Continuing Mounjaro...part 9

[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.
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. www.chemist-4-u.com/carepoint-pen-needles-31g-4mm-pack-of-100?gclid=Cj0KCQjwiYOxBhC5ARIsAIvdH51rLZBVFQxuvS7mDJooegtK8BMiyT0PwREMRHhH_1atfQIo8TEbsmkaAkA0EALw_wcB

Also there is a 5th dose in each pen. To extract it you can either try a hard twist or use an insulin needle.
medbasic.co.uk/bd-micro-fine-30g-1ml-syringes-needles

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:
www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/best-sources-protein
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
furthet reading about injection sites and the effects: 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:

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

2nd thread:

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

3rd thread:

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

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

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

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

7th thread:
www.mumsnet.com/talk/weight_loss_chat/5062935-continuing-mounjaropart-7?page=1

8th thread:
www.mumsnet.com/talk/weight_loss_chat/5068850-continuing-mounjaropart-8?page=1

Thread for newbies just starting out:

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

OK this is getting weird now. As weigh in day was yesterday and as normal, planned a gentle refeed kind of day where i'Il eat more then usual (but still on plan) I had a subway cesar salad (90% lettuce) plus a side of 4 meatballs. Then for dinner two small beef patties with cheese and coleslaw for dinner. made myself a keto strawberry cheesecake for dessert and just tried to eat it and physically couldn't. Had to wrap up more then half of it for tomorrow. IM TRYING TO EAT MORE. I'm on my 4th week of 2.5 and the fourth day since the jab, i'm utterly stuffed and was comfortably full before the cheesecake.

RE Chinese food i would do satay sticks, a plain or veggie rice (assuming you are eating carbs) and a main dish of beef and broccoli in garlic/soy/oyster sauce or similar.

I had planned to continue on 5 mg but may order 7.5 in case the expiry date for the 5 mg pen is June, as I have calculated the last dose and the bonus dose for that pen will fall in early July. I guess I can do whatever the number of clicks for 5 mg from the 7.5 pen and I would have 6 x 5 mg doses plus a bonus dose of 5+ mg.

Just for info, Superdrug and Asda only have 5 mg pens expiring in June. It clearly shows as expiring 30/06 if you try to order. I’m with Boots atm (I want to collect in store) but open to change providers at some point.

I've just been watching a documentary on YouTube called "the people who can't stop eating" and it featured a guy who was 40 odd stone and his PT who helped him lose half of his body weight. I looked up the PT and he has an MBE and awards for being Britain's best PT.. and his own business providing healthy meal prep meals called Macro Based Diner, and they deliver UK wide. His name is Mike Hind.

I've just signed up and have my first order of 5 meals coming on Wednesday, all around 300 calories each and are steak dishes, healthy bolognese, different chicken dishes etc all with veg and measured exactly. I've paid about £23 quid including delivery after the 10% first order discount, much less than I spend on 5 days worth of meals in my normal shop.

I'm excited to try them as I'm positively shit at building my own healthy meals and recording all of the ingredients calories, dividing it all etc. I've been living off a very boring diet of plain chicken, rice and low-ish cal supermarket ready meals for weeks as its easy to log the calories.

What's everybody else here usually eating?

Hi everyone so no great loss 2nd week less than a pound but I took my third dose as it’s going in the right direction and I know we don’t all loose big on 2.5.

made my order for 5mg from Pharmacy2u which was approved and I’ve checked dispatch and saw it says 5mg of Wegovy not Mounjaro!!!!!

what the hell do I do! Office is closed and I’m praying they don’t dispatch tomorrow!! What a bloody expensive mistake if I can’t sort!!! I’ve sent a message on an old first dose thread to them as no other way of contacting them over the weekend!!

