What happened to my body after I quit Mounjaro, by CLAUDIA CONNELL. I lost four stone and slimmed to size 10. But after Christmas, the consequences for my skin, looks and weight are truly astonishing | Retrui News | Retrui
What happened to my body after I quit Mounjaro, by CLAUDIA CONNELL. I lost four stone and slimmed to size 10. But after Christmas, the consequences for my skin, looks and weight are truly astonishing
SOURCE:Daily Mail
The average person is likely to have gained about 3lbs over the festive period and gorged on 6,000 calories on Christmas Day.
The average person is likely to have gained about 3lbs over the festive period and gorged on 6,000 calories on Christmas Day.
Last year that could not have been further from the case for me. While others loosened their trousers to breathe, I was tightening my belt by a couple of notches.
I lost 11lbs that December and doubt I consumed more than 600 calories at Christmas lunch, eating just a measly portion of turkey and a couple of tablespoons of veg, while I pushed roast potatoes around my plate like a fussy toddler. The thought of Christmas pudding and brandy butter made me feel nauseous. At parties and lunches, I was one of those people who ordered just a starter and nursed a single glass of prosecco all evening.
While others’ fridges were heaving with party canapes, cheeses, cold meats and delicious treats, mine was full of salad and fresh soup. A litre bottle of Baileys was never opened and donated to a raffle.
If I sound like an insufferable Christmas killjoy, it’s because I was. The reason? I had just started on fat jabs. At the beginning of December 2024, I began taking Mounjaro.
A size 18 with a belly bigger than Santa’s, I knew I couldn’t go into 2025 without addressing my weight, and the injections offered a different approach to my usual cycle of dieting, shedding the pounds and piling it all back on again. It worked a treat and within 24 hours of my first jab I had virtually no appetite. I dropped 5lbs in the first week and a further four the week after… then came Christmas, a time I love.
Yes, I love presents and meeting up with family and friends, but most of all I love the food. Not just piling my plate high on Christmas Day but all the other stuff too: the supermarket canapes; the crisps and dips; the cheese and crackers and all the lovely, fattening ‘picky bits’ that I live off for the best part of a month.
Ordinarily, I’m not a massive boozer but I do like to let loose a little in December. It’s Christmas! Pre 2024 I kicked things off with a few M&S cocktail tinnies (they do a variety pack at Christmas time).
Christmas 2024 was a pretty joyless affair. Christmas 2025, however, well that’s another story
I love presents and meeting up with family and friends, but most of all I love the food. Not just piling my plate high on Christmas Day but all the other stuff too
I’d then wash my sofa picnic down with a supersized measure of Baileys. Pub measures really annoy me – barely a tablespoon, one gulp and it’s gone. I even invented a little trick I was rather proud of. I’d have Baileys over ice – the only difference was the ice was also made of Baileys, either the regular one or – if I was feeling fancy – the Chocolate flavour.
However, all that went out of the window last Christmas.
On Mounjaro I had no desire to drink at all and could mostly only manage two small meals a day with no snacking in between. Unable to tolerate most dairy products, I did not have so much as a cube of cheese, let alone eat my body weight.
I am so glad to be slim now and I’ll always love Mounjaro and what it did for me but…Christmas 2024 was a pretty joyless affair. Christmas 2025, however, well that’s another story.
After six months off Mounjaro, not only had I not regained weight, I actually shed a bit more.
At the beginning of this month I tipped the scales at 9st 4lbs. At 5ft 5in that gives me a BMI of 21.6, slap bang in the ‘healthy’ range. When I started jabbing, I always said I’d be happy with anything under 10st, so you could argue I had a 10lb buffer – which brings me nicely to this Christmas.
I decided in November that I was going to have an indulgent time. Not so indulgent that I lie on the sofa in a food coma with my jeans undone, unable to move save for reaching for the tubs of Celebrations, Miniature Heroes and Quality Street at my feet (yes, I’ve done that in the past).
