I lost barely any weight on Wegovy AND Mounjaro despite hardly eating – it was a waste of £4K…I wish I’d tried the diet plan that actually worked sooner

A woman who blew £4,000 on weight-loss jabs, only to shed less than a stone in 15 months, has warned that the jabs are far from a ‘magic fix’ – and shared the natural diet that led to two stone fat loss.

Karen Lay, 56, from Essex, started using the drugs in late 2023 out of ‘sheer desperation’, having tried several diets in an attempt to slim her 16-stone frame.

She began injecting herself with Wegovy – which mimics natural appetite-suppressing signals – and continued on the drug for nine months, despite suspecting something ‘wasn’t right’.

‘My appetite reduced slightly at first,’ said the financial services worker. ‘But not enough to make a meaningful difference, so I increased the dosage each month.’

But when she didn’t get the results she expected, Ms Lay switched to the so-called ‘King-Kong’ of weight-loss jabs, Mounjaro. 

This time the effects were dramatic and, for the six months she was taking the drug, she was ‘barely eating’.

She had high hopes, recalling how she’d ‘watched friends lose five or six stone on the same medication’.

However it proved to be yet another disappointment.

‘I only lost seven pounds,’ she said. ‘I realised the injections simply weren’t effective for me and something had to change.’

Around 2.5million adults in the UK are thought to be using weight-loss jabs, and hundreds of thousands signed up for the newly approved Wegovy pill, which was rolled out in Britain this month.

Ms Lay was advised to stop treatment by her doctor, as they were concerned that she wasn’t eating enough.

By that stage, she’d spent £2,300 on Wegovy and £1,800 on Mounjaro, while losing just 11lb overall – a total spend of £4,100.

Those on Wegovy should typically lose around 21 per cent of their body weight after 72 weeks, according to trials.

Mounjaro users can expect to lose 22.5 per cent over the same period.

But Ms Lay described her failed experience on the drugs as ’emotionally exhausting and honestly quite soul‑destroying’.

‘We all know that comparison is the thief of joy, but it’s incredibly hard not to compare when people who were much larger than me were seeing their weight melt away,’ she continued.

‘Everywhere I looked, people were having huge success on these medications and I felt like the only one failing.

‘It made me feel broken, like my body wasn’t responding the way it should. It was deeply disheartening.

‘It’s hard when you’ve spent thousands and you’re seeing other people lose six to seven stone in less time.

‘It made me question whether it was worth it and what was wrong with me because it didn’t really work.’

One of the most difficult experiences came when she had to stop treatment for four weeks while transitioning between the two medications.

She said: ‘When switching between Wegovy and Mounjaro, I had to stop for four weeks to allow the drug to clear my system.

‘That was the worst food noise I have ever experienced. 

‘It was constant, overwhelming and I gained over seven pounds in that short period.’

When she eventually ditched the drugs, Ms Lay decided to try one more diet – a regime called the 1:1 Diet Plan, which involves very low calorie meals and the support of expert nutrition advisors who provide personalised advice.

‘Once the medication was fully out of my system, I began to feel genuinely better,’ said Ms Lay.

‘My energy returned, my digestion improved, and the constipation disappeared.’

Within a year, Karen dropped from a dress size 18 to a size 12, the smallest she had worn in 17 years – weighing in at 13st 5lb.

Today, she describes herself as fitter, leaner and healthier than she felt while taking the injections.

Now, she believes one of the biggest misconceptions surrounding weight loss jabs is that they are a guaranteed solution.

She said: ‘I think there’s a misconception that jabs are a magic fix.

‘For some people, they work brilliantly, but for others like me, they just don’t. What changed for me wasn’t medication.

‘It was proper nutrition, structure, accountability, and rebuilding my relationship with food.

‘That’s the concern that I hear from my friends who are on jabs.

‘As for me, I feel the best I’ve felt in years, and I want people to know there is hope to break the diet cycle even if the injections don’t work for them.

‘I also noticed that once I started fuelling my body properly and losing weight, my other medications, including asthma treatment, reduced or stopped entirely.’

Trials earlier this year revealed that one in ten people using fat jabs – known as GLP-1s – are so-called ‘non-responders’, meaning they fail to lose a meaningful amount of weight.

Professor Lora Heisler, an obesity researcher at Aberdeen University, said previously: ‘GLP-1 based drugs target only one of those mechanisms, so they can work extremely well for many people, but not for everyone.’

Some scientists believe that weight loss is influenced by ‘metabolic defence’ – the body’s natural survival response when calorie intake is reduced.

This makes the body protect energy stores and lowers the amount of energy it uses, subsequently limiting the amount of weight that can be lost.

Professor Heisler added: ‘We’re all built differently and some people have stronger, metabolic, protective mechanisms than others.’

Inconsistency with taking any medication will reduce its efficacy and GLP-1 drugs are no different.

Some people experience stronger side effects, such as nausea and abdominal pain, making them more likely to skip doses.