Chewing gum sales are up, phone scrolling is down and everyone is hiding food in napkins at parties...how three years of Mounjaro have changed our daily habits in ways nobody could have predicted: ANT

Not so long ago, being a size ten made me feel an anomaly, my slimmer-than-average figure, a sign that I had, after a long and fractious relationship with food, mastered the art of healthy weight management better than most. How times have changed. Three years to the day since Wegovy became the UK's first GLP-1 specifically for weight management, my scales might hardly have moved, but I scarcely feel slim at all. Everywhere around me, people are shrinking - friends, friends of friends, colleagues, celebrities. Some are on GLP-1s – which mimic the body's hormones to increase feelings of fullness – and some aren't. In an age in which the subject of weight is being weaponised against women once again, it sometimes feels inappropriate to ask. Besides, whether they are or not is almost a moot point. The drugs are now so ubiquitous that, whether we like it or not, skinny is back. And the consequences reach far beyond our waistlines as GLP-1s have moved from medical treatment to cultural phenomenon, they have begun to reshape our health, our relationship with food, out social lives and our spending habits. THE SURGE IN USERS Since Novo Nordisk's Wegovy was licensed on the NHS on September 4, 2023, the numbers of people on fat jabs have soared - boosted further by Eli Lilly's Mounjaro, which came along two months later. By December that year, around half a million people in the UK were taking them, a figure, according to a survey by the Food Foundation, that has risen phenomenally. Its report in May 2026 found that seven per cent of the UK population or 4.8 million are now on, or have taken, weight loss jabs. And a further eight per cent are considering taking them. The arrival of oral GLP1s, Novo Nordisk's Wegovy pill and Eli Lilly's Foundayo, this summer has only made the drugs more accessible. The vast majority of users – 95 per cent - pay privately, spending up to £300 a month through online pharmacies, some of which require a BMI as low as 25 to be eligible, compared to 30 or over on the NHS. For the pharmaceutical companies, this is big business - there are currently over 50 clinical trials worldwide underway to create new formulations or test and investigate new uses for existing drugs. Dizzying developments, then, which, as a 48-year-old who grew up in an age of Slim Fast and grapefruit diets in which our worth as women was predicated on our waist measurement, make me feel conflicted. WHAT HAPPENED TO BODY POSITIVITY? As women we are clearly most affected by the potential of GLP-1s. Although government figures find 69 to 70 per cent of men are overweight or obese, compared to 59 per cent to 62 per cent of women, we are the ones more than twice as likely to take GLP-1s. In many ways this feels like a regression, both a literal diminishing of women and a ratcheting up of almost impossible beauty ideals that have rendered ageing naturally all but unacceptable. But having interviewed myriad people with conflicting opinions of these drugs, the benefits increasingly seem to outweigh the concerns. At times, I have even wondered if I should try and wrangle a prescription for myself. Not for the effect on my body – despite the pressure, I no longer want to disappear - but the potential benefit to my brain. CHANGING OUR BRAINS Because it's not all about weight and weight-related health issues. Emerging evidence suggests GLP1s, which impact neural reward pathways as well as gut hormones, may help modify compulsive behaviours such as internet scrolling and even improve cognitive functions such as concentration, memory and attention – all of which I struggle with. Of course, these pale in comparison to the problems obesity causes, which increasingly, as those who can afford them get slimmer and those left on NHS waiting lists are left to suffer, is creating a societal divide. But so wide ranging are the effects of these drugs that the idea that we might all one day be knocking back a GLP-1 pill simply to feel better, doesn't feel that far-fetched. FAR REACHING HEALTH BENEFITS It's impossible to ignore the wider health benefits. In November 2023 research in The New England Journal of Medicine found semaglutide, the GLP1 agonist in Wegovy, reduced major cardiovascular events such as heart attacks and strokes by about 20 per cent in overweight and obese people, even those without diabetes. Losing weight lowers the load on our joints, and a 2024 study in the New England Journal of Medicine found people with obesity and knee osteoarthritis taking GLP-1s experienced 'significantly' less knee pain than those on a placebo. Lowered inflammation as a result of weight loss also appears to affect the brain. Last year a study in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology showed GLP1 users had a 24 per cent lower risk of dementia. FROM WEIGHT LOSS DRUG TO CULTURAL PHENOMENON Plenty of high profile names have embraced weight-loss jabs, with varying degrees of success. Sharon Osbourne, 73, said Ozempic led to her being at a weight she was uncomfortable with - even after she stopped taking it, saying: 'I didn't actually want to go this thin, but it just happened' Despite the growing number of health benefits reported by medics it was the staunch celebrity following that brought most awareness