I have a better alternative to Ozempic, and it will cost you nothing
Going a day a week without eating is less expensive than relying on ‘fat jabs’
As many as five million Britons are either currently taking or have recently been taking one of the plethora of “fat jabs” on offer from the world’s pharmaceutical giants.
They have endured the widely trailed gastrointestinal side-effects, such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea, as well conditions such as “Ozempic face” to describe the haggard or sunken appearance of those using one of the GLP-1 receptor agonist drugs, whose number include Mounjaro and Wegovy – both available from NHS England for “the management of obesity”.
Aside from those who get the jab for nothing, there are many of us prepared to pay for it over the counter – at up to £200 a month, depending on the dosage – to help shed the unwanted pounds, in more ways than one, obviously.
Since I need to slim down a bit – a stone would get my BMI in better shape – I’ve put myself on a jab with a difference. I call it the poor man’s Ozempic – or Mounjaro for misers.
Because what I’m doing is free. In fact, it actually saves you money and is good for you, because instead of pumping your body with appetite-suppressing chemicals to con it into believing it’s full, I’m giving my body a break.
For one day each week, I simply don’t eat. I drink plenty of water, tea and coffee but I don’t eat a thing. No need to buy expensive low calorie equivalents, no awkward counting of calories or avoidance of certain common foodstuffs. No absurd fixation on protein which gives you the breath of a Peperami-subsisting vampire on the Atkins diet.
You just don’t eat, for one day, each week. And the best part is because you don’t eat from after dinner the night before until breakfast the following morning, you end up going the best part of 36 hours without food. It’s like a retreat for your alimentary canal. And the weight just falls off. Well, up to a point. It is estimated that denying yourself a day’s food can lead to a drop of between half a pound to two pounds in weight.
But at least you are heading in the right direction. It feels good because you’re winning through self-denial rather than through reliance. In that respect the fat jab is mollycoddling welfarism compared with full-throated Thatcherite fasting.
Just as importantly, fasting is good for you because it reduces inflammation and things like cholesterol, blood pressure and your chances of type 2 diabetes. It also helps because it’s like a speed awareness course for food: it slows you down when you do eat again and reminds you that your body is not in fact a waste disposal unit for ultra processed foods.
Taking a break also helps you realise the grubby truth that the cultural prevalence of food on our screens means it has evolved into a species of recreation – let’s call it calorie porn – while many of us often use what we eat to give us a fix when we’re feeling bored, gloomy or just because there happens to be an open 850g packet of Cadbury Dairy Milk and only the finest palm oil will do.
So I say don’t. If you have a few pounds to lose, try fasting before you reach for the jab. Choose a day each week and just don’t eat. Yes, you may want to skip MasterChef: The Professionals or Somebody Feed Phil that evening and go to bed a tad earlier but that turns out to be good for your sleep, too. As well as feeling refreshingly light on your pins in the morning, you’ll discover that a little self-denial isn’t all that hard.
[Source: Daily Telegraph]
