Five methods weight-loss jabs are altering spending habits | EUROtoday

They’re the injections serving to some individuals shed kilos, however weight-loss medication are additionally remodeling the best way individuals spend.

About 1.6 million individuals within the UK used weight-loss jabs in 2024, the newest analysis from University College London suggests, with thousands and thousands extra saying they’d be concerned with attempting them.

For these paying privately, they’ll value greater than £300 a month – however with their recognition solely anticipated to rise, how are companies adapting to a brand new sort of shopper?

Weight-loss injections work by mimicking a pure hormone, GLP-1, which regulates starvation, and those that use them discover their urge for food is lowered.

“My weekly food shop’s really gone down,” says Sam Gillson, 38, from Shropshire, who obtained in contact with BBC Your Voice. He’s misplaced greater than 4 stone utilizing weight-loss jabs since June.

“I’m definitely buying more fresh foods, and fewer unhealthy ready meal/easy dinner options like pizza, chips and nuggets.”

In the previous couple of weeks, supermarkets The Co-op, Morrisons and Marks and Spencer have introduced out nutrient-dense ranges of prepared meals, and Ocado now sells a 100g steak, which it stated was in response to the rising variety of clients searching for smaller parts.

Sam says consuming much less means he desires to ensure that “the smaller quantity does contain all those nutrients and vitamins you need”.

And it is not simply portion dimension. It’s additionally the sorts of meals.

Protein-rich merchandise have been showing on the cabinets as smoothies and snacks.

Jonny Forsyth, foods and drinks strategist at shopper analysis group Mintel, says many of those tendencies are a part of a wider shift, with well being turning into extra vital, significantly for youthful customers.

He thinks GLP-1 medication are “changing the culture”, making it modern to eat extra nutrient-dense meals and “adding oxygen to existing trends”.

A survey by analysis consultancy KAM Insight final yr discovered that almost a 3rd of individuals utilizing GLP-1 medication had been going out to eat and drink much less usually.

Annie Haslam, 70, from Cornwall, has been utilizing weight-loss injections since final March, and is at present spending round £186 a month on the jabs.

“Instead of having takeaways once or twice a month, I haven’t had one for months,” she says. “I used to eat out at a restaurant once a week maybe, I don’t do that any more.”

Sam additionally says he is reduce down on the variety of takeaways he will get, however provides that whereas he feels more healthy, he isn’t really saving any cash given the price of the injections themselves.

Earlier this month the boss of the bakery chain Greggs stated there was “no doubt” that weight-loss medication have led to individuals searching for “smaller portions”.

And it is occurring in fantastic eating too. The Michelin-starred restaurant The Fat Duck in Berkshire, run by movie star chef Heston Blumenthal, has introduced out a brand new menu, which Blumenthal stated was for individuals seeking to eat extra “mindfully”, together with those that are on urge for food suppressants.

There’s proof too that these taking weight-loss medication drink much less alcohol.

A examine carried out in February 2025 by shopper analysis agency Worldpanel by Numerator discovered a 15-percentage level drop in alcohol quantity purchases amongst households with GLP-1 customers in comparison with a managed benchmark.

The Co-Op’s meals buying and selling director Nicole Tallant instructed the BBC the grocery store’s members who take weight-loss medication are “reducing their alcohol intake alongside their consumption intake from food,” including that “they’re much more concerned with overall health and holistic well-being”.

Recent years have additionally seen a surge in non-alcoholic drinks choices hitting cabinets and bars. The British Beer and Pub Association expects a file 200 million pints of low and no-alcohol beer to have been consumed in 2025.

“There’s already quite a strong trend towards sobriety,” says Mintel’s Jonny Forsyth.

“If I was an alcohol company, I’d be a bit worried about this. GLP-1 drugs could give that trend another boost.”

For Annie, one space she could not keep away from spending on was clothes. After going from a dimension 18 to a dimension 12, she says her previous garments had been “literally falling off”.

She estimates that changing every little thing, together with underwear, most likely value her “a couple of thousand pounds”.

Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell, says that whereas not one of the huge vogue retailers on the inventory market have explicitly talked about weight-loss medication of their monetary outcomes commentary, in his view, the route of journey is evident.

The recognition of weight-loss medication will present “a massive tailwind (boost) for the fashion sector”, he says.

While it is unclear how it will current itself, Coatsworth believes second-hand platforms like Vinted, that are already in style, might see much more progress, for individuals who fairly rapidly discover their wardrobe now not suits.

People who’ve misplaced plenty of weight rapidly can also discover a new sense of confidence and be impressed to “reinvent” themselves by attempting new garments that they would not have earlier than, says Simone Konu-Rae, a senior lecturer in vogue communication at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts in London.

“You may not have felt that any of these trends or fashion outlets have been speaking to you, if you were a bigger size,” she says. “So you might shop completely differently.”

That want for a brand new look can be being felt within the magnificence and health sector.

Market analysis agency Worldpanel by Numerator’s survey final yr instructed a lift in spending on healthcare, toiletries and dietary supplements amongst individuals taking weight-loss injections.

Some corporations – within the US and now within the UK too – that supply wellness breaks at the moment are promoting particular “retreats” focusing on GLP-1 customers.

Will Orr, chief government of The Gym Group, says weight-loss medication are resulting in a better demand for health companies as individuals taking them look to maintain the burden off and construct muscle mass.

“We have begun educating our trainers on how best to support members on these treatments,” he says.

But he additionally notes a broader sample of behaviour that pre-dates weight-loss medication, calling well being, health and wellness “juggernaut trends that are not going anywhere”.

That view is echoed by Georgia Stafford, analysis analyst within the magnificence and private care group at Mintel, who says whereas GLP-1s are “definitely something on most brands’ radars”, not like the meals trade, magnificence manufacturers are but to launch merchandise within the UK aimed particularly at customers of weight-loss medication.

“There have been some launches in the US,” she says, “but they’re very niche and very expensive,” stating that the price of weight-loss medication can also result in individuals slicing again on spending in different areas.

Instead, she says many merchandise on supply promising plumper pores and skin and fuller hair, usually marketed as anti-ageing, will already be aligned with what might enchantment to these on weight-loss medication.

Meanwhile, information from the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons indicated there was an 8% rise in demand for facelifts in 2024, with the group’s president saying it was “an extension of a pattern we’ve always observed in post-weight-loss patients” that was “now amplified by the wider use of these medications”.

Additional reporting by Emer Moreau and Kris Bramwell