‘I was 20 stone and have lost more than a quarter of my body weight using injections – I have no plans to stop’

A mother who became “clinically obese” during menopause, weighing more than 20 stone, said she went from feeling “awful in every respect” to the “healthiest” she has felt “in a long time” after losing more than five stone using weight loss injections.

Paula Long, 57, a health service manager living in Belfast, said she tried weight loss programmes in the past to varying degrees of success, but going through menopause in her early 50s “compounded” her weight gain and she reached 20 stone and one pound at her heaviest.

The two catalysts to her latest weight loss journey came in late 2024 – doctors told her she was “clinically obese” and pre-diabetic, and she was handed a seatbelt extender unprompted on a plane that she said made her want the “ground to open up” underneath her.

Paula’s stepdaughter Aoife, 24, introduced her to the idea of GLP-1 injections via TikTok in early 2025 and she started paying £194 per month to use Mounjaro by February 12 – initially on a dose of 2.5mg, but now on 5mg at £224 since May 2026.

To date, Paula has gone down to 14 stone and seven pounds, decreasing from a clothing size of up to 24 to now 14.

Alongside using weight loss injections, Paula said she approaches food and fitness “very differently” now, making sure to be mindful of portion sizes, exercising at home twice a week, and walking her two dogs “an awful lot” more than she used to.

Paula said she has lost a total of five stone and eight pounds, with plans to keep going for the “foreseeable future”, even though a friend once remarked that weight loss injections are “cheating”.

On her weight gain since menopause, Paula told PA Real Life: “I think I just accepted – as a lot of menopausal women do – that you settle and you’re going to put on weight and you’re just not going to be as agile.

“My BMI was disgraceful and I was classified as clinically obese.

“I remember thinking I didn’t recognise this person in the mirror.

“It was like having a makeover you didn’t want… so I was in the frame of mind where I needed to do something.”

Paula said her “weight definitely crept on and on” after going through menopause in her early 50s, mainly due to an “unhealthy” relationship with food.

She said her partner Norman is an “amazing cook” but food gave her a “level of comfort” that kept her relying on it to make herself feel “good”.

Adding “disproportionate” amounts of things such as butter and cream to meals meant that Paula said she had to admit to herself that she “ate too much” and her overall health was “suffering”.

She joked: “If it wasn’t nailed down, I would’ve eaten it.”

In September 2024, Paula sat in a middle seat on a plane between Norman and a stranger, where the latter ended up complaining that her thigh was touching his.

Her tipping point on this flight came when a member of the cabin crew offered her a seatbelt extender due to her size.

By October, Paula said she went to her doctor because she was feeling “sluggish”, she was on anti-inflammatory medication for pain in her knees that she needed to take to be able to walk her two dogs, and she felt “10 years older” than she actually was.

This is when she was told that she was pre-diabetic and “clinically obese”, which she said was “very hard” to hear because it “really did scare” her.

Of her weight at the time, Paula, who stands at 5ft 9in tall, said: “What I saw, I didn’t like.

“I didn’t like how I felt, my confidence was low, and I probably tried to walk like someone who was 5ft 5in because I figured if I bent down, nobody would see me.

“My health was not good.”

By January 2025, Paula said her stepdaughter introduced her to the concept of weight loss medication on TikTok and a family friend recommended a digital healthcare brand called Voy.

Paula decided to fill out a questionnaire and then have a consultation with a clinician to find out more information about things such as price, side effects, and frequency of injections.

After thinking about it for a few weeks, Paula had her first injection of 2.5mg on February 12 and said she lost six pounds in one week, before she averaged one to four pounds each week since.

She has since increased her dosage to 5mg in May 2026, priced at £224 per month.

Paula said: “The gradual weight loss was very satisfying, manageable, and sustainable.”

She believes the health benefits have “not just been about weight loss”, because she has changed her relationship with food too.

An average day of food might consist of banana and egg pancakes for breakfast, a protein-infused smoothie or soup for lunch, and for dinner, a source of protein such as chicken or prawns with fresh vegetables, including sweet potato, courgettes, cauliflower and sesame seeds on top.

Paula said: “When you go on holiday, they can put chips on the plate with everything, and I found myself very excitedly saying, ‘Could I have half a salad and just a couple of chips?’

“I’m not depriving myself and I love my grub, but I don’t need a plate of chips that would feed a small family.

“So my relationship (with food) is better informed, but more importantly, I can control it.”

Through healthy eating, Paula has more energy to exercise, like doing home workouts and walking her two dogs more regularly.

Paula’s BMI has gone from 43 to 31, which is still in the obese range, but she said she is “very happy” she is now no longer classified as pre-diabetic.

Although she has faced some stigma from a friend who said GLP-1 weight loss injections are “cheating”, Paula said she feels “very proud” of herself for going from a waist size of up to 24 to now wearing 14 to 16 and she has “no plans to stop”.

Paula said: “I am not looking to be a skeletal human at 57 because that’s not who I am.”

“I’m happy and this feels like me,” she added.

For more information about Voy, visit their website here: https://www.joinvoy.com/