To expect more than 0.5 pound weight loss?

[Epicentre]

On 25th October I weighed 11 stone 7 pounds.
I stayed that same weight for weeks. Wouldn't budge.
Then eventually a month later I went down to 11 stone 6 pounds.
Then magically last week I dropped to 11 stone 3 pounds.
Hooray! I thought. The looooong plateau has gone. I'd dropped 4 pounds.
Got back on scales today and I weigh 11stone 6.5 pounds.
So in 6 bloody weeks I've lost a grand total of 0.5 pounds.
This is on 15mg mounjaro and 1,200 cals a day.
I weigh myself once a week, no more.
I track my calories carefully.
No I'm not an idiot who vastly overeats more calories than I think I'm eating. (This seems to get trotted out a lot on MN).
I am SO SO SO pissed off.
0.5 pounds on 15mg MJ in SIX WEEKS!!!!!
Humph.😡

But wait!
I've lost 4 stone over this past year!
So are you saying this has happened by some divine intervention? Well it must be this! Because quite clearly you have deigned me unable to calculate and track my calorie intake correctly. So I can't possibly have lost 4 stone through careful calorie deficit using the app I've explained about! No it can't be that, because you've clearly said I'm eating more calories than I think I am! In which case, if I am being so silly as to be consuming the 1,900 calories daily that you have stated I'm consuming, whilst foolishly thinking I'm only consuming an absolute maximum of 1,200 calories a day, then gosh, the fact that I've lost 4 stone whilst eating the maintenance level of calories you've decided I'm eating is nothing short of a Christmas miracle, surely!🎅

P.S. There is absolutely nothing 'deeply unhealthy' about eating only a tuna sandwich when I had a viral infection and didn't feel like eating on that one particular day due to feeling ill. Let me reassure you, it is very normal for people to not eat much at all when they are ill. Hope that helps, as you seem dreadfully concerned.

Thank you🙏

Incredibly frustrating for you as you are doing all the right things, perhaps try to eat your kcals in a different way? Reduce your carb intake and up your good fats? Increase your fluids even more?

Oh dear; op as you lose weight the amount of calories you need reduces, it is called your tdee. As such you need to keep reducing how much you consume to maintain a deficit.

but I’m out, good luck op with the rest of the weight.

I'm going to suggest intermittent fasting 2 days a week. On those days aim for sub 500 calories of carb free fresh food. I do boiled egg plus salad and olive oil dressing or prawns or other good protein. No fruit other than berries. That helped my metabolism get going again for the final 4 kg I need to lose.

Oh dear @Frenchfrychic , that's exactly what I have done! I'm totally on top of my TDEE! Gosh, what terribly wrong assumptions you keep on jumping to!
So glad you are leaving us. Bye!😚

@Epicentre I suspect I know the reason my loss stopped 12 months ago and that’s because I’m probably veering more towards eating at maintenance level. I used to use Nutracheck and log absolutely everything and found it really helpful but now I don’t bother and just est to appetite which varies from day to day.

id have to ‘dig deeper’ to start losing again and I’m a bit diet fatigued tbh.

I also know I don’t overeat either and MJ is definitely keeping my appetite in check

Yesterday for example , I had ..:

A hotel chocolat Velvetiser hot chocolate

two heaped tablespoons of granola, same again of greek yogurt and some berry compote

piece of cheese
bag of frazzles (it’s all about balance here!)

satsuma

macaroni cheese (could only manage half)

5 Quality street

so not a particularly inspiring or healthy day really and I’d guess I came in at 1500 calories . As I’m short, I could probably stand to shave around 300 cals off that to kickstart loss again but like I said, I’m a bit ground down with it all.

my BMI is 23.9 so let’s call that 24. I wonder if my body is just wanting this to be my ‘set’ weight as I’ve genuinely not shifted in weight for a year now?

next year I’m going to focus more on strength based training and eating a little less processed foods and reducing MJ to 5mg a week.

I can fully uunderstand your frustrations as you say you’ve got suppression and I’d expect 15mg a week to bring you down another 10 lbs at least. And it would not be unrealistic to expect this loss to be at maybe a pound or 2 a week. As you’re sure of your calories (and I’m not going to patronise you and tell you you can’t possibly be including the giant cake you ate etc etc) then I’d try ‘surprising’ your body by eating different foods or at differing times of the day.

Have a look at your protein intake - looks very low, so risk of muscle loss as body canbalises muscle for amino acids. Aim for 30g protein with each meal.

I think you are at the “set point” based on a low protein high carb processed diet, even if the number of calories indicates it’s a deficit

I think the issue is the OP is too on the ball for the advice posters on Mn want to give.

generally the advice is aimed at some dilbert eating 3000 calories a day who thinks that’s fine, and is full of things that are iffy weight loss wise but sound good
eat more protein
don't drink coke zero
lift weights

Any OP who knows this is duff advice just triggers the posters and they start attacking.

I can fully uunderstand your frustrations as you say you’ve got suppression and I’d expect 15mg a week to bring you down another 10 lbs at least.

But i think this is part of the problem, everyone responds differently to mounjaro and to different doses, so any "expectations" are misplaced.

I haven't eaten the amount of processed sugar you ate yesterday in the entire 5 months since starting mounjaro, not because I'm a saint but because it has given me a near complete sugar aversion. Thus I've lost 3 stone on 1.25mg & 1.875mg.

OP has done great on mounjaro, but it appears 15mg is her maintenance level, which from a financial point of view must be frustrating, but mounjaro's has worked it's magic and OP is now 4st down and a healthy weight.

