A woman who ‘secretly’ took the Mounjaro jab to lose weight has come clean – after initially hiding it from everyone but her husband.
After years of failed diets, Karen Park has managed to shed a whopping eight stone and has completely reversed her pre-diabetes diagnosis thanks to the weight loss aid.
But the 59-year-old kept her cards close to her chest when it came to how she was dropping the lbs – lying a few times that healthy lifestyle choices and ditching booze was the cause of her new svelte physique.
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She had been in the morbidly obese category with a BMI of 42.9 and tipped the scales at 18st 12lbs before turning to medication.
Now, her lifestyle has undergone a total overhaul – and she is finally open about how she managed to get fit before 60.
“I was a secret jabber,” Karen, a customer service manager from Weston-super-Mare, told Need To Know.
“There’s a lot of judgement around weight loss injections, so I wanted to limit who I confided in – just to avoid having to justify myself.
“I’d started looking on TikTok, and there the content I viewed was largely positive – lots of posts showed people losing lots of weight, and over a quick period of time.
“But when I first started, I chose to keep it to myself.
“At that stage, I didn’t even know if it was going to work for me, and I didn’t want to go through another round of conversations about dieting, losing weight or explaining why I’d decided to try this approach.
“There was also a lot of mixed opinion at the time.
“The media coverage was often quite polarising, and friends and family all seemed to have different views about weight loss medication.
“I didn’t know how people would react, and I didn’t feel I should have to justify a personal healthcare decision that I’d made for myself.”
As Karen’s weight started to slip off, she felt more confident in her choice – though continued to stay mum about it for a while.
She said: “I would get the odd comment [about using jabs], but nobody outright guessed.
“I just kept mentioning that I was starting a healthier lifestyle, which wasn’t a lie.
“I was really careful where I stored the jabs in the fridge [to avoid people seeing them], and I would be extra careful if I knew people were coming round.
“My favourite spot to hide them was in the vegetable tray, under all the veg!”
Karen first became concerned by her weight at 57, wearing a size 22-24, having gradually gained weight over the years thanks to small bad habits.
She said: “Food had become much more than just something to eat.
“As a family, we’d celebrate with a nice meal, and if I was feeling stressed, sad or had simply had a difficult day, I’d often turn to food for comfort.
“I don’t think I even realised I was doing it at the time. It had just become my normal way of rewarding myself or lifting my mood.”
Before starting Mounjaro, Karen would eat pastries for breakfast, snack on crisps and biscuits, have sandwiches or pasties and chocolate for lunch, more sweet treats throughout the day, and end the day with a takeaway.
She would drink flavoured ciders, Guinness, rose wine and calorific Frappuccino coffees – with her daily diet totalling up to 4,000 calories on average.
Karen said: “Pizza was always my go-to takeaway, and it was always excessive.
“I might go to the pub for a couple of drinks, and afterwards I’d order and eat a large Dominos pizza all to myself.
“I rarely cooked dinner at home – my husband and I would go for a couple of drink after work each night and couldn’t be bothered to cook, so we’d order a takeaway instead.
“Those habits were convenient, enjoyable and easy to fall into, but over time they all compounded.
“Weeks turned into months, months into years, and the weight gradually crept on without me really noticing.”
Paired with a sedentary lifestyle with little to no exercise, Karen’s weight ballooned over time – though she was very aware of it, and often tried to change.
She said: “Over the years I tried Weight Watchers, Slimming World, juice diets, meal replacement diets and things like the Cambridge Diet.
“I could sometimes lose weight for a while, but it would always come back again, I was stuck in that cycle for years.
“I didn’t want to head into my 60s feeling as unhealthy as I did.
“It was the heaviest I’d ever been and I’d also been told I was pre-diabetic, which really worried me.
“I knew I needed to do something because I just didn’t feel great in myself.”
The diagnosis spurred her on to finally make a change in July 2024, and she signed up to a course of Mounjaro treatment through online weight loss pharmacy, PillTime.
Within weeks, she noticed her weight steadily declining.
Karen said: “I didn’t expect to be as successful as I was.
“If I’m honest, I didn’t think it would work because I’d tried so many things before.
“But it did work – just not in the dramatic way you sometimes see online.
“Mine was steady, a few pounds here and there, but over time it all added up.
“I saw an immediate change in my appetite.
“Within about 24 hours of the first dose I could feel a difference.
“The biggest shock was that I just wasn’t thinking about food anymore, it felt like the food noise had gone.”
Karen’s daily diet now involves a protein shake for breakfast, sandwich and fruit for lunch, healthy homecooked meals with chicken or fish for dinner, limited alcohol intake, and no snacking – totalling 1,400 calories a day.
She has reclaimed her health, and now has a BMI of 24 – in the healthy category – and weighs 10st 7lbs.
It took 18 months to drop down to her svelte new size 10 body, and Karen remains using Mounjaro to maintain her loss.
She said: “It’s completely changed my life, and my energy levels are through the roof.
“These days, my concern sometimes is whether I’m eating enough, and – especially at the start – I was nervous about whether I was getting the appropriate nutrition.
“People need to think of weight loss treatment as a proper medication programme, and not just a quick fix – that’s why it’s worked so well for me.
“Weight loss treatments have to be taken seriously and monitored properly, and you have to make lifestyle changes, such as eating better and exercising more, otherwise you won’t feel the full benefits.
“I [found out I] have my pre-diabetes under control, meaning that I’m at a much lower risk of developing the disease, which feels amazing.
“I feel like a completely different person.
“It’s not just about the weight I’ve lost – it’s about having the confidence and energy to do things I never thought I’d be able to do again.
“My confidence is completely different now.
“I went on my own to a cabin in the Yorkshire Dales. I travelled there by myself and spent a few days walking and reflecting.
“I remember waking up one morning, opening the curtains and thinking, ‘Look how far you’ve come’.
“That was the moment where it really hit me – I realised I could finally do things on my own that I would never have attempted before.
“I don’t want to tell people what they should do, but I’ll always be open now about my open experience.
“If sharing what’s worked for me helps someone else feel more informed and confident in taking that first step, then I’m happy to do that.”
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