As head of a digital advertising and marketing firm with a turnover of £3million a 12 months, Ben Austin has an enviable life-style, having fun with frequent overseas journey and eating in Michelin-starred eating places.
Until just lately, these gourmand journeys to the likes of Las Vegas or Sydney, the place he indulged in his love of high-quality meals, wine and sugary cocktails, meant an inevitable weight acquire adopted by months on a gruelling crash eating regimen attempting to lose it.
But then, a 12 months in the past, he found the much-vaunted drug Ozempic.
Originally a diabetes medicine, Ozempic is now being offered privately for weight reduction. Ben, 43, started injecting it – and has misplaced a whopping three-and-a-half stone. Better nonetheless, he hasn’t felt even a teeny bit disadvantaged.
‘It was amazing, the weight just fell off,’ says Ben, smiling as if he too struggles to consider it may have been really easy.
David Reed, a painter and decorator from Eastbourne, East Sussex, who’s married with two youngsters, weighed 23 stone. At 6ft, that meant a BMI of 41, making him morbidly overweight
With a weight lack of six stone in a 12 months, it’s confirmed to be a ‘miracle cure’ for David
‘At the start, I was consuming fewer than 1,000 calories a day [the recommended intake for a man is 2,500] and not even trying.
‘Before I started the treatment, I’d order three-course meals in eating places, plus a few glasses of wine. At dwelling within the evenings, I couldn’t resist snacking on crisps, biscuits and chocolate, however I’m simply not serious about over-eating extra.’
It seems Ben, who’s fought a lifelong battle together with his weight however has no well being issues, is in illustrious firm. Billionaire Elon Musk and TV maverick Jeremy Clarkson fortunately admit to being devotees of this the brand new secret weapon for staying slim in center age. And in his first column for this newspaper, the previous Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote of his personal fairly extra blended expertise with the ‘wonder drug’, which he tried after seeing members of the Cabinet visibly shrink on it.
Indeed, it appears males are particularly embracing Ozempic – one of many model names, alongside Wegovy and Rybelsus, of the drug semaglutide, an insulin-stimulating hormone launched by the physique after we eat, which reduces starvation by making us really feel full.
The enchantment of the drug to males particularly has change into one thing of a speaking level. ‘I’ve by no means seen folks lose as a lot weight, as quick, as they do on Ozempic,’ wrote Piers Morgan’s spouse Celia Walden. ‘At a recent dinner party, I looked around the table trying to work out what was jarring before realising that while the women looked perfectly normal, every man there looked like a deflated balloon.’
While her personal husband misplaced a stone final 12 months the old style method, males ‘like the straightforwardness of a drug that simply stops you from feeling hungry’, she surmised.
Produced by pharmaceutical firm Novo Nordisk, Semaglutide will not be a brand new medication – it has been prescribed to deal with diabetes and scientific weight problems for greater than a decade.
What’s new is the way in which it’s being purchased privately because the go-to eating regimen drug by individuals who don’t meet present NHS prescription standards – a BMI of greater than 35 and a weight-related illness like diabetes – however are attracted as an alternative by the tales of huge and fast weight reduction.
At 6ft tall and weighing 16st 3lbs, Ben had a BMI of 30 (the wholesome vary is eighteen to 25), which implies he has to pay for his Ozempic provide. It prices him £500 for three-months’ value, not inside everybody’s finances, however lower than he would have in any other case spent on fancy dinners and wine.
The drug has actually been value it for him, he says. He has misplaced six inches from his waist, and is now carrying a measurement 30 versus a 36. He hasn’t fallen sufferer to so-called ‘Ozempic face’ — the deflated balloon look that leaves males trying out of the blue older in a single day, with hollowed-out cheeks and wobbly jowls. On the opposite: ‘My face used to be round and now I’ve bought definition to it,’ he says. ‘Far from making me look older, I’d say I look a very good 10 years youthful.’
It was his spouse, Louise, 41, with whom he runs digital advertising and marketing firm, Absolute.Digital from their dwelling in Essex and their pied-a-terre in west London, who first advised he attempt Ozempic.
‘I haven’t bought time for the fitness center and I don’t prefer it anyway, so this appeared like a little bit of a miracle answer. I went for a session at a personal clinic, the place they checked my weight, top and blood strain earlier than prescribing.’
