By Neil Shaw
A woman who decided to lose weight exactly a year ago has dropped 112lbs – and didn’t tell anyone how she was doing it. Hannah Hodgkiss has battled with her weight since childhood and by June 2024 she weighed 252 lbs (114 kg). Twelve months on, Hannah is now to 140lbs (63 kg) – and has revealed her secret. Hannah, 39, said: 鈥淚’ve struggled with my weight from the beginning, basically. Even when I was at primary school, I got bullied for my weight. And when I was 18, I thought I was fat, but now looking back at photos, I wasn’t.鈥 Growing up in the 1990s, Hannah, a legal secretary from Maidstone, Kent, was surrounded by toxic messaging about body image and fad diets. 鈥淚 think it’s also growing up in the 90s that you had magazines where it’s like a circle of shame and it was just constant weight, weight, weight and saying people were fat when they actually weren’t,鈥 she says. 鈥淪o I think that’s deep rooted in a lot of women my age now.鈥 Hannah was diagnosed with gestational diabetes during her second pregnancy . Then, in May 2024, she was told she was pre-diabetic, which was a turning point in her motivation to lose weight. Determined to improve her health, she began walking 10,000 steps a day and tracking her calorie intake, but progress was slow. 鈥淭he weight was coming off very, very slowly,鈥 she says. 鈥淎nd I was putting a lot of work in and not getting much back.鈥 Frustrated by the slow results and aware of her pre-diabetes risk, Hannah began researching weight loss medication. 鈥淚 heard it was on the NHS , but I wasn’t eligible because even though my BMI was ridiculously high, I was pre-diabetic,鈥 Hannah says. 鈥淎nd because I wasn’t actually full-blown diabetic, they wouldn’t prescribe it. And I would have had to have gone on to this weight management thing.鈥 She was advised that the weight management programme could take up to two years to produce results, which was time she feared could result in her developing diabetes. After considering her options, Hannah chose to go private and she hasn鈥檛 looked back since. At first, she kept her use of Mounjaro to herself. 鈥淚t’s just because it almost makes you feel shameful because people see it as a way it’s cheating,鈥 she says. 鈥淏ut the way I now look at it is if you’ve got hay fever , you take a hay fever tablet. If you’re obese and struggle with all this eating, what’s the harm in it?鈥 She believes much of the stigma around weight-loss medication is rooted in sexism. 鈥淚t’s always like negative stories that the media highlight. And because it’s helping women, it’s negative,鈥 she says. 鈥淚t really grates on me that the amount of funding put into women’s health is minimal compared to men.鈥 Since starting Mounjaro, Hannah鈥檚 relationship with food has transformed. 鈥淚 would look at food differently because I would have a plate full of food and then not eat it all. Whereas before I would just like force myself to eat it,鈥 she says. 鈥淎gain, growing up when I did, it was like you always had to eat all the food off your plate. Because think of all the starving children in the world , as my mum used to say.鈥 She also began to feel more confident as the weight started to come off. Hannah says her improved health has positively impacted her family life, allowing her to be more active with her two young children. 鈥淚’m a happier person, so I’m a happier mum,鈥 she says. 鈥淎nd I’m getting up and doing things with the children and getting involved and being able to get more involved physically.鈥 She has only experienced mild side effects from the medication, including slight nausea and feeling cold. This was a stark contrast to the horror stories she encountered online. 鈥淎nother thing is that in the media, it’s all horror side effects,鈥 she says. 鈥淎nd so I know for myself, four of my friends are doing it and, other than slight nausea, they’ve not had the side effects either. I mean, when I first started, I had a bit of a headache. But whether that’s from tension because of starting new, like my brain was going wild thinking what are you doing? So it could have been a mixture of that.鈥 Before her weight loss, Hannah worried about how others might perceive her, especially the parents at her son鈥檚 new school. 鈥淏ecause my little boy started school in September, another thing was I didn’t want to be the fat mum at the school gates because when you are bigger, you are treated differently,鈥 she says. 鈥淎nd I want to be a good role model for them.鈥 In addition to the medication and a healthier approach to eating, Hannah has stuck to a regular fitness routine. 鈥淚 made sure that I was eating what I should be eating and eating, not eating the bad things and exercising,鈥 she says, adding that she has been 鈥渄oing a lot of running鈥. In recent months, Hannah has spoken openly on Instagram about her use of Mounjaro. While she鈥檚 faced some criticism, the response to her honesty and positivity surrounding the medication has largely been positive. 鈥淚 mean, if I do, I find them quite funny. They amuse me,鈥 she says of the negative comments. Like, other than cheating, I had a recent one where they’re basically saying that it’s not me in the pictures.鈥 Some users even tried to compare her tattoos in before-and-after photos to suggest they weren鈥檛 the same person, but it doesn鈥檛 bother her. Now, after a year on Mounjaro, Hannah is beginning to think about the future. 鈥淚 don’t want to lose any more weight. I want to maintain,鈥 she says. 鈥淏ut in the same, like a lot of people are asking me now, so because you lost the weight, you’re going to come off the drug. 鈥淣o, I’m not coming off it straight away. I’m going to sort of learn to live my life maintaining myself at this weight.鈥