Karen Lay says the injections won’t work for everyone but she found a way to lose three stone
A woman who paid more than £4,100 for weight loss jabs says she lost just 11lbs in 15 months and was left ‘heartbroken’ Karen Lay, 56, says she was tempted to try the jabs after friends lost up to six stone.
The 56-year-old gradually increased her dose in line with medical guidance, having started taking the medication at 16 stone and while wearing a UK size 18. After only losing 4lbs in nine months on one jab she switched to a different one – but didn’t lose more than another 5lbs in the six months that followed.
Now, she is speaking out to warn other users not to assume they are a “miracle fix” – having gone on to lose more than two stone with a more traditional diet plan. “I turned to injections out of sheer desperation,” said Karen, from Essex.
“I had spent decades dieting, regaining and feeling completely defeated by my weight. I was also suffering from a respiratory issue, which I knew my weight would exacerbate.”
Karen said she suspected from the start that the jabs weren’t working for her. She said: “S omething wasn’t right, but I kept pushing through because I assumed I must be doing something wrong, My appetite reduced slightly at first, but not enough to make a meaningful difference, so I increased the dosage each month.”
Even when she switched the weight wouldn’t drop – while friends were having success. Karen said: “It was especially difficult when, during the same period, I watched friends lose five or six stone on the same medication. I realised the injections simply weren’t effective for me and something had to change.”
The financial services worker was advised to stop treatment by her doctor, as they were concerned that she wasn’t eating enough. By that stage, Karen had spent £4.100 while losing just 11lbs overall.
Karen said: “It was emotionally exhausting and honestly quite soul‑destroying. We all know that comparison is the thief of joy, but it’s incredibly hard not to compare when people who were much larger than me were seeing their weight melt away.
“Everywhere I looked, people were having huge success on these medications and I felt like the only one failing. It made me feel broken, like my body wasn’t responding the way it should. It was deeply disheartening.
“It’s hard when you’ve spent thousands and you’re seeing other people lose six to seven stone in less time. It made me question whether it was worth it and what was wrong with me because it didn’t really work.”
One of the most difficult experiences came when she had to stop treatment for four weeks while transitioning between the two medications. She said: “I had to stop for four weeks to allow the drug to clear my system. That was the worst food noise I have ever experienced.
“It was constant, overwhelming and I gained over seven pounds in that short period. When I stopped the injections for good, the food noise returned, but this time I had support through starting The 1:1 Diet plan.
“Understanding the why behind my eating made a huge difference, and I was far better equipped to manage it. Once the medication was fully out of my system, I began to feel genuinely better. My energy returned, my digestion improved, and the constipation disappeared.”
Within a year, Karen reduced her body fat percentage from 42% to 31% and dropped to a size 12, the smallest dress size she had worn in 17 years – weighing in at 13st 5lbs. Today, she describes herself as fitter, leaner and healthier than she felt while taking the injections.
Karen, who has recently trained as a 1:1 Diet consultant, believes one of the biggest misconceptions surrounding weight loss jabs is that they are a guaranteed solution. She said: “I think there’s a misconception that jabs are a magic fix. For some people, they work brilliantly, but for others like me, they just don’t.
“What changed for me wasn’t medication. It was proper nutrition, structure, accountability, and rebuilding my relationship with food. For me, it’s what’s next after taking the medication, as they stop you medically from eating but don’t provide you with that ‘why’.
“I feel that without that support to understand ‘why’ there’s a high risk of regaining the weight lost. That’s the concern that I hear from my friends who are on jabs.
“As for me, I feel the best I’ve felt in years, and I want people to know there is hope to break the diet cycle even if the injections don’t work for them. I also noticed that once I started fuelling my body properly and losing weight, my other medications, including asthma treatment, reduced or stopped entirely.
“On The 1:1 Diet, once the GLP‑1 drugs were out of my system, I rarely experienced the extreme food noise I’d had on previous diets. With structure and proper nutrition, I felt more in control than I had in years.”
