Women Bond Over Using Weight Loss Drugs and Become Best Friends: ‘We’re Each Other’s Biggest Cheerleaders’

When Latisha Doty and Alison Bocking talk about each other, they use the words friend and sister interchangeably. They consider themselves family, bonded by the shared experiences of spending most of their lives trying to lose weight.

“All your life, if you’ve dealt with weight issues, you’re scared,” says Doty. “Then, you have somebody on your side who’s motivating you saying ‘We can do this. We are not going to stop until we reach our goal.’”

The two met in 2022 through a TikTok GLP-1 community soon after they started using the weight loss drugs. “We’re each other’s biggest cheerleader,” says Doty.

“I don’t know anybody who is more inspiring and encouraging to those around her than Latisha,” adds Bocking.

Their friendship quickly became a lifeline for both women — they text or talk daily, offering encouragement — and important reminders. “Because I don’t think about food,” says Doty, “Ali will text and be like, ‘Did you eat today?’ If you don’t get your protein in, your hair could thin.”

Doty has a long list of the ways she tried — and failed — to lose weight over the years: Richard Simmons, Weight Watchers, ‘90s fad drug fen-phen, lap band surgery, Tae Bo, Atkins, gastric bypass surgery. “I’ve tried everything. I’d lose a little bit... and instantly put it back on,” says Doty. “It was exhausting.”

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This time, she says, it’s different. “This medication has given me my life back,” says Doty, who’s lost 118 lbs. since starting GLP-1 drug Mounjaro two years ago, when she was 279 lbs.

Bocking was 11 when she went on her first diet and remembers telling her teacher that she had lost 5 lbs.

“It’s a lifelong process of dealing with this beast inside of you,” she says. “There are people who enjoy their larger body. I was not one of them. I had so much joint pain I didn’t want to get out of bed a lot of days.”

She says it’s often assumed those who are overweight aren’t trying hard enough. “But I tried a thousand times. For some people, it feels like you’re behind bars without options. You’re trying to lose weight, but your mind and body are working against you.”

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The GLP-1s interrupted all of that and have allowed her to devote more time and energy to others, instead of worrying about her weight. Bocking has lost 114 lbs. on Mounjaro and Wegovy.

“I thought everyone thought about food nonstop,” she says. “This quieted the food noise. Once I was done with my plate, I was done. It’s life-changing.”

Bocking is now 172 lbs., a number she hasn’t seen since middle school. The “constant battle,” she says, of losing and gaining weight has defined most of her life. “It’s a painful way to live both physically and mentally,” says Bocking.

Her success with GLP-1’s has created possibilities like getting on a Zip-line without anxious thoughts about nearing the weight limit and talking about riding a bike again. With her youth group students, “I’m more willing to play dodgeball and not stand on the sidelines and be the ref. It’s allowed me to be present in all the things I do.”

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For Doty, a cancer survivor whose husband died in April of kidney failure, the weight loss has meant she can be more active with her 6-year-old daughter, Freedom. A few years ago, she took her daughter to the pier in Santa Monica, Calif., and couldn’t go on the rides with her because she was too big to fit. “It crushed my soul,” she says.

Now she can run around with her and experience the joy her daughter feels when they are active together. “I live life and live through the eyes of my kid,” adds Doty, recalling a time at the park after she began to lose weight. “I was able to go down the slide and my thighs wouldn’t stick to the side. She was just so elated, and I was so happy.”

Doty, who is pre-diabetic, expects to be on the medication the rest of her life. Bocking’s insurance no longer pays for it, and she’s started non-GLP drugs for craving and binge eating in preparation for when her supply runs out. Neither is solely relying on the drug to maintain the weight loss. Bocking walks daily with her dogs; Doty has done weight training, and both have changed their diets to incorporate more protein and vegetables.

“It feels like a magic wand," says Bocking, “but you need lots of tools in your tool bucket on this journey.” Both women expect their journey will be lifelong – and that each day will require good choices, supported by one another. “We’ve gone through this together,” says Doty. “We’re sisters for life.”

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