As long as I can recall I’ve hated my weight, and for the most part the way I looked.
I have had periods of time where I’ve been lighter, periods when I’ve been heavier, but I’ve always been what most people would call fat.
Over the last year or so I’ve been absolutely bombarded with targeted advertising, mostly on Instagram for weight-loss medication now that it’s available here in the UK. Just like when I went bald I was constantly getting ads for hair supplements or trips to Turkey to get my scalp remodelled. Social media has an uncanny talent for sniffing out your insecurities, and I feel that it’s somewhat taboo to talk about these things.
I’d heard all the buzz about Ozempic when it got popular in the US, and the idea of it seemed almost magical. Just an injection once a week and you lose weight without any real effort? As someone who has struggled with my weight forever, and had been inconsistent at best with working out it seemed too good to be true.
It all came to a head for me after a great 3-week trip to the US with my partner. We spent those weeks eating and drinking some amazing food, but I came back from the trip feeling the size of a house, and honestly hating some of the photos of myself. For me this was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I decided to finally bite the bullet and click on one of the countless ads I’d been scrolling past.
Getting Started
I was surprised that for what is still a prescription-only drug in the UK, I was actually able to get an order in without too much hassle. A quick questionnaire and away we go. Two days later a parcel arrived with the kit I needed. Needles, a sharps bin, alcohol wipes, and a 2.5mg dosage pen of Mounjaro. To my knowledge Ozempic itself isn’t really available in the UK, but Mounjaro is a close equivalent. They’re both GLP-1 medications. I won’t pretend to understand exactly how they work.
Injecting myself in the thigh for the first time felt weird, and a bit scary. I was certain that I’d manage to inject myself with an air bubble and die, but luckily I did live to tell the tale. It’s not painful in any meaningful way, and it takes all of 2 minutes to get it set up and injected. I’ve been doing this now once a week for the last six months.
The First Few Months
My greatest surprise with the first week or so is that it didn’t really feel any different at all. I lost a little bit of weight, but I was coupling this whole thing with going to the gym more consistently. So to my eyes there wasn’t any meaningful changes that I could see. This, from what I understand is normal. Your first month you start on a low dose and you slowly ramp it up each month. First 2.5mg, then 5mg, 7.5mg, 12.5mg, and maxing out at 15mg.
After my first month I had lost about 5lbs. Hard to tell how much of this was me slowly losing holiday weight that I would have lost anyway, or the drug doing its thing. Month 2 I upped my dose to 5mg, and dropped around 8lbs, this felt a bit more significant. Month 3 I upped the dose to 7.5mg and dropped another 5lbs (this did include the Christmas period, where my diet was much worse than normal months).
After month 3 it did feel like I was getting results and it was actually working for me. I could see changes in the mirror as well as the scales. Clothes that haven’t fit in years now do, or at least are closer to.
More Than Just the Jab
At this point though I think that it bears mentioning that I was not just taking these weekly shots and expecting the pounds to fall off on their own. I have got more consistent with my exercise routine. I now lift weights 3-4 times a week, and I’m doing cardio 2-3 times a week, as well as walking the dog most days for about an hour. For me it’s hard to unpick exactly how much of the weightloss is down to the drug versus me actually getting my act together and working out.
Since Christmas, I’ve also been eating better and working out a lot more consistently. I’ve discovered something important along the way: losing weight in general makes exercise both easier and more enjoyable. There’s a positive feedback loop that kicks in – as you shed pounds, moving your body becomes less of a chore and more of a pleasure, which motivates you to exercise more, which helps you lose more weight.
The last time in my life when I was at a weight closer to where I want to be was back in 2018. My life was a bit more simple (no partner, no house, no dog), and I was working out 6-7 times a week. Shocking I know, working out is the key to staying in shape.
The Food Relationship
My real problem has always been I love food too much. It’s always been easy for me to over eat. I have found that being on Mounjaro has curbed that. I still feel like I have a big appetite, but I find that I feel full a lot sooner than before. This isn’t surprising, in fact it’s exactly how GLP-1 is meant to work, it makes you feel fuller sooner.
I noticed this most on days like Christmas day, where any other year I would have eaten a plate piled high, maybe gone back for seconds, and then passed out in a food coma. I barely finished a plate this time round. The dog got lucky and got some turkey with his dinner. I have noticed that I crave shitty foods less.
I’ve read and heard that for some people GLP-1 medications can quiet the “food noise”. A term I had not heard until recently, but as a fat guy, I instantly understood it. For those who don’t understand it right away, for me, and a lot of people, there’s a constant background thought about food. “What’s for dinner?”, “have we got any biscuits in?”, “I could smash a chocolate bar right now”, etc.
For me it would always manifest early afternoon. I’d had lunch, bit of a lull in my working day, and I’d head down to the kitchen and grab something. This kind of snacking is something that I have cut down on and I think has been a reason that I’ve at this point lost 37 lbs in the months I’ve been on the meds.
What Comes Next?
My thoughts at this point turn to the future. I wonder what, if anything will change when I stop taking Mounjaro. Will I gain back all of the weight that I slowly lost? Will I just want to gorge myself on every kind of junk imaginable? I would rather not stay on Mounjaro indefinitely for a few reasons. Firstly I don’t think there’s a good understanding of the long term effects, and secondly it’s not cheap.
The Cost Breakdown
- Month 1 - Numan 2.5mg - £129.00
- Month 2 - Numan 5mg - £94.65
- Month 3 - IQDoctor 7.5mg - £167.48
- Month 4 - IQDoctor 10mg - £135.77 (IQDoctor often have discount codes available if you look)
- Month 5 - Pharmacy4U 12.5mg - £145.25
- Month 6 - Medicine Marketplace 15mg - £145
Switching providers and checking sites like the UKMounjaro subreddit are key ways to save money. But even with the discounts, this is not an insignificant amount of money.
For now, I’m still on this journey. Six months in, 37 pounds down, and a completely different relationship with food. I don’t know what the future holds, but at least for now, that weekly jab has changed the game for me.