STEPPING onto the scales just days after starting weight loss jabs, Lisa Raynes could hardly believe her eyes.
After decades of trying to shift the pounds, they were suddenly falling away fast – and she soon discovered there’s a very specific reason why.

Trousers are flattering since Lisa Raynes lost 3st in six months Credit: Roy J Baron

Lisa pictured before shedding pounds thanks to fat jabs Credit: Supplied
“Within the first few days I thought, ‘Yes, this is definitely working,’” says the mum-of-three, who lost two-and-a-half pounds in the first week.
“Weighing myself daily, it was a big shock to see the weight steadily falling off so consistently,” says Lisa, who continued to lose over a pound-and-a-half a week for the next six months.
“I wanted to get to around where I am now, but I didn’t expect to get there so quickly.”
The weight kept dropping and, six months later, she had lost 3st – around a quarter of her body weight – going from 12st to 9st.

Lisa, who is 5ft 4ins, is one of a growing number of what experts have dubbed “super responders” because of the remarkable way they react to popular weight loss drugs such as Mounjaro and Wegovy.
Research suggests it takes most patients around 18 months to lose 20 per cent of their body weight, while around one in ten barely respond to the medication at all.
But around one in four appear to be super responders, shedding weight at almost double the speed – and scientists think they are beginning to understand why.
Professor Alexander Miras, an obesity researcher at Ulster University, says: “If they are deficient in this hormone [GLP-1, which regulates appetite and is the basis of drugs like Wegovy, Mounjaro and Ozempic], then they do much better than people who don’t have this biology.”

For Lisa, it finally offered an explanation.
Before turning to the jabs, the 54-year-old architect from Manchester had spent more than two decades bouncing between diets, from WeightWatchers and the Cambridge diet to keto.
But whatever weight she lost, it always crept back on, with most of it settling around her middle.
“I’ve still got the same shape as I used to, except I haven’t got a stomach,” she says. “I’d stopped wearing trousers or jeans, because dresses were much more flattering. They disguised my belly.”

Running her own architecture practice, Pride Road in Stockport, meant Lisa was constantly in front of the camera.
“I am my brand,” she says. “I regularly get professional photos taken, but I’d look at myself and just go: ‘Oh, God.’ I’d cringe looking at myself, but I’d still have to put them out.”
The extra weight wasn’t only knocking her confidence.
Lisa found herself becoming breathless climbing the stairs, while persistent pain in her left knee became so severe she underwent physiotherapy, scans and was even facing steroid injections.
“I’d even get out of breath if I’d been talking for a while,” she says. “I’d just think, ‘That’s not good.’”
Looking back, Lisa says it wasn’t a lack of willpower that kept the weight on – it was the constant battle with hunger.

“I just love food,” she says.
“I would try to eat healthily, but then I’d have a glass of wine in the evening, and before I knew it I’d be reaching for a share bag of salt and vinegar crisps or a big bar of Cadbury’s Fruit and Nut while I sat on the couch. That was always my weakness.”
This time, though, was different.
“The GLP-1s actually stop the cravings,” she says. “There’s still willpower involved, but it’s so much easier.”
Lisa started taking Mounjaro around November after seeing how well the jabs had worked for friends.
After years of battling the urges to eat more, and with the weight beginning to cause health issues, she thought that it was the only answer.

Lisa usually wore dresses when she was bigger Credit: Unknown

Lisa wearing a denim jumpsuit in the middle of her journey Credit: Unknown
Rather than going through her GP, she got the drug privately through her local Rowlands chemist.
“Once I decided I was going to give it a go, I was like, ‘Where do I start?’” she says.

“Then I saw that my local chemist offered it. I made an appointment, and they were really good, not just with the prescription but with advising how to take it and what to eat as well.”
Her monthly prescription cost £269 for 7.5mg of Mounjaro, but since then she has dropped down to 5mg.
She says the medication silenced the constant “food noise” that had dominated her life for years, and researchers now believe that obsessing over food may be another clue someone is a super responder.
Unfortunately, there is currently no reliable way of measuring a patient’s GLP-1 levels in everyday practice, meaning doctors cannot predict who will respond best before treatment starts.
Super responders also tend to feel hungry much sooner after eating than other patients, and in a study published earlier this month, researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota found this group lost almost twice as much weight during the first six months on the medication.
Lisa soon realised she was one of them. The weight came off so quickly, she was constantly having to buy smaller clothes.
“I’ve bought the same Lucy & Yak jumpsuit about four times,” she laughs. “I’ve gone from a size 18 to a size 12, so every few weeks I’d end up selling my old clothes on Vinted before buying them all over again in a smaller size.
“I’ve also taken lots of clothes in because I can sew and didn’t want to keep buying loads of new things while I was losing weight.”
Her changing wardrobe wasn’t the only reminder of how far she’d come.
“My skin’s quite a lot saggier than last time I was this skinny, but I finally felt confident enough to wear a bikini on holiday in July when I went to Turkey –  something I hadn’t done for years.

The architect showing off her lean look on a sunny day after the use of jabs Credit: Unknown

Lisa is one of a growing number of what experts have dubbed ‘super responders’ because of the remarkable way they react to weight loss drugs Credit: Roy J Baron
“On that same trip, I also slipped back into a black fitted dress I bought 25 years ago and had kept, never really believing I’d wear it again.”
As the weight fell off, friends and family soon started asking questions. But Lisa doesn’t volunteer the fact she’s taking Mounjaro unless someone comments on her weight loss first.
“There is still a lot of scepticism about them, and people do think you are taking the easy way out, but I always tell people if they ask directly,” she says. 
Once the subject does come up, however, Lisa says friends are often “very intrigued” by her experience.
“There is still a nervousness about it,” she explains. “I do get other friends who are very intrigued about it. We’ll compare notes.”
While her loved ones have been supportive of her transformation, Lisa admits her children aged between 16 and 24 have been more cautious.
“They see eating disorders among their friends, so I think seeing me lose so much weight makes them worry about me,” she says. “I am wary about it around them because they have made comments in the past that they are concerned.”
“But I haven’t hidden it from them, they have known from the start, and it is still discussed, just not in a celebratory way.”

Although much of what makes someone a super responder appears to come down to biology, doctors say there are still ways patients can give themselves the best chance of getting the most from treatment.
“Everyone is going to respond slightly differently to the medication, but there are lifestyle changes that can be made to ensure they are well tolerated and maximise effectiveness,” says Dr Maurice O’Farrell, a GP who specialises in weight loss medication.
One of the simplest changes, he says, is choosing where to inject.
“There is certainly anecdotal evidence from patients that injecting into the abdomen, rather than the thigh, is more effective. I would also recommend regularly switching injection sites, so from one side of the abdomen to the other.”
The theory is that differences in blood flow and the amount of fat beneath the skin could affect how quickly the drug is absorbed.
Today Lisa has reached her goal weight of 9st and is focused on maintaining it. She is still taking Mounjaro, but has reduced her dose and is now on around 5mg for maintenance.
The benefits have gone beyond the scales too.
The knee pain that had left her facing steroid injections has now “completely alleviated”, while Lisa says she also feels stronger since shedding the weight.
“I’m definitely stronger and I no longer get breathless going up the stairs because I’ve got less weight to carry,” she says.
These days people notice immediately that something has changed.

“They’ll ask, ‘Have you changed your glasses? Have you changed your hair?’ They know something’s different, but they can’t put their finger on it.”
Other friends have a more direct reaction: “Don’t lose any more.”
Lisa says: “I do find it quite annoying, when people make that comment because there is still a lot of work to do to maintain where I am now.”