To consider mounjaro?

[RustyandDusty]

I'm 5 foot 3 and 10 stone 4. I'm a size 10 still but wobbly. I have pcos. I've done work with a personal trainer and at the gym. Diet generally good but I cannot shift a stone. Aibu to use mounjaro for 1 month?

It won't actually help you loose weight. Ultimately it is to aid you in eating less. So it won't miraculously do anything that following a calorie controlled diet will or won't do for you. If you already monitor calories and are not losing them Mounjaro won't miraculously change that.

Hi op! I know exactly what you mean I use to be in the middle of the healthy range BMI and since COVID Im at the top of the healthy BMI range and around my period tip into overweight, seems unfair healthier people can't use it to lose that ten lbs that would stop them tipping into that zone and ultimately make them happier. Once you have a prescription I don't think they stop if once you are in that BMI range so why shouldn't we have access to it. I don't have pcos but I'm only 5ft so to lose I need to eat hardly anything. Good luck and I'd check out fasting and weight training

I voted YABU - but only for posting your question in AIBU

If you asked this question in the Weight Loss area you'd get some quite different responses.

FWIW I feel the same as you. I'm overweight, post menopause and hate my body shape at the moment. No amount of personal training, keeping up the steps and calorie counting is working for me and I am miserable.

If I were to take any injectable I'd have to lie as am only just into the overweight category. Plus I know DH would not approve (I don't NEED approval, but would prefer it).

Post on Weight Loss Medications (or whatever it's called)

@Speccytwit she'll get the same responses. She's not even slightly near the BMI criteria, it's not like she's got a BMI of 29.9 and is right on the edge of qualifying. Her BMI is 25.5!

The medication isn't prescribed to make people happy it's to make people healthy. You don't have weight related health risks so why would you use a medication that comes with health risks to treat a problem of being 'slightly unhappy with your looks'??

I understand why you're feeling the way you are, but honestly, you're not that overweight and long-term, the mental and physical health benefits of exercise and eating well will pay off far more than Mounjaro (presuming you did manage to fraudulently whangle a prescription).

Couch to 5k, plus weights, plus healthy eating, would be the way to go and would also help with your PCOS symptoms. Various studies have found running is one of the very best things you can do for PCOS. But it's obviously not a quick fix.

https://www.runnersworld.com/health-injuries/a38200654/how-pcos-can-affect-your-running/

It’s interesting, there’s a lot of strong feelings around this. Celebrities and the like are using it to slim down from healthy weights to very skinny, so setting aside the jealousy etc, if someone is struggling to achieve their desired figure, why shouldn’t they? And I’m not talking about nhs funded treatment, I can understand that I shouldn’t have to fund your non life improving treatment, but if you are self funding? Why not?

Because the medication comes with potential health risks. One issue is that if people with lower body fat are using it to reduce their appetite and therefore take in a very low amount of calories they are likely to burn muscle as well as fat and damage their body in multiple ways. It's also linked to an elevated risk of thyroid cancer. Obesity is also linked to elevated risk of various cancers so it's worth the risk of the medication to reduce the risks associated with being obese. It's not worth the risk if you aren't obese and don't have elevated risk related to weight. It's not a benign drug with no side effects or risk!

Because those celebrities that are apparently using Mounjaro in the UK are obtaining it illegally through deception, because no reputable regulated prescriber would prescribe to them. Or they are purchasing vials of goodness knows what from dodgy "beauticians", or they are US based which has a completely different prescribing model where if you can pay and find a doctor willing to prescribe then you can get what you want. As Matthew Perry, Michael Jackson and so many others found out much to their cost.

So in a nutshell, the risks of this medication are too high if you are not obese. It has not been tested on people who were already at a healthy weight or only slightly overweight. Obtaining it fraudulently means you have no ability to seek advice if you experience issues. I mean, it's obviously a dangerous and unthinking idea.

I know those legit prescribed privately at 70-75kg and 5ft 3 ish starting out & of more now 60kg ish & 5ft 3 on the ‘journey’ that started heavier. A bit of guesswork but pockets of affluent London & SE IME/IMO. Menopause & trying everything first not budging.

