Anne Robinson on what to say to a friend who pretended to lose weight naturally - but was secretly having weight loss injections.
Since retiring, a group of us have met for lunch and a glass of something fizzy most weeks.
I would say these girls (we are all nearing 70, but you know what I mean) are now some of my closest friends. One of them has lost quite a bit of weight over the past four months – she says through sensible eating and going on long walks with the dog.
We’ve all been encouraging and applauding her, but I recently found out from my husband, via her husband, that she’s been on the Mounjaro fat jab all this time.
I feel a bit annoyed, like we’ve all been made fools of. Is it over the top to say betrayed? Bear in mind we spend quite a bit of time discussing our ‘battles with the bulge’ and failure to make much progress with various diets.
But she’s been cheating all this time! Should I tell the group? Or just talk to her? Or say nothing?
Sometimes I feel there soon won’t be any of us size 16s left in the world because everyone will be using these injections.
Weight injections are transforming lives. The clinically obese now have a safe, simple way to shed the pounds and not feel hungry. Just as importantly, there are millions of women who for a decade, or maybe two or three, have secretly been deeply ashamed of their bodies. This is often because the once size 12 bride is now a size 18 or 20.
These women have usually tried every diet going but life gets in the way. And the many activities that might help them – going to the gym, swimming, jogging, yoga – they avoid because they are too embarrassed about their shape. It’s a horribly self-defeating and lonely existence.
Until now – when weight-loss injections have become sufficiently life-altering that the Tony Blair Institute has called for them to be made available by post to half the adult population.
It calculates the move would save £3.5 billion from the benefits bill. I have started purposely with the facts before moving on to the woman in your group who has recently lost weight, apparently through eating sensibly and walking her dog.
But her less than discreet husband has since told your husband that she is using Mounjaro (one of the brand names of these jabs). This has caused you to mount your high horse and you’re preparing to either confront your friend or better still tell the whole group she is ‘cheating’.
Really! If you had a headache, would you consider it deceitful to take an aspirin? If you broke your leg, would it be reprehensible to allow the doctor to give you a cast?
Have you never covered up an embarrassing incident with a white lie? What you have learnt is gossip. Not fact. I very much advise you keep your lips firmly sealed.
Do you honestly want the group to know you possess a nasty streak of mean mindedness?
I’ve no doubt, given time, your slim friend will share her secret. If indeed she has one.
Who knows, before too long you might also be tempted to abandon being a size 16.
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