After having kids, one area woman started having problems maintaining her weight until she tried a GLP-1 under the supervision of her doctor.
One year after starting the medicine and 70 pounds lighter, Jessica Pollard, 49, is beginning the maintenance phase of treatment feeling healthier and excited about the future.
Pollard started gaining weight at about 30. When she entered perimenopause in her early 40s, it really started to snowball. Despite dieting, she couldn’t lose the weight, Pollard said.
“With life going on, it was very difficult to get a handle on it once it gets out of control,” she said. “I might lose 10 pounds. But then something happens and you get off track or you have a bad day, and it would just throw me totally off.”
She’s not alone. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between August 2021 and August 2023, 40.3 percent of U.S. adults were obese.
Obesity has become a chronic health problem in developed nations such as the United States, bringing with it increased risks for diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease, stroke and some cancers.
“We live in a land of plenty, and this is a symptom of having too much in some situations,” said Dr. Joel Stewart, a board-certified plastic surgeon with the West Georgia Center for Plastic Surgery. “For most of civilization, we’ve struggled to maintain enough calories to support ourselves. So this just speaks to the abundance of this society.”
Weight-loss remedies abound, and recently a host of GLP-1 medicines, including Mounjaro, Ozempic and Wegovy, have entered the public consciousness.
Pollard heard about the weight-loss medicines and even knew a few people who had used them, but she was worried about the side effects.
“I didn’t want to feel bad,” she said. “I didn’t want to be sick, and I was just a little scared of it.”
But then the West Georgia Center for Plastic Surgery sent out an email announcing it was offering GLP-1 drugs. By this time, at 217 pounds, she was facing health issues including joint pain and sleep apnea because of the extra weight. So she called the office and told them she was interested.
She started taking Mounjaro in May 2025.
GLP-1s move from treating disease to weight-loss medicine
According to a paper published on the National Library of Medicine website, GLP-1 medicines such as Mounjaro were originally developed to treat diabetes through blood glucose and weight control. Researchers later found they also benefited patients with other conditions, including cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, liver disease, arthritis and sleep apnea.
Stewart has been prescribing GLP-1s for almost two years.
“I think this is a miracle drug, certainly, and yes it is helping many, many people,” Stewart said.
The medicines work in the brain and gastrointestinal tract, he said. They stimulate insulin release and help prevent blood sugar spikes. They also signal the brain that you’re not hungry and don’t need food, he said.
Pollard said that for her, the medicine cut out the “food noise.”
“Food noise is like you get up in the morning and you’re like, ‘What am I gonna eat for breakfast? What am I gonna have for a snack? What am I gonna eat for lunch?'” Pollard said. “It’s kind of like you build your day around what I’m gonna eat.”
Stewart’s practice treats people with body mass indexes over 30 or those with a lower BMI combined with a medical condition that could improve with weight loss, such as arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease or sleep apnea.
The medicine helps patients lose weight and become healthier, Stewart said. But ultimately, they have to learn how to eat correctly, how to eat less, how to choose healthier foods and understand the importance of exercise.
Stewart also has nutritionists who work with patients to teach them how to eat properly and maintain their weight loss once they come off the medicine.
“They’ve been very good at helping us educate our patients and do things that help them better understand how the way they eat and the food they eat affects their overall weight,” Stewart said.
Along with the medicine, Pollard saw April Allen, a nurse practitioner at the office, for guidance on taking the weight off and keeping it off. She also used a fitness tracker app that helped her monitor her diet, water intake and exercise.
It took her about a year to lose 70 pounds and reach her target weight.
“It’s not all rainbows all the time,” she said. “There are some side effects. But to me it’s worth it to feel better, number one, and to be healthier.”
Like any medicine, GLP-1 drugs come with risks and side effects that patients and their doctors must consider, Stewart said.
Some of the common side effects, Stewart said, include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and constipation. But they’re relatively easy to manage by eating smaller meals, avoiding high-fat and high-sugar foods, and drinking plenty of water.
Long-term studies have shown the potential for gastrointestinal discomfort, and a small subset of patients can develop pancreatitis, he said.
Even the weight loss itself can affect patients, Stewart said.
“Certainly with massive weight loss, if you don’t exercise and you don’t make protein intake a big part of your consumption, you can have muscle loss,” he said. “Rapid weight loss, and we’ve known this for a long time, can lead to gallstones and gallbladder disease.”
Pollard said she had the support of her doctor and his staff to help her through the process. They checked her progress every month and answered her questions. That made a huge difference, she said, and she wouldn’t try to do it on her own.
After her experience, she would advise others to give GLP-1s a try.
“I’m not having sleep apnea problems now. I can move. My knees don’t hurt,” Pollard said. “They need to try, if they’re ready to do it.”