Continuing Mounjaro...part 7

[ObsidianTree]

Please note: Mounjaro can only be taken if your BMI is above 30.

Pointers for newbies:

1 - For taking your first dose you need to twist the pen a lot to get to 1! The instructions say prime each time you take a dose, but actually Eli Lilly have confirmed you only need to prime for the first ever use of a pen. (The video posted says every use, but this isn't true!)

2 - When injecting, hold down the button until the number goes back to 0. Once at 0, keep holding down the button and count to 5 with the needle still in so no medication is lost!

3 - Your first dose may not have an immediate effect. For some people the effects build slowly. It could take 3 or 4 days to notice anything, it could take a few weeks. Some people don't feel the meds working until they get to 5mg. See titration chart which shows how the medication builds up in your system. Also below you can plot the effect of your doses.
https://glp1plotter.com/

4 - 2.5mg isn't a therapeutic dose, meaning you aren’t meant to lose on 2.5mg. You need to start on 2.5mg to get your body used to the drug and gradually introduce it into your system and get used to any side effects.

5 - Not everyone loses a lot in the first few weeks. Don't feel discouraged if you don't lose a lot initially. Again, you might need a higher dose to start losing. Also, inches can be lost without anything showing on the scales. Start your journey by taking measurements and check them as you go along.

6 - If you do lose a lot in the first few weeks, please don't assume you will continue losing at this rate. The first few weeks it is usually water weight that is lost, after than a good weight loss is about 2lbs a week. Some weeks you might not lose anything, but this is ok too…again, taking measurements might show inches lost instead.

7 - Constipation, coldness, nausea, diarrhea, headaches, aches, are side effects. There may be be other side effects also. Read info here :

www.medicines.org.uk/emc/product/15481/pil#about-medicine

8 - Once you take your first dose you can choose to keep your pen in the fridge or somewhere else. It's up to you.

9 - Don't reuse any needles as this could risk infection. If you damage a needle or one isn't working, you can buy a pack of about 100 spares. https://www.chemist-4-u.com/carepoint-pen-needles-31g-4mm-pack-of-100?gclid=Cj0KCQjwiYOxBhC5ARIsAIvdH51rLZBVFQxuvS7mDJooegtK8BMiyT0PwREMRHhH_1atfQIo8TEbsmkaAkA0EALw_wcB

10 - Protein is important as eating less protein can cause muscle wastage and hair loss. Try to have at least 100g a day.

11 - Some natural sources of protein:
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/best-sources-protein
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/321522#high-protein-foods

12 - You can use supplements, some that people use are magnesium(for sleep and constipation), protein(to reduce muscle wastage), collagen (skin elasticity), aloe vera(for constipation), electrolytes.

13 - Drink lota of water. Water helps with the weight loss. Drink at least 2ltrs a day. Preferably 3ltrs.

14 - Don't be afraid to feel hungry. It is entirely normal and healthy to feel hungry. Just eat something. Treat it as an opportunity to start good habits around hunger. Eat a nice balanced snack or a meal if it's a meal time. It's ok.

15 - Does it makes any difference where you inject? yes it does! Drugs get absorbed at different rates depending on injection site

In order of fastest absorption, it goes:
• Tummy
• Arms
• Thighs
further reading about injection sites and the effects: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/316618

16 - Abdominal side-effects are much easier to control with smaller meals. For example, having 4 small meals in the day vs 2 big meals can have an improvement in nausea and burps.

17 - You can track your calories / protein on apps such as My fitnessPal, Carb Manager or Nutracheck. Nutracheck is quite useful and easy to find foods /build recipes.

18 - Some of the places you can order from are:

• MedExpress 2.5mg and 5mg. £149.99. 7.5mg £169. Use code STARTNOW. Ask for other codes if that doesn't work.
• The Family Chemist 2.5mg and 5mg -£149. 7.5mg £169.
• Simple online pharmacy - £159 2.5mg £179 5mg
• Bolt pharmacy 2.5mg £125, 5mg £179. 7.5mg £189
• Asda 2.5mg and 5mg £184. 7.5mg £189
• Boots £219 +
• Chemist4U £179 +
• Superdrugs

19 - If you want to switch suppliers, make sure you have pics of your Mounjaro box with your name and dose. This will come in useful when other suppliers ask for evidence.

