The calls come thick and fast to Mumbai-based diabetologist Rahul Baxi - but not just from patients struggling to control blood sugar.

Increasingly, it is young professionals asking the same thing: Doctor, can you start me on weight-loss drugs?

Recently, a 23-year-old man came in, worried about the 10kg he'd gained after starting a demanding corporate job. One of my gym friends is on [weight loss] jabs, he said.

Dr Baxi says he refused, asking him what he would do after losing 10kg on the drug.

Stop, and the weight comes back. Keep going, and without exercise you'll start losing muscle instead. These medicines aren't a substitute for a proper diet or lifestyle change, he told him.

Such conversations are becoming increasingly common as demand for weight-loss drugs explodes in urban India - a country with the world's second-largest number of overweight adults and more than 77 million people with Type 2 diabetes.

Originally developed to treat diabetes, these drugs are now being hailed as game changers for weight loss, offering results that few previous treatments could match. Yet their growing popularity has also raised difficult questions - about the need for medical supervision, the risks of misuse, and the blurred line between treatment and lifestyle enhancement.

These are the most powerful weight-loss drugs we've ever seen. Many such drugs have come and gone, but nothing compares to these, says Anoop Misra, who heads Delhi's Fortis-C-DOC Centre of Excellence for Diabetes, Metabolic Diseases and Endocrinology.

Two new drugs dominate India's fast-growing weight-loss market. One is semaglutide, sold by Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk as Rybelsus (oral) and Wegovy (injectable) - while Ozempic (injectable) has been approved for diabetes in India but is not yet available for obesity. The other is tirzepatide, marketed by American drugmaker Eli Lilly as Mounjaro, primarily for diabetes but increasingly used for weight loss in India.

Both belong to a class known as GLP-1 drugs, which mimic a natural hormone that regulates hunger. By slowing digestion and acting on the brain's appetite centres, they make people feel full faster and stay full longer. Taken once a week, most of these drugs are self-injected in the arm, thigh, or stomach. They curb cravings - and in Mounjaro's case, also boost metabolism and energy balance.