No, what I decided was that I was going to loosen the wheels at the start of the festive season by going to parties and enjoying champagne, cocktails and canapés. I’d go out for nice meals with friends and have a dessert if the mood took me.
On Mounjaro I had no desire to drink at all and could mostly only manage two small meals a day with no snacking in between
I decided that I was going to loosen the wheels at the start of the festive season by going to parties and enjoying champagne, cocktails and canapés
Then on the 24th, 25th and 26th those loosened wheels were going to come off altogether.
I did ask myself how much weight one person could reasonably gain in four weeks and then I remembered the time I drove Route 66 with a friend and piled on 12lbs in three weeks and decided to not pull at that string anymore.
It was different this time because I have an emergency stash of Mounjaro in my fridge that I’m ready to crack open in the New Year should I need to… so let’s get this party started!
I bought my first litre bottle of Baileys on November 26 because it was half price, telling myself that I shouldn’t miss out on a bargain. As it turned out it remained half price throughout December (I know this because I bought two more).
I enjoyed a large tumbler most evenings. I’m horrified when I calculate my measure to be 640 calories. That’s more than a Big Mac! Oh well, it’s Christmas. When Baileys felt too rich, I switched to a passion fruit Martini instead which, I reasoned, probably counted towards my five a day.
My first Christmas celebration came on the last Saturday in November – lunch with friends at an Italian restaurant. I started with an Aperol Spritz before moving on to red wine. Things began well with an artichoke salad, but it was a Michelin-starred restaurant, famous for pasta. I hadn’t eaten pasta in a year. It made me too bloated when I was on Mounjaro and ever since I’ve made a concerted effort to not have ‘beige’ carbs.
But the truffle ravioli in a creamy sauce sounded heavenly and was worth every mouthful. I couldn’t manage pudding, but I did manage a bag of wine gums on the train home.
A new fish and chip restaurant opened near me the first week of December and neighbours had been raving about it.
Once upon a time I used to get so many takeaways that I got Christmas cards from my local pizzeria and Chinese, but I can’t remember the last time I had one. However, when a 25 per cent off discount leaflet for the new chippy landed on my doormat I took it as a sign.
My plate groaned with fish, chips and mushy peas (for fibre) as well as a pickled onion the size of my head.
Oh, boy did my stomach protest though. No longer accustomed to greasy food I struggled to eat even half of it. The old (fat) me would have been appalled.
The next day my body made the full extent of its protest known as I had to cancel plans due to a very upset stomach and only managed dry toast and water for 24 hours.
Two days later I was having a big meal with a group of my oldest friends at a gastro pub in Brighton. After champagne cocktails I ordered six oysters (healthy, high protein) and a chicken, tomato and olive dish. Sounds boringly restrained, doesn’t it? Don’t worry, I also loaded up on parmesan fries.
I decided not to have a pudding but then the rotters at the restaurant brought us all complimentary chocolates. The thing with sugar is that it’s like crack and triggers manic craving for more which is why I got my Uber driver to stop at the shop on my way home where I snapped up a family size bag of Revels, to scoff in front of Netflix.
After my first week of gluttony, I noticed my skin was duller. However my size 10 jeans were still zipping up, so I wasn’t that bothered – I was having fun. I tucked into some mince pies, vowing to book a facial in the New Year.
Once the second week of December arrived, I was giddy with anticipation about breaking open the party food. Miniature versions of things are my favourite. They’re the festive food version of those travel-sized toiletries we buy for our holiday: madly overpriced but irresistible.
M&S were doing a buy 4 get 1 free deal and I snapped up a box of mini burgers, mini roast beef with Yorkshire puddings, mini savoury pies and mini chicken Kievs.
And, just in case my sweet tooth kicked in, I threw in a box of mini melting middle chocolate puddings.
Over the past year I have mostly stuck to two meals a day (usually skipping breakfast) and been very disciplined about cooking both of those meals from scratch. All that went out of the window as I tucked into a mountain of mini food over the next few days and started having the odd pain au chocolat for breakfast too.
