 per 30 day supply, and touts benefits like reducing appetite and supporting weight loss. But how effective is this magical weight-management supplement, really? And what does it say about the evolution of Kardashian business practices and modern diet culture?

GLP-1 may be ringing a bell for many, and that’s because it’s related to the somewhat recently FDA approved medication semaglutide. More commonly known under brand names like Ozempic or Wegovy, its injectable form can be used for weight loss. “[Semaglutide] mimics the GLP-1 hormone, released in the gut in response to eating,” according to UCLA Health. They specify, “…GLP-1 in higher amounts also interacts with the parts of the brain that suppress your appetite and signal you to feel full.” UCLA Health also makes sure to note that semaglutide medication for weight loss is intended for those who are obese and overweight, have been prescribed it by a doctor, and are using it alongside a healthy diet and exercise routine. Thankfully, Kardashian Barker’s non-prescription supplements don’t contain this medication; however, the title is somewhat misleading, as it implies the daily capsules do actually contain GLP-1 hormones. Instead, lemmelive’s website proposes that a patented lemon fruit extract has the ability to stimulate natural GLP-1 production, a patented saffron extract will help control appetite and cravings, and a red orange fruit extract can support fat loss when combined with diet and exercise. 

Lemmelive does provide studies to back up the effectiveness of the ingredients, but there are multiple issues with them; for one, each ingredient only cites one study to support the claims made about the supplement’s benefits. The saffron extract study looked at just 60 female participants who were overweight but otherwise healthy. The red orange fruit extract study examined 65 female and male participants that were overweight but otherwise healthy; however, 20 people dropped out before treatment was completed, meaning only 45 participants saw the study through to the end. Despite this, an “intention to treat analysis” was employed in which conclusions about the effectiveness of the extract in weight management and fat loss were made based on the data of the original 65 participants. The lemon fruit extract study, which was the only study to claim increased GLP-1 levels, examined the smallest group of just 30 female and male participants who all had hyperglycemia or above average blood sugar levels. All of these studies observed participants within a six month timeframe or less, and did not include long term follow-up analysis.  

To contextualize typical standards for a new drug to be put on the market, I looked into the FDA’s four phases of clinical research and found that they utilize several thousand participants over the course of multiple years to properly assess dosage, safety, and effectiveness. While a supplement doesn’t have to follow the same rules and regulations as a drug does (more on that later), the standards for studying drugs and their efficacy does seem to set a precedent for how rigorous clinical testing should be. 

In addition to all of this, according to the lemmelive website, no studies on the actual lemme GLP-1 Daily product itself have been conducted. This means that there is only anecdotal data to support that this specific blend of fruit and saffron extracts is effective. While the capsule’s supplement facts label does list the extracts in the same milligram amounts as used in the studies that showed benefits, supplements do not have to go through FDA approval or regulation processes. Therefore, the actual extract content can vary greatly from what the label claims its contents are. 

After closely looking into these three studies which examine unvaried test subjects in small quantities over short timeframes, I’ve decided that (at least, for me) they are not conclusive enough evidence to support the lemme GLP-1 Daily capsule’s benefits as boasted on the website. 

These studies feel like nothing more than a marketing tool to tap into ethos and entice the consumer — Kourtney Kardashian Barker’s audience — with quick-fix possible outcomes, but they don’t take into account the varying health profiles of such a wide demographic. 

Like I said, I was pretty surprised to see Kardashian Barker backing this semi-pseudoscientific product. Certainly not because it isn’t following a pattern of past behavior (the Kardashian family has been involved in promoting many similar, beauty standard reinforcing products based on past trends, ranging from detox teas to waist training), but because after being called out by public figures and news organizations, I had an optimistic belief that the family would cut ties with such harmful business endeavors and get a little realer with the general public. It’s 2024, after all, and celebrities have never been more intimately connected with everyday people thanks to social media platforms like TikTok — nor have more holistic health practices, like nutrition for quality of life and mindful eating over dieting to be thin, been as prevalent. 
Unfortunately, this belief has been squashed by lemmelive, and in the end it appears that not only is Kardashian Barker uninterested in the true message of the wellness trends of 2024, but so is the rest of the modern health and fitness community. As GLP-1 medication becomes a more widely known and sought-after weight loss “solution,” it seems as though popular culture has begun to recenter itself around thinness once more. To this effect, Kardashian Barker is simply tapping into what she knows best: marketing to the trendiest insecurities. The obsession with GLP-1 medications and related products exemplified by lemmelive’s launch just feels like a thermometer of clarity, determining the temperature of diet culture in the mainstream to be as high as ever, despite that brief brush of coolness brought on by holistic wellness’ surge in these past few years. 

Gabriella Bisegna

U Mass Boston '27

I am an English undergraduate student at UMass Boston, as a part of the class of 2027. Outside of my education and writing for Her Campus, I work at a clothing store and have a love for all forms of creative expression, especially writing poetry. I spend much of my free time with friends and listening to music.