Ozempic is injected into the flesh of the abdomen as soon as every week, which at first put him off. However, the needle turned out to be tiny and the method painless so, delighted with the affect on his urge for food and waistline, Ben elevated his dose from 0.25mg, to 0.5mg and eventually to 1mg on a health care provider’s recommendation.
Today his weight is 12st 9lbs, and his BMI sits at 24, which is within the wholesome vary, although he plans to remain on semaglutide till he loses ‘a couple more pounds’.
While Ben beforehand cleared his plate at each mealtime, on Ozempic he has nothing however a cappuccino and a glass of orange juice till lunchtime when he scrambles a few eggs and eats them on a Warburton skinny. At time for supper he’s glad with a few baked hen legs or a small portion of spaghetti bolognese.
Adam Sharples, 48, has been on the drug for 18 months. He discovered it a simpler therapy for his diabetes than some other medicine he had been prescribed over ten years
Adam was 20 stone – now all the way down to 18 – when he began taking Ozempic which at 5ft 11ins tall meant a BMI of 39, only one level off being morbidly overweight
He and Louise nonetheless take pleasure in eating out a few instances every week, however as an alternative of sprucing off three programs, adopted by cheese, Ben feels satiated by a principal course – and is as completely satisfied consuming water as wine.
‘It just removed that craving to eat for the sake of it,’ he says. ‘I now feel like one of those people who literally only eat when they’re hungry, not as a result of they just like the look of meals. Those folks used to baffle me.
‘If I drink wine at all I’ll stick to at least one glass and, if I’m sincere, I don’t actually ever fancy that as my want for alcohol appears to have disappeared too.’
Ben’s new-found aversion to booze is, anecdotally no less than, a recognised facet impact of semaglutide.
Several scientific trials are at present below method to see if it may assist sufferers battling compulsive behaviour, following reviews from sufferers who’ve misplaced curiosity in consuming alcohol, smoking, and even nail-biting whereas on the drug.
But what concerning the lack of pleasure that so many people derive from consuming and consuming? Ben has an answer to that too. On vacation in Dubai, he determined to scale back his dose of Ozempic to 0.5mg in order that his urge for food wasn’t fully spoilt.
‘There was lots of delicious food available and I celebrated my birthday while we were away so I wanted to be able to enjoy it,’ says Ben. ‘However, I wasn’t worrying about placing on weight and having to crash eating regimen once I bought again as a result of I knew I may simply improve my dose as much as 1mg and it’d fall off.’
For a very long time earlier than discovering Ozempic, Ben spent six months of the 12 months on a strict calorie-controlled regime having a month’s value of pre-prepared meals and snacks delivered by Diet Chef, at a value of £320 a month.
Karin Conde-Knape, Novo Nordisk’s senior vp of world drug discovery, stated: ‘Ozempic is not a licensed option for weight management’
‘From January to late May I’d eat nothing however Diet Chef meals and lose about 2st 7lbs. Then I’d take pleasure in consuming what I favored for the subsequent seven months and put all of it again on — earlier than beginning the method once more,’ says Ben.
‘But the diet food is bland and you’re at all times hungry, so it’s a tough slog. I’d get the shakes from lack of sugar at first and once I went out with pals for dinner I’d have to stay to soup, which was depressing.
‘My weight yo-yos such a lot that I have two separate wardrobes, one for when I’m skinny, the opposite for once I’m huge, however I’m hoping Ozempic, which I consider as liquid gold, will imply I’ll by no means once more want the massive garments.’
It’s right here, in truth, that Ozempic loses its ‘miracle’ standing, since it might’t assist with the yo-yo-ing except you keep on it on a regular basis. Once off the medicine, Ben is extremely more likely to put the burden again on, in line with Karin Conde-Knape, Novo Nordisk’s senior vp of world drug discovery.
In an interview, final 12 months, she stated most individuals will regain 50 per cent of what they’ve misplaced after two to a few years, and many of the weight inside 5 years of stopping an weight problems drug.
The firm can be eager to clarify that docs prescribing Ozempic for weight management are doing so ‘off label’ — for a situation apart from that for which it has been formally accepted.
‘Ozempic (semaglutide) is a prescription-only medicine indicated for the treatment of adults with insufficiently controlled type 2 diabetes mellitus, as an adjunct to diet and exercise,’ she stated. ‘Ozempic is not a licensed option for weight management.’
