THREE women from one family lost a combined weight of over 20st after turning to fat-busting jabs three years ago – and now they want to help others achieve their dream body.
Debbie Brannan, Carly Brannan and Lynsay Brannan have dropped more than 15 dress sizes between them since they decided they wanted to shed some pounds.
And the women, all from Glasgow, credit their incredible transformations to fat jabs and friendly family rivalry.
At her heaviest, Debbie, 39, was a size 16-18 and after trying traditional weight loss programmes, found that nothing worked for her.
Then in 2022, the mum-of-three turned to Wegovy, which is licensed for medical weight management.
In just over half a year and spending around £90 a month, the mum reversed her obesity and became symptom-free with her fibromyalgia, as well as seeing huge improvements with her chronic lipedema.
Her sister-in-law Carly, 35, watched as she shed 7st in seven months, and, unhappy with her own weight after giving birth to her two children, she was inspired to try it herself.
Carly admitted she began “eating rubbish” after having “no willpower” as she adjusted to being a single mum who also worked full time in a hospital, which pushed her into a size 14-16.
Meanwhile, her cousin Lynsay, 39, was a size 20 and always wanted a slender frame, so they decided to try fat-busting jabs together in early 2023.
Incredibly, Carly lost a total of 5st 7lbs on Ozempic and then Mounjaro, shrinking to a size six.
While Lynsay lost almost half her body weight after taking Mounjaro, going from 16st to just 8st 4lbs, dropping seven dress sizes in the process.
Debbie exclusively told The Scottish Sun: “I tried everything, from all the different kinds of diets, and nothing ever worked.
“I managed to eat my way through everything, and then my next port of call was the Allurion balloon or a gastric bypass surgery.
“But this is the only thing that’s ever worked for me… It’s kind of like the medical answer to a gastric sleeve, in my opinion.”
But both Carly and Lynsay say it was Debbie who gave them the courage to try it after being stunned by her transformation.
Carly said: “I was always thin, and then I decided to have kids, and that ruined my body, I’m not going to lie.
” I had two kids back-to-back. I didn’t realise I was putting on the weight until I started losing it again.
“Then, obviously, Debbie was on the medication at the time, and we were like, ‘My God, how do you look like that? We need to try that’.”
Lynsay told how having Carly through the weight-loss process helped her “massively”, and said doing it as a family and seeing Debbie’s incredible results was a huge inspiration for her.
She said: “By the time I started, Debbie had already lost her weight, so me and Carly were kind of doing it together.
“It was good just to have her as well and then be like, ‘Oh, like how have you done this week, and, how have you done that week?’
“At the time, there wasn’t a lot of support with it, a lot of the online pharmacies were just like, ‘There’s your injection, take it, and then we’ll see you next month when you need your next prescription.’
“For me, having Debbie and Carly helped massively… We’re all family, we’ve all been there, we’ve all done it, and we can all trust each other.”
And Carly added that having some friendly family rivalry helped her stay on track.
She joked: “Me and Debbie are really close. We go on our holidays together. Our kids are really close.
“If I get fat, Debbie will tell me that I’m looking fat. That’s what families do, isn’t it? The inspiration is her saying, ‘You’re looking chunky, you’ve got a fat a***!’”
After overcoming her own battle with obesity, Debbie launched Elite Clinic of Aesthetics, which is an award-winning weight loss clinic in the east end of Glasgow.
The firm is now one of Scotland’s most established and respected centres for medical weight management and offers safe, medically overseen access to evidence-based treatment.
And it was recently crowned as Medical Face and Body Aesthetic Treatments Clinic of the Year 2025 for Scotland by Global Health and Pharma.
‘New lease of life’
The three mums all admitted that the various fast-busting jabs changed their lives and helped them hit milestones that they would have been unable to reach through lifestyle methods alone.
Debbie said: “It’s been everything for me. I mean, I had flare-ups of fibromyalgia every so often.
“I used to struggle when I got up morning because my body was full of inflammation.
“This medication helped all of that. God knows how. I mean, obviously, there is research on that on the different things that the medication helps with, like PCOS, high blood pressure, cardiovascular.
“But for me, inflammation was one of the main things that the medication actually helped with.”
Carly also said it helped her with other health conditions, adding: “I still take it once a month because I get night sweats and all that with my hormones, and it stops all that.
“I had a bad back and things like that, so the weight didn’t help with that either. So obviously getting the weight off has helped all that.
“This is the best I’ve ever felt, even before the kids. I felt so rubbish about myself before. Whereas now I feel like I’ve got a new lease of life.”
While Lynsay said, “it’s changed my life” after giving her the confidence boost she had been looking for for years.
She added: “I wish they had this medication when I was in my early 20s because I feel that I would have grown up a different person. I just feel like I would have had that confidence years ago.
“I just spent all that time worrying, self-conscious about my weight, and just hated the way I looked. Just hated myself, kind of thing. And now I feel like I’m a lot more positive.”
Debbie started the firm to help others achieve their weight-loss goals, and Carly co-runs the firm alongside her, with Lynsay helping the team manage their social media.
And each of them continues to serve as an ambassador for patient-centred obesity care.
Debbie felt it was important to open up about her transformation ahead of the festive period because people overindulge over Christmas and often feel bad about themselves after the New Year.
And she wanted to give people hope by reminding them that weight loss jabs do work when used properly.
She said: “Coming up to this time of the year, a lot of people overindulge at Christmas time and then come January, their mental health dips massively.
“They overdo it, and gym memberships go through the roof. This would be a good time for a positive story to show people that there actually is hope with this medication.
