To consider Mounjaro?

[Itsanewyear26]

My BMI is 25.4. I’m 11.5 stone.

I used to be slimmer and maintained it for a long time, fluctuating between 10 stone 4 and 10 stone 8. If I got to the top of that range I’d pull back and the weight would shift. I was eating about 1200-1400 calories then.

Since DC2 (who is now 8), I haven’t lost all the weight and have rarely seen under 11 stone. I’m active with 10k steps most days, I do 30-45 minutes of aerobic exercise (mixture between running, HIIT classes or weight) 4 times a week as well.

I don’t drink often, and meals are 90% home cooked and healthy. Snacking and picking is my downfall, and the constant food noise. I’ll have breakfast and wait for lunch with no issues, and then some days (approximately 2 weeks out of 4, I’d say) the food noise from lunch onwards is constant. I end up snacking too much, just picking on anything. I don’t buy biscuits but anything that is in for the DC I will eat, or I’ll just find something or go and buy something (live in London so there are Little Waitrose every where I turn for a quick fix!).

I track my calories but I struggle to get by on 1500 a day. I feel hungry and dissatisfied constantly. I drink loads of water and other drinks to try and keep full.

I just can’t lose the weight. I only want to lose a stone, I know I’ll find it much easier to maintain if I could get to 10 stone 7. I’ve been trying for over 8 years. I’m sure it looks like I haven’t been trying hard as I’m hopeless and only last about a week. I find the idea of weekends with no treats depressing.

Is anyone else in a similar situation?

I had about the same as you to lose, I did human being diet two years ago and lost 8 kg. I've fallen off the wagon a bit last few weeks but now I'm back on it it's falling off again. it's worth a go. strict rules but a treat meal once a week so you don't feel like you're completely missing out

I dont think you would be allowed to start it at that BMI. You can be on it at BMI 25 but to START you need to be over 30 which seems a bit odd to me but thats the rules.

Other than that, I would recommend it. I lost a vast amount and have now maintained for a year on a lower dose. The revelation of a life not starving and not thinking about food at all times is just incredible. I too couldnt lose if I ate over 1200cal and its miserable and impossible to sustain without "help"

MJ also immediately took away the inflamation and pain from my autoimmune condition. I am now off the immunosupressant drugs and pain free. My blood pressure is extremly healthy , again due to the drug effect, not just weightloss as the blood pressure improved from the first jab. Its really changed my life.

For calorie regulation I use Neutracheck which is a great calorie app. Logging calories really keps me on track or my eating drifts up even with the jab. Without monitoring its very easy to convince yourself that you are eating less than you actually are.

@Fuzzyblank ,I was euphoric too in the first month, I lost a stone, and the weight kept coming off, I was at goal and more in a short time, then.... I tried to come off it, I never went above 3.75,the hunger and food noise was insane, even though I titrated down, I need a small dose every week otherwise it all goes to pot.
I appreciate some people's experience in coming off is different, and I changed my diet and exercise completely while on it, but I revert back to eating everything in sight, if I don't take it. It's not a quick fix imo. Wish I'd never started on it.

Well I am in the same position. Since menopause I've been unable to shift the weight. I was about 6 kg heavier than my normal weight and couldn't lose anything. Human Being Diet worked for me pre-menopause but not since (and I don't particularly like it because you can't exercise).

So 've started microdosing mounjaro. 2 weeks in and I'm about 2kg down. It's a teeny dose and I haven't had any side effects. Have considered the long term issues and risks and decided to go for it. I'm not entirely sure what I'll do when I reach my goal weight as I don't really want to keep spending the money, but I'll talk to the clinic and see what happens then. I found out about this on mumsnet and this article Guardian and am using the clinic in the article.

On balance I would say no. And I hear you. I have horrendous food noise and hunger pangs. I could only lose weight when I calorie deficited to 1200 and it was miserable sticking to that. However, I did manage over the years to maintain a weight I was happy with. Things that worked was having something to do when I was unoccupied and started thinking toward snacking and Food tracking - writing everything down (well logging on an app) before eating made me aware of the snacking a more accountable to it. The dogs got a lot of evening walks in attempts to "fire break" snack attacks!

