Continuing Mounjaro Thread 11

[FlappyFish]

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

9th thread
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/weight_loss_chat/5074054-continuing-mounjaropart-9

10th thread
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/weight_loss_chat/5080755-continuing-mounjaro-thread-10

Thread for newbies just starting out:

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

Courtesy of Flappy, deputising for the wonderful Obsidian.

Back after a 10 day holiday in Scotland and the Shetland Isles, and am delighted to have maintained!
I was with a group, so not much choice of where we ate. Meals out every evening, and only a handful of self-catered breakfasts.

I could make some good choices, but others less so - not much choice at a fish and chip shop. But I could choose salad rather than chips, and not eat all of the batter. I concentrated on protein where I could, and reduced carbs.
Very happy to have not put any weight on, now back to losing.
I am going to go up to 7.5mg for my next pen, haven't decided whether to stay with medexpress or not. I guess it's a choice between price and convenience.

@3wDavid

It's because Mounjaro affects the hypothalamus which is the part of the brain that affects appetite and digestion. The hypothalamus also affects body temperature (likely what causes the feeling cold side effect), diurnal rhythms i.e. getting sleepy at night and more awake during the day (some people experience insomnia or tiredness, this may be why) and the menstrual cycle, a lot of peoples have been affected, including people having a period after having gone through the menopause a year or two ago!

I’ve just read a very in-depth article on counterfeit GLP-1 agonists. It was eye-opening. There was an especially interesting part about compounding, my take away from it was - don’t do it!

The piece is by Katherine Evan & is called Shots in the Dark. I’d screen shot here but it’s epically long.

2lbs off - my two week stall is over. Although I’m away this weekend so it might come straight back! But the stall was at a weight I remember being my lowest ten years ago when I last managed to lose this much weight (pre-menopause) so I’m now in new ground. If I can get below 11 stone I think I’ll be lighter than I’ve been since my teens.

I've got an archived link here archive.ph/nC1cK

My unofficial weigh-in this morning showed a 1.4kg drop, so my mini-stall during half term away is over. Not an enormous difference in what I ate, but back to drinking much more water, psyllium caps and 3 very regular meals has probably been key.

Very excitingly, this takes me within 350g of losing my first stone! I'm on wk 5, bonus dose of about 3.2mg (with apologies for mixing imperial and metric units!). I had thought of building in some non-food rewards to celebrate each stone off but not decided what as it felt impossibly far away and now it's almost here! What are people doing? I thought perhaps treating myself to a facial. Not buying any new clothes till at BMI25, as I have years of too small clothes to rediscover.

And a lovely NSV: I've been plagued by lower back, hip and knee pain, which was there before starting but got much worse during the first 4 weeks on MJ. To the point of gasping when moving, keeping me awake at night, people commenting on my gait as my back was spasming and I was listing to starboard. Like magic, it's just cleared. I'm moving freely without pain and it's amaaaaaazing!

Thank you. That’s so interesting. And right at the end, mention of how cheaply Ozempic could be produced, and what a difference it would make both to patients and the involvement of counterfeiters if the price of it fell.

You know what I really enjoy about MJ and this thread. No enforced positive language about how this is a lifestyle change and not a diet (I really hate that like why am I not allowed to say I'm on a bloody diet) no one says eat less move more and no one scolds you when you weigh daily or despair about a stall!

@GrimDamnFanjo thanks for linking it.

Yes. $3 a pop. The mind boggles.

I know it costs millions to bring a drug to market but these companies are so, so rich. Novo Nordisk basically keeps Denmark afloat.

I once went to a meeting (3 days in a beautiful destination in a super luxe hotel) where Novo Nordisk were launching a new long acting insulin (spoiler, it’s a pretty shit insulin) & as delegates, we each received an iPad when we arrived with our itinerary pre loaded on it. We couldn’t turn them off.

When the batteries got low, a minder would arrive and charge it. I ended up storing it in my bathroom as the damn thing would not turn off. If I didn’t go a meeting, a minder would appear from nowhere, knowing me by name, and offer to sit with me with a coffee until I went into the meeting. The iPads tracked us so the company always knew where we were.

The hotel was amazing. The food exquisite, the freebies were insane - a famous pop star was the after dinner entertainment. if you wanted the iPad, you could keep it.

It was madness. They can afford to drop the price on these drugs.

Haven’t posted for a few weeks. Last time was when I was getting fed up with a v early stall. Pleased to say after 7 weeks it’s going better.
SW 215
CW 198
Have lost 17 lbs in 7 weeks and made it to “onederland” as seen on Reddit 😀
My weight in kilos now starts with an 8 (just) instead of a 9.
The side effects are now much more bearable whilst still getting suppression. Still on 2.5. So all good here with a few more mini goals like next stone bracket and overweight bmi coming up.
From someone who wanted to quit, keep going, trust the process and be patient.

