A teenager who was left feeling suicidal due to his weight lost one stone using an Ozempic-style weightloss drug.
As diabetes medicine Mounjaro, dubbed the “King Kong” of weight loss, has recently been approved for treating weight loss issues in the UK, teen media personality Charlie Michael Baker told the Express about his own experience using the drug.
“I wanted to make changes for my body, because I get a lot of trolling and bullying online,” Baker said. “I saw celebrities using Ozempic [another brand name for the drug, more common in the US], and I thought, ‘I want in’.”
Now 17 years old, Baker was bullied in school so extremely that he felt suicidal and had to be pulled out. Baker has since written a book about his ordeal, which has already sold over 50,000 copies and got him noticed by celebrities such as Gogglebox Star Tom Malone Jr and Love Island’s Georgia Harrison. With this fame, however, came the darker side of being in the limelight.
“If you don’t look like a Kardashian nowadays, you get bullied for it”, he said. “That’s what happened to me, and I wanted to change that.”
Weight loss injections like Ozempic and Mounjaro have exploded in popularity, as an increasing number of celebrities are praising the jabs for achieving a smaller figure in record time. Individuals are now looking to access the drug online, with non prescribed-purchases significantly ramped up.
Clinical trials have shown incredible results, with people losing up to a fifth of their body weight. The drug comes in pre-filled injection pens that patients administer under the skin of their stomach area or the thigh. However, unregulated use has sparked concerns among the medical community.
Research from Asda Online Doctor reveals around one in 12 adults in the UK have used injections without speaking to a doctor first. More than a quarter of these bought the treatment on illegitimate sites, while 25 percent used someone else’s prescription and a similar number accessed them on social media.
Upon doing his research into weight loss injection drugs, Baker said that they were remarkably easy to access.
“I just went on an online pharmacy and got it from there,” he shares. “It is quite expensive, I paid £700 for three rounds, but it’s fairly easy to get your hands on it.
“My doctors didn’t recommend it, because of my age and the reason I was doing it”, Baker says. “But as long as I was being safe with the dosages, they said I would be fine.”
The 17-year-old started the injections in November 2023. Taking progressively higher doses, Baker now regularly has about 15 milligrams per week as his doctors monitor his levels. He has lost over one stone in just six months.
“My mental health was in the gutter when I got these comments,” he said. “Taking it has made me feel more confident. I look in the mirror and think, that’s how I want to look like.
“I don’t regret taking them, but I do wish I’d known that you can’t just come off them. You have to progressively lower the dosages, so now I’m how I want ot look and I’m still on it becasue I don’t want any bad side effects.”
Despite these promising results, Mounjaro comes with some potential risks. In the US, the drug has been linked to sudden pancreatitis, serious digestive problems such as constipation, diarrhea, nausea or vomiting, and even thyroid cancer.
For Dr Danielle Kelvas, Chief Medical Editor at the HCG Institute, the drug can help in maintaing weight-loss only if it used as part of the solution and not on its own.
“So many people think, Oh, I can just take this drug and lose weight, when that isn’t true. Lifestyle changes need to be a part of taking [these drugs],” she explains.
“I recommend that patients really be committed to making lifestyle changes as they’re taking the drug, instead of relying 100% on the drug for weight loss. This includes practicing sleep hygiene, changing your diet, implementing a regular exercise routine, and getting your family/friends on your accountability team.
“I would also recommend they commit to regular check-in’s with their prescribing health provider – get a personal trainer or health coach if needed. There are labs and numbers that we have to follow, more than just how much they weigh or their BMI. If someone is struggling with vomiting or diarrhea, we need to know. Suffering through the weight loss journey can be dangerous.”