Odds are in time will be available legitimately to ‘overweight’. Everything everyone has said is sensible but menopause makes it almost impossible for some to get to & maintain a healthy weight especially if dealing with ravenous hunger & stress. 5ft 3 is short & your hunger doesn’t get memo all you can have is sometimes circa 1,200 cals a day to play with or gain & metabolism slows.

I understand you can only get these injections if you have a BMI of over 30, there are possible side effects to the medication but the risks of being on medication is lower than the risks caused by obesity.

What I don’t understand is if people on these injections get down to a healthy BMI, surely the risks of obesity have gone, so how is a maintenance dose justified and how is it any different to anyone else with a healthy BMI looking to manage their weight? I’m asking in good faith, a family friend is looking into taking them and this is one thing that puts her off, she thinks she’ll stop taking them and she’ll put weight on again.

OP, It wouldn’t surprise me if the rules changed (depending on research of long term use)but for now your BMI is too low to be legitimately prescribed them.

How do you plan to get it?

@Isitfridayyetsophie it seems the risks are fairly minimal there are risks re: botox too but now mainstream for aesthetics. Time will tell.

And kidney damage. It's really only for people where weight related issues outweigh the mounjaro issues

Basically once you stop taking it it's very easy to put on the weight again.

You can be legitimately be privately prescribed metformin for weight management & some take re: longevity.

It hasn’t been linked to thyroid cancer in humans as yet.

@User14March interesting to see where it goes, if risks are minimal I can’t see why it won’t become available for lower BMIs.

@GettingStuffed so people lose weight on it, stop taking it because they lose their obesity related risks, if they gain weight again because food noise and cravings return, they wait for obesity related risks to return, take the injection again to lose… so stuck in a loop?

Agree with some of the other comments. If you can continue to take it safely once your BMI is below 30, why would there be additional health risks if your BMI is below 30 to start with? Also - as everyone keeps saying - BMI is not the be-all and end-all.

I think it's about rationing supply. I have a very healthy lifestyle by any measure but would benefit from losing some weight. Genetic factors, age, menopause etc. are all working against me. I predict a broadening of the criteria in the near future. Generic versions of these drugs are coming so the price will plummet.

Aside from your BMI not being high enough, it's pointless taking Mounjaro for one month. It doesn't work like that. You start at a low dose, then build up to the weightloss dose. It's not a "one month and done" quick fix.

I dunno why everyone calls them weight loss drugs. They are basically just an appetite suppressant, and that concept has been around for decades. I should know, I lost about a stone on Mounjaro, it was great to get me out of the obese BMI zone but I stopped because I never felt hungry and was having to force myself to eat. I’m now back to having to use willpower to eat less, but I am more motivated because I enjoyed the weight coming off when I was using the drug to suppress my appetite.

OP if eating less is not already helping you lose weight then Mounjaro won’t make any difference. And you’d have to lie to get it anyway, which is not cool.

What I find interesting is appetite, for some minimal even if exertion high, for others wild animal
level of ravenous & all shades in between.

I think this is a really good point and one I have pondered previously. I’m mainly thinking about American celebrities like the Kardashian family etc who took weight loss injections when they were likely not obese in BMI, to drop a dress size. I’m basing that off their appearance though, I suppose it’s possible they had obese BMI.

I know everyone in the UK is bound by the same restrictions, including private prescriptions, so “slimmer” UK celebrities are probably getting theirs via deception.

However “slimmer” overseas celebrities seem to legitimately be able to obtain it privately and I wonder how/why this is possible. The different approaches in different countries is interesting.

Or people take a maintenance dose for the longer term

The reason it's safer for people who were formerly obese to take it than people who were never obese is because obesity is a chronic condition - those who were previously obese are more likely to become obese again, so again, it's worth the risks to keep us at a healthy weight whereas if you've always been a healthy weight/only overweight you aren't at risk of becoming obese again.

There is no rationing of supply. Why on earth would the manufacturers want to do that?