Karen Lay, 56, from Essex, spent more than £4,100 on weight loss injections over 15 months but lost only 11lbs. She described the experience as 'heartbreaking' and is now warning others not to see the jabs as a 'miracle fix'. After switching to a traditional diet plan, she lost over two stone.
Jabs failed to deliver results
Karen started taking the medication at 16 stone and wearing a UK size 18. She gradually increased her dose following medical guidance. After nine months on one jab, she had lost just 4lbs. She then switched to a different jab but lost only another 5lbs over six months.
“I turned to injections out of sheer desperation,” said Karen. “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.”
She suspected from the start that the jabs weren't working. “Something 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 after switching, the weight wouldn't drop while friends were losing five or six stone. “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.”
Doctor advised stopping treatment
Karen's doctor advised her to stop the jabs due to concerns she wasn't eating enough. By then, she had spent £4,100 and lost only 11lbs overall. “It was emotionally exhausting and honestly quite soul-destroying,” she said. “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.”
During a four-week transition between medications, she had to stop treatment. “That was the worst food noise I have ever experienced. It was constant, overwhelming and I gained over seven pounds in that short period.”
Success with The 1:1 Diet
After stopping the jabs for good, Karen started 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, her body fat percentage dropped from 42% to 31%, and she went from a size 18 to a size 12 – the smallest in 17 years – weighing 13st 5lbs. She now describes herself as fitter, leaner and healthier than when taking the injections.
Warning about misconceptions
Karen, now a trained 1:1 Diet consultant, believes many people wrongly see the jabs as a guaranteed solution. “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.”
She added: “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.”
Karen also noted that once she started fuelling her body properly, her 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.”
