As a GP I regularly see patients who’ve lost weight with one of the new ‘miracle’ weight-loss jabs such as Wegovy or Mounjaro – so when a 47-year-old teacher I’ve known for more than three decades bounced into my consulting room after losing nearly 5st, I naturally assumed this was the reason.
I nearly didn’t recognise her – she’d been battling with her weight for years, but 18 months since I’d last seen her, she was the lightest she’d ever been, dropping from a dress size 28 to a 16. She was also brimming with confidence and energy. For the first time she could remember, she felt in control of her eating as her appetite had been reduced.
Imagine my delight to learn she’d managed this naturally – with no weight-loss jabs and no risk of side effects – by making simple modifications to her diet.
As an NHS GP with a special interest in helping people with obesity, I can understand the appeal of these jabs, despite the cost (nearly £200 a month). GLP-1 agonists mimic the effects of a natural hormone, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), which regulates blood sugar and appetite.
Yet while the jabs certainly have impressive results, they can have side effects such as nausea and constipation, while others are being noted such as pancreatitis. And given that GLP-1 drugs have not been used at higher doses for weight loss for very long, others may emerge.
Occasionally, side effects are serious: one of my patients ended up in intensive care as the drug slowed her bowel down and it stopped functioning.
In addition, research shows they can often be a ‘quick fix’ that doesn’t last – I’ve lost count of the number of patients whose weight crept back on once they stopped taking the drugs.
And yet you can boost your own production of the GLP-1 hormone naturally. This is effectively what my patient had done by switching to a low-carb diet.
Low-carb foods such as chicken, steak and vegetables are filling and lead to more stable blood sugar levels
Low-carb diets can boost the levels of GLP-1 the body produces, mimicking the way GLP-1 jabs such as Mounjaro work
Dr David Unwin recently carried out a study that showed adopting a low-carb diet can result in significant weight loss
In fact, I’ve seen this all before, having long had success helping patients with type 2 diabetes reverse their condition and reduce or avoid medications altogether by going low carb.
As I’ve previously written in the Mail, this involves swapping carbs such as rice, bread or potatoes for more nutrient-dense green vegetables and proteins such as fish, cheese or red meat.
Many of my patients have lost weight doing this and 151 to date have even reversed their type 2 diabetes with this approach.
How does it work? As with the jabs, a low-carb diet seems to suppress hunger and my patients who’ve chosen this approach report a drop in appetite.
This is partly due to the fact that foods such as chicken, steak and vegetables are filling. A low-carb diet also leads to more stable blood sugar levels (carbohydrates rapidly break down into sugar), reducing hunger spikes and cravings. The body also produces less insulin (which clears sugar from the blood and stores it as fat) – and it switches to fat-burning mode.
This approach also helps boost your natural production of GLP-1 hormones. In fact, we knew about this well before the advent of the weight-loss ‘wonder’ drugs – thanks to a study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition back in 2012.
When 18 healthy young men were allocated either to their normal diet or a low-carb diet, after only three days, the GLP-1 levels of the low-carb group were significantly higher – mimicking the way GLP-1 jabs work.
But could a low-carb diet help you to lose as much weight as a GLP-1 drug? I’m excited by the results of a new study I co-authored with Dr Tro Kalayjian (a specialist in obesity medicine in the US) which supports this.
Recently published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition, the study showed that 41 of the 50 patients enrolled on a low-carb programme – who weighed an average of 19st 7lb (124kg) at the start – lost an average 3st (19.5kg) in a year.
This works out at 15.5 per cent of their original body weight, which is actually better than the 14.9 per cent lost by patients using GLP-1 jabs after a year and four months, as reported in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2021.
Not only was the weight-loss faster, but the results can be long-lasting because you’re retraining your eating habits.
Exercise can also boost GLP-1, possibly by improving blood supply to the gut and intestines, where GLP-1 is produced.
Of course, fat jabs appear to offer attractively rapid results – but research shows there might be a cheaper and safer way to naturally get the same results.
So why not give a low-carb diet and exercise a try first? You’ve got nothing to lose but the weight – and everything to gain.
