IT ONCE boasted over five million subscribers and saw one million of us stepping onto the scales every year.
But Weight Watchers is now filing for bankruptcy after slimmers are increasingly turning to fat jabs to shed the pounds.
6
6
And former Weight Watchers leader Dianne Carabine isn’t surprised after spending £2k on weight loss injections after becoming sick of ‘fad diets.’
Tipping the scales at 15st 7lbs and struggling to squeeze into a size 20 at her biggest, Dianne, 39, says she’d “tried everything” to slim down.
She trialled intermittent fasting, shake and soup diets and detox programs – and even became a Weight Watchers group leader after shedding five stone on the plan.
But she quit the position and gained back five-and-a-half stone – before deciding enough was enough.
After seeing a video of herself from 2019 she became determined to lose the weight for good.
In April, out of “desperation”, the mum-of-two turned to Mounjaro – a weight loss medication administered through weekly injections – after hearing about Ozempic and similar jabs.
In a year, she was able to lose five-and-a-half stone by injecting herself with the medication in her thigh – spending £175 a month and £2,100 in total.
Now weighing 10st 2lbs and slipping into a slender size 12, Dianne says she feels “like I’ve had a fat suit taken off”.
She has even written a guide for others wanting to try the weight loss alternative and insists the jabs are “medicine” for larger people.
Dianne, a TV marketer, from Teesside, Yorkshire, says: “I’m slimmer than I was when I was 21 – people think I’m younger than I am and it feels really nice.
“I felt like I was trapped in my own body and now I realise that I am free.”
Dianne struggled with her weight her whole life and was size 20 and 16st at the age of 18 after having her first child and “eating for two”.
The new mum signed up to Weight Watchers – rebranded WW in 2018 – when her baby was six weeks old and managed to lose five stone and slim to a size 14.
She even became a group leader but quit after five months.
She and her husband, Aaron, 39, a lecturer, went on to have her second child in 2014, and Dianne reached 17st and a size 20 again.
To shed the weight, she tried Dr Michael Mosley’s The Fast 800 guide on intermittent fasting, Cambridge Weight Plan’s 1:1 shake and soup diet, nine-day detox programs.
Dianne says: “I tried absolutely everything – every diet you can think of.
“I could eat the same amount as a skinny person and still gain weight.”
6
6
6
Last April she bought her first dose – a 2.5mg injection of Mounjaro – for £150-a-month from MedExpress, taking it while stationed outside a hospital in case she had an adverse reaction.
Mounjaro is the brand name for Tirzepatide – a drug that lowers blood sugar levels. It produces more insulin and slows down how quickly food is digested.
Originally prescribed for people with type-2 diabetes, it is now available to those struggling with obesity with BMIs over 35.
Since then her dose has increased to 15mg a week and she pays £210-a-month.
She has spent about £2,000 overall – and says it’s “100 per cent worth every penny”.
She says: “I immediately noticed how my appetite went down massively as well as the amount I could eat.
“Surprisingly, I stopped drinking alcohol – suddenly I just didn’t crave it on a night out.
“The medication just made it easier to cut out things that aren’t beneficial.”
Dianne insists she was “really lucky” and didn’t experience very many side effects aside from hair shedding and constipation.
Others taking the drug have reported experiencing nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea.
I was on a permanent high – in the summer I was feeling great
Dianne Carr
Within two weeks, Dianne lost 9lbs and within a month she’d lost just under a stone.
The jab put her off some of her favourite foods – including salt and vinegar crisps – and made her feel fuller more quickly, resulting in her eating much smaller portions.
Dianne says: “When you’re large you want to see something happen to know you’re going in the right direction.
“I’m really lucky to have this – I don’t want to get back there again.
“It’s different now, being older makes you feel differently about these things – I do want to come off them.
“I was on a permanent high – in the summer I was feeling great.
“I had gotten down to a size 16 and I didn’t have to shop at the plus size sections anymore – a lot opened up for me.
