To go to Slimming World whilst taking Mounjaro

You keep making my point for me, @SuperLois34. Everything in your list reflects SW's approach of high volume, low energy foods. It's great that it is working for you. A person on Mounjaro won't be able to eat that volume of food and the approach is therefore incompatible.

Everything is chemicals. Carbs are chemicals. Water is made of chemicals.

They are legal and licenced for weight loss.

On Mounjaro you will not be able to stomach the sheer volume of whatever franken-fakeaway they encourage you to make out of sugar-free jelly and quark

Not my experience at all. The only encouragement I've experienced is, like I said, to fill your plate with free food.
So...

• Cooking a spagbol with no oil, 5% mince, added veg and tinned tomatoes...free spag bol, fill your plate.
• Having a jacket potato with a tin of Tuna, sweetcorn and salad for lunch- free lunch, fill your plate.
• Eating 40g of porridge oats with a banana for breakfast...included, enjoy.
• Eating berries and fat free natural yoghurt for dessert...free, have a bowl full.

But yes...that sounds totally disordered. Probably better to inject yourself with chemicals instead because, carbs 🙈

I understand your concerns about the ethics of this. My concern is more that I think you might find the cult approach of SW is not compatible with Mounjaro.

There's a huge emphasis on filling your plate with free food - fruits, veg, salad, potatoes, lean meats, eggs, tinned fish, plain pasta, plain rice, plain noodles. Then two portions of dairy and one of fibre each day.

This makes my point very well for me. SW encourages the consumption at volume of low-energy foods. On Mounjaro you will not be able to stomach the sheer volume of whatever franken-fakeaway they encourage you to make out of sugar-free jelly and quark. You have to focus on small quantities of nutrient-dense food and keep your protein levels high.

If you want the accountability then consider just attending for the weigh-in and then leaving before the meeting. You’ll be paying twice, though. I would personally put the SW money towards a gym membership or a strength-training class.

All the hate for SW always focuses on 'it's too many carbs'.

The reality is that no one becomes morbidly obese from eating too much plain pasta and plain rice 😂 Come on, we all know this. Obese people (me included, I say this with no judgement) are usually obese because they eat far too much crap and not enough natural, filling foods with decent nutritional content.

Personally I'm a huge fan of SW and I think it's much further from 'disordered eating' than most of the diets out there. There's a huge emphasis on filling your plate with free food - fruits, veg, salad, potatoes, lean meats, eggs, tinned fish, plain pasta, plain rice, plain noodles. Then two portions of dairy and one of fibre each day.

The only thing to count is your syns which is far easier than counting calories and encourages healthy choices - do I want this chocolate bar for 14 syns or shall I have some berries and yoghurt because I know it's free? Shall I buy the 15% fat mince which I'll have to count syns for, or spend the extra quid on the 5% fat mince which is free?

I've been doing SW for a month and have lost 11lbs. I find it totally freeing and I haven't eaten so well for the last couple of years.

Like any new way of eating - if you stop doing it and go back to eating poorly, you'll gain weight. SW isn't unique in that.

I would not do Slimming World as it encourages lots of carbohydrates.

I have been on Wegovy for a year. The weeks I eat carbs I don't lose weight, the weeks I don't eat them.I lose. Wegovy makes it easy to resist carbs, I'm just being lazy when I have a sandwich for example.

I think Weight Watchers encourages more protein from what I've read.

Weird I'm on all the oz and mounjaro reddits and that's not what I have seen there.

Are you aware of the side effects of long term morbid obesity?
Do you know what the success rate is for the "eat less move more" approach for morbid obesity?

Surprised comments from users in the Ozempic subreddit, with 74k users.

Thin people “fat people should just lose weight as you’re such a drain on the NHS!”

Obese people <attempt to lose weight including by medical treatment where indicated>

Thin people “no not like that you’re doing it wrong”

If you have never struggled with obesity, unless you are someone like a bariatric specialist, you have no idea of the complexities and should keep your opinions to yourself.

People attend SW who've had bariatric surgery, and some people who are slim go there to maintain weight loss. I think they just want people to pay their subs and turn up. You could tell the leader you'd rather opt out of 'slimmer of the week' or whatever. You don't need to give a reason, but you could just say I'm on medication that effects my appetite.

