Continuing Mounjaro...part 13

[ObsidianTree]

Please note: Mounjaro will only be be prescribed initially if your BMI is above 30 until you get to a healthy BMI of 23 to BMI 25

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 that 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, vomiting, headaches, aches, are side effects. There may 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

Also there is a 5th dose in each pen. To extract it you can either try a hard twist or use an insulin needle.
https://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.

Some natural sources of protein:
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/best-sources-protein

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/321522#high-protein-foods

11 - 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), psylum husks(fibre for constipation), electrolytes.

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

13 - 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.

14 - 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: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/316618

15 - 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.

16 - 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.

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

MedExpress:
2.5mg and 5mg. £149.99. 7.5mg £169, 10mg £189. Coupon codes no longer working!

The Family Chemist:
2.5mg and 5mg £149. 7.5mg £169, 10mg £169

Zava medical:
2.5mg £139, 5mg £139, 7.5mg £169, 10mg £189, 12mg £204. Zava offer refer a friend discount of 15% off. Ask for a code on here.

Simple online pharmacy:
£149 2.5mg, £149 5mg, £169 7.5mg £189 10mg

Bolt pharmacy:
2.5mg £125, 5mg £149. 7.5mg £169, 10mg £179, 12.5mg £199

Asda:
2.5mg and 5mg £179. 7.5mg £189, 10mg £189, 12.5mg £204

There are others not listed.

18 - 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

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

8th thread:
https://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?page=1

10th thread:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/weight_loss_chat/5080755-continuing-mounjaro-thread-10?page=1

11th thread:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/weight_loss_chat/5085436-continuing-mounjaro-thread-11?page=1

12th thread:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/weight-loss-injections/5090788-continuing-mounjaro-thread-12?page=1

Thread for newbies just starting out in June:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/weight_loss_chat/5082791-mounjaro-june-24-starters

Video on how to inject:

OK, this is going to sound a bit daft, especially when I was down about slow loss.

Was coming downstairs a little while ago after a ahem toilet visit. I nearly fell downstairs as my PJ bottoms fell down, and I only bought them this week! I got on the scales out of curiosity, and another 1.2lbs gone since this morning.

I've lost 6.2lbs now in the last week, and nothing at all different other than going up to 7.5mg.

I know I shouldn't complain, but this rate bothers me. As I'm disabled I can't exercise much, and don't want to be left a fragile old lady in a few years time.

I'd love your opinions on whether you think I should dial the dose back slightly?

@BlackFriYay Same. I’ve wanted a nose job for about 30 years. But it seemed pointless, to me with my horrible head, to fix the bump when I was fat. Plus from a BMI POV I’m not sure they’d have done it anyway.

@MelissaLouRocks To weigh less in the evening is certainly unusual! Do remember it’s not just the higher dose that makes you lose quicker.

I completely skipped size 14. The weight came off me that quickly by the time I went shopping (that big Primark haul lol) I was straight into 12’s.

How are you feeling? That’s the main thing. Does the suppression feel too much? Or is this your body adjusting?

I purchased some shares today in Eli Lilly, in my stocks and shares ISA. I only have safe index funds, but thought I’d take a chance (it’s not lots of money, but I’m usually pretty risk averse).

When I looked at the past performance I couldn’t believe the increase in price from March this year, when they were first mentioned on this thread. I toyed with buying them back then - I should have gone for it!

I’ve probably bought them at the market high, but feels like I’m personally invested in it. Plus they have a new Alzheimer’s drug and my father in law passed away from this last year, so both these blockbuster drugs are close to my heart.

@MelissaLouRocks if your goal is to stay on the drugs as long as possible you need to be losing slowly so it takes a while to get to 25 BMI. If you are losing 6lb in a week that is very fast unless you were carb heavy at the start of the week. I think @ObsidianTree lost about 8lb in a week when first back from holiday and I lost 5lb in 2 days when back from mine.

I would keep buying pens every 3 weeks or so and drop back to 5mg and see how that feels.

@FlappyFish I'm feeling fine in myself, as usual really, I'm just a bit baffled by it all!

@Choux I'm eating the same as usual, I only eat minimal carbs anyway. Maybe the holidays have something to do with it?! Unfortunately 5mg didn't rock my world and I've already done this weekends jab, so I'll see how I get on in the next week and maybe lower it a bit if things don't slow down.

Thank you both. 😊

@MelissaLouRocks I’ve dropped down from 7.5mg to 5mg by counting clicks (x40) because the appetite suppressant effect was too much for me. If I were you I’d drop down and take stock

It's not that as I'm eating as usual, and a bit loathe to go back to 5 as it wasn't great. As I said, too late for this week anyway, but I may try a middle ground of 6.25 if I have another runaway week.

Thank you. 😊

@GreyFinch

really behind on this thread so I’m responding to your post about telling your partner back on a previous page and how understanding he was, lovely to hear and glad you feel relief about it all and don’t have to be withholding it now.

Thanks @lurkylurk! I suppose the biggest thing for me was embarrassment (which a lot of us will have experienced with our weight). To be fair he’s probably happy I’m trying something that’s working after years of listening to me whinge about my weight and all the failed diet attempts 😂

@MelissaLouRocks I think give it a few days and see if it settles. I think sometimes when starting a new dose you can lose more than usual in the first week or two. I think as you want to be on a therapeutic dose to help your conditions, then 7.5mg is a good place to be. As long as you aren't experiencing bad GI issues, then I would say stick on 7.5mg.

@MelissaLouRocks and as @Choux said, it could also be related to water weight after