What I will say is the hormonal changes in Peri absolutely took a bomb through weight management for me. Anything that I had done in the past stopped working, my normal calorie usage changed to the point that my usual 1500 daily was causing weight gain and 1200 became the new maintain normal and my food noise and painful intrusive hunger pangs went into overdrive,, all this along with Peri symptoms and the food changes were 100% relative to artificial hormone use - it was a vicious circle. That's when MJ became the magic bullet to reset the hormonal changes and allow me to start weight controlling again. As PP said - I might not get off it again, certainly as long as I am on HRT.

Voy prescribes off label for those with a BMI of 25, so it absolutely is possible to do legitimately.

Its not foolproof though, everyone reacts differently. And remember most of us on WLI reporting steady weight loss started from a BMI above 30 - I am now down to BMI 24 and am losing about a pound a month. So don't go into it expecting that kind of weight loss within a relatively short period of time unless you can significantly cut calorie intake.

It's a very small amount of weight to lose, OP. Seems quite drastic to go onto a drug meant for people who are obese.

Actually I'm going to say there's a thread on here within the last week of someone in similar position. She has been prescribed it off label with Voy I think. As someone who was just into the BMI of 27 with other conditions, I'd say go for it. Losing weight is really hard, maintenance less so for me personally. I'm down to BMI 22 now and feel much better, not helped my arthritis particularly but hopefully will help it not progress so quickly. Only used 2x 2.5mg pens and 2x5mg pens from May To December and kept it off since.

only if you are happy to be on it for life

Not encouraging you since it’s a medical decision you need to make yourself, but I’ve done it in a similar situation and went from 72kg to 58kg in 7 months last year. I’ve taken Wegovy since I didn’t have that much to loose and wanted to sort of leave the more potent drugs as an option for the future. I increased my doses veeeery slowly and I’m currently maintaining for the last 5 months within 1kg range. I’m still taking the shots, and I’m happy to do it long term (especially that after around half a year i got used to it enough to stop having side effects). It’s helping me eat better overall, treat food as food and not a reward, snack less and consume less UPF.

To add, since I didn’t qualify, I needed to report a higher starting weight and had to upload a photo from very shortly after giving birth. Not sure it would work now since most pharmacies have tightened the verification process and require a video consultation

I was in a similar situation, my BMI was 26ish and I was around 8kg heavier than my usual weight following my third pregnancy. I was pre-diabetic and doing all the right stuff, nothing worked. My Dr prescribed me Ozempic for 2 months and I lost the 8kg super easily. No side effects and just minor appetite suppression which allowed me to stop the stress snacking.

that was over a year ago. My weight now fluctuates up and down a little - if I need a reset I take a low dose for a month to get me back to where I want to be - but mostly I maintain it fairly easily.

I am not in the UK.

It's very unlikely that anyone would prescribe you Mounjaro and you don't need it. Try intermittent fasting: two food-free days per week. Not eating is actually a lot easier than dithering about what to eat or when to eat it.

You have to stay on it forever.

@ooohreallly Easy Fast Intermittent Fasting by a company called Samtark. Tried to add screenshot but awaiting approval

Wow, so you’re not using them long term? That’s amazing.

i haven’t looked into it in depth and so didn’t realise there were different brands for different needs. Voy sounds interesting - can I ask what off label means?

thank you for all the replies. I know it sounds drastic, and I’m not ready to be on it for life so it sounds risky. But, at the same time, what’s the worst that would happen - I go back to being the same weight as I am now?! I have maintained this slightly overweight size for over 8 years. I’ve always found maintenance much easier than loss. I lost a good 10lbs for my wedding and maintained it until I got pregnant over 3 years later. After I had DC1 I lost the weight right back to that same weight I’d managed to maintain, it’s only since DC2 and the change from lockdown to WFH that I’ve not been able to lose it. I ate a lot less when I was working in an office 5 days a week.