Ben intends to maneuver onto one other model, Wegovy, when he subsequent will get a prescription, as there are actually shortages of Ozempic. Once he loses a number of extra kilos he plans to cease the injections altogether, though he can be tempted to take a low-maintenance dose, if the specialist says that’s an possibility.
‘Otherwise, if my weight creeps back up to 14 stone, I’ll undoubtedly ask for an additional prescription,’ he says. ‘Hopefully there won’t be any long-term unintended effects.’
According to Dr Samantha Miller of the charity Drug Helpline, shut medical supervision of these taking it’s important. ‘No drug is entirely safe,’ says Dr Miller. ‘Side effects of Ozempic include gastrointestinal disturbance, pancreatitis, diarrhoea and, in rare cases, life-threatening diabetic ketoacidosis (when the body has insufficient insulin to allow blood sugar into the cells to use as energy).’
Dr Miller can be involved that the rise in non-public prescriptions for weight reduction is beginning to trigger a scarcity for diabetics who depend on the drug. Indeed, earlier this 12 months the NHS issued a nationwide affected person security alert warning of world Semaglutide shortages as a result of persons are utilizing Ozempic for weight reduction. Diabetics have been supplied a distinct model in pill type as an alternative and healthcare suppliers have been urged to not dish out the medicine for weight problems.
Adam Sharples, 48, is a kind of who has struggled to seek out Ozempic this previous 12 months. On the drug for 18 months, he discovered it a simpler therapy for his diabetes than some other medicine he had been prescribed over the ten years since his prognosis. He additionally misplaced a stone-and-a-half in weight.
However, when he went to fill his prescription final spring, the pharmacist stated it was unavailable.
‘I was prescribed an alternative, Rybelsus, in tablet form, but wasn’t in a position to supply that both, so have been on Trulicity, an injectable, for a number of months,’ says Adam.
According to scientific trial outcomes, these taking Ozempic expertise greater than double the burden lack of sufferers on Trulicity and Adam has shed solely one other half stone since shifting onto it.
He was 20 stone – now all the way down to 18 – when he began taking Ozempic which, at 5ft 11ins tall, meant a BMI of 39, only one level off being morbidly overweight.
A 1mg dose left Adam, a challenge supervisor from Bury, Greater Manchester, with blurred imaginative and prescient and nausea so his physician decreased the prescription to 0.5mg which he tolerated with none disagreeable unintended effects.
‘It completely changes your attitude to food,’ he says. ‘I’m positive that one motive these medicine are so efficient at controlling my diabetes is that I’m consuming fewer carbohydrate-rich meals.’
Ozempic, initially a diabetes medicine, is now being offered privately for weight reduction. Elon Musk and Jeremy Clarkson admit to being devotees of the drug
Last 12 months Rishi Sunak introduced controversial plans to make the drug extra broadly accessible to folks through their GPs fairly than specialist weight clinics, which is the place NHS prescriptions are at present handed out.
David Reed, 44, who found Ozempic after a life-long battle together with his weight, thinks that’s actually the proper transfer – if provides of the drug could be maintained.
With a weight lack of six stone in a 12 months, it’s confirmed to be a ‘miracle cure’ for him. At his heaviest, David, a painter and decorator from Eastbourne, East Sussex, who’s married with two youngsters, weighed 23 stone. At 6ft, that meant a BMI of 41, making him morbidly overweight.
‘I’ve been chubby since my teenage years and the primary motive, if I’m sincere, is greed,’ he says, candidly. ‘But Ozempic has taken away my desire for food. I don’t really feel full up, I’m merely disinterested in consuming.’
Since taking the drug, which he orders on-line, David has been content material with a pure yoghurt for breakfast, cheese and bread for lunch and a steak with inexperienced beans for dinner.
Now 17 stone, he’s hoping to remain on it till he will get all the way down to 16 stone, regardless of the £190-a-month non-public prescription value.
‘I do worry that when I stop the weight will pile back on – when I reduce the dose I notice my appetite comes back and I remember how hard it is, using willpower alone, not to over-indulge,’ he says. ‘My family, who are very supportive, are astonished by the change in me. I’m simply very grateful. Being overweight results in vital well being issues but in addition psychological points, together with disgrace.
‘In my view, Ozempic should be available on the NHS for weight loss, not for cosmetic purposes but to prevent illness and give people who struggle with obesity a better quality of life.’
Additional reporting by Gwyneth Rees