A woman from the Tampa Bay area is speaking publicly about a lifelong battle with her weight and the medication she says helped her lose 182 pounds over three years. Tara Rothenhoefer says the drug, approved for type 2 diabetes, changed her life.
"It's something I struggled with my entire life," Rothenhoefer said. She believes her first diet was Weight Watchers, which she started at just 13 years old.
Her motivation to keep going is her family. She has a 12-year-old son and a one-year-old granddaughter, and she wants to be part of their lives for a long time. She also lost her oldest sister to complications from obesity, an experience she described as an eye-opener. "I didn't want that to be my story," she said.
In 2020, Rothenhoefer enrolled in an 18-month clinical trial that examined how tirzepatide, the clinical name for Mounjaro, affects weight loss. She said she realized within days that she had received the medication rather than a placebo. "Within three or four days, I found like I'm not thinking about food," she said, explaining that it curbed her appetite and removed what people have come to call food noise. During the first six months, she lost 70 to 80 pounds.
Throughout the trial she also worked with a nutritionist to build healthy lifestyle habits. When the study ended, the drug was not yet available to the public, so she had to stop taking it. She regained some weight even though she kept making healthy choices. She was later able to obtain a prescription and resume treatment with Mounjaro.
Her results are significant. She began the trial in 2020 at 342 pounds and now weighs 160.4 pounds, three years later.
Dr. Alexander Ramirez, a bariatric surgeon with the Bayfront Health St. Petersburg Medical Group Weight Loss and Bariatric Surgery Institute, offered advice for people considering such drugs. He said they are very expensive, that patients should see a doctor to confirm the medication is safe for them, and that they will need to take it for the rest of their lives to keep the weight off.
The FDA approved the medication in May 2022 to help adults with type 2 diabetes. In October, Eli Lilly said the drug received FDA Fast Track designation for treating adults with obesity or overweight who also have weight-related health conditions. The company said the designation is meant to bring promising medicines to patients sooner.
Rothenhoefer said the experience has changed her life in ways she never expected. "If I can help even one person, then for me, this has just been bigger than myself," she said.
