When George, a 30-year-old business development manager from Stoke, went on a once in a lifetime backpacking trip around Asia in early 2024, he didn’t want to pose for any pictures.
At six foot five and having played rugby most of his life, George had always been bigger, but after changing jobs and quitting smoking, his weight had shot up, and his confidence had plummeted. At over 24 and a half stone, his mental health was impacted by his body image, and while travelling, he was confronted by it all.
“It did have an effect on my mental health, because at that size you’re just not happy. And it hits you whenever you have a shower or you just catch a picture of yourself. I didn’t want to post any images online because I just didn’t look good, and I wasn’t happy. Even when I went around Asia, I just couldn’t post the pictures – I felt they were awful.”
When he got back from travelling, he decided enough was enough, and it was time to make a change.
Fad diets work, but not for very long
“I just thought, I’m a year away from turning 30. I need to get into gear and at least get myself into some sort of shape physically and get where I wanted to get to.”
At first, George relied on an extreme carnivore diet, eating just meat with no processed foods or carbohydrates. While it helped him to some extent, he was getting fed up with the extreme restrictive nature and got bored of eating the same thing again and again.
“I could only drink water, only eat meat and eggs, pretty much, and sticking to that for three months was really boring. I loved steak before that, and then after that, I don’t even want to see it again. And it’s quite expensive as well, one dinner would be like a steak, four lamb chops and two chicken breasts. But really, it just wasn’t sustainable for me to carry on going forward with it, to get to where I wanted to get to.”
Over the three months of his attempt to lose weight, his father had come to Bodyline and had been prescribed the game-changing medical weight loss injection Mounjaro.
Mounjaro is also known as tirzepatide, is an innovative injectable medication that works by mimicking hormones in the stomach to make users feel fuller for longer, regulate blood sugars, and promote weight loss. It has been proven to help people lose between 20-25% of their starting weight, and when used within a supported weight loss programme helps people keep that weight off too.
George started to realise his father had lost a stone and a half in his first two months with Bodyline, but his diet was nowhere near as restrictive. George’s dad watched what he ate, but he was allowed carbohydrates, nice drinks, and even desserts.
“I just thought, if he’s losing a similar amount to what I’m losing, but I’m on a very restrictive diet where I’m literally watching every single thing that I’m eating, then how does that work?”
George had lost a lot of weight already, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to maintain that rate of weight loss. That’s when George got in touch with Bodyline, to see if he was eligible for Mounjaro and begin his own fully supported medical weight loss programme.
The specialist nurses took his weight, height, blood pressure, and waist measurements, and after going through his medical history George was prescribed the once-weekly weight loss injection, Mounjaro. George and his dad were on the journey together.
Game changing from the very first injection
George noticed the benefits of his weight loss journey with Mounjaro almost immediately.
“I took my first injection at about 5 o’clock on a Sunday night, and the next day I’m in the car driving for work. My work requires me to drive up and down the country to businesses around the country, and usually I’m living off fast food at service stations, but that day I suddenly realised I had absolutely no cravings. It was the realisation that I should be hungry about now, but I’m not, I’m not even thinking about it. That was just the first day!”
And George’s weight loss journey only improved from there. As he weaned himself off the carnivore diet and back onto a more balanced diet, he was able to eat as he wanted to but simply eat less of it.
As his medication was titrated, and his dosage was gradually increased with the help of his specialist weight loss nurses, George found he could eat anything he wanted to but now he’d mastered the art of portion control.
“Portion control was probably 90% of my problem before, because if somebody put a full roast dinner in front of me, I would eat the whole thing. Even if I was full halfway through, I would still finish the roast dinner off. But on Mounjaro, I couldn’t physically do that, and I think that’s what changed my mentality with how I eat for the rest of my life.”
Slowly but surely, the weight melted away, and George’s life had totally transformed. During the process, George got into hiking and fell back in love with playing team sports with his friends:
“Hiking is something I never thought I would do, but now I’ve done Snowdon, and I’ve got plans to do the Three Peaks this year. Then I started playing football on a Sunday and Monday, badminton on a Tuesday, and football again on a Wednesday, as well as going to the gym. These were things I wasn’t doing before, just out of a sheer lack of confidence.”
Four and a half stone down and unrecognisable!
Mounjaro has totally changed George’s life. He started with Bodyline at just under 22 stone (134kg) and now weighs in at an incredible 17 stone (108kg). Thats a total of 5 stone lost over just 6 months!
“My uncle came up at New Years, and he hadn’t seen me since for probably about 18 months, since I was at my heaviest at close to 25 stone. He said he didn’t even recognise me at the time, and if I was walking down the street or something like that, he wouldn’t even know it was me!”
Now George has been tapered off Mounjaro, and is maintaining his incredible weight loss with the new habits and life changing attitudes to his health and body image he picked up throughout his medical weight loss journey.
“If I look at where my life’s gone since February 2024, it’s all kind of crept upwards. I have a better attitude at work, better attitude in my personal life relationship-wise, it’s all improved. I put the majority of that down to the fact that I’m more confident and happier in myself and who I am.”
It’s not just George’s work and personal life that’s improved; it’s also his wardrobe!
“I can actually go and buy clothes that I want to buy without having to feel unconscious about it. For instance, I’ve always enjoyed Hugo Boss, but they didn’t do the sizes that I could fit in back then. Now I’m able to dress how I actually want to. I’m into medium jumpers and large T-shirts, whereas before it was like quadruple XL and triple XL!”
The Bodyline difference
Support within medical weight loss is vital if you want to gain the skills to not just lose the weight, but keep it off too. George is a perfect example of how that works:
“I’ve got a lot of friends that I played football with on a Monday night that were on the injections, but some of them have slipped off it, some of them have had issues with it. They’re ordering it from places where they’re not getting the support alongside it and can only track it themselves.
They’re not seeing that difference from every four weeks when you go for your meeting, where Bodyline track my blood pressure, my chest size, waist size, weight, all of it. And not just the support but it keeps you motivated to carry on. You don’t want to go into that meeting every four weeks and have put on weight, because the team is so supportive and they offer such great advice.”
George isn’t afraid of the camera anymore. Now his memories can be captured, saved, and shared with his friends and family, without any knock to his confidence. At thirty years old, George has the rest of his life ahead of him, and it’s looking to be a healthier and happier one!
There’s no need for shame or stigma
When asked about what he’d say to anyone, male or female, interested in getting in touch with Bodyline, George’s response was simple and practical.
“I think there’s a bit of a stigma around guys doing it and guys going on it, and some people feel embarrassed that they’re on it or they feel like they’re cheating their way to being slimmer.
“But the way I look at it is it’s not cheating. It’s just something you can do to benefit yourself. If you’re an alcoholic, you go to rehab. If there was an injection to stop you being an alcoholic, I’m sure that you’d take it. And food is an addiction. This is a case of just getting that help.
“So, if you’re considering it, I’d say going to Bodyline would be the best decision you’d ever make, and you wouldn’t look back.” If you’re looking to put your health first, why not get in touch with the Bodyline team today. Call us on 0800 995 6036 or complete an online contact form for a call back.
