Scots woman says trying to lose weight was like a 'full-time job'
Healthcare worker Connie Bulloch, 28, has now shed five stone after hearing other success stories.
A woman who lost five stone while on Mounjaro says weight management used to be "like a full-time job."
Healthcare worker Connie Bulloch, 28, from Cambuslang had struggled with her weight for years - but after undergoing an unrelated operation last March and gaining a stone and a half, she was desperate to find a solution.
Despite watching her diet and regularly attending sessions with a personal trainer, Connie struggled to shift the weight, and began looking into medical interventions.
At 15 stone 10lbs, she was too light to qualify for weight loss surgery on the NHS, and she worried that travelling abroad for an operation would be too risky - but after hearing success stories with weight loss drug Mounjaro, she began the process of obtaining a private prescription.
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"I was working with my personal trainer, and had been for two years," said Connie.
"I was maintaining weight, or sometimes even putting on a few pounds, and I just wasn't happy with it. It was like a full-time job - constantly having to go to the gym, constantly watching what I'm eating.
"If I'd eat a takeaway, I'd have put on two pounds by the end of the weekend. Then I went for an operation around March last year, and it took me a while to recover from that - and I put on a stone and a half.
"It got to me - it was one of those things where I needed the weight off and I needed to do something now. I was looking at surgeries abroad to help me lose the weight, but it didn't seem reasonable for me.
"The NHS wouldn't accept me for the surgery waitlist because I wasn't heavy enough. I was thinking about it for about a month. I've got kidney disease, so that was one of the main concerns. If it was going to affect my kidneys, it wouldn't be worth it.
"At the beginning, I was convinced I'd be the person that dies taking this drug, but after a while, I saw lots more people trying it and having success stories, so I thought I'd give it a go. I did it through an online pharmacy.
"I filled out the form, took pictures of my body, and took a picture of the scale with my weight on it. I sent that away, and they got back to me within a few days to say that I'd been accepted, and the prescription would be sent out with 24 hour delivery."
Mounjaro, a brand name for weight loss drug tirzepatide, works by mimicking the hormones released by the body after a meal, so the user experiences the feeling of fullness and encourages the body to burn fat.
It is only available through private prescriptions in the UK, and Connie - despite being nervous about the side effects - decided to fork out £180 for her first month of four injections.
In her first week, she lost one pound - and after a month on a 2.5mg dosage, she upped her dosage to 5mg. However, the side effects became too intense, so she quickly reduced her dosage, and has since maintained the lower dosage for nearly a full year.
"At the beginning, I didn't think it was going to work for me," she said. "I'd heard about people losing five or six pounds a week on it, and on my very first week, I only lost a pound.
"A pound is great, but I think I was just expecting more from it - but I've always been a slow loser. I thought at the beginning that I'd have to go up a dose every four weeks, so I went up to 5mg, but I was really unwell with it.
"I couldn't eat and I was vomiting, so I went back down to the lower dose and stayed on that."
Connie has now lost five stone and three pounds while on Mounjaro, and hopes to lose a further stone. She has begun sharing her story in the hopes of reducing the stigma around medical intervention for weight loss - but warns that the drug isn't an instant cure.
"It'll be a year next month that I've been on it, and it's been really good," she said. "I still need to use some of my willpower because I'm not on the higher doses, but I've been able to lose or maintain my weight - I've never gained anything in the year I've done it.
"I think a lot of people are scared to try it at the beginning, and I felt like that myself. I think hearing more success stories instead of all the negatives is really good.
"There's a lot of women in the same boat as me, where it's maybe hormonal reasons why they can't lose weight or they struggle to keep weight off. This has made it so much easier for me.
"My mindset is much better - but it's not a cure. I still have bad days where I look in the mirror and see who I was five stone ago. Some days I really love myself and some days I still hate myself, so it's not cured that side of things."
Connie believes that there is an unfair stigma around the drug - but urges anyone considering it to ensure they've exhausted all non-medical routes to weight loss first.
"There are lots of people out there that find it easy to keep weight off, but there are a lot more factors that go into why people are overweight. This will just make it so much more simple for people.
"I think as long as people have tried everything non-medical, like eating well and exercising, and they're still not able to keep the weight off, then this is definitely the right thing for them - but it's important to still hold yourself responsible and source it properly."
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