COMEDIAN Dom Joly revealed how the fat jab, Mounjaro, has helped turn his health around.
The star of Trigger Happy TV, 57, opened up on how the weekly jab "changed his life" after he was diagnosed with a potentially life-ending disorder.
Dom chatted to fellow comedian, Russell Howard on his podcast, Five Brilliant Things, where he revealed he'd been taking Mounjaro for more than a year.
Mounjaro (tirzepatide) became available in the UK in February 2024 and works by suppressing your appetite, making you eat less so your body burns fat for energy instead and you lose weight.
It does this by my mimicking a hormone called GLP-1, which signals to the brain when the stomach is full, so the drugs are officially called GLP-1 receptor agonists.
"It's changed my life," Dom declared and then compared himself to his pet Labrador dogs.
"You still feel hungry, you still get excited at food, but what it does, I've got two Labradors… [who] have no off button."
Dom described how his Labradors would, if allowed, keep eating food until it killed them.
"I was a bit like," he explained of his appetite before taking Mounjaro.
"I kind of would start eating. I love it, I'll have more and more."
Now he said he still gets excited about food, but after about "six, seven mouthfuls in," he realises he's had enough.
Dom also recalled the hilarious way in which he first learnt how to inject himself with the jab.
"My neighbour down the street is a judge… and suddenly she just looked amazing. She'd lost a lot of weight," Dom said, saying that she told offered to help show him how to take Mounjaro.
"I go to the judge and I knock on the door, I say, 'look it's arrived, show me how it works'," Dom added.
"So I go up to the judge's bathroom, and she sits me down on a loo, and she starts doing the syringe in and just at that moment her 14 year old daughter walks past the door."
He continued: "She looks in and her mum, the judge, is about to inject the weird guy down the road."
Dom also described having to send in photos of himself in order to get a prescription for the Mounjaro online, "to prove you're overweight."
"So my wife has taken these headless pictures of me in my pants and I'm trying to look as fat as possible," he joked.
How to take Mounjaro safely
IF you're thinking of starting Mounjaro, here's everything you need to be aware of to ensure you use it safely.
Consult your doctor first
- Discuss your medical history with a GP, especially if you have: thyroid issues, pancreatitis history, gastrointestinal disorders and kidney or liver issues.
Start a low dose and increase slowly
- Starting dose is usually 2.5 mg once weekly, injected under the skin.
- Typical progression: 2.5 mg → 5 mg → 7.5 mg → up to 15 mg weekly (in 2.5 mg increments every four weeks, as tolerated).
Administer it properly
- Inject once a week, same day each week, with or without food.
- Inject subcutaneously in stomach, thigh, or upper arm and rotate injection sites weekly.
Watch for side effects
- Common side effects include: nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, constipation, decreased appetite and fatigue.
- Seek medical help if you experience any of the following serious side effects: signs of pancreatitis (severe stomach pain), allergic reactions and kidney problems (low urine output, swelling).
Dom's weight loss journey came after he was diagnosed with sleep apnoea in 2018.
He was told that if he didn't treat the condition he could be at risk of serious health complications and even brain damage.
Dom explained that without treating the sleep apnoea that in 10 years time if he "was still alive, I'd have developed a pronounced risk of having a stroke or heart attack,That really freaked me out."
"I'd also have risked developing type 2 diabetes because a reduction in blood oxygen levels every time you stop breathing triggers a greater reliance on your blood glucose stores which would then become depleted," he told the Daily Mail at the time.
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