An obese mother-of-three who was ‘facing an early grave’ has thanked blockbuster weight loss jab Mounjaro for helping her kick the nightly habit that had led to her piling on the pounds.
Tina Bashford, 41, had always struggled with her weight, driven by overeating binges from a young age and a ‘toxic relationship’ with food.
But after having her third daughter, Aniyah, 3, in 2022, the stay-at-home mother knew something had to change as the number on the scales kept going up.
At her heaviest, she reached a mammoth 23st 7lbs (329lbs)—forced into wear size 26 clothes—and she was so miserable that she found herself comfort eating greasy takeaways and calorific bars of chocolate most nights.
Ms Bashford, from Hemel Hempstead, was considered obese before hitting her teenage years, soon after which she had daughters Sophie, 23, and Jessica, 21.
But when she started suffering from immense pain in her right knee—caused by arthritis, a condition that causes joints to become painful and stiff—and was told by doctors there was nothing else they could do for her pain, she knew she had no other choice but to lose the weight.
‘When I found out I was pre-diabetic, I knew I was heading to an early grave,’ she recalled.
‘When the doctors said they couldn’t do any more for my arthritis, it gave me the kick I needed.’
At her heaviest, Tina weighed a scale-busting 23st 7lbs—and wore a size 26
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Reluctant to travel abroad for bariatric weight loss surgery—which involves surgically making the stomach smaller, lessening the chance of overeating—Ms Bashford settled on Mounjaro, dropping an impressive 1st 2lbs (17lbs) within the first month of taking it.
She added: ‘I felt like I was already losing everything, so I had nothing to lose.
‘I had one shot or I knew I’d be going in a box early.’
Dubbed the ‘King Kong’ of weight loss jabs, Mounjaro was originally developed to help manage type 2 diabetes in adults who are also obese or overweight, but is now used for weight loss after it was found to suppress patients’ appetites.
The injections spur weight loss by mimicking the actions of a hormone released by the gut after eating—GLP-1, reducing the amount of glucose produced by the liver and silencing ‘food noise’.
As the numbers on the scale started to drop, the mother-of-three also started implementing simple lifestyle changes to support her weight loss journey, such as eating more healthily—swapping takeaways for homemade whole foods—and exercising regularly.
After just 16months on the injections, she has dropped 11 stone (154lbs)—and spent £2,000 ($2,654) on the jabs—reversing her pre-diabetes and claiming back a life she could only dream of.
She told her mother, Alison Harrington, 63, ‘if Mounjaro could help me lose a stone, I’d be ecstatic. And now I’m, over 10st down,’ she said.
‘Now I can run around with my daughter, go on bike rides, fly without using a seatbelt extender and go on theme park rides. I have so much energy, it’s like being 21 again.
After just one month on the jabs, Tina had already dropped over a stone
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Despite throwing away all of her old clothes, Tina has kept one t-shirt as a reminder to stay humble
‘My knee pain is gone, I’m no longer pre-diabetic and my doctor says I’ve saved the NHS thousands by doing this.’
Recalling her previous attempts to lose the weight, Ms Bashford said that after having her first two daughters she tried everything from trendy diets like Keto to Orlistat weight loss pills.
But she would always revert back to unhealthy habits, unable to quieten the constant food noise which had tormented her from a young age.
‘If we went for food, I’d be wondering what meal is going to be the biggest portion,’ she remembered.
‘If I baked a cake, I’d wake in the middle of the night and panic someone else had eaten it and left none for me.
‘I felt like I was living but I didn’t have a life. The only thing that made me feel better was food.’
Now at a slender 12st 6lbs (174lbs), Ms Bashford plans to start weaning herself off the jabs, despite claiming that it was the best £2,000 she ever spent.
She added: ‘I look at old pictures of myself and I mourn for her, she missed out on so much because of the weight.
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‘But it has given me a new longing for life.
‘Mounjaro does get some bad press, but for me it’s been life-changing.’
It comes as leading doctors called for weight loss jabs Mounjaro and Wegovy to be the number one treatment for obesity ‘in almost all cases’ earlier this week.
In new guidance to medics, the European Association for the Study of Obesity praised the drugs’ effectiveness and significant health benefits.
It describes them as powerful slimming aids that can reduce the risk of associated complications, such as high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.
More than 16million adults living in the UK are obese, but only 1.5million use fat jabs, with most bought privately for around £200 a month.
It comes after Wes Streeting pledged to roll out the injections to millions more patients on the NHS to ‘defeat obesity’.
Tina’s diet before
Breakfast: Cereals, biscuits, pastries
Lunch: Sandwiches, crisps, cakes, pizza
Dinner: Take aways, fried food
Snacks: Biscuits, chocolate, sweets, cakes
Drinks: Coffee with three sugars, full fat Coke, juice
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Tina’s diet now
Breakfast: Fruit, protein shake
Lunch: Salads, yogurts, fruits, wraps
Dinner: Chicken, steak, veg, stir fry – homemade whole food
Snacks: Apples, ready cooked chicken, yoghurts, fruit
Drinks: Coffee with no sugar, squash, water