I ate the first of three Christmas dinners mid-December during a pub lunch with my mum. One of the things I learnt to do (post jabs) when I eat out is to have the protein on my plate first – start with the meat, move onto the veg and, if still hungry, some potato.
To hell with that, it’s Christmas! I tucked into the roast spuds first before moving onto the stuffing and pigs in blankets. Not for the first time, my stomach started to send out ‘what are you doing to me?’ distress signals.
Two days later I ate another Christmas dinner in an office canteen and that time I did eat the turkey and veg first, hoping it might encourage me to push away the potato and massive Yorkshire pudding. No such luck. As much as I was enjoying the food I also became rather alarmed at how easy it was to tiptoe back into grazing mindlessly and overeating.
On the week beginning the 15th I vowed to rein things in a bit. My waist felt thicker and (due to the Baileys) I wasn’t sleeping well.
That lasted about 48 hours, when a package arrived from my friend Karen, a talented amateur baker. Inside was a Christmas cake and handmade goodies. There was a box of nougat, truffles and – oh lord save me – Baileys fudge. I told myself I’d have one piece of fudge, one of nougat and put the rest away. The lies we tell ourselves, eh? By the end of the day the nougat was gone and so was half the fudge.
At the end of the week, I decided to weigh myself to see how much I’d gained. I’m staggered when it’s only 3lbs… but the big push was yet to come.
On the 22nd I picked up an M&S Tom Kerridge beef wellington (the £195 one) to test for this paper. It was delicious and enough to feed six. It would have been unbearable to allow such an expensive dish go to waste, so I ate the whole thing over two days – all 3000 calories.
My family came to me this year, so on Christmas Eve I started to do some prep. It was then I realised I had bought far too much and tucked into the surplus cheese, crackers and pate.
In the evening, I resisted temptation to order a curry, but I did munch a bag of Doritos dunked into M&S’s Mexican layered dip – the daddy of all dips.
Claudia Connell ate the notorious £195 M&S Tom Kerridge beef wellington across two days
On Christmas morning I opened some Bucks Fizz to sip on as I cooked and ended up drinking the bottle before anyone arrived. Oh well, it’s mostly orange juice, I reasoned. Vitamin C! Unlike last year, I went ‘old school’ with my festive lunch, piling everything onto my plate and then going in for seconds. I’d never felt so stuffed in my life and swore that I had no room for Christmas pudding. But, wouldn’t you know it, after an hour’s respite I managed to squeeze in a chunk, with a massive dollop of brandy batter and, for good measure, a couple of chocolate profiteroles too.
I spent the evening on the sofa watching Amandaland and Mrs Brown’s Boys – not through choice but because the remote was on the mantlepiece and I felt too bloated to move. Not so bloated I didn’t manage to down some Baileys though.
My fridge groaning with leftovers, I had another Christmas lunch for breakfast on Boxing Day all zapped in the microwave.
Come lunchtime it was time to bring on the picky bits: cheese, biscuits, party canapes, pickles, crisps, cold meats and dips… so many dips. Has anyone ever died of dip overdose?
On the 27th and 28th I squeezed in two big walks with friends, which I hoped might burn off some calories and deflate the ‘carb face’ I’d developed. A month ago, I loved that I had visible cheekbones and a jawline. Now I look as if someone has scribbled a face on a balloon.
Yesterday came the moment of truth. The weigh in. I’ve gained six and a half pounds – just shy of half a stone and most of it has gone around my middle, leaving me with a hideous muffin top spilling over my jeans. It could have been worse, I tell myself as I polish off the last of the cheese. And what goes brilliantly with cheese? Cheesecake! (I find one at the back of the fridge, about to hit its sell-by date.)
Like Edith Piaf, I have no regrets. I loved eating but I also can’t slip back into old ways and feel certain I can shift the extra flab in 2-3 weeks.
Now the only thing in my fridge that’s calling my name is my emergency stash of Mounjaro.