“You need to use it as a tool. You don’t use it and abuse it. It’s a tool to then put yourself in a healthy weight bracket.
“I know there are people who are on the medication and will go on it for life due to medical reasons, but if you are on it for obesity disease, which is obviously what I had managed to give myself, then it can help.
“With that and your eating habits, once your cravings are taken away, it’s very, very easy to follow a healthy lifestyle.
“Our aim is to get people down to a weight loss, and once they are comfortable and fit, back into the gym.
“The problem when people are so big, they won’t go out and do the exercise, or they physically can’t.
“But this medication, as well as helping them with the food cravings, also helps them get back into fitness because it takes away the inflammation and gives them the confidence to step into the gym.
‘We don’t hide it’
Debbie has said that telling clients that she has been off the weight-loss job for years helps show others that it’s possible to use them short-term.
Debbie works at family-run Elite Clinic of Aesthetics alongside Carly Brannan and Lynz Brannan, who have also used medication to help them lose weight.
And being open about this is something that makes their clients trust them.
Debbie said: “We don’t hide the fact that we’ve all been on the medication, and we don’t hide the fact that we don’t take the medication anymore.
“People know how well we’ve done, and we’re very, very open and transparent with our clients. We’re very, very open on social media as well about different things.
“I think it’s good to let people know that I have been off the medication long term, and I’ve been absolutely fine over that time. If anything, it’s just benefited my health massively.”
She added: “A lot of people think this is a relatively new medication, but it isn’t really.
“If you look back at the data and the studies, this medication has been available for a long, long time, it’s just become popular in the past couple of years.
“But if you do look back at the data and the studies of the medication, it’s very, very powerful if it’s used correctly. We just want people to use it, not abuse it.
“We don’t expect people to be on this for years. It would be expensive for people to go on this for years for obesity.
“We just want people to know that there is a clinic where they can come and have a free consultation and be able to discuss the medication, go and do some research, and then we are here to support them every single week.”
“That, combined with the medication and getting them back into fitness, is what’s helping their overall health. So it’s not just about the medication, it’s about the whole package.
“We’ve had so many clients who have gone from overweight to personal trainers.”
While Lynsay said she loves helping the team with their social media posts because she feels like it lets her help others get their dream body.
She said: “With my journey, I’m really honest because I was always big. So then people were like, ‘How are you so skinny?’ I’d tell them, ‘Mounjaro’.
“I didn’t hide the fact that I was on it because I was always big, I was never ever skinny – all through my 20s and early 30s I was big.
“I like helping with the social media posts because I get to see all the transformations and help with people who first get in touch with us upset their their weight.
“Because I know what it feels like, the way that I used to look and the way that I used to be.
“And if I can help one person to feel the way that I’m feeling now, like I’m happy.”
How fat jabs work – and how to get maximum results safely
WEIGHT loss jabs were originally developed to treat type 2 diabetes – and Ozempic is still prescribed for that.
Wegovy and Mounjaro, which are now available on the NHS, along with Saxenda, are licensed for weight management in obese adults (BMI over 30) or those who are overweight (BMI over 27) with related conditions such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol.
They work by mimicking hormones like GLP-1, which help regulate appetite, slow digestion and make you feel fuller for longer – often leading to dramatic weight loss.
The health benefits can be huge, since obesity is a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers.
But not everyone sees the same results. One common mistake is expecting it to work instantly.
For example, taking it right before a takeaway, special occasion, or big night out in the hope it will stop you from overindulging.
Jason Murphy, head of pharmacy and weight loss expert at Chemist4U, says: “Taking the jab right before a takeaway or party won’t automatically stop you from indulging.
“Weight loss injections need time to build up in your system. They don’t blunt your appetite immediately after injection.
“It usually takes a few days to start feeling a difference, and several weeks for the full effects to settle in.”
Inject your dose mid-week if you plan for a heavier weekend.
Another common error is injecting in the same spot each time.
“People often default to injecting in the same spot over and over, but this can cause local irritation or even small lumps of fat under the skin (lipohypertrophy),” Dr Crystal Wyllie, GP at Asda Online Doctor, explains.
“This can affect how well the medication is absorbed and make it less effective.”
She recommends rotating injection sites between the abdomen, thigh, and upper arm, and even picking different spots within those zones.
And never stop using them suddenly as this can lead to rapid weight gain, Mital Thakrar, a pharmacist from Well Pharmacy, warns.
“There’s a tendency to ditch weight-loss treatments as soon as you reach your desired weight,” he says. “But that’s not our advice.”
A recent University of Oxford study found people typically return to their original weight within 10 months of stopping treatment, especially if lifestyle changes weren’t firmly established.
“Without the appetite suppression, hunger and cravings return quickly,” Mr Thakrar explains.
This includes healthier eating, which means cutting out junk food and alcohol while increasing protein and fibre, as well as exercising regularly.
“Building habits like these during treatment is key for sustaining results,” he says.
“Many patients see improvements in blood sugar, cholesterol, and blood pressure.”
But stopping too soon can reverse these gains if weight creeps back.
Finally, if you’re not seeing results, you might be missing the oldest rule in the book – drinking enough water.
“Dehydration is a common, yet indirect, side effect of weight loss injections,” Dr Wyllie says.
The drugs dull appetite, and in doing so, they can also blunt thirst signals. Yet hydration is crucial for the body to function properly.
“Aim for two to three litres per day, sipping regularly, not just when thirsty,” Dr Wyllie explains.
“Hydration supports metabolism, digestion, and can reduce side effects like headaches, nausea and constipation.”
