‘I’m taking the new Wegovy weight loss pill – I’m glad I’ve switched from the jabs’ – Get the Gloss
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Louise Atkinson
GTG Contributing Editor
13 August 2026
When her weight plateaued on weight loss injections, Louise Atkinson tried the new and cheaper one-a-day Wegovy Pill. Here are 7 things she’s learned in the first month
When I started taking Mounjaro in January 2025, I was OK with the idea of giving myself a weekly weight loss injection – so long as it worked. But I was very interested in the daily pills which were then undergoing clinical trials. When the Wegovy GLP-1 pill got official approval earlier this year, I put my name on a waiting list so I’d be the first to get my hands on it.
There’s been so much buzz about the arrival of the new oral GLP-1 medication from Novo Nordisk, the pharmaceutical giant behind Ozempic and Wegovy. There’s also a new weight loss pill from Eli Lilly, who make the Mounjaro jab. Both are exciting weight loss options for anyone who can’t stand the idea of needles.
“The pills don’t offer improved results compared to the injected medications, but they do remove a barrier for more to be able to access them,” says Dr Emma Anders, a GP specialising in weight management. “My only concern with the pill GLP-1s is that making these medications more accessible when they are already so widely abused is yet another reason we need to improve the quality of care and support around them.”
The side effects of weight loss medications are well known – gastric discomfort such as nausea, constipation, heartburn and diarrhoea are quite common, particularly in the first few weeks or when increasing the dose, and serious complications such as pancreatitis and gall bladder problems are rare. I also experienced temporary excess hair shedding triggered by the jabs, which is common.
To many, including me, it just seems more ‘normal’ to be swallowing a tiny pill every morning without having to worry about all the discomfort and paraphernalia of a weekly jab.
Louise Atkinson tries the Wegovy Pill, having been on Mounjaro weight loss injections
Both pills and jabs are ‘GLP-1 receptor agonists’ that mimic a natural gut hormone to stimulate insulin release, slow stomach emptying and signal fullness to the brain, which lowers blood sugar and appetite.
I’d happily lost two stone on Mounjaro (dropping from 13st 5 pounds to 11st 5 pounds and I’ve been delighted with the positive impact on my health as well as my figure. My blood pressure lowered enough for me to come off medication, my sleep apnoea disappeared, and the painful arthritis in my knees and lower back was much reduced. But my weight had stubbornly plateaued just 5lbs short of my goal for the last 12 months, leaving me outside the ‘healthy’ BMI category for my 5’7” height.
It seemed madness to be paying £150 a month for Mounjaro and staying the same weight. Upping my dose would hike the price further, so I was hopeful that trying a completely different tack, the new Wegovy Pill, would shift me off that plateau and provide a foolproof long-term weight maintenance solution. The pills cost me £100 a month for a 4mg dose, which is a step up compared to the 2.5mg dose of Mounjaro I was taking, but a step down in price.
I’ve been taking the Wegovy Pill for a month, and I am finally shifting my weight off that plateau. I’m only two pounds down, but it’s progress at last! It’s likely nudging me off my weight plateau due to the increased dose. The 4mg pill is roughly equivalent to 5mg Mounjaro.
Left: Louise before her weight loss. Right: Louise after losing two stone on Mounjaro, dropping from 13st 5lb to 11st 5lb. Her weight has since plateaued for 12 months, just 5lb short of her goal.
The pills are not likely to be available via the NHS for many months (pending NICE approval), but all the online pharmacies are selling them privately to anyone who passes the strict medical screening process.
This is the same for jabs and pills. You have to show proof that you meet the qualifying criteria (BMI of 30, or 27 with health concerns, in my case high blood pressure, sleep apnea, arthritis). Or if you are switching from jabs, you have to show that you met the criteria at the start of your GLP-1 journey. Many online providers now ask for a video consultation.
Although the Eli Lilly pill, called Foudayo, was approved for use in the UK on August 10, it is not yet available.
For those choosing the Wegovy Pill, beginners start on the lowest 1.5mg dose, which allows your body to get used to the medication without promising weight loss, then the recommendation is to move up a dose each month (4mg then 9mg up to a max of 25mg) until you find your sweet spot.
If you’re already on Wegovy or Mounjaro, you can switch to either pill seven days after your last injection. For the Wegovy pill, you can start on a 4mg dose if you are on the lower jab doses, or 9mg if you are on higher-dose jabs. If you’ve had a break from jabs, you’ll have to start on the lowest dose tablets and work your way up, but if you find you don’t like the tablets, you can go straight back to jabs after 24 hours with advice from your provider.
If you’re on Ozempic or a pill form of semaglutide called Rybelsus (both of which have been routinely prescribed to people with type 2 diabetes for many years), you need to discuss with your doctor before switching. Although Wegovy (pill and jab) contain semaglutide, they are licensed for chronic weight management at much higher doses.
“In my experience of patients switching between pills and injections, many patients surprisingly prefer the injections, “says Dr Anders. “Once they’re over the initial fear or nerves, a once-weekly injection can become more convenient (and less to remember) than a daily pill. Some go on the pill, get great benefit, and then feel they want to try the injection. Everyone is different. And it’s great that we’re getting more options to be able to tailor care to individuals’ needs.”
