A mother-of-one might be the first person in the UK to be thrilled that weight loss jabs have helped her GAIN pounds—after her weekly injection curbed her shopping addiction. 

Grace Parkin, 34, has always struggled with her weight and when she was at her heaviest, she tipped the scales at 19st 11lbs and wore a size 26.

Before starting on the jabs she had got her weight down to 17st 9lbs herself  and has now lost 9st 4lbs and is a slender 10st 7lbs and a size 12. 

Since she began taking Mounjaro in May last year, the estates manager from Sheffield, South Yorkshire, has lost nine stone and kicked her £1k-a-month ‘boredom spending’ habits.

Previously, she was spending up to £1,000 a month on clothes, dining out, holidays, and alcohol, but states that since taking the jab, this has significantly decreased. 

Ms Parkin said: ‘I was an impulsive spender before.

‘I was spending between £600 to £1,000 a month on recreational things, but now I’m saving in excess £600 a month.

‘It was endorphin purchases. Now if I need something I buy it, but I no longer buy things due to boredom.

‘I’d go through phases. I’d be just buying shoes—trainers, UGGs, boots.

‘Then it would be buying a load of jumpers, holiday clothes when I’d not even booked a holiday.

‘I’d get an idea in my head, like I need some new sunglasses.

‘I wasn’t getting into debt, but if I was bored in the evening, I’d buy from Boohoo, PrettyLittleThing, Shien… any brands that offered plus-sized clothes.

‘I spend anything from £50 to £200 to £300 a night.’ 

And she wasn’t just filling her empty evenings with mindless online shopping, she would be pounding the pavement on her local High Street, too. 

She added:  ‘Two or three times a week be in my local shopping centre and I’d come out with bags off stuff.

‘I was void filling, looking for that adrenaline. Any disposable income would go on anything related to pleasure. Anything that was going to give me gratification.

‘If I could spend money and it could give that rush, I’d do it.’ 

Before signing up for the appetite-suppressing medication, Ms Parkin would stick to a strict healthy diet in the week but found it all going out the window on the weekends  when she would binge drink, and gorge on takeaways and greasy bacon butties.

She decided to try the Eli Lilly produced medication as a last attempt to lose weight without undergoing bariatric surgery, and obtained a £150-a-month private prescription. 

Many Mounjaro users have experienced side effects including feeling nauseous and experiencing stomach discomfort after taking the medication, which was originally developed as a drug to help manage diabetes. 

Thankfully for Ms Parkin she has only seen a reduction in hunger for shopping—and junk food. 

She added: ‘I am sure my Uber eats driver probably thinks I’ve died—he knows me by my first name!’ 

Mounjaro wasn’t the first time that she had turned to medical intervention to lose weight. 

In 2009, when she was just 18, she underwent a gastric balloon but only lost three stone and didn’t find it helped with her eating habits. 

 She also previously tried weight loss jab Saxenda, but struggled with bad nausea.

In May 2024, she saw a post on Facebook about Mounjaro and decided to give it a go. 

She said: ‘It’s been incredible. It turns the food noise off and it removes the guilt from food.’

Thankfully the recent Mounjaro price increases won’t have a detrimental effect on Ms Parkin’s weight loss journey as thanks to her curbed shopping addiction, she has plenty of cash left over each month to cover the cost of the pens—which will now set her back £320.  

She added: ‘Even with the price increase still going to be in the black.

‘Not everyone in position they’ve got spare income.

‘I will shop around pharmacies to save money.

‘I need it – don’t want to go back to where I was before.’