Miah Carter was just 10 years old when she was put on a waiting list for gastric surgery. The schoolgirl had struggled with emotional eating and a hormone imbalance from an early age, both of which had left her clinically obese.
‘I was one of the first ten-year-olds on the waitlist for gastric surgery for severe obesity,’ the 22 year old content creator from Reading, Berkshire, tells Metro. ‘ I was referred to King’s College Hospital in London and had regular appointments – however, in the end, my family and I decided not to push it due to the severity of the operation.’
Miah’s decade-long battle to be at peace with her body – which she says is due to health concerns rather than body image – has seen her explore a rollercoaster of weightloss methods, from fad diets to supplements, and even a spell using semaglutide injections, which left her feeling like she was having a heart attack.
‘I tried every diet you can think of from Slim Fast to Weight Watchers. I’ve bought fat metabolisers and weightloss pills, and even saw private dieticians in London,’ she explains. ‘We went back and forth with different approaches, but nothing helped. Being autistic, I don’t absorb information the same way as others, so found it really hard to retain what the dietitians were telling me. Sticking to routines is also tough for me – that’s part of why it didn’t work.
‘I did a lot of emotional eating – food gave me comfort and made me happy,’ Miah adds. ‘Because of the size of my stomach, I could eat and eat. My hormones also played a big role. I’d eat until I was full – or even sick – and 10 minutes later, I’d feel empty again. I’d keep eating until it became physically painful.’
By 16, Miah’s weight was spiralling and she was desperate for a solution.
‘I remember going into the chemist to buy weight-loss tablets – the kind advertised on TV. I can’t recall the exact name, but they didn’t do anything,’ she says.
As years went by, she went on to make a name for herself as a body positivity influencer, calling herself ‘your self love big sister’, with posts reminding her followers about the importance of self-acceptance, while also being honest about her own struggles with her weight and body image.
As Miah continued to search for new ways to lose weight, she began to read about jabs, such as Mounjaro and Ozempic, that were originally created to treat diabetes.
Scrolling through Facebook groups, looking at miraculous before and after images, she began to feel hopeful. ‘I was heavily influenced by people online who were taking it and seeing results,’ Miah remembers. ‘I thought “this is the solution – I’m finally going to lose weight and change my life”.’
So she decided to try them.
24 hours after filling in an online form for the Saxenda injection, Miah went to a high street chemist to collect it. There, staff checked her eligibility and she was assessed by a doctor, then handed the drug, which she was told to inject daily and expect her appetite to reduce. ‘I was quite gobsmacked at how simple it was,’ she adds, pointing out that the chemist didn’t offer any follow-up support.
With high hopes, Miah started her injections, however, like many who take weight loss jabs, she began to suffer from side effects. ‘I had really bad pain in my heart and started to feel sick, like something wasn’t right in my body. I felt so run down and it was just horrible,’ she remembers.
Miah says that her heart would sometimes race so fast it felt like it was going to explode out of her chest. ‘It would hit me out of nowhere, sometimes multiple times a day and each episode lasted minutes – but felt like hours.
‘I’d be lying in bed or just standing in the kitchen and suddenly feel dizzy, short of breath, and completely overwhelmed. There were moments I genuinely thought I was having a heart attack.
‘After a really severe episode, my first thought was, “I bet it was the weight loss injections”. I had only been on them for a few weeks – less than a month -soI decided to stop. A few weeks after that, I was completely fine.’
After coming off the jabs, Miah realised it was time once again to reassess her weight loss plan.
This time, she finally made the bold decision to have gastric surgery last October – more than a decade after she had been put on the waiting list as a child.
‘This was the biggest operation I’ve ever had – there is no going back,’ she admits. ‘You’re essentially having part of your body removed and I now only have about 20% of my stomach left. It’s a huge decision – but knowing what I know now, I should have done it earlier, as it’s changed my life.’
Miah has documented her weight loss journey to her to her 3 million followers, including the surgery – which has seen her lose 11stone since getting the gastric sleeve. However some people have hit back at her decision to get surgery, deeming it contradictory to body positivity.
Miah disagrees: ‘I did it for my health, not to change how I look. I was 32 stone and nearly on my deathbed at 20. My legs were hanging and I was struggling to walk. It was a massive decision, but one of the best I’ve made in my life.
‘Every day, every hour, every minute I get hateful comments, but I don’t care. I want people to see what I go through. Those sorts of comments used to hurt, but they don’t touch me anymore. Now I just think – you’re pushing up my views and paying my bills.’
While the injections may have had an adverse effect on her health, Miah knows that they may work well for others. ‘I’m not judging anyone or telling anyone not to take it—everyone’s journey is different. If it works for you and improves your quality of life, I respect that.’
‘But for me, it wasn’t the right solution because when it comes to weight loss – there isn’t one size fits all.’
In a statement to Metro, Novo Nordisk, the pharmaceutical company that manufactures Saxenda wrote: ‘At Novo Nordisk patient safety always comes first. An increased heart rate (tachycardia) is a known uncommon adverse reaction for Saxenda (liraglutide) and is listed in the medicine’s official information.
If a patient experiences a sustained and clinically relevant rise in their resting heart rate, it is recommended they contact their healthcare professional. Any decision to start, stop, continue or change treatment should be together with a healthcare professional, based on their professional judgment of what’s right for that individual.
If you are taking any medication and believe you might be experiencing a side effect, please speak to your healthcare provider and report it through the MHRA Yellow Card scheme.
