Weight-loss: Are injections the answer to tackling obesity?

You cannot escape the hype around weight-loss injections.

Social media is full of before-and-after pictures. They are the source of wild gossip about Hollywood stars, and now the UK’s National Health Service is going to pay for them.

You can understand the appeal. Excess weight affects our health and leads to stigma – and the mantra of “diet and exercise” has simply failed for most people.

But should we be calling semaglutide, the drug in question, a “miracle” or “skinny jab” when some doctors think it is as controversial as treatments get? Does the hype match the reality? Or are we failing to tackle the causes of obesity and just consigning people to a lifetime of medication?

Jan, from Kent, was one of the first people in the world to take part in the trials of semaglutide. It is sold as Wegovy for weight-loss and as Ozempic for diabetes, although some people have been buying this version to lose weight.

We all know somebody like Jan, who has tried every diet, and she has been battling her waistline her whole life.

Semaglutide mimics a hormone that is released when we eat. It tricks the brain into thinking we are full and dials down appetite so we eat less.

Once Jan started having the injections, her relationship with food was so transformational that she told me it was either down to the drug or “I’ve been abducted by aliens”.

For the first time she could go into a cafe, see some millionaire’s shortbread and not have her body screaming, “I need one”.

Jan, from Kent, was one of the first people in the world to take part in the trials of semaglutide. It is sold as Wegovy for weight-loss and as Ozempic for diabetes, although some people have been buying this version to lose weight.

We all know somebody like Jan, who has tried every diet, and she has been battling her waistline her whole life.

Semaglutide mimics a hormone that is released when we eat. It tricks the brain into thinking we are full and dials down appetite so we eat less.

Once Jan started having the injections, her relationship with food was so transformational that she told me it was either down to the drug or “I’ve been abducted by aliens”.

For the first time she could go into a cafe, see some millionaire’s shortbread and not have her body screaming, “I need one”.