They have six packs – but they’re still jumping on and off weight-loss jabs

Gabriella was trying to lose weight gained during the Covid pandemic. But you won’t lose a few stubborn kilos.

She says, she had tried everything. going on a strict diet; Being more consistent with your high-intensity workouts six days a week.

But “nothing worked” for the Brazilian lawyer who weighs 76 kg (11st 13 lb) and is 1.69 m (5 ft 6 in) tall.

Then, friends told her a secret—they were using weight-loss injections and were thrilled with the results.

So despite being a long-time fitness enthusiast, 40-year-old Gabriella decided to do the same.

She bought her first Ozempic jabs in February 2024 from a pharmacy in Rio de Janeiro – without a prescription – and started taking them without medical supervision.

The results were almost immediate.

“It was surreal,” recalls Gabriella, who is not her real name. “I’ll go to a Japanese buffet, eat six pieces of sushi and feel like I’ve eaten an entire rack of ribs.”

The change was noticeable, but it didn’t last. When she stopped taking the injections, slowly but surely, the weight came back.

That’s when Gabriella’s new routine began. When she was satisfied with the way she looked she would stop hitting. But when the reflection in the mirror was not what she wanted, the process started all over again.

She has been going through this cycle for a year.

“When I look in the mirror and like what I see, everything in life feels easier,” she says.

Doctors have warned that people like Gabriella, who have no medical need for weight loss drugs and are taking them intermittently and without medical supervision, are risking their health.

In the UK, the National Health Service doesn’t usually prescribe weight loss jabs – which mimic a natural hormone that regulates appetite and makes you feel full for longer – unless your body mass index (BMI) is above 35 or 40, depending on the drug. The threshold is lower for certain ethnic groups and people with certain weight-related health conditions.

When Gabriella started taking the vaccine, her BMI was 26.6. She had no weight problems and was a muscular woman who regularly exercised at high intensity.

“The trend of using it for cosmetic purposes is increasing,” says Dr. Bharti Shetty, vice president of the Obesity Medicine Association in America.

“I’ve heard of many cases where people use it just to look good.”

Professor and endocrinologist Simon Van de Sande Lee is clear: “These are drugs approved to treat conditions such as diabetes or obesity – they are not cosmetic devices.”

Andrew, 49, was well below the limit for weight loss drugs prescribed in Britain.

A top executive of a food company accustomed to hosting lavish parties in his central London penthouse was unhappy with the appearance that forced him to do so.

“I felt like I was a little bloated… I wasn’t feeling good about myself,” says the 49-year-old, who also asked that his real name not be used.

“I came back from the Christmas holidays and thought, ‘I’ll fix this somehow.'”

At the time, Andrew weighed approximately 90 kg (14st 2 lb) and was 1.83 m (6 ft) tall, although like Gabriella, he was muscular. Due to this his BMI became 26.9.

Despite this, Andrew says he was able to get the jabs from an online pharmacy, simply by completing a self-assessment. To the best of his knowledge, no one has checked whether what he has written is correct or whether the treatment is appropriate.

In early 2024, he began weekly injections of Vegovy and later Monzaro.

“Almost immediately with the jab I felt the noise of eating go away from me… I really enjoyed not having to think so much about food.”

Now, Andrew still goes to restaurants but eats much less.

“I never feel the same immediate hunger, or much less, that I used to.”

Like Gabriela, he cycles between starting and stopping vaccinations depending on social events. He said he used them before a boat trip to the Mediterranean this summer, then stopped for a few months, and recently started again before Christmas.

Gabriella sometimes skips doses before parties so she can eat more.

“If I know I’m going to drink too much one day, I don’t drink it,” she says. “I’m like, ‘Come on, I’m already going to drink a ton of beer — why would I have this?’ So I don’t.”

She adds, “These days, I’m probably taking it the wrong way – to be honest, I have no idea.”

She says that along with medication, cycling helps her last longer and save money. Gabriella estimates she has spent more than $2,000 (£1,500) so far.

While both Gabriella and Andrew are positive about their experiences, health experts point to the risks of taking weight-loss supplements irregularly and without supervision.

While older versions of GLP-1 drugs were used for type 2 diabetes in the 1990s, the drugs have only really taken off in popularity in the past four years, when medical regulators around the world have begun licensing them for weight loss.

“We don’t know the effects on people using these drugs solely for cosmetic purposes,” says Simon Cork, senior lecturer in physiology at Anglia Ruskin University in the UK.

Professor Lee says much of what we know about these drugs comes from people who use them consistently under medical supervision, so any stop-and-start pattern makes it difficult to assess their long-term effects.

Dr. Bruno Halpern, an endocrinologist and president-elect of the World Obesity Federation, said research shows the drugs are “relatively safe” for people with obesity or diabetes.

“But if millions of healthy people start using them – some with no medical need – then we will start to see rare side effects more regularly,” he adds.

Common side effects of the medications include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and constipation.

But rarer and more serious ones include acute gallstone disease, pancreatitis, and severe allergic reactions.

Gabriella says her only problem so far has been mild stomach pain, which she attributes to a combination of not eating and drinking alcohol while using the jabs.

“I was going through a wild phase,” she admits.

Halpern says another drawback of the jabs is that they can cause people to lose muscle as well as fat, and this is particularly likely to be true for people who are thin.

“Thin individuals on restrictive diets tend to lose more muscle than fat,” he says.

“If they gain the weight back later, their body composition is worse,” he said, adding that this “yo-yo cycle” of losing and gaining weight increases the long-term risk of weight gain, especially when cycling between taking and quitting the drug.

The patient leaflets for Ozempic, Vegovy and Monzaro recommend weekly injections at a fixed time under medical supervision, indicating that the medicines are intended for regular, continuous use rather than occasional or sporadic dosing.

These are injected into the upper arm, thigh or abdomen, with the dose gradually increasing.

There are psychological dangers too.

Dr. Halpern says he sees patients who imagine that if they lose weight they will feel loved, happy, and accepted, but these expectations are rarely realistic.

When people stop taking the vaccine and start gaining weight again, he says, they often feel like a failure.

Dr. Cork explains that another challenge is that our body resists weight loss over the long term.

“When you lose weight, your body doesn’t just say, ‘Great, job’s done.’ Appetite hormones increase, your metabolism slows, and your body tries to restore its natural point.”

He explains that as soon as patients stop taking supplements that suppress hunger signals, the body resumes its fight to regain the lost weight.

That’s why they’re intended for long-term use in patients who need them, he says, emphasizing that obesity is a chronic disease. In the UK, NHS guidelines currently limit the use of weight loss medications to a maximum of two years.

As early as 2025, Britain’s General Pharmaceutical Council tightened restrictions on how online pharmacies can sell and prescribe jabs in response to growing concerns about abuse, safety and supply shortages.

Brazil also tightened rules for prescribing the drugs this year for similar reasons.

Despite the risks, Gabriella and Andrew say they have no plans to stop.

“I think I’ve become addicted to it,” Gabriella admits, while Andrew sees the drug as a long-term commitment to his appearance.

He sees it as a “relatively informed risk” that he is taking.

“If I keep cycling on it for the rest of my life, it’ll probably be fine.”