@MeridaBrave I do usually eat more nutritiously in my defence but wanted to be completely honest! As a vegan (the macaroni cheese and yogurt etc is dairy free obvs) I struggle so much with protein intake and it really something I need to concentrate on.

I also have an issue where come the evening, the last thing I usually want is a meal. I go through foods in my head and all I fancy as a rule is a bagel or maybe a yogurt or a handful of nuts. Not so much because I feel full but because I just don’t fancy much

@Periperi2025 ha I’m the opposite! I have little in the way of appetite for actual food but I could peck away quite happily on sweets and bits of chocolate. I’m pretty sure that about 9 st 9 give or take a lb or 2 is my set weight as I’ve been here for a year now

it’s probably time to stop messing about and actually eat some proper food.

Eat more pulses - get both carbs and protein together. Tofu and can use protein shakes (I love the vegan Wondershake by the protein works).

I think you can move your set point down further if you focus on macros.

@Epicentre are you doing lots of strength training? I lose size but not weight when I strength train.

I started taking my key body measurements as well as weight to monitor progress.

Almost a healthy weight. I do want to emphasise that my BMI currently remains in the overweight category. It is 25.2.
I dont want to sound like I'm splitting hairs, but I won't reach the healthy weight category until my BMI reaches 24.9, and even then I'll be at the very upper limit. So first off I want to get into the healthy BMI category, then once I'm in it ideally I'd like to get more comfortably into the healthy range, more towards the middle of a healthy BMI, so that I'm not sitting right on the edge of the upper limit.
But thank you for your encouraging words.xx

Thank you for your thoughtful post.😊
And thank you so much for understanding, and for not patronising me.xx

I must admit I'm not doing any strength training. This is something I see posters raise a lot. My focus is on calorie deficit, ensuring a higher ratio of healthy protein to a lower ratio of wholegrain complex carbs, and regular CV exercise. Maybe I should give strength training a try then. Though my focus will still remain on trying to achieve that hard to reach (for me) healthy BMI.

Strength training is amazing to tone, protect your body as it ages, keep your metabolism in good shape etc. It’s super important especially for those on MJ (me also!) so as to avoid muscle wastage.

I’m sure you know this, but body composition is a much much better indicator of health than BMI - it’s just that BMI and the figure on our scales is so ingrained within us, it’s very difficult to shake I know.

My body composition is awful, actually.
I am covered in fat. All over my abdomen. My underarms. Tops of my arms. And my entire back is covered in fat. I can grab handfuls of fat from my back. It's revolting. This is why I'm so frustrated that 15mg MJ and a daily low calorie diet mixed with CV exercise has achieved nothing in 6 weeks, because I am still covered in fat so I know my body still has so much more fat to lose. And my waist measurement still way exceeds the maximum healthy waist measurement for women, even though my BMI has dropped to 25.2.
I'm really infuriated with myself, actually.
Yes you're right about BMI being ingrained in us. It's what I get told to work within in my job. Unfortunately in my case, my overweight BMI really is down to fat, not muscle!

Unfortunately you are likely the same as me.

I maintain weight at eating 1200 calories per day. If I want to lose 1-2lbs a week I need to eat 800-1000 calories per day. I bloody love food and it’s so unfair 😂 but if I want to stay slim then I have to be very very careful what I eat.

The NHS guidelines are just an average calorie recommendation for the average person. But we aren’t all average. If I ate the NHS recommended 2000 cals a day I would pile on weight.

This is interesting OP. I have a friend on MJ who’s also hit a plateau, so you’re not the only one. I’ve been trying to lose since the summer (not on MJ, I’m just doing the 5-2) and it’s painfully slow. About 20g/day since mid-Aug. I read Ultra-processed People a while back and it mentioned some studies that demonstrated that when you eat fewer calories, your body responds by reducing the energy expended on some functions, and by resting more. This depressed me at the time because it suggests that calorie restriction can never result in weight loss even if you stick to it religiously. However, I don’t think it can be as black and white as that because people can and do lose weight, so I think it must just be that as you reduce calorie intake the body tends to use fewer calories, rather than it actually exactly matching energy expended to calorie intake. But it does mean that you might not get as much of a result as you might expect. People seem to think it’s simple (eat less and the weight should fall off!!) but it isn’t.

i know that’s not that helpful but it might explain why you’re not seeing the results any more. I really would suggest you try some weight training, especially since they have said MJ tends to result in quite a lot of muscle loss in women. I am thinking of joining a gym to do this, because as I age (late 50s now), I definitely feel I’m losing muscle. I think as you lose muscle it’s definitely even harder to shift the weight because your body needs less energy to tick over. My BMI is under 25 now but my waist measurement is still more than half my height so I still need to do more (there is diabetes on both sides of the family).

I have excellent muscle mass, I’m lifting heavy consistently. My height adjusted FFMI number (19.5) indicates that my muscle mass is at bodybuilder / powerlifter levels.

However my BMI is 21.5. From this I conclude that for women, a BMI over 25 indicates carrying excess fat.

There's still a lot we are learning about generic influences on diet and exercise and weight management.

I don't believe there have been any studies that looked at genetic influences on weight AND the "starvation mode" effect together?

They've relatively recently become aware that starvation of near ancestors (e.g. the rationing/Twiggy generation) can reprogram the genes of descendents to hold onto fat.

I certainly broke a plateau before by eating more and exercising less!

Ok, I can guarantee you’ll look and feel better about yourself if you try a month of strength training. It doesn’t have to be scary! Just consistent. I would recommend a Sydney Cummings programme - something like Ignite - or just pick a random 30 minute one from her channel. She’s so encouraging and gentle!