1st thread:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/weight_loss_chat/5007744-mourjano-starting-soon?page=1

2nd thread:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/weight_loss_chat/5028495-continuing-murnjaropart-2?page=1

3rd thread:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/weight_loss_chat/5037623-continuing-mounjaropart-3?page=1

4th thread:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/weight_loss_chat/5044316-continuing-mounjaropart-4?page=1

5th thread:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/weight_loss_chat/5048290-continuing-mounjaropart-5?page=1

6th thread:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/weight_loss_chat/5057916-continuing-mounjaropart-6?page=1

Thread for newbies just starting out:

http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/weight_loss_chat/5057475-mounjaro-and-wegovy-newbies-april-2024

This. Absolutely this!!

Thank you for the boost NPM and missionchub ♥️

I'm going to stick at it. I think I will swap to daily weighing as suggested, and I'll go back to injecting into my stomach rather than thighs (which I switched to for the bonus 2.5 and first 5 - in the hope of minimising side effects).

I think my stomach is the best injection spot for me as I always lost atleast 0.9-1lb per week when I was doing it that way.

To look on the bright side, my BMI is now 30.9 so I'm approaching the overweight category and bidding adieu to being obese.

I've ordered myself some gorgeous (to me) Lucy & Yak dungarees in a 12 and I'm going to make it my mission to fit into them in the next few months 🙂

@BlackFriYay I feel your pain. Everything you're doing is having a big impact you just won't see it for a while.

I've just had some big whooshes of loss after weeks of losing almost nothing.

Consistency is key. Good luck and just keeping plodding forwards.

Well done everyone on losses, and commiserations to those stalling for now.
I've not weighed this weekend, as I was away - it was not a good food weekend, as I didn't eat nearly enough.
I had my first experience of absolutely not being able to eat a bite more food at breakfast yesterday - was at a premier inn, and started well with yoghurt, fruit and a sprinkling of granola. Was still hungry, and as it hadn't been my usual high protein yogurt thought I'd have some extra protein. Chose a rasher of bacon with barely any fat, and some scrambled eggs. Bad choice! Had a few mouthfuls of egg and that was it. Literally could not eat any more, and struggled to swallow the mouthful that I had.
After that, we did 3 National Trust houses, with a cup of tea at each, drove home, and went to the local pub. My other half hates eating late in the evening, and I wasn't very hungry so we decided not to have dinner. 3 glasses of wine later it was bedtime.
Saturday wasn't much better, though I did have 2 meals, but again, too much alcohol. Not nearly as much as it would have been pre MJ, as after 3.5 pints I was absolutely done.

Here's to a better week, I really need to get my protein levels back to my aim of 70g+ per day.

Hi everyone,
just wondering if there are any discount codes knocking about at the moment? I’m looking to start MJ so any help would be appreciated, please and thank you ❤️

@BlackFriYay I hope you don't mind me asking but where are you at in your cycle? I had this a week or two ago. I lost a couple of pounds and then i went back and forth on those weights for that week. As soon as I was out the other side of my period I lost them again. I haven't lost all week and felt bigger than previous days today and the scales say a lb down, but tomorrow it could well be back on again. It has never been linear for me, I go up and down across a week and then if I stick at that weight for a few days I know I have truly lost it. Maybe try weighing daily if you aren't already. If I didn't weight myself daily I wouldn't know of this pattern.

You are doing well because you are carrying on with maintaining a healthy lifestyle even though the results aren't what you want them to be. That is going to set you up to maintain when you do lose the weight. It will come. I'm trying to concentrate on how I feel as well as the scales too. Things like clothes fitting better, bra not digging into my belly fat or having to undo buttons whilst sitting down, that sort of thing.

Sorry I just saw that you are going to change to daily weighing now! @BlackFriYay

A good number of people have mentioned having more vivid dreams. It's also been in the press in relation to Ozempic.

I had some very odd dreams last night too. They weirded me out! I don't normally get them, but I had them last night.

Morning all! I'm still hanging in there haven't weighed for a few weeks but still feel like things are going well. Just started 2nd month of 5mg but had an issue with the needles that med express sent - I couldn't click or press the pen!

Thought maybe the pen was too cold. Tried another needle. Nope. Found a spare needle from previous order with bolt and worked fine so very strange.

The medex needles are 0.23x5mm and the ones from before are 0.23x4mm so same length just minor difference in thickness which shouldn't have been an issue, but looking at the medex ones (omnican) the needles don't seem as long. So I've ordered some more of the carepoint ones for future use!

Just thought I'd share incase anyone else has the same issue 😊

Pretty sure 4mm and 5mm refer to length.
The 0.23 is width

Where can I get more of the correct needles? I'd like a back up supply just in case. Thanks

@TitsInAbsentia I had the same problem. I've been using up my 4mm needles from Pharmacy2U and have just moved to the 5mm that Medex sent. First thing I noticed was that the quality seemed a lot poorer, no additional cap, quite flimsy feeling compared to what I'd had before.