Having got so stuck last week just above hitting BMI 25, I have whooshed this week and am now sitting at BMI 24.4. Maybe I had a psychological block!

I have pens in reserve to hit 23 BMI then I am on my own.

NSV, I donned my cycling shorts, tight lycra, padded arse sort of things, first time in more than a year to venture out on an ebike.

They are now flared cycling shorts😅. Flapping in the wind. And I must have been a sight from behind as they were hanging off me!

I have also managed to over shoot all my "too small" stuff which I had looked out. It is now " too big stuff"!
Which is cool but kind of annoying too as I am going to have to buy clothes.

I am currently about 10st 5 and looking nice and slim. If I hit 23bmi I will be about 9st 5 ish, which is what I was long ago.

Which makes me sad to think, I was actually slim and gorgeous at 9st 5 all those years ago.............and I didn't know. I thought I was fat😳

What a mess we make sometimes eh?

@montysma1 i could have written that. ten years ago i was nine stone and all i could think was, this is great but i need to lose another stone!

I definitely need to stay on 7.5, my coffee and 200ml water has filled me up to the point of coughing and almost vomiting :/

Well done on today's losses everyone, and any stallers, keep on in there!

It is very interesting to hear ozempic is £3 to make... price likely wont come down until after the patent runs out which i think is 2030?

I did my last 2.5 dose on Sunday but I thought I'd pulled the needle out too soon, so gave the pen a good twist and injected more. Since then I've been feeling very full most of the time. Does anybody use the supplement Mag07? I was thinking about taking it at night - I just don't like the thought of food hanging around in my stomach.

@montysma1

4 years ago I was ten and a half stone (I'm a bit over 5'8") which put me at a BMI of 22 and thought I was a bit chubby and always wanted to lose half a stone.

Now I look at my clothes from then and marvel at how tiny I was!

week 5 so bonus dose

SW:13 stone 10
CW: 12 stone 11

I’m on as well so amazed I weighed in under 13 stone today.

@lurkylurk @Buffypaws
Isn't it sad?
Judging ourselves against some ideal, when we actually looked fine. And the resultant self esteem issues which are probably at least part of how we have all ended up here.

Youth is definitely wasted on the young!

@montysma1

It is sad, although I don't think it was self esteem issues that got me here, rather too much indulgent cooking during lockdowns and at the same time too much wine and resultant snacking and menopausal hormone shifts.

Once I had put on a stone or so it was like my body could not maintain homeostasis anymore (I'd been around the same weight my whole adult life) and all hell broke loose.

I do have self esteem issues now though!

Wow @AgathaMystery that sounds insane! Hope you kept the iPad 🤣 although they might be tracking you now!

Well done @GingerLemonTea. Goes to show perseverance is key! I think the higher the dose you go the more likely you will lose more weight. It's kind of like a backwards weight loss!

Amazing progress @montysma1 hope you have enough to get to your ideal goal. The flared cycling shorts made me laugh 😂 I get what you are saying about how we beat ourselves up over the years. The weight I am now I felt I was fat when I was this in my 20s. I have never felt slim enough! Crazy how things change!

I’ve never been ‘thin’. I was that one fat kid at school that always gets mentioned on threads on MN. Even at BMI 25 I won’t be thin. It’s about health for me at this point as my unclothed thinner body is a car crash to look at. But I have been on diets and eating plans since before I was 10, driven by a mother who told me I was fat more or less my whole life. I wish I could look back at photos of young me but there are very few (I hide from cameras) and the ones that do exist make me quite sad for young me who felt so bad about herself.

I am such an idiot got my days mixed up and weighed in and did my next dose a day early. I thought today was Thursday. 😂

@lurkylurk Oh for sure, my main problem has always been I have no full switch. I can eat HUGE amounts and still feel hungry. For years I kept it at bay by insane dieting, and hard hard obsessive exercise as I was very sporty. But I am middle aged now, with injuries, so can't exercise the same but still eating !

Then it's a negative spiral of self loathing.. Avoiding the scales because know it's bad but can't face knowing how bad. So you feel shit about yourself and think what's the point of trying .

This time I WILL WEIGH, even if I know that I have been over indulging. Then if I gain , say a max of 1 stone, I can tackle it. 1 stone can be done. 5 stone seems unsurmountable.

I have shifted massive amounts of weight twice in my life. Am am not bloody doing it again!

Thank you, that was interesting reading. Worrying to see the UK mentioned a few times.