A woman who used to fear getting stuck in restaurant chairs due to her weight has now lost eight stone after forking out £750 a month on “skinny jabs”.
Jacqueline Smith “hated” the person she saw staring back at her in the mirror.
She had always struggled with weight gain and tried “every diet under the sun”, such as low carb and Weight Watchers, with no luck.
READ MORE: Influencer disfigured by exploding blender while making celery juice
“Fed up” with being overweight, the 37-year-old turned to weight loss jabs after speaking with her doctor about them.
She paid £750 per month for Ozempic and went from 19st 3lbs to 11st 9lbs in less than two years.
Now, she’s learned to love her body after years of being bullied for it.
“My weight was always something I worried about; the fear never left me,” the account manager told Need To Know.
“I used to look at the chairs in a restaurant and wonder if they would hold me.
“When going out on a walk, I’d worry how badly my thighs would chafe.
“An ex once said to me: ‘You’re huge – what are you going to be like when you reach 40?’
“I wasn’t even that overweight at this stage.
“Then, when I met my now husband, the ‘happy weight’ really started to pile on.
“I’ve always thought I looked pretty, but I didn’t like the way I looked at this size.
“There’s just so much you don’t have to worry about when you’re a ‘normal’ weight.”
Jacqueline, from Dallas, Texas, US, used to eat out multiple times a day before, opting for a burrito at breakfast, followed by a burger at lunch and then McDonald’s for dinner.
She found it difficult to break the eating cycle that both she and her husband found themselves in.
When she realised just how many calories she was consuming per day – around 4,000 – that’s when she knew something needed to change.
She said: “I had seen skinny jabs on television after celebrities had been using it to lose weight.
“I asked my doctor if it was right for me, as I didn’t personally know anybody on them.
“She had just come back from a conference learning about GLP-1s and was really excited to have me try it out.
“The weight loss was immediate.
“I also started counting calories per day and walking when I started taking it.
“But it was flying off me – I couldn’t believe it.”
Now, Jacqueline has gone from a US dress size 22 to six.
She no longer has such intense hunger cravings throughout the day and typically eats something low carb, like wraps, for most of her meals, with fruit as a snack.
To help maintain her weight loss, Jacqueline walks at least 10,000 steps per day and does cycling classes, weight lifting and running throughout the week.
The biggest difference, though? Her confidence.
She added: “I didn’t like to leave the house often before.
“Now, I’m far more active and confident.
“I don’t feel like people are just focussing on my size, but actually who I am as a person instead.
“I’m currently at my goal weight and stopped taking the jabs four months ago.
“But I’ll have to start a maintenance dose soon, as it helps with not only losing weight. but also appetite dysregulation and inflammation.
“I recently joined a service that provides direct access to an obesity expert and dietician.
“It’s a disease, and I will have to continue working to fight it for the rest of my life.
“People will always have opinions, but that’s none of my business.
“They say I’m being lazy, cheating, or stealing medicine from diabetics, which isn’t the case at all.
“It’s dealing with something very complex in the right way.
“I’m so glad I started taking it; it’s changed my life.”
DIET BREAKDOWN:
BEFORE:
Breakfast: Breakfast burrito
Lunch: Burger or sandwich with crisps
Dinner: McDonald’s double cheeseburgers and margaritas or beers
Snack: Sweets
AFTER:
Breakfast: Nothing
Lunch: Air-fried chicken or low-carb tortilla with no sugar-added BBQ sauce
Dinner: Turkey wrap and fruit
Snack: Apple or banana, protein bar or popcorn
READ MORE: ‘I asked ChatGPT for palm reading – it saved my life after finding suspicious mole on my hand’
This story highlights how weight loss injections like Ozempic can make a big difference but also come with high costs. It’s worth learning how alternatives like Mounjaro actually work explained well here: https://www.shemed.co.uk/blog/how-does-mounjaro-work