Weight Management Research Abstract

Weight Management Difficulty, the Menopausal Transition, and Attitudes to GLP-1 and Natural Supplementation: Findings from a Cross-Sectional Survey of 1,030 Adults

July 2025

Key Findings

1. 59.7% of respondents self-describe as overweight and 79.3% are actively trying to lose weight, yet 76.1% find weight hard to manage - a population that is highly motivated but struggling.
2. The menopausal transition was the single strongest correlate of weight difficulty: 68.8% of peri-, meno-, and postmenopausal women found weight ‘a lot harder’ to manage with age, versus 44.1% of non-menopausal respondents - a 24.7 percentage-point differential. The 40s and 50s were identified as the decisive decades by 61.4%.
   
3. Psychological barriers dominated: sweet tooth (39.5%), cravings (39.1%), and emotional eating (32.8%) far outranked practical barriers such as cost (13.5%) or time (14.3%); 64.7% cited cravings or emotional eating.
   
4. Poor sleep was strongly associated with weight difficulty: of the 37.7% who regularly struggle to sleep or are insomniac, 85.6% also find weight hard to manage, versus 76.1% overall.
   
5. Appetite for natural support exceeded that for medication: 59.3% would not consider a GLP-1 medication, while 60.1% would be likely to take a safe, natural supplement with clinically proven ingredients, yet 60.8% are unsure such products exist.

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Background and methods

Weight management is among the most prevalent and multifactorial health challenges in adults, yet the drivers of difficulty: hormonal, psychological, and behavioural - are often under-characterised at a population level outside clinical settings. This cross-sectional online survey of 1,030 adults (conducted by DR.VEGAN^®) was designed to characterise the prevalence and self-perception of weight difficulty, its key demographic and lifestyle correlates, and attitudes to weight-management strategies, including GLP-1 medications and nutritional supplementation. The survey captured self-described weight difficulty and active weight-loss attempts; menopausal status; the life stage of greatest weight change and where weight is gained; biggest challenges; diet, exercise, sleep, alcohol, and bloating; GLP-1 use and attitudes; and attitudes to natural supplementation. The sample was predominantly female and, by menopausal status, 82.1% were peri-, meno-, or postmenopausal. Individual-level data were analysed for all 1,030 responses.

Results

Perception, motivation and the menopausal correlate

A majority self-described as overweight (59.7%), and motivation was high: 79.3% were actively trying to lose weight, rising to 96.1% among those who described themselves as overweight. Yet 76.1% found weight hard to manage. Menopausal status was the most pronounced correlate of this difficulty: 68.8% of peri-, meno-, and postmenopausal women reported it had become ‘a lot harder’ with age, versus 44.1% of non-menopausal respondents — a 24.7-point gap. Consistent with this, 61.4% identified their 40s or 50s as the decade of greatest change, and 84.5% gained weight predominantly around the belly or waist. See Figure 1.

Barriers to weight management

The most commonly cited challenges were psychological and appetite-related rather than practical. Sweet tooth (39.5%), cravings (39.1%), and emotional eating (32.8%) led the profile, with 64.7% citing cravings or emotional eating, and hormone fluctuations were named by 28.4%. Practical barriers such as cost (13.5%) and lack of time (14.3%) ranked far lower. See Figure 2.

Sleep, lifestyle, and attitudes to intervention

Despite reasonably high activity levels - 64.1% exercising three or more times a week - the majority still found weight hard to manage, underscoring that activity alone was insufficient. Poor sleep was a notable correlate: among the 37.7% who regularly struggle to sleep or are insomniac, 85.6% also found weight hard to manage. On intervention, appetite for natural support clearly exceeded that for medication: 59.3% would not consider a GLP-1 medication, while 60.1% would be likely to take a safe, natural supplement with clinically proven ingredients, although 60.8% were unsure such products exist, indicating a significant awareness gap. See Figure 3.

Conclusions and Implications

This survey of 1,030 adults shows that weight-management difficulty is widespread, persistent, and most strongly associated with the menopausal transition, which emerged as the single clearest correlate - a near-25-point excess in those finding weight ‘a lot harder’ with age, concentrated in the 40s and 50s and in central (belly and waist) weight gain. Three implications follow. First, the dominance of psychological and appetite-related barriers, cravings and emotional eating far outranking cost and time indicates that interventions addressing appetite regulation and the emotional dimension of eating may be more impactful than information or access alone. Second, the strong sleep–weight association points to the value of integrated approaches that address sleep alongside diet and activity, rather than weight in isolation. Third, there is clear unmet demand for evidence-based natural support: appetite for a clinically proven natural supplement exceeded that for GLP-1 medication, yet most respondents were unaware such options exist an awareness gap as much as a product gap. As a self-reported, cross-sectional survey of a predominantly female, largely peri- and postmenopausal sample, these findings describe associations rather than causal relationships; prospective research would be needed to confirm the direction of the observed links and the efficacy of targeted interventions.

Keywords: weight management, menopausal weight gain, perimenopause, emotional eating, cravings, sleep and weight, GLP-1, natural food supplements, central adiposity, women’s health

Survey date: 2024–2025  |  Sample size: N = 1,030  |  Population: 82% peri/meno/postmenopausal  |  Data type: Individual-level responses   

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