And you know this how?

Aside from the ropey syns system, SW does give you that target and accountability each week which is a good thing. You could always pay lip service to syns, do your thing and just go for the weigh in and the camaraderie.

Slimmer of the week-wise? Well hopefully you'll be as successful as you're assuming! The reality is that they'll be a few people there and unless you're losing half a stone a week or something, you're unlikely to win it week after week. Even if you don, isn't it just an A3 certificate and a little clap? Its not like a speedboat or a fortnight in the Caribbean. But if it really bothers you, and good on you for you ethical way of thinking, you could always have a quiet word with the group leader and request that they leave you out of the slimmer of the week stuff.

people actually have brains in their head and can work this out for themselves.

Most people don't even bother to read the information leaflet provided, let alone read up on the emerging and severe side-effects not yet listed on it.

Which is the same for any new drug presumably?

people actually have brains in their head and can work this out for themselves. You’ve fallen into the trap of thinking that dealing with chronic obesity can be dealt with in the same way as someone wanting to lose a stone or 2, and that just because someone is obese they don’t have any brains.

This is a medical treatment to help treat chronic obesity. Yes it might cause side effects in 10 years but equally someone might have a heart attack or stroke in that time if they don’t deal with their obesity.

WW are now doing a programme for people who are taking GLP-1 medications - Wegovy, Mounjaro etc. I don’t know how it differs to their normal programme. WW have definitely seen the writing on the wall when it comes to these medications and I think have also bought a company in the US who prescribes/sells them.

I don’t think it’s a bad idea per se. I never found SW great and there is a big focus on carbs which you need to reduce anyway. With WL meds you need to concentrate on protein and fibre. Maybe look at the WW one.

No side effects that you can observe now. You have no idea what’ll happen in 10 years

theres no evidence of medium to long term effects. Baffles me anyone would risk taking them. OP, you need lifelong sustainable changes, not some drug that messes up your body

I agree about WW and SW. I did WW 10 years ago and although I did lose the weight I am at this point heavier than I have ever been. I’m hypothyroid and suspect doing the WW has mucked up my thyroid even more.

Slimming world and other similar diet clubs promote very disordered eating habits. If you want to change your mindset you're better off spending the money on a therapist to tackle why you eat the way you do and learn techniques for managing your eating better.

As for the moral issue, no I don't think it would be fair to accept slimming awards.

Getting help with sorting your eating out is a great idea, not sure that WW or SW is the way to do it though. Personally I find they mess with my head, and teach you very restrictive eating, which leads to bingeing.

OP hasn’t asked for advice on whether to take it. I’m on Mounjaro with no side effects.

@moosmum21 I’d say if you want to that’s fine. I was going to do exactly that but found that the meds actually made it easy for me to make good food choices anyway. I lost 18lb in my first four weeks and it’s now settled down to 1-2 lbs per week. It hasn’t made me crash diet or lose massive amounts each week, but 1lb a week is a lot in a year. There’s a great Mounjaro thread on MN that covers everything about side effects and how to mitigate. Good luck!

It would be extremely unfair to accept a slimmer of the week award while knowing you’re using to help you. Very discouraging to members following the plan who won’t be able to achieve the weight loss that you will. Plus the potential for the consultant to use you as some sort of example of the loss that could be achieved on SW. One of the worst things about them is the huge promises they make about how you’ll lose weight really fast. None of that is your fault of course. Maybe say that you don’t want any awards or attention in the meetings.

ive done sw several times and o don’t think it works long term though - had better results with calorie counting

As others have said you won't need sw but yanbu you attend while taking Mounjaro, all it does is give you willpower and make it easy not to over eat, you can still follow the sw diet the same as the other members.

I've lost 53lbs since November on Wegovy and I no longer crave sugar or junk food, when I plan my meals I'm drawn to healthy foods and have no desire to snack in between.
It took a few weeks to get my head around not constantly thinking about food but it's normal now.

I haven’t taken WL meds yet but I am planning to. Once you have got obese it is complex and from what I know from people who have already taken these meds is that they stop cravings and help make healthier choices. As with any meds they can have side effects but living with obesity and the risk of heart attack, stroke, diabetes isn’t great either.