I lost eight stone and six dress sizes on Ozempic… before piling it all on again after quitting. I went back on jabs but they’ve ALL stopped working – and I’ve made this terrible discovery about weight ‘regain’ for jabbers

With clothes spanning a range of sizes from 10 to 22, Rosie Parsons’ wardrobe is a poignant reminder of incredible weight loss and subsequent, bitterly disappointing, weight regain.

Since 2022, Rosie has gone from 19.5st to 11.5st, before boomeranging back to her current weight of 15.5st.

Hers is not, however, a story of traditional yo-yo dieting. Rather, it is a cautionary tale of how, contrary to all the hype, so-called ‘miracle’ weight-loss jabs don’t always have a happy – super slim – ending.

After losing as much as 8st in ten months on Ozempic, Rosie regained a stone in just a month after stopping the jabs.

And her weight gain continued apace with Rosie putting a further 3st back on – much to her devastation.

Rosie, 43, a brand photographer, says: ‘The other day, I pulled out a beautiful, tailored size 12 jacket which no longer fits and was suddenly transported back to 2022 when I was slim, confident and finally had the body I’d always dreamed of.

‘Now I’m a size 18, it feels a bit like it was all a dream.’

After spending over a staggering £4,000 on weight-loss drugs, it’s fair to say Rosie didn’t envisage returning to her larger clothes.

‘I didn’t just gain weight when I stopped — it felt like my body went into panic mode,’ she says. ‘My brain was actively targeting high-fat, high-calorie foods. The weight crept back on and I lost all the control I’d had on the jabs.’

The psychological impact was devastating. ‘I felt like I’d finally cracked weight loss — and then it was ripped away,’ she says. ‘There was no support because back then hardly anyone was talking about what happens when you stop.

‘I felt totally confused, helpless and wondered why I was not able to do this myself. What was wrong with me?’

Since the jabs started making headlines, we’ve been encouraged to believe they are the holy grail – an effortless way to shed weight that, unlike traditional dieting methods, can put an end to obesity once and for all. The point was you could lose weight quickly – without putting it back on.

However, Rosie’s story mirrors emerging evidence that weight recidivism is common after ‘fat jabs’ – and raises uncomfortable questions about whether these drugs are being sold as a short-term fix when they may in fact require lifelong use.

‘This isn’t about failure or lack of willpower,’ Rosie says. ‘It’s about biology – and people deserve to be told the truth before they start.’

A recent landmark study, led by academics at the University of Oxford and published in the British Medical Journal, has sent shockwaves through the ever growing community of ‘jabbers’ – the majority of them women – in the UK.

The study reveals that people who stop taking weight-loss jabs regain weight in under two years. In fact, people who stop using GLP-1 agonists – which include the likes of Mounjaro and Wegovy – regain all the weight originally lost in under two years, significantly faster than those on any other weight loss plan.

The rate of regain is almost four times faster compared with those on specific diets or physical activity plans. The study’s authors were quick to point out this is not the fault of the medication itself. Instead, it reflects the fact obesity is a chronic and relapsing condition and ‘sounds a cautionary note for short-term use without a more comprehensive approach to long-term weight management’.

Meanwhile Rosie, who lives in Exeter and is a single parent to her four children, is left to live with the fallout.

‘I don’t regret using them,’ she says, ‘but I wish I’d known that once off the medication, some people can find it simply impossible not to regain the weight.’

Rosie put a stone back on in just a month after stopping jabbing in early 2023. What’s worse, when she started using the same drug again, under a different brand name, she found it no longer worked.

‘My appetite wasn’t suppressed and my cravings for sugar and carbs were not silenced, as they had been when I’d first used it,’ she says. ‘Weight kept creeping on; injecting was achieving nothing.’

Rosie admits she was ‘desperate’ when she first turned to the medication back in 2022.

‘My biggest problem is my addiction to sugar and stodgy carbs,’ says Rosie. ‘I wasn’t gorging on takeaways or eating enormous portions, but when it came to sweets, chocolate, puddings and bread, I had little to no self-control.

‘Even as a child, I used to wait until my mother was distracted and raid the cupboards for Smarties or resort to eating chocolate chips for baking.

‘For other people, it’s alcohol or cigarettes, but for me it’s always been sweet and comforting foods.’

Rosie yo-yoed between a size 10 and 18 throughout her 20s, trying everything from diets and slimming pills to weight-loss clubs to keep her weight under control. ‘It required so much effort,’ she says. ‘I’d have to think about every mouthful, exercise twice a day, and it was all-consuming physically and mentally. I’d lose weight, put it all back on and start again.’

After marrying in her mid-20s, she went on to have her triplets, now 12, followed shortly by a fourth child, now 11.

‘I did gain weight during both my pregnancies but after having all my children, I was a size 18 and around 15.2st. My marriage ended after my fourth child was born so I was a single parent, which only made it harder to find time to think about my diet and lifestyle.’

It was during and after the pandemic that Rosie gained weight even more quickly. ‘I suppose I gave up,’ she says. ‘I’d buy a loaf of cheesy bread from Waitrose, and polish off the whole thing with oil and balsamic vinegar after the children went to bed, then reach for a bar of chocolate.

‘By the start of 2022, I weighed 19.5st and was wearing size 22 clothes, the biggest I’d ever been. At 5ft 5in, with a BMI of 45, I was classed as morbidly obese.

‘My joints ached and I suffered from terrible acid reflux. But I was so big by then, it felt like an impossible task to lose it. I really couldn’t see a way out.’

In 2022, Rosie came across an online post about Ozempic, which launched in the UK in 2019 for people with Type 2 diabetes, calling it a ‘cheat code for weight-loss’.

