Prue Leith says she felt constantly tired and didn’t lose weight while trying the diabetes drug Mounjaro
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Leith admits she didn’t follow the drug’s instructions and consumed only 200 calories a day during the trial
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Her husband, John Playfair, successfully lost 28 lbs. on Mounjaro and reduced snacking and alcohol consumption
Though Prue Leith writes in her new book,Being Old, that she "couldn't bear" to deal with some of the side effects — particularly "a life without hunger" — that come with taking weight loss drugs, the food personalityrecently admitted to experimenting with Mounjarolast year.
However, as Leith, 86, tells PEOPLE, it was an experience that she didn't care for. Not only did she not lose any weight, but she was left feeling "sleepy all the time."
"It just took away my appetite completely, and so I didn't want food and I didn't miss it," theformerGreat British Baking Showjudgesays, explaining that as a result, she thought, "I'm just going to lose weight so fast because I'm not eating."
But, in her case at least, "I didn't lose an ounce, not one ounce," she says, adding, "I was so sleepy all the time because I was starving. I was really tired and I wasn't losing any weight." She equates it to being "on a starvation diet," revealing that she "was on about 200 calories a day, nothing really."
While Leith initially "blamed the Mounjaro," she realized she wasn't using the drugs properly. "I didn't do it right. I didn't read the instructions, basically," she says now, adding that her husband, John Playfair, told her, "Well, you are not eating anything and you should be eating 1,500 calories at least and it should be protein."
She adds, "I was eating nothing. So it was my fault, I do agree with that."
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Per theCleveland Clinic, Mounjaro "treats type 2 diabetes by lowering blood sugar. It also helps with weight loss by reducing appetite and slowing digestion." The academic medical center adds that the drug is taken as "an injection every seven days," with common side effects being nausea and diarrhea.
According to instructions forMounjaro, it is recommended that users stop eating when they start to feel full, and split typical meals into a number of smaller ones.
Whilespeaking toThe Timesin Novemberabout her lack of weight loss, she shared that Playfair lost around 28 lbs. Reflecting on his ability to shed two stone, Leith tells PEOPLE, "With my husband, it worked absolutely perfectly."
"In a way, it's nicer feeding him now because when he was hungry all the time, he was snacking all the time and then he didn't really enjoy his meals that much because he'd been eating garbage all day," she continues, adding, "I think that it seemed to turn off two genes in him. One was snacking, it'd stopped him snacking. The other was he drinks about half as much alcohol. He used to match me glass for glass, now he has half a glass and then I finish his glass and drink my own."
In the end, Leith walked away with a lesson learned about her own body image. "I still wouldn't go back on it because in the end I thought, in all of that, I weigh 12 stone, which is probably a stone too much and I've always wanted to lose a stone," she shares.
"But then I realized that actually I've always wanted to lose a stone. When I was 11 stone, I wanted to be 10 stone. I'm sure when I was 10 stone, I wanted to be nine stone. I think, you know what? I'm 86 and I'm not seriously overweight, so stop worrying about it," Leith concludes.
Being Old and Learning to Love It!is now available wherever books are sold.
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