revealed the details of her health transformation…<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cI gained a lot of weight after I had my daughter,\u201d Aisling told RSVP. \u201cI was getting depressed and frustrated, and started to eat my feelings.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tried everything, diets and weight loss plans; and yes I lost the weight, but I could never keep it off. It came to a head in early 2021 and I went to my doctor, who referred me to a dietician.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was when Aisling wanted to get her tubes removed surgically and doctors deemed her BMI too high, that she knew she needed something more to help her to improve her health. As a result, she was recommended to take weight loss medication in the form of a GLP-1 injection. Aisling did her research and asked some experts, and came to the conclusion that giving it a go would be the best option for her. She began taking the medication and continued for 12 months under the strict supervision of her GP.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt turned off the food noise in my head,\u201d Aisling recalled. \u201cYou don\u2019t have the voice in your head creeping in saying, \u2018Ah girl, go have that bar of chocolate\u2019. It gave me the breathing space to work on myself. I wasn\u2019t starving, I didn\u2019t restrict myself, I threw all the diets out the window because they never worked for me. I focused more on reducing portions and cutting down on the junk food.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some research suggests that GLP-1 drugs can reduce gallbladder motility, which may also contribute to the formation of gallstones; however Aisling ensured her diet was healthy and nutritious enough to avoid extremely rapid weight loss and subsequent gallbladder risks. The input from her doctor was invaluable, and she has warned against the use of such medication without that supervision.<\/p>\n
![\"Aisling](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0_Aisling-beforejpeg.jpg\")
Aisling before the weight loss<\/p>\n
\u201cI lost around 80lbs during the year I was on the medication and after coming off it I went on to lose another 20 pounds,\u201d said Aisling. For her, the medication was a tool to get into healthier eating habits, aided by counselling to get to the root cause of why she was overeating in the first place.<\/p>\n
\u201cI developed realistic eating habits while on medication. When I came off it, nothing changed. I still had my takeaways, but I\u2019ve reduced my portions.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, the medication was to turn off the food noise so that I could do the work I needed to do without my mind sabotaging me. I did counselling alongside it as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Weight loss medications have been deemed a quick fix by many on social media, but Aisling warned people against this way of thinking and advised that only those who really need it should seek it out.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the last resort for people who can\u2019t lose weight naturally,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
On the other side of her weight loss journey, Aisling feels amazing. Thanks to the weight loss, she has gone on to get her tubes removed thanks to a lower BMI, as well as skin removal and breast reduction surgery.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m happy,\u201d she gushed. \u201cI know that might sound strange, but I\u2019m more happy now than I have been for the last 10 years. I got my confidence back, I\u2019m putting myself out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the biggest gifts her weight loss journey has given her is the ability to eat freely, after years of overthinking. \u201cI\u2019m not absolutely obsessed with everything I eat anymore or worried,\u201d she said. \u201cNo one should be regretting eating food. Your life shouldn\u2019t be like that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aisling had struggled with her weight for years, trying diet after diet to no avail – thanks to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[1877,18,135,19,17,61109,564],"class_list":{"0":"post-220764","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-cork","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-real-life","14":"tag-weight-loss"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115680376947217254","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Cork](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0_Aisling-after-1jpeg.jpg\")
Cork woman Aisling McCarthy<\/p>\n