The Wegovy pill is currently priced around the same as Wegovy injections (starting at £100 for the lowest dose, compared to £150 for Mounjaro). Like the jabs, the cost goes up with the dose size. Many providers are offering a discounted rate as low as £60 per month for first-timers. It is not yet known how much Foundayo will cost.
The tablets are cheaper than the jabs – as long as I stay on a low dose – and once pharmacies start selling Foundayo, the hope is that a price war might bring costs down further. I’m currently paying £100 per month for the pills, compared to my £150 per month spend on the Mounjaro jab.
“Because pills are less costly to produce (no need for refrigeration or a plastic syringe mechanism) this will drive down the price, making them more readily available to more people,” says obesity expert Giles Yeo, who is professor of molecular neuroendocrinology at the University of Cambridge. He believes the introduction of new wave weight loss medication is ‘both exciting and also worrying’.
“When the active ingredient goes off patent in 10-15 years, they will be as cheap to produce as statins and the NHS will be able to offer them to the people who really need them.’
“However, I worry that pills are easier to get, hide and smuggle than injections and we need to make sure that they only get into the hands of those who really need them.”
You can’t just swallow the Wegovy Pill with your morning cuppa and hope for the best. The active ingredient (semaglutide) is specially formulated to survive stomach acid and enzymes long enough to dissolve into the bloodstream via your stomach lining. But this means you MUST take it on an empty stomach (ideally after an eight-hour overnight fast). You can’t swallow it with more than 120ml of water (equivalent to a small glass of wine) and you absolutely must not eat or drink anything else or take any other tablets for at least 30 minutes.
Break these rules, and it might not work.
I find this a proper faff and it took me weeks to get used to the idea of setting my alarm a bit earlier so I could take the pill, snooze for a bit, then shower and brush my teeth before my first cup of tea.
Foundayo is more robust – the pill can be taken at any time of day with no restrictions. It is a ‘swallow and go’ tablet that can be taken any time, any place. This is what makes it exciting and particularly useful for those with busy morning schedules.
The Wegovy Pill contains the same GLP-1 drug, semaglutide, as you find in the Wegovy syringe. The dose is a little higher to account for the fact that it has to go through your digestive system and isn’t injected straight into fat.
Foundayo contains a different non-peptide molecule called orforglipron.
The active ingredients start to work an hour after you take the tablet, building during the day, and then falling away in the evening, but the ‘half-life’ (some stays in your system for seven days) means levels never drop to zero. Each morning pill tops up the background level in your system.
In the first weeks I noticed huge appetite suppression for the first part of the day, which meant I was happy to skip breakfast and just eat a small lunch. However, I did feel hungry for my evening meal and the familiar old food demons (‘Eat the cake!’ ‘Go find some crisps!’) would start muttering by 8pm.
As the semaglutide has built up in my system, this daily curve has flattened out so I feel the suppression steadily throughout the day, which enables me to eat healthily. On Mounjaro, I always had to watch out for food noise on the days before each jab, but on the Wegovy pill, suppression is the same every day.
The active ingredient in both pills work just like the injections, with the same impact on the body and brain, and the same potential side effect warnings (nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, constipation).
Studies for both show more than 70 percent of users (of jabs and pills) are affected by these ‘gastric issues’. Many skip through the first few weeks unaffected but on the Wegovy Pill, I was struck by nausea I’d never had on Mounjaro. It’s not vomit-inducing, but more like the ‘yuck’ feeling you get if you try to read when you’re a passenger in a car.
I also experienced horrid heartburn when I overindulged in carbs, and I had one bout of constipation and a couple of episodes of diarrhoea. Full house!
Thankfully, after three weeks, the side effects disappeared, but the threat of heartburn lingers if I eat unhealthily, plus if I dare to drink more than one glass of wine, I get slammed by a massive hangover as punishment.
I’m not worried about serious complications such as pancreatitis and gallbladder disease because they are rare for those on the jabs and rarer still with the Wegovy Pill because they are normally associated with rapid weight loss. Studies so far show the pills have a more gentle average weight loss effect: 11-12.4 percent of body weight for Foundayo and 17 percent for the Wegovy Pill, compared to 20 percent on Wegovy jabs and 22.5 percent on Mounjaro.
I always hoped the GLP1 pills would be a cost-effective and simple long-term way for me to maintain my lost weight. Right now, I’m capitalising on the amazing suppression provided by the Wegovy Pill to shift off my weight loss plateau, and then I plan to come down to the lowest 1.5mg dose (I’m currently on 4mg) just to keep my food noise quiet – possibly forever.
“My prediction for the future is people who do find themselves getting great results on the pill might actually find that they then feel more confident to try the injections. And, for those who’ve lost the weight and are feeling good on the injections, that pills could potentially be an alternative step-down regime or long-term option for those looking to maintain,” says Dr Anders.
The initial studies show the pills are not as effective at weight LOSS as the jabs, even at the highest doses, but the convenience and lower cost make them a preferred option for long-term weight maintenance.
Follow Louise on Instagram @louiseatkinsonwrites
About the author
Louise Atkinson, GTG Contributing Editor
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