@BlackFriYay I mostly clean eat, with a couple of exceptions. Also home cook & batch cook. I might have a rice cake with houmous, cottage cheese, half a protein bar & a bit of fruit and yogurt during the day.
Then after 5 pm I will have a main meal of some sort, could be soup & home made bread, vegetarian tart & salad, a hamburger & salad or coleslaw. Not much booze, the odd glass of wine once or twice a week. Pudding is Lidl vanilla pudding as it has 20g protein. 1-2 cups herb tea with a tablespoon of collagen. I track everything in Nutracheck. Try to hit 100g protein daily & 1200 cals max

@BlackFriYay I just eat the normal meals I prepare for the family, but smaller portions. I'm not cooking separate dinners and I want to be able to continue eating normally after I've lost weight, rather than eat special diet meals or low carb or whatever, because that's not long term for me. I just have about 500 calories for lunch so I've got up to 1000 to use for dinner. Normally dinners are around 600-800 cals but yesterday I ate 4 mini bao buns (400cals) and half a pizza (500 calories) because that's what we were having.
I had made a load of roasted vegetable couscous the other day, so I'd had that for lunch.

Today I had a tiger roll with cheese at 11am and dinner at 7pm was a tiger roll with bacon and cheese, a small handful of chips and some more roasted vegetable cous cous.
Tomorrow I'm making beef kofta things and coleslaw and having that in pitta breads, with salad for dinner. Might have noodles for lunch.

My diet would be very different if I wasn't also feeding 3 teenagers all week plus DH at weekends, though!

Edit: I did get a discounted week of HelloFresh recently and that's handy for calorie counting as it tells you on the recipe cards (and when you're ordering), they have some lovely healthy options @BlackFriYay if you fancied trying that, though would obviously involve more cooking than what you've ordered. The bonus is you can keep the recipe cards and just order ingredients from the supermarket in future, so if you like the meals you choose you gain a few new ones to cook regularly that are already calorie counted.

Just taken my bonus dose. I’ve not idea of I’ve lost this week as I’ve had an about days on not being able to go to the loo (sorry TMI) so I didn’t weight myself). I’ve had a good week though so I hope it’s had some effect!

Hope everyone is well. As for what I eat, same as normal but about half portion. Home cooked, healthy and trying to maximise protein. From next week I’m going to also try and get 30g of fibre a day.

Agh. No idea what’s going on with me but I’ve gained weight. I’m very much post menopause so it’s not that. I can feel it when I wake up. I just feel ‘heavy’. I’ve no idea what to do. I’m definitely in calorie deficit and definitely not drinking enough liquid.

Weekly weigh in for me today and I’ve lost 30lbs over 12 weeks, which I’m delighted with. I am losing 1-1.5lbs a week now. feel so much better and I’m pleased to be reducing health risks which was my main motivation after numerous cancer diagnosis in my family.

SW (end Feb) 16 stone 9lbs
CW 14 stone 7lbs
GW 12 stone ish (I’m 5’10)

I’m feeling the effects of 7.5mg - almost too much as I’m trying really hard to eat my daily calorie target of 1,400. Dinner was a struggle this evening, but I must eat or I will make myself unwell. Luckily I have had no side effects for a few weeks now.

I’ve lost all this weight and no bugger has said anything! My DH and mum (both sworn to secrecy) have assured me the weight loss is very noticeable. I know I’m doing this for myself for the right reasons, but if I’m honest I am a bit upset. I can’t help it.

But have given myself a talking to - I don’t need external validation. I compared my before photos and I look so much better- the contrast is stark. My skin is also glowing and body skin is not loose at all. I was worried about looking older, but I actually look much younger. My DH said I look 10 years younger - and he’s usually (too) honest about what he thinks! I had really let myself go after having kids.

Can’t imagine what I’ll look like another 2 stone off. It’s going to be weird getting used to the new me.

Keep the faith and keep chugging back water and maybe some herbal teas (peppermint is good for getting the bowels moving!)

