The fat burning injection used by cCelebrities like Rebel Wilson, Sharon Osbourne, Stephen Fry and Elon Musk have helped thousands of people lose weight.
Now, several MPs have also confessed to receiving weekly ‘game-changing’ injections.
Last week, Conservative Party leadership candidate Robert Jenrick revealed he took the weight-loss drug Ozempic “for a short period of time” in an attempt to lose weight.
The former immigration minister, who is hoping to replace Rishi Sunak, lost four stone in 12 months after realising he was “overweight”.
However, he is not the only politician who has confirmed his foray into weight loss injections.
Conservative Party leadership candidate Robert Jenrick, pictured earlier this month, has revealed how he took the weight-loss drug Ozempic “for a short period of time”.
The former immigration minister, pictured in July last year, has lost 20kg in 12 months after realising he was “overweight”.
Semaglutide injections, the genetic name for the Ozempic and Wegovy vaccines, mimic GLP-1, a hormone produced naturally in the body that helps slow the passage of food through the stomach, making people feel less hungry.
This alters the brain’s appetite regulation so that people feel full despite eating less and also do not experience cravings for sugary and fatty foods.
As a result, people don’t eat as much and lose weight.
They were originally designed to treat type 2 diabetes, but have gained attention as a weight loss drug among several celebrities.
But there have been warnings about serious side effects from the drug, including nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
Mr Jenrick, 42, said Ozempic had been “helpful” but he had “not particularly enjoyed it” and had since “lost weight in the usual way, eating less… doing some exercise”.
Speaking to Politico about his own use of Ozempic, the Conservative MP for Newark said: “To be honest, I was overweight.
‘I took Ozempic for a short period of time, I didn’t particularly enjoy it, but it was helpful.
Since then I have been losing weight regularly, eating less, eating healthier, doing some exercise: going to the gym, going for a run.
“I’ve lost 20 kilos in 12 months.”
Semaglutide, as well as rival drugs liraglutide and tirzepatide, have been hailed as monumental advances in the war on obesity.
Boris Johnson, pictured in 2023, wrote in the Daily Mail about his rollercoaster ride in Ozempic
After the injections began to make him feel unwell, Boris, pictured in 2020, gave up the injections in favour of “exercise and willpower”.
Boris Johnson, 60, also admitted using the drug to shed pounds.
The former Conservative MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip wrote in the Daily Mail about his rollercoaster ride in Ozempic after it was recommended to him by a Cabinet colleague.
“It’s a piece of cake,” the doctor said. “All you have to do is inject a small dose of clear Ozempic liquid into your abdomen once a week, and voila, no more raiding the fridge at 11:30 p.m. for cheddar and chorizo washed down with half a bottle of wine.”
“For weeks I was pinching my stomach and it worked. Effortlessly, I stopped eating desserts and repeating. I must have been losing between five and five pounds a week, maybe more,” she wrote.
But after the injections began to make him feel ill, he gave them up in favour of “exercise and willpower”.
But she added that she might return when slimming drugs are refined: “I look at my colleagues, thinner but not hungrier, and hope that if science can do it for them, maybe one day it can help me and everyone else.”
Nadine Dorries before she made the decision to jump on the Ozempic bandwagon: her excess weight was mainly around her waist.
Nadine Dorries, 67, a former Conservative MP for central Bedfordshire, admitted she had also jumped on the “Ozempic bandwagon”.
Two years ago, when she was still Culture Secretary, her doctor told her she was prediabetic and recommended she lose “at least 5.5 kilos.”
But even after dieting and coming out of the “pre-diabetes” state, she was told she still needed to lose weight.
A blood test revealed he had non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, a buildup of fat in the liver common in overweight and obese people that can lead to more serious damage later in life.
Dorries started practicing yoga, pilates and walking more, but still the scales didn’t budge.
Over time, she began taking Mounjaro, the brand name for tirzepatide, a drug that activates two receptors: GLP-1 (which Ozempic also targets) and another called GIP, which slows the rate at which food is digested and lowers blood sugar.
Like Ozempic, Mounjaro suppresses your appetite and stops you from thinking about food, meaning you lose all interest in it and eat much less than you normally would.
In the Daily Mail she wrote: “I had no appetite, but I didn’t miss food either. I just didn’t think about it the way I do when I’m on a diet, when the ever-present feeling of hunger makes you constantly wonder when and what you can eat next.”
After three weeks of taking the drug, she fainted and admitted that she had simply forgotten to eat for almost 24 hours.
But by the end of the first month I had lost almost 4 kilos.
In July she wrote: ‘I’m going to continue for a second month (a doctor from the website called me to chat about everything when I placed my second order) and then stop.
“When I’m done, I’ll weigh 45kg, which will put me at 23 BMI, well within healthy limits. But I’m not going to just keep going. I have to get there, which will require a certain amount of self-discipline.”