ABOUT 20 years ago a dear pal of mine – a naturally muscular rugby player type from Bradford – once mocked me on holiday when I emerged by the pool in a pair of swim shorts.
“Mate,”;; he guffawed, “you look like E.T.”;;
And he was right. I have a naturally, unusually large – but not actually fat – torso and spindly limbs. And I do, indeed, look like something out of .
That was still preferable, however, to the Jabba the Hut I then became over the subsequent two decades.
All that was reversed, however, when I started taking and lost three stone in six months. I reversed my , restored my piece of mind and something that looked more like my old self.
I certainly couldn’t have gone on the way I was.
By last September I was tipping the scales at 17 stone which, even for someone 6ft 2ins tall, still made me .
For about five years I’d been . If I didn’t (1) more and (2) improve , I was on a fast-track to getting full . Of course, I did neither.
So my latest blood sugar readings landed in my inbox about eight months ago confirming that, yes, I now officially had the condition, one that my older relatives also had.
If that weren’t enough, just months earlier my brother, who also has diabetes but doesn’t , had suffered a at the age of 57.
This was a particular shock because our dad had his first heart attack aged 54 and had another one at 59 that killed him. I’d just turned 20 when he passed away.
Now I was about to enter my fifties. With almost a 38 inch waist and arms and legs that were becoming flabby, I now longed for the days when I looked like ET. At least I was a ET and, heck, at least some parts of me were skinny.
So last September I started the jabs, which cost me about £220 from . After an online assessment via emails and pictures sent to a doctor, my pack arrived in the post and my first injection was on a Friday night.
It was remarkably easy. As someone who’s not a fan of needles, I was surprised by how tiny it was.
It’s like a centimetre long, stiff hair. The needles they take your bloods with at the doctors will suddenly look like javelins.
Then when I woke up on the Saturday, my hunger – which was invariably ravenous in the mornings – had evaporated.
I skipped the usual and went for a brunch affair, but even then I couldn’t eat much. Usually, by about 2pm I’d be grumpy, retching and light-headed as my blood sugars plunged but none of that happened. Instead I pushed through till dinner when I had a full and proper meal.
And it’s pretty much been a similar pattern for the past six to eight months.
Mounjaro worked for me by sapping the hunger and the side effects of not eating
immediately, first a few ounces then more as the dose intensity increased and I got used to when I could and should eat (my tip is try to eat three times a day, but only as much as you’re able to physically muster).
I lost, on average, about half a stone a month, and after about three months I could see the – smaller man boobs, flatter stomach, and a waist that shrank back down to about 32 inches.
worked for me by sapping the hunger and the side effects of not eating.
‘Vicious cycle’
It basically allowed me to break the vicious cycle I was on – I ate. I got bigger. My bigger body demanded more fuel. I ate more.
Crucially it cuts out most of the food noise that consciously and subconsciously seeps into our busy, daily lives – the shops, cafes, , , vending machines and bags of birthday sweet treats in the office we can’t resist.
There were side effects for me, however, and they’re not always the things you’d bring up at refined dinner parties.
Constipation is one (the drug makes you feel fuller for long by slowing down your digestive system) and diminished was another.
Why? My own theory is that you lose that brain buzz you get just before you enjoy something. That’s whether it’s a chocolate bar, a pint, or any other thrill-giver.
But since I don’t intend to be on the jabs forever, it’s a small, temporary price to pay.
The problem with fat jabs is that, unlike many women, lots of men see anything to do with dieting as trivial and faddy and are either dismissive or wary of it
And I actually found I enjoyed mealtimes MORE because when I chose my grub I did it on the basis of what intrigued me, not what was guaranteed to fill me up and satisfy that buzz.
Crucially Mounjaro won’t transform you into an Adonis. The weight fell of me unevenly, so I STILL have a disproportionately large torso and skinny limbs.
But I know that just means I need to to even things out.
It is a life-changing, perhaps life-changing circuit-breaker that helped to reset my , however.
The biggest positive change is that my important have fallen by a third, indicating I’ve officially gone from being diabetic, through the pre-diabetic banding, deep into the normal category. Which is staggering in six months.
In fact the biggest hindrance to the whole process is perhaps the most unexpected.
It’s a chronic condition called “Being a bloke.”;;
The problem with fat jabs is that, unlike many women, lots of men see anything to do as trivial and faddy and are either dismissive or wary of it.
Ironic, really, given that at the other end of the male spectrum are gym junkies who think nothing of injecting themselves with .
The trouble is there will be loads of fellas out there who will be struggling with their health and, like me, want to do something about it, but can’t because they’re too busy, too preoccupied, too sceptical.
Crucially, they’ll also think it seems a tad too vain.
To them I simply say this: that after mocking me for looking like ET, my muscular mate from also slammed on three stone over the same 15 year period.
Then, magically, he lost it all over the past six months and looks and feels fantastic... and, no, it wasn’t from playing more rugby.