Intrigued, she booked a consultation with a private online pharmacy and started paying around £80 a month for a prescription.

‘It did seem a bit too good to be true that the liquid in this little pen would solve my problems,’ she says. ‘And I did feel worried about how my body would react in terms of side effects. But I was willing to try anything.’

A couple of days after her first injection of the lowest dose of Ozempic, she noticed she could only manage a few small mouthfuls of her usual brownie at a local cafe.

‘I would have usually polished it off in moments, and long for a second one,’ she says, ‘So this was totally surreal and unheard of. I realised, excitedly, the medication was working.’

Rosie describes what followed as a wholly positive experience without side effects, other than initial fatigue: ‘My appetite suppressed, I prioritised protein, fruit and veg to ensure I got the nutrients I needed.

‘If I did want something sweet or carby, a mouthful or two would satisfy me. I struggled to eat even 1,000 calories a day, and began going to the gym several times a week to tone and strengthen my body as the weight came off.

I’d become this disciplined, healthy, active person I’d always dreamed of being – it felt fantastic.’

In just ten months, as she gradually moved from the lowest to the highest dose of Ozempic, Rosie shed an astonishing 8st, dropping from 19.5st to 11.5st and a size 22 to a 10 or 12.

‘I had to invest in a whole new wardrobe, although I did store away some of my bigger clothes. I had no plans whatsoever to be fat again, but it felt like a huge step to throw them all out.

‘After years of feeling invisible and frumpy, I realised I was turning heads when I walked down the street. People were so complimentary and I was totally open about how I’d lost weight. Friends and school mums began jabbing too.

‘It was such an incredibly happy time, filled with confidence and relief that, finally, my weight was no longer such a source of unhappiness and struggle.’

But it was short-lived. In early 2023, Rosie’s weight loss plateaued: ‘I’d got stuck at 11.5 stone, even though my goal had been a stone lighter than that.

‘I was on the highest dose of Ozempic by then, paying £180 a month, and it felt an expensive way to maintain the same weight.

‘I made a decision I now regret – to come off the medication and maintain my new weight myself.’

Like many people, Rosie believed that her year on GLP-1 medication had not only transformed her body, but also her willpower, appetite and mindset: ‘I’d forgotten what hunger and cravings felt like – and how much power they can wield.’

Sure enough, after a month, Rosie was able to consume more at mealtimes and her sugar cravings returned: ‘My clothes were getting tighter and I could feel the sense of control I’d had for so long slipping away from me, as I reached for a big bag of sweets or a slice of cake at work. I felt panicked, I didn’t want everything I’d achieved to unravel.’

In October 2023, weighing just over 12.5st, Rosie went back on the jabs. She paid for a prescription of Wegovy, a new drug containing the same active ingredient (semaglutide) as Ozempic but for weight loss, which was by then in short supply.

To her shock, Wegovy had barely any effect.

‘I couldn’t believe it,’ she says. ‘It was so upsetting to have discovered this miracle, realised I couldn’t cope without it… and now it wasn’t working.’

After a few months, Rosie switched to Mounjaro, a tirzepatide, described as the ‘King Kong’ of jabs due to its effectiveness.

‘People were raving about how effective it was, so I was hopeful it would get me back on track,’ says Rosie. ‘The first two doses, 2.5mg and 5mg, were not very effective though. I had some appetite suppression but not enough to lose any weight, so I escalated to the next level, 7.5mg, which cost £200 per month.

‘The side effects were horrendous. I could barely get off the loo and was violently ill, with embarrassing sulphur burps.

‘I lost a small amount of weight but that was more down to sickness than anything else, and I was too poorly to go to the gym.

‘I couldn’t live that way, especially with a job and four children to care for. It wasn’t sustainable or healthy to be so sick all the time.’

In May 2025, Rosie came off Mounjaro and hasn’t jabbed since.

Ozempic, which had worked for her, is no longer available in the UK for weight loss purposes and is reserved for patients with Type 2 diabetes following supply issues due to the high demand. As Wegovy, its replacement with the same active ingredient, had no impact on her, she doesn’t believe there is any point trying it again.

Plus, prices have escalated, which is an added consideration.

‘Eight months on, I now weigh 15.5st, having regained half of what I originally lost,’ she says. ‘It’s been devastating to find myself back here, pulling my size 18 clothes out of the wardrobe again.

‘Without the medication, I’ve tried to have protein smoothies and chia seeds to fill myself up, but it’s a constant battle against my desire for sweets, cake and chocolate.

‘I’ve stopped going to the gym because I just don’t have the same energy, which hasn’t helped. All the muscle and tone I gained has gone now.

‘On my work website and social media account, there are images and reels from when I was at my slimmest. Now I look nothing like that. I see clients do a double take when they meet me in person, and I feel embarrassed.’

Rosie says she knows people who have managed to maintain their weight loss after jabs, but acknowledges she is not one of them.

‘With hindsight, I would have stayed on Ozempic to maintain my weight loss,’ she says, ‘But by now, with price increases, I’m not sure I could have afforded to carry on much longer, paying thousands of pounds a year for the highest dose.’

These days Rosie is focusing on not gaining – as opposed to losing – weight.

‘I really don’t want to end up back to almost 20st again,’ she says. ‘When I look at myself in the mirror, I feel gutted at how far backwards I’ve gone. I long to be my 2022 self again. She was so happy and confident.

‘I live in hope of a new drug coming along that is an affordable, effective long-term tool for people like me, who simply can’t stay slim without help.’

Additional reporting: Matthew Barbour

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