A Conservative former minister said he has lost more than five stone in weight after using weight-loss injections, as he called for the stigma around the medication to be removed.
Sir Alec Shelbrooke described himself as having an “addictive personality”, and said he has struggled with his weight throughout his life.
In the Commons, he suggested that those who use injections to lose weight should be treated similarly to those who use nicotine patches to stop smoking.
During a debate on obesity, Sir Alec said: “There’s a lot of new members in the chamber, and they don’t know who I am, so they won’t have seen me be enormously fat, and down to the size I am now. And I have struggled with my weight throughout my life and I have controlled my weight for several years.
“It’s been a difficult journey to go through, but I have tried to eat healthy, I’ve tried to do things with my weight and I got to the point where I couldn’t. In the middle of September I started taking Wegovy, and in that time I have lost over five stone.”
“I have gone from 42 BMI to 30 BMI and I’ve still got a couple of stone to go. But, this is the big but, you’ve got to work with it, these are not miracle drugs,” he added.
Sir Alec said he has an addictive personality, and has previously turned to sugar to get him through a busy day as an MP.
The Wetherby and Easingwold MP continued: “For me it takes away the cravings and has made me be able to do the intermittent fasting and having a meal at one o’clock which is protein based, a banana at five o’clock and a small meal in the evening with a tiny bit of carbohydrate and don’t eat after nine o’clock – that is how I have dropped the weight.”
Sir Alec said around 500,000 people are using weight-loss injections and acknowledged some have experienced negative side effects, but added “drugs do have side effects, that’s not a reason to rule them out”.
He told MPs: “We need to remove the stigma of talking about whether we are on these jabs – Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro – which are certainly helping me, and I know of many, many friends who are using them and I know of many colleagues in the House which are using them.”
“We don’t make comment about people using nicotine patches or nicotine gum, and yet we do about people trying to do things to aide them to lose weight,” he added.
Sir Alec said he is currently going through a “process where I’m trying to lose the weight in the first six months, and then the next six months go back to a normal amount of calories and do the exercise and build up my fitness”.
He added: “I’m stood in front of you today, I feel horrific, I’ve had less than about 600 calories so far today, and we’re into 7.10pm, and I don’t feel great but it is working.”
Sir Alec also drew a link between the reduction in smoking and the rise in obesity, adding that he has previously used cigarettes to help keep his weight down.
Labour MP Jas Athwal (Ilford South) thanked Sir Alec for sharing his story, saying: “Sir, I tip my turban to you.”
Mr Athwal said he had lost two stone in two months after his doctor told him “in no uncertain terms” that if “you don’t lose weight, you won’t be here in a couple of years”.
He said: “I went home reeling from that news and I did exactly what he told me to do. I lost the weight, fantastic BMI and then I went back for my tests. But let me be clear: you cannot undo 20, 30, 40 years of damage.”
Mr Athwal said obesity leads to other diseases and “robs us of five, 10, 15 years of our lives”, adding: “Grandchildren not being able to speak to their grandparents. Why? Because they passed away. This is something which we have to take on board, we have to counter.”
The MP said his test results showed one of his arteries was “completely blocked” and another was 95% blocked, adding he was soon undergoing triple heart bypass surgery.
From the despatch box, health minister Andrew Gwynne said Sir Alec “looks so, so healthy”, adding: “I remember what he looked like before and he’s a shadow of his former self.”
He continued: “In the United Kingdom, we have an obesity crisis. It poses serious challenges to our health. It adds preventable pressure on the NHS and it restricts our economic productivity.
“Now, I’m reassured that none of us here today underestimate the scale or the importance of the task ahead, and we all recognise the need for action.”
