I lost 18st on Mounjaro after embarrassing ‘overload' message on the scales – I was a heart attack waiting to happen

The Sun

05-05-2025

A DAD lost more than half his body weight on Mounjaro injections after his scales flashed an "embarrassing" overload message while he was weighing himself.
Bryan Spark, 49, credited the drugs for saving his life and stopping him from "eating himself to death".
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On an average day, Bryan would eat over 5,000 calories - double what the NHS recommends for the average man - finishing off his son's dinners, eating whole packs of biscuits, and drinking litres of fizzy drinks.
The dad-of-three, from Castle Douglas, Dumfries and Galloway, decided enough was enough in November 2023, after seeing a picture of himself at his son's birthday party.
At 33-stone, he couldn't tie his own shoes or see his bathroom scales beneath his stomach.
Now, he's lost 18 stone – which he credits to starting the £200 per month weight loss injection Saxenda and, later, NHS-prescribed Mounjaro.
Bryan said: 'It was embarrassing, it was horrendous. My wife was writing down my weights because I couldn't see the scale.
'That sounds really stupid, but the size of my chest and stomach – I couldn't see the scale anyway.
'When I stopped off it, it said 'overload' on the screen.'
A full-time carer for his son and wife, Bryan decided to make his goal losing 10 stone – through a combination of diet and exercise, assisted by the weight loss injections.
Bryan bought an exercise bike and went through three saddles after the pins bent under him.
He said: 'I just kept replacing the seat and kept going, it's when I started cycling like that, I felt myself getting a bit healthier, being able to breathe a bit easier.
Can drinking nothing but fizzy water for two weeks really help me shed my excess weight
'I was always out of breath going up the stairs and literally doing anything.
'It was just horrendous, when you start seeing the difference, when your t-shirts are far too big for you.
'In the first six months I lost close to eight stone, it was just a huge difference.'
Now a keen cyclist, Bryan, who now weighs 15 stone is planning a 1,000-mile charity bike ride from Lands End to John O'Groats in 2026, to celebrate his 50th birthday.
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He thanked his doctor for giving him the motivation to go to a weight loss clinic, saying he "wouldn't have survived" without his drastic lifestyle changes.
He said: 'I see in the news and the papers all the time, it always says 'this could happen to you if you take these injections', and tonnes could go wrong.
'There's not a huge amount of positive stories out there – it's been life saving, I don't think I would have lived much longer, I was a heart attack waiting to happen, amongst other things.
'I was eating myself to death really.'
Everything you need to know about fat jabs
Weight loss jabs are all the rage as studies and patient stories reveal they help people shed flab at almost unbelievable rates, as well as appearing to reduce the risk of serious diseases.
Wegovy – a modified version of type 2 diabetes drug Ozempic – and Mounjaro are the leading weight loss injections used in the UK.
Wegovy, real name semaglutide, has been used on the NHS for years while Mounjaro (tirzepatide) is a newer and more powerful addition to the market.
Mounjaro accounts for most private prescriptions for weight loss and is set to join Wegovy as an NHS staple this year.
How do they work?
The jabs work by suppressing your appetite, making you eat less so your body burns fat for energy instead and you lose weight.
They do this my mimicking a hormone called GLP-1, which signals to the brain when the stomach is full, so the drugs are officially called GLP-1 receptor agonists.
They slow down digestion and increase insulin production, lowering blood sugar, which is why they were first developed to treat type 2 diabetes in which patients' sugar levels are too high.
Can I get them?
NHS prescriptions of weight loss drugs, mainly Wegovy and an older version called Saxenda (chemical name liraglutide), are controlled through specialist weight loss clinics.
Typically a patient will have to have a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher, classifying them as medically obese, and also have a weight-related health condition such as high blood pressure.
GPs generally do not prescribe the drugs for weight loss.
Private prescribers offer the jabs, most commonly Mounjaro, to anyone who is obese (BMI of 30+) or overweight (BMI 25-30) with a weight-related health risk.
Private pharmacies have been rapped for handing them out too easily and video calls or face-to-face appointments are now mandatory to check a patient is being truthful about their size and health.
Are there any risks?
Yes – side effects are common but most are relatively mild.
Around half of people taking the drug experience gut issues, including sickness, bloating, acid reflux, constipation and diarrhoea.
Dr Sarah Jarvis, GP and clinical consultant at patient.info, said: 'One of the more uncommon side effects is severe acute pancreatitis, which is extremely painful and happens to one in 500 people.'
Other uncommon side effects include altered taste, kidney problems, allergic reactions, gallbladder problems and hypoglycemia.
Evidence has so far been inconclusive about whether the injections are damaging to patients' mental health.
Figures obtained by The Sun show that, up to January 2025, 85 patient deaths in the UK were suspected to be linked to the medicines.
He added: 'My attitude towards life has improved, I'm a lot happier in myself.
'My family have supported everything, my wife loved me no matter what size I was, but obviously she was concerned about the size of me and illnesses.
'The differences, my goodness I can do stuff. I can go for walks, I can tie my shoelaces, it's stupid things.
'My stomach was in the way, I always wore slip-on trainers and put my laces in my shoes because I couldn't do it.
'I was struggling with everything, it sounds a bit dramatic, but literally I was struggling with everything and not able to do much.'