Remember that feeling when you were a teenager, of finding out that your group of friends had hung out without you over the weekend? Or an end of year party was happening and you hadn’t got an invite. That feeling of being left behind, of fun memories being made from which you were sorely excluded? Later, it would be dubbed FOMO, or the “fear of missing out”.
At 41, I don’t get social FOMO anymore. I’m more likely to have JOMO (the joy of missing out). But FOMO is the only way I can explain the complex feeling of realising that more and more people around me are quietly taking GLP-1’s and losing weight fast – while I remain the same.
An estimated 1.6 million adults in England, Wales and Scotland used drugs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro to help lose weight between early 2024 and early 2025, according to a study by UCL researchers earlier this year. Of course, the number could be even higher, as private prescriptions are not public information.
Certainly, over the past year I have noticed it becoming a big part of conversations amongst friends and colleagues. Everyone knows at least two or three people who are taking it. And those people couldn’t hide it if they wanted to: they look different.