I think you’ve probably answered your own question there @AgathaMystery - water retention? Plus normal body fluctuations. You know it’s not body fat. Keep going.

I am an over thinker but after my husband left me I am living pay day to pay day. I have a huge fear of not being able to work (I don’t get sick pay). I’ve got an income protection insurance but if I’m unable to work because of a side effect (however rare this may be) I’m worried the insurance company will say it’s down to the medication and not pay out.

Very good point. I need to up my fluid intake. Every week I’ve had a decent loss has been a week when I have been consistently well hydrated.

Thank you. Just lost heart a bit today - it sometimes gets to you doesn’t it.

I have so far resisted comparing myself to Anyone else but gosh my loss is sooooo slow.

Aw I bet you look great. People maybe have noticed but don’t want to say as by saying you look good now they might thinI you think they were saying you didn’t look good before!

@LifeisHard73 I take psyllium husk. It’s kept me “going”!! https://www.amazon.co.uk/Solgar-Psyllium-Husks-Vegetable-Capsules/dp/B005P0WGNE

I’m just over 3 weeks in and I’m so bloated! My water intake is pretty good and I’m about to start taking some probiotics. I’ve never known it this bad. I’m not uncomfortable though and I’m regular so not constipated. Any tips?

I've been getting bloated. Boots IBS wind and bloating relief capsules really help. They're peppermint flavour, so if you do end up burping, they are minty burps, instead of Sulphur burps

Thank goodness. After losing 0 weight and actually gaining 2lbs over the last 8 days, I've finally lost 1.5lbs overnight.
I made a real effort to hit my protein goal of 100g yesterday and I drank about 2.5L of water, whereas before, I'd been struggling to get close as the 5mg made me feel too nauseous.

I second psylum husks.

We haven't really talked much about the benefits of fibre on here, but I do think fibre is also important to include in our diets.

Dose 5 from first 2.5mg pen tomorrow. Can I just check what I do? Hard twist sounds like the easier solution. If I get it to 1, then that's a full "standard" dose. As I'll be looking to gradually increase to 5mg, if there is still some in there after I've done that, can I twist again and, using another needle, take some more? Or is it better to use a syringe to extract? I know this might sound mad but if I use the syringe to extract, how do I inject myself with it? Do I put one of the needles over the syringe having extracted? Actually, it's just occurred to me that I have syringes & needles but no extra wipes. Will standard antiseptic wipes work? Like the ones you get for wound healing?

Can I ask about thirst?
I'm just over 3 weeks in- just done my 4th 2.5mg dose.
For context, I'm pre-diabetic and my bmi is now 32.4.
I'm really thirsty! I'm easily drinking 2 litres of water, but I wake in the night for it. It seems to be getting worse.
I definitely did not drink enough pre-MJ.
Is this normal or should I worry?
(Totally accept I'm asking for shared experience and not medical advice!)

@Alwaysoneoddsock if you're worried about insurance, then I would definitely tell your GP. The way insurance works is that if you have lied to them about anything, your policy will be void regardless of whether that fact is relevant or not. You may be getting this over the internet but it has been prescribed for you by a GP so is legit. By informing your own GP, they will be able to identify if it clashes with any of the other meds you're on.
@AgathaMystery join me for a day of drinking gallons of water and constantly working out where your nearest loo is as you'll need to go about every 20 mins!
@WannabeHealthier that sort of loss must be noticeable but I think people are much more careful about commenting about it these days. Have you had any NSVs?

I have only extracted and feel more in control that way. I did have a go at the hard twist method afterwards with an empty pen and found that after the dose the plunger would go back and forth with more twisting which is not how the pen usually works so I don’t know about getting that last extra bit.

To inject with an extracted dose you use a small needle probably the same one you extracted the dose with. If you buy insulin syringes then they are joined together already. The needle will probably be longer than 4mm so go in at a 45 degree angle for a subcutaneous injection. You probably want an alcohol wipe to clean the end of the pen.