“When I lost the first stone it gave me the confidence to swim again.
“I haven’t swam since I was 15 and I didn’t think I’d be able to swim again but I gave it a go and now I can do 60 lengths.
“Losing weight made me fall back in love with being in the water.”
Everything you need to know about fat jabs
Weight loss jabs are all the rage as studies and patient stories reveal they help people shed flab at almost unbelievable rates, as well as appearing to reduce the risk of serious diseases.
Wegovy – a modified version of type 2 diabetes drug Ozempic – and Mounjaro are the leading weight loss injections used in the UK.
Wegovy, real name semaglutide, has been used on the NHS for years while Mounjaro (tirzepatide) is a newer and more powerful addition to the market.
Mounjaro accounts for most private prescriptions for weight loss and is set to join Wegovy as an NHS staple this year.
How do they work?
The jabs work by suppressing your appetite, making you eat less so your body burns fat for energy instead and you lose weight.
They do this my mimicking a hormone called GLP-1, which signals to the brain when the stomach is full, so the drugs are officially called GLP-1 receptor agonists.
They slow down digestion and increase insulin production, lowering blood sugar, which is why they were first developed to treat type 2 diabetes in which patients’ sugar levels are too high.
Can I get them?
NHS prescriptions of weight loss drugs, mainly Wegovy and an older version called Saxenda (chemical name liraglutide), are controlled through specialist weight loss clinics.
Typically a patient will have to have a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher, classifying them as medically obese, and also have a weight-related health condition such as high blood pressure.
GPs generally do not prescribe the drugs for weight loss.
Private prescribers offer the jabs, most commonly Mounjaro, to anyone who is obese (BMI of 30+) or overweight (BMI 25-30) with a weight-related health risk.
Private pharmacies have been rapped for handing them out too easily and video calls or face-to-face appointments are now mandatory to check a patient is being truthful about their size and health.
Are there any risks?
Yes – side effects are common but most are relatively mild.
Around half of people taking the drug experience gut issues, including sickness, bloating, acid reflux, constipation and diarrhoea.
Dr Sarah Jarvis, GP and clinical consultant at patient.info, said: “One of the more uncommon side effects is severe acute pancreatitis, which is extremely painful and happens to one in 500 people.”
Other uncommon side effects include altered taste, kidney problems, allergic reactions, gallbladder problems and hypoglycemia.
Evidence has so far been inconclusive about whether the injections are damaging to patients’ mental health.
Figures obtained by The Sun show that, up to January 2025, 85 patient deaths in the UK were suspected to be linked to the medicines.
The weight loss eventually slowed down and Dianne now loses around 1lb a week.
Despite this, she says losing five stone in 12 months was “great” as it usually took her two years to lose the same amount through dieting alone.
She decided not to count calories or follow a diet while on the jabs, but to just focus on healthy eating through substitutes – such as sweet potatoes instead of chips and low-carb bread.
Now 10st, she is aiming to get down to 9st before quitting the jabs all together, and focusing on healthy eating.
A friend of Dianne’s recommended she write a short book to help others taking the weight loss medication.
She says: “There wasn’t much of a community at the time.
“When I was looking for information, I searched for podcasts or blogs, anything.
I want people to know that they aren’t greedy – it’s biology
Dianne Carr
“It was quite new in the UK and the only information I could find was from weight loss forums on Mumsnet. I thought I would give it a go.”
Dianne’s £3.95 guide – called Mounjaro Mastery – is not designed to provide medical guidance.
She says it comes purely from personal experience along with research that she shared with sources.
Dianne adds: “I want to be an advocate for these injections and remove the stigma.
“I want people to know that they aren’t greedy – it’s biology.
“If we have a headache, we take paracetamol. If we break a leg, we have an x-ray to find the problem – this is the same thing.
“We can’t change biology on our own.”
You can follow Danielle’s story on Instagram at @MyJabJourneyUK
6
