IT’S hard not to notice the amount of male celebrities who have stepped out sporting a much slimmer frame and chiselled appearance in recent years.
And while some famous faces have shed the pounds through diet and exercise alone, others have openly credited weight loss jabs for their newly honed physique.
But while male stars including the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, have seen success when it comes to shifting the timber, others such as Stephen Fry and James Corden have told how they didn’t reap the same rewards.
From being left vomiting up to five times a day to feeling like a “bulimic Henry VIII,” Fabulous reveals just some of the harrowing side effects which have put these famous faces off taking the weight loss jab for good.
STEPHEN FRY
The actor lost an “astonishing” 5st from diabetes jab Ozempic – but it came at a hefty price as far as his health was concerned.
While the presenter, who recently revealed himself to be a ‘Faithful’ on the Traitors, was initially impressed by the results, he soon had to stop taking the injections altogether after they left him vomiting up to five times a day.
Speaking to the Mirror, he recalled thinking: “I can’t do this.”
Ozempic contains the active ingredient semaglutide that helps to promote weight loss by replicating the actions of GLP-1, a hormone released in the gut after eating, which leaves you feeling full.
The 68-year-old decided to try Ozempic “years ago” when he was in the US.
He explained: “I’d read about it, and I asked my doctor in America, and he said, ‘I think I can get you some’.
“He tried me on it, and the first week or so, I was thinking, ‘This is astonishing. Not only do I not want to eat, I don’t want any alcohol of any kind. This is going to be brilliant’.”
However, the positives were soon outweighed by the negatives after he started feeling extremely unwell.
“I started feeling sick, and I started getting sicker and sicker and sicker,” he said.
“I was literally throwing up four, five times a day and I thought, ‘I can’t do this’. So that’s it.”
MICHAEL MCINTYRE
Michael McIntyre recently admitted that he resorted to fat jabs after his doctor informed him he was obese.
The 49-year-old, who is 5ft 5in, told how it was his wife Kitty who encouraged him to start after he’d received a telling off from the medic for tipping the scales at 100kg (15st 10lbs).
The comedian, who initially used Ozempic but switched to Mounjaro, went on to say how the weight then dropped off in just three weeks of injections.
Speaking to fans at a London show, he said: “Have you noticed how tiny I am? I have lost weight.
“Don’t applaud it because there is a little bit of cheating that has gone on.”
The dad-of-two admitted that while he wasn’t keen on the idea of appetite suppressants, Kitty was all for the idea.
Recalling his trip to the GP, he told the audience: “The doctor told me I weighed 100kg.
“He told me I was ‘obese’. How rude. He said, ‘It’s a medical term’.”
JEREMY CLARKSON
The Sun Columnist overhauled his lifestyle following a health scare last year which resulted in him having emergency heart surgery.
He previously told how he decided to give the weight loss jab Ozempic a whirl but experienced severe sickness, adding that it made him feel like a “bulimic Henry VIII” and resulted in him gaining half a stone.
In March, the Clarkson’s Farm star revealed he has since switched to “microdosing” Mounjaro instead, which has been far more successful for him.
Mounjaro, which is only FDA-approved for type 2 diabetes, uses the active ingredient tirzepatide, which targets GLP-1 and the hormone glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP).
Speaking of the weight loss jab, he wrote in The Times: “When you’re on Muntjac [Mountjaro] you can come down in the morning and idly help yourself to a small handful of sunflower seeds.
“And it’ll feel like you’ve just finished a massive Christmas lunch. You’re stuffed.”
But while delighted with his two-stone weight loss, the 65-year-old revealed an unexpected side effect that has left him a little red-faced on more than one occasion.
Taking to X, he told how he struggles to stop his trousers from falling down while going through security airports.
“Mounjaro problem. I never saw coming,” he penned.
“At airports you’re made to remove your belt and then told to stand in the body scanner with your arms in the air.
“So you can’t hold your trousers up.”
And it’s not the first time either, with the former Top Gear host admitting his trousers were falling down as he appeared on stage to collect the award for Best Factual Entertainment at this year’s National Television Awards.
“Thank you, everybody,” he said. “I should explain I’m on Mounjaro… my trousers are falling down.”
JAMES CORDEN
The Gavin and Stacey star, 46, who has been the face of Weight Watchers, revealed how he turned to Ozempic in a bid to shed the pounds.
However, he told how it didn’t work as he’d hoped and he had to give it up after realising he had a much more complicated relationship with food.
