British woman Shona has explained her experience after getting on weight loss medication Mounjaro.
She noted that she has loved the way she looks after just being on it for five months; however, she’s also issued a warning to others.
Writing in a Mail Online op-ed, she explained: “I’ve been on it since the beginning of February and have lost 17kg – the equivalent of around two pounds a week.
“While I was 78kg (12st 4lb) when I started, I’m now 61kg (9st 10lb) and in this respect I couldn’t be more delighted. I haven’t been this weight since before the birth of my fourth child, Dolly, in 2009.
“It has been 16 years of watching the scales ominously creeping upwards, during which time I have been through perimenopause and then menopause. And it has taken just five incredible months to lose it all again. I can’t explain how amazing that feels.”
She also highlighted the positive comments she has gotten from her friends and families. However, she says she feels like she has developed an eating disorder as a result of being on the weight loss drug.
Explaining that she made herself throw up after consuming a cinnamon pastry, noting that feelings of guilt kicked in.
She wrote: “The truth is unsettling and something I would never have predicted, but I can no longer ignore the darker side of what is happening to me.
“The fact is that using fat jabs has at the very least encouraged an unhealthy relationship with food, and at the very worst triggered an eating disorder. This is the Mounjaro mind game nobody talks about. I now see food as the enemy, something to be avoided at all cost.”
Shona also quoted doctor Tom Hildebrandt, who said he was seeing an increase in patients with eating disorders taking weight-loss drugs.
She quoted him as saying: “In some cases, a person’s brain may interpret such dramatic, sudden weight loss as starvation, making people more obsessive about food.
“People who are taking these new weight-loss drugs may then find themselves compelled to further limit how much food they eat, even when it endangers their health. »
In response, the maker of Mounjaro, Eli Lilly, told UNILAD: « Patient safety is Lilly’s top priority, and we actively engage in monitoring, evaluating, and reporting safety information for all our medicines.
« Mounjaro (tirzepatide) should only be used when prescribed and supervised by a licensed healthcare professional, and prescriptions should be fulfilled and supplied by registered pharmacies or providers.
« We encourage patients to consult their doctor or other healthcare professional to discuss any possible side effects they may be experiencing. »
The results of a massive study examining the health outcomes of people taking weight loss medications has found out what really happens to your body when you stop taking the injections.
These GLP-1 agonist injections, which include brand names like Wegovy and Mounjaro, have helped millions of people to lose a considerable amount of body mass, becoming an integral tool in the fight against obesity.
They work by mimicking the glucagon-like peptide 1 hormone that helps you to regulate when and how much you eat, taking away the desire to eat more than you need that makes it so hard for many people to follow a diet plan.
But Oxford University researchers, who created a study examining GLP-1 drugs and the medical results of 9,341 patients from 37 other studies, have found that this stunning weight loss might only be temporary.
Publishing their findings in the British Medical Journal, the researchers found that patients dropped about a fifth of their total weight during a typical 39-week course of treatment, which would be an incredible result for a normal weight loss program.
However, once patients stopped receiving their GLP-1 medications, they found that many would regain a considerable amount of weight without the hunger-regulating effects of the GLP-1 drugs.
Oxford researcher Dr Susan Jebb warned: « People buying these need to be aware of the risk of fast weight regain when the treatment ends. »
On average, patients would regain 0.8kg (1.7lbs) per months, meaning that they returned to their pre-jab weight in just a year and a half.
This is a much more rapid weight gain than people who follow a normal diet plan and discontinue, which saw a monthly gain of 0.1kg (0.22lbs).
This rapid weight gain was not a result of the GLP-1 injections, but rather a lack of behavioral change from patients receiving the drugs, a researcher explained.
Oxford’s Dr Sam West said: “These medicines are transforming obesity treatment and can achieve important weight loss. However, our research shows that people tend to regain weight rapidly after stopping – faster than we see with behavioural programs. »
While the research showed that many were rapidly regaining their lost weight, it did not mean that these new treatments are not effective.
He added: “This isn’t a failing of the medicines – it reflects the nature of obesity as a chronic, relapsing condition.
« It sounds a cautionary note for short-term use without a more comprehensive approach to long-term weight management, and highlights the importance of primary prevention.”
Other studies have indicated that these GLP-1 drugs can have a positive impact on a number of health metrics beside weight, with benefits for your brain and cardiovascular health.
But another finding of the study was that some of these observable health benefits also return to normal after a short period. Like with weight, they found that positive blood pressure and cholesterol biomarkers faded after 1.4 years.
Downsides to a popular diet known for its weight loss benefits have been revealed in a new study involving mice.
Weight loss is a lot of people’s goal when it comes to taking up a new diet and lifestyle. Whether it’s fasting, eating just one meal a day, or possibly challenging yourself not to eat after a certain time in the evening, people (myself included) will try just about anything to shift a few pounds.
One thing that’s been proven to be helpful when it comes to losing weight is the ketogenic (keto) diet.
According to Healthline, people can expect to lose anywhere between two and ten pounds in the first seven days of doing the difficult diet, as it shifts your body into ketosis (a natural metabolic state where the body burns fat for fuel instead of carbohydrates).
What is the keto diet?
The keto diet, created in 1921 to help manage epilepsy, consists of a person eating a high-fat and low-carb diet. Typically a person’s daily diet will be made up of 55-60 per cent fat, 30 to 35 per cent protein, and a maximum of 10 per cent carbs.
How many grams this works out to be depends on each individual’s calorie intake.
Downsides of the diet
In a new study published by University of Utah Health in October 2025, it was found that the keto diet can have a potentially dangerous impact on metabolic health, including how the body processes fats and carbs.
Researchers studied mice as part of the study and looked at the longer-term effects of the keto diet; one red flag being an increased risk of developing fatty liver disease.
Amandine Chaix, PhD, assistant professor of nutrition and integrative physiology at the university and senior author of the study, said of the findings: « One thing that’s very clear is that if you have a really high-fat diet, the lipids have to go somewhere, and they usually end up in the blood and the liver. »
Chaix added that the diet was ‘definitely not protective in the sense of fatty liver disease’.
The study also found that after two to three months on the keto diet, the mice had low levels of blood sugar and insulin because the diet harmed their blood sugar regulation.
« The problem is that when you then give these mice a little bit of carbs, their carb response is completely skewed, » Chaix said of this. « Their blood glucose goes really high for really long, and that’s quite dangerous. »
With the findings in mind, Molly Gallop, PhD, assistant professor of anatomy and physiology at Earlham College, who led the study, warned that people should speak to their doctors if they wish to go on a keto diet.
Benefits of the diet
There are so many benefits of the diet, however. As well as weight loss, previous research has suggested that the keto diet can also reduce seizures in children, says Harvard Health, and improve blood sugar levels in type 2 diabetes patients.
Also, there have been questions raised about the neuroprotective effects the diet has when it comes to brain disorders such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, sleep disorders, autism, and even brain cancer.