For the first time I've struggled to push the pen down. I know it's not the pen itself as I used it last week with my final 4mm needle without issues.

I don't think it's the length of needle causing the problem, it could be the brand of needle though. Perhaps it doesn't thread on properly? I think someone mentioned earlier that when they didn't fit the needle properly it didn't push down.

I'm in a stall as well, despite daily workouts and eating 1000-1200 kcal a day, mostly protein. It's good to know that others experience the same and that at some point, weight loss will start again.

My first pen didn't have any needles so I just used the wegovy needle I had left over. It seemed to work ? I then ordered the ones that are linked in the OP. So I'll use those. If the liquid comes out, is it the correct needle ?

@BlackFriYay amd @MountKilimounjaro and everyone really!

Ok, Monday motivation post from Flappy 😂

I stalled for a while. Basically a whole period cycle. Now, I say stall. If I look back I was losing, but it was a pound a week. But I would gain 2. Lose one. Gain 1. Lose 2.

Yesterday I whooshed. Aided by a lot of senna to release the bum. I went from 12 to 11:11. This morning I am back to 11.13.

This won’t be linear. I was very despondent over the last thread and all the old food thoughts crept back in. The well, if I’m not going to lose I may as well have this. Or that. Essentially wanting to eat the emotion of it.

I didn’t. Mainly because it’s so self-defeating. If I want something sweet I will have it. I’ve even started having feta in salad. Because we can’t eat such a restricted diet forever.

I have weighed daily for years. But if you do go to weighing daily, one bit of advice I had on this thread is only track the lows. You need to be prepared for it to go up and down. I find it more manageable to weigh daily as I am tuned into my body and cycle now.

Yesterday I met up with my best friend. She hasn’t seen me since I started this. She lives in London.

I am two and half stone lighter than when I last saw her. We spent two hours in Primark. I took 12 and 14 into the changing room and every single 14 is now too big. I have literally skipped a size in my weight loss.

Keep at it and remember it’s one day in a lifetime. Weight does change. We are humans and not machines. I can’t believe I am writing this post as this really wasn’t me three months back. Even the despondency was me the last few weeks. But we have to change our heads as much as our diet.

You have this.

It's probably not the needles but the pen! Mine jammed on my first pen and the company I use sent me out another pen FOC...saying they'd had a few jammed pens.
I did two jabs successfully (although very stiff) but the third was a no go. That pen just wasn't budging!

Did your friend notice your weight loss? I hope she did as 2.5 stone is a brilliant loss!
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Thanks for posting about the needle issue with MedEx. I do have some left over from asda, but I might just try and locate those ones online via a pharmacy instead of using the Med Ex ones.

That's good to hear @FlappyFish. I am wearing a skirt today that I haven't worn for a few years. I bought a pair of similar ones from the same company, style and size for a bargain on EBay a couple of years back which didn't fit, but I hung I onto them in case of losing weight. I will be happy if I get back into those comfortably. They are a 12, but think my current skirt may have been stretched a bit more although the same size. I did throw some smaller clothes out in despair this winter though, which was a bit stupid.

I've got two

One is for Voy joinvoy.com/r/U-xJ0IQ3Vltz
to give you a half price pen - and the other is for Juniper, APRIL50 but it may only work for returners?

I suspect you could be on to something with needle quality!

@ihatecoffee Yes, she did and I’d said to her before we met I had a bit of a surprise. Everyone close to me now knows I taking MJ and she was the one saying buy this and that. 😂 I hadn’t told her before as I really have started to get diet talk is dull and, also, I spent 90% of my time on a diet that I never saw through.

Talking of Primark and clothes shopping. I really have realised there is such a gap in the market. I have clothes from all over, but basics I go back to Primark as the same things are double the cost in others. I miss Dorothy Perkins. I need to sell some of my Scamp and Dude. Or so I hang on? I have in my head I will regain. No! Not doing it.

I haven’t braved Zara yet. I have never been able to shop in Zara. 😂

I just realised I had it wrong way round 🤣 I would def say the needles they sent aren't 5mm as stated...I will let them know they are poor. It makes sense now that the pen wouldn't click or push as there was no needle piercing the top!

@Soukmyfalafel I would get yourself on Vinted. I didn’t have any smaller clothes as it has been about two and a half decades since I was this weight.

I am going to start going through clothes properly this week and I’m going to put in storage everything too big. I don’t have an extravagant wardrobe anyway. I work from home so it’s extensive but basic. I don’t want to part ways with things yet. I’ve never spent lots and lots on individual clothes. Shoes I have! I mean, they always fit. 😂