Speaking on his Sirius XM radio show, the former Late Late show host said: “I tried Ozempic, and it won’t be surprising to you when you look at me now, that it didn’t really work.
“I tried it for a bit and then what I realised was I was like, ‘Oh no, nothing about my eating has anything to do with being hungry.’
All it does is make you feel not hungry. But I am very rarely eating [just because I’m hungry].”
He continued: “You are looking at someone who’s eaten a king size, and when I say king size Dairy Milk – one you give someone for Christmas – in a carwash. None of that was like, oh, I’m so hungry. It is not that, it’s something else.”
DOM JOLLY
The comedian, 57, told how Mounjaro “changed my life” after he lost 2st 3lbs (15 kilos) in just four months.
“I’ve always been a bit porky but I’ve been on Mounjaro for about a year and that’s changed my life,” he said, speaking on Russell Howard’s Podcast.
He went on to explain how his neighbour down the street is “quite a big judge,” which he added she’d be all too happy to admit herself.
After seeing her impressive weight loss, she informed him she was on Mounjaro – something he’d never heard of at the time.
Dom went on to ask her how he could get his hands on it, to which she told him of the “slightly embarrassing” process where you have to pay for it, take some pictures of yourself in your pants and send it in to prove you’re overweight.
He recalled how his wife took headless photos of him in his pants “trying to look as far as possible for once,” and shortly after he went and picked up the jabs, which he noted “looked like an epi-pen.”
However, he went on to admit that he didn’t know how to work the syringe so had to ask a neighbour to show him.
After heading to her bathroom, he recalled: “So I go up to the judge’s bathroom, she sits me down on the loo and starts doing the syringe.
How to take Mounjaro safely
IF you’re thinking of starting Mounjaro, here’s everything you need to be aware of to ensure you use it safely.
Consult your doctor first
- Discuss your medical history with a GP, especially if you have: thyroid issues, pancreatitis history, gastrointestinal disorders and kidney or liver issues.
Start a low dose and increase slowly
- Starting dose is usually 2.5 mg once weekly, injected under the skin.
- Typical progression: 2.5 mg → 5 mg → 7.5 mg → up to 15 mg weekly (in 2.5 mg increments every four weeks, as tolerated).
Administer it properly
- Inject once a week, same day each week, with or without food.
- Inject subcutaneously in stomach, thigh, or upper arm and rotate injection sites weekly.
Watch for side effects
- Common side effects include: nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, constipation, decreased appetite and fatigue.
- Seek medical help if you experience any of the following serious side effects: signs of pancreatitis (severe stomach pain), allergic reactions and kidney problems (low urine output, swelling).
“And just at the moment her 14-year-old daughter walks past the door and looks in as her mum is about to inject the weird guy down the road.”
He added: “I do it once a week and it’s changed my life. I lost 15kilos in four months and I feel great!”
BOY GEORGE
The 63-year-old singer revealed that he started using weight loss jabs following a tummy tuck surgery several years ago “to get rid of excess skin” after losing 100 pounds.
In a bid to maintain his weight loss, he started taking Ozempic in 2022, before later switching the Mounjaro.
Boy George, whose real name is George O’Dowd, revealed all in his book ‘Karma: My Autobiography’ and told how he had weight loss surgery “not long after” he had three hair transplants from 2015 to 2018.
“I have struggled with my weight most of my life and being under public and media scrutiny doesn’t help,” he wrote.
“We are all guilty of saying, ‘Hasn’t so and so got big,’ even when we are carrying extra pounds ourselves.
“I love food and I can’t control my appetite, but I think I have finally got it under control.
“Well, I’m on Mounjaro. Isn’t everyone? Trust me, anyone who was fat last year and is now skinny is on the wonder drug.”
ELON MUSK
The CEO of Tesla jokingly referred to himself as the “Ozempic Santa” in a Christmas-themed social media post last year.
However, he went on to confirm that he actually switched to Mounjaro, which he nicknamed the ‘King Kong’ of weight loss drugs, after suffering side effects from high-doses of Ozempic.
He claimed they made him “fart and burp like Barney from The Simpsons,” adding: “Mounjaro seems to have fewer side effects and be more effective.”
Posting a snap of himself slimmed down and dressed as Santa to social media platform X, he wrote “Ozempic Santa.”
The world’s richest man followed up his post with several messages where he cleared up exactly what weight loss jab he was taking.
“Technically, Mounjaro, but that doesn’t have the same ring to it,” he wrote.