So you are thinking of lying about your bmi? They ask for photos you know too. It’s not a path you need to take. Select a different method. Intermittent fasting?

It sounds like you need to do a bit more research. There are different kinds of GLP1 meds out there, Olympic, MJ, wegovy for instance that have slightly different impacts and prices. Voy is one of the many, many clinics, pharmacies, companies that sell.it. They all have slightly different protocols for checking if you qualify and what they will prescribe when.

There aren’t different brands for different needs. Voy is just prescribing company and comes in branded packaging. It’s still MJ at the end of the day.
Off label prescribing is when a company prescribes it to you when it doesn’t meet the use it was licensed for essentially. I.e being prescribed at a BMI under 30. With BMI of 27 you normally have to have pre existing medical conditions to have it prescribed

Its health risks you need to look at. Like any medication there can be side effects and consequences. Research those. And dont lie about your weight

If you can get it prescribed go for it! You don't need to explain or justify it to anyone-you know the pros and cons. Good luck!

I've read enough about WLI to know it's not easy to get them and it would probably not be a good idea to try and use them if your weight isn't high enough to start with.

I'd give "Filling Meals" a try. It's a book by weight loss coach Lindsay Wilson, and currently under £10 on Amazon. I've had the book since January, and I'm slowly losing weight for the first time in years. It focuses on satiety, and has definitely stopped food noise for me. I lost a lot of weight with low carb/keto years ago but shifted into unhealthy patterns. Even though I never really got back properly into low carb again, it still took me a leap of faith to start eating oats, pasta and rice again. But it's definitely working, and I'm eating healthy, whole foods and feeling generally much better.

Lindsay is also on Facebook and Instagram. He's a bearded Aussie bloke who has been a weight loss coach for a while and also lost a lot of weight himself. Definitely worth a try!

Yes sorry to confused. There's only a few weight loss medications which include MJ, wegovy etc but the market is full of providers of these medications. Voy is one, along with boots, Asda, simple online pharmacy and loads of others. If you go to . https://monj.co.uk/mounjaro-price-comparison-by-monj/ you will lists of providers and prices. They all have slightly differing criteria and prices but the product supplied is the same standard and manufactured by the pharmaceutical company licensed to make it. Some such as Voy ( I think), will offer it at BMIs slightly below the licensed use. All require photos/videos, proof of ID, and your GP details and if they are unsure if you genuinely meet their threshold for use them they will ask for additional information. I had show evidence from NHS of my coexisting conditions and also pics of my current prescription for HRT for instance. Their pharmacist then makes a decision to prescribe or not. It's still in my opinion well regulated within what is possible for remote care. Please ask away if you have anymore questions.

I also found the book Food Noise by Jack Moseley (son of the late Michael Moseley) excellent reading as it discussed a lot of the current understanding around dieting and WLIs.

As someone who has taken MJ (with a BMI of well over 30) I’m not going to be hypocritical and say don’t do it - as long as you get it legitimately and don’t lie about your weight. I think you will find it difficult to get it prescribed at your BMI. It’s not usually prescribed for anyone whose bmi is under 30 (unless you have certain health conditions) and there is a reason for that because of the health risks involved.

Providers are really cracking down now because people were doing what you said, and falsifying their weight/application to get it. I’ve been with a few different prescribers and, in my experience, it’s gone from simply taking a photo on the scales to, for example, having a video call with a pharmacist from the company with your ID, scales and tape measure/height chart to prove your bmi in live time; having to physically go into a pharmacy to pick up the medication and being bmi checked before being given it; and even the prescriber asking for weight/height proof verified by a pharmacist/GP (pretty impossible I found). They also have to write to your GP now to inform them you’re taking it and ask them to flag if they have reason to believe you shouldn’t be given it.

If you do find someone to prescribe it legitimately, please please do your research in the pros and cons. For me, I had minimal side effects and I lost weight. I found my main issue was, like you, snacking. And it stopped that for me.