One of the main questions that people ask is if I am having any side effects from taking the medication. Personally the only immediate effect that I am experiencing is weight loss, though common comments mention diarrhoea and 'sulphur burps'. Mounjaro gives you the opportunity to lose weight but during this time you should be developing a better relationship with food, making more suitable and healthful choices so that when you achieve your target weight you are equipped to better manage hunger and your daily diet.  Having a sensible diet will reduce the likelihood and severity of side effects, so I start off my day with overnight oats - oats soaked overnight in milk with some greek yoghurt, chia seeds and some kind of fresh fruit. The fibre contained in the oats is good for your digestion and will also help with cholesterol levels, the chia seeds will encourage healthy bacteria in your gut to thrive, the greek yoghurt will give you a protein source making you feel fuller for l...

These weight loss drugs are not cheap. Each pen is designed to be used for four doses lasting four weeks (more on that later) and cost anything from about £130 upwards depending on the dose (stronger dose pens are more expensive). In the UK, Mounjaro is not currently available on the NHS unless you have type-2 diabetes, though this will shortly change for people with a BMI over 40 and three weight related health conditions. So how can it be made more affordable?  Currently all of the GLP-1 weight loss drugs can only be manufactured by the companies that developed them as they are protected by patent which generally lasts for 20 years. It will sadly be a long time before generic versions become available which will make them hugely cheaper. These drugs have been thoroughly tested over many years, but there is a very slim risk that other effects may still be discovered. Assuming this not to be the case, the impact of truly affordable weight loss medication is very exciting. The lives...

Suddenly not feeling hungry is a bizarre feeling. People in support groups and forums are calling it a supression of 'Food Noise', and for me in the past that noise was loud and clear! Although Mounjaro/Zepbound does alter the way that food transits through your body and the way your body uses energy, the mechanism to lose weight for most people is to eat less calories. If you can add exercise into the equation then it's certainly going to help, but to burn off a Mars bar you have to run at a decent pace for 23 minutes!  I think in the past, part of the problem for losing weight is motivation. All too often I have felt that I am putting in a huge effort trying to shift the pounds and after weeks of concerted effort the dial on the scales hardly moves and I have given up. Sometimes it is important to also monitor what people are calling Non-Scale Victories (NSV's). I passed a string around the largest part of my torso and cut it to length. Other NSV's are dropping a ...