to the masses. Oprah Winfrey, who had struggled with her weight for decades, has described GLP-1s as 'relief, like redemption, like a gift, and not something to hide behind and once again be ridiculed for. I'm absolutely done with the shaming from other people and particularly myself.' Other stars who've taken the drug – and are willing to admit it – include singer Robbie Williams, Elon Musk, and comedian James Corden. Not all had positive experiences, however. Williams, 52, worried Mounjaro might be making him blind, reality TV star Gemma Collins, 45, who lost over three stone on Mounjaro, had to come off it when she developed gallstones. Former X Factor judge Sharon Osbourne, 73 lost three stone in four months on Ozempic (the original formulation prescribed to treat Type 2 Diabetes), couldn't stop losing weight after she came off it. 'I didn't actually want to go this thin, but it just happened,' she said. Few who weren't overweight to start with went public. Model Lottie Moss, 28, half-sister of supermodel Kate, who was hospitalised with dehydration and a seizure after taking Ozempic in 2024, even though she weighed less than 8st, however did. 'I would rather die any day than take it again,' she said. WHEN MEDICINE BECOMES FASHION Earlier this year I spoke to one of the Novo Nordisk scientists involved in the development of Ozempic. I was struck by how surprised she seemed by the popularity of GLP1s. I don't think anyone in the pharmaceutical industry predicted a drug developed to treat a disease would be appropriated by a fashion set that had no more need for weight loss than a new pair of jeans. And I wonder if these medications have now eclipsed the original intentions of the pharmaceutical giants behind them, effectively gaining a life of their own. THE SHRINKING CUSTOMER Drug companies could scarcely have anticipated the impact on the airline industry, which findings from Jefferies Research Services revealed this year could save £430m annually on fuel costs thanks to the reduced weight of passengers. Cosmetic surgeons also stand to benefit. Thanks to the fear of so called 'Ozempic face' figures from the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons suggested an 8 per cent rise in demand for facelifts in 2024, which the group's president described as 'an extension of a pattern we've always observed in post-weight-loss patients' that was 'now amplified by the wider use of these medications.' Robbie Williams, who's been vocal about his struggles with his weight throughout his career, has been honest about using drugs such as Ozempic, saying he uses it for his 'Type 2 self-loathing' SMALLER PORTIONS, BIGGER PROTEIN When it comes to our weekly supermarket shop those BOGOF ready meal deals are no longer as beguiling. Forced to pivot in order to profit, most supermarkets now stock protein-rich ranges in smaller portions at hefty prices. This feels a bit rich coming from companies that contributed to the obesity crisis in the first place, but I've tried them, they're nutritionally sound, and if they help stop muscle atrophy widely recognised as a risk with these drugs, they're not to be underestimated. Research this June found sales of chewing gum are up by 20 per cent to counter the dry mouth and bad breath that can be side effects of the jabs. Restaurant owners noticed it too, with lack of appetite hitting eateries already on their knees from the pandemic. Research last year found almost a third of people on GLP-1s were going out to eat and drink less often. At home entertaining is also in peril – according to a study by Perspectus Global, 29 per cent of us who have recently thrown a dinner party have been annoyed by guests pushing food around their plate, with one in ten users admitting hiding food in a napkin at a host's house in a bid to avoid offence. AND WE'RE DRINKING LESS TOO Several studies suggest GLP1s reduce the desire for alcohol. Research last February found households with GLP-1 users showed a 15 per cent drop in alcohol volume purchases. All of which would make me despair that we are all doomed to be sitting at home on our phones, every other pleasure taken away, were it not for the wider effects emerging. COULD WEIGHT LOSS DRUGS HELP US BREAK OUR ADDICTIONS? A study of over 500,000 British people on Mounjaro and Wegovy by digital healthcare firm Zava this year found many showed a reduced desire to scroll, with 8.4 per cent reporting spending less time on social media. Which brings me back to these drugs' impact on the brain and the behavioural addictions that are so often anecdotally reported as a side effect of weight loss. As someone who constantly ruminates and can't stop checking her phone, I have increasingly wondered if a prescription for my problems might one day be a possibility. Last year, I asked Professor Elisabet Jerlhag Holm, an addiction researcher at the University of Gothenberg, who has researched the behavioural effects of GLP-1s on rodents. She told me GLP-1 receptor agonists such as semaglutide can bind to areas of the brain that regulate reward and addiction - but that it might be years before effects were clinically proven in humans. THE SPEED OF CHANGE Three years ago GLP-1s were primarily a medical breakthrough. Today they're changing how we eat, drink, shop, travel and think about our bodies. The velocity at which they've upended the landscape makes it impossible not to wonder, to stop, take stock, and ask: what next?