Home Health Ozempic didn’t work for me because I kept making this big mistake. Then the doctors told me the amazing unknown secret to using weight loss injections correctly and keeping your figure slim when you stop doing them.

Ozempic didn’t work for me because I kept making this big mistake. Then the doctors told me the amazing unknown secret to using weight loss injections correctly and keeping your figure slim when you stop doing them.

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Rhiannon Doyle is pictured in 2019, before her weight loss regime

My patient was in pieces. A 52-year-old mother of three, whom we will call Lisa, told me between sobs that she felt like a failure. Like many women, Lisa had struggled with her weight for years.

It had left her self-conscious. And, worst of all, no diet or exercise program had worked.

Then hope finally arrived in the form of revolutionary weight-loss injections: originally an off-label use of the diabetes treatment Ozempic and later including Wegovy and Mounjaro.

Lisa started receiving weekly injections to suppress her appetite early last year, which she purchased from an online pharmacy. And for six months it worked: he ate smaller, healthier meals and managed to lose about three kilos.

Rhiannon Doyle is pictured in 2019, before her weight loss regime

However, once she reached a weight she was comfortable with, Lisa made a big mistake: she stopped punching. And in a matter of months his weight skyrocketed.

She had come to us desperate, saying she needed the medication again.

It’s a story we hear often at Slimmr, the private weight-loss clinic I co-founded. Patients reach their ideal weight and feel good about themselves. Then, due to initial success, they decide that the medications have done their job and simply stop taking them.

In almost all cases their weight goes back up. Then they start the injections again and the whole cycle repeats.

We call it ‘the Ozempic yo-yo’ because it’s like the long-standing problem of yo-yo dieting, where people go through a pattern of repeatedly losing weight and then gaining it back.

Those who cannot get a prescription for weight loss injections on the NHS often turn to online pharmacies, but do not get any specialist advice. So they decide for themselves when it is right to stop taking the hits, which leads them to regain weight.

It is demoralizing, unhealthy, psychologically damaging, and often a costly waste of money. It’s also something that I personally feel very strongly about, because I went through a very similar experience.

When I was 20, I was naturally tall and thin and didn’t really have to worry about my weight at all.

But when I was 30, things changed. Although I live in London, I come from a large Welsh family where food was much more than just fuel – it was used for comfort and celebration.

I had always loved drinks, particularly pints of lager and pale ale, and as the years went by the weight started to pile on.

At my heaviest I was 16 kilos and a size 18. I was officially obese and my GP warned me that my cholesterol was too high.

Rhiannon, seen today, now weighs nine and a half stone after taking Mounjaro this year.

Rhiannon, seen today, now weighs nine and a half stone after taking Mounjaro this year.

I tried so hard to diet and exercise, but nothing helped. So I panicked and looked for a quick solution.

In January 2023 I found an online pharmacy that sold me Ozempic without asking questions. I started receiving weekly injections and gradually increased the dosage.

It costs between £180 and £280 a month but it was worth it. The ‘eating noise’ disappeared, all those maddening thoughts about eating. In one year I had lost three and a half kilos and dropped to a size 14.

I still had more weight to lose but I felt like I could do it on my own.

So I just stopped the injections. But after a few weeks I could feel myself falling back into old habits, comfort eating and procrastinating eating.

By the end of the month I had regained about half a kilo, so I resumed hitting. And that was the cycle. I would lose weight, stop the treatment, gain weight again, repeat.

In recent years, medications such as Wegovy and Mounjaro have transformed obesity treatment. They work by using an appetite suppressant known as a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist. Studies show that obese patients receiving GLP-1 injections can lose up to 20 percent of their body weight in a year.

However, research also shows that more than half of those who stop taking the medications regain at least two-thirds of the weight they lost. Almost one in five regains all the weight, or even overcomes it.

This is largely because patients stop the medication and see their appetite return with a vengeance. This is thought to happen because, after dramatic weight loss, the body thinks it is starving, which triggers intense hunger pangs. There’s even a term to describe it: rebound hunger.

Now many experts warn that GLP-1 patients will have to continue receiving the injections for life. The doctors I work with at the Slimmr clinic believe there is a solution that allows patients to stop receiving the injections.

Once our patients reach their desired weight, they are switched to a much lower “maintenance” dose, which is approximately half their previous dose. It means they stop losing weight but they don’t gain it back either.

Most importantly, it gives your body time to get used to your new weight and no longer think you are starving. Most of our patients stay on this maintenance dose for about a year and then stop injections completely.

We combine this treatment with exercise classes, psychological support and the option of specialist dieticians and psychotherapy.

It is important to note that the use of these small doses remains an experimental practice, since there are no clinical trials that analyze their effect. And it’s certainly something patients should never attempt without medical supervision.

However, our patients have had fantastic results. And I have also benefited from the approach.

In February I started receiving a weekly injection of Mounjaro and gradually increased the dose. Not only did I lose the weight I had regained, but I also lost more and now weigh nine and a half kilos. And in October I switched to a weekly maintenance dose, which I plan to maintain for half a year.

It means I can maintain the same weight without having to think about it too much. I enjoy the food. I enjoy cooking. I enjoy going out to eat. I just don’t have cravings.

It’s lovely when people say, ‘Oh, you look really great’ and I feel more confident in myself. But the real benefit is my health.

  • Rhiannon Doyle is co-founder of private weight loss clinic Slimmr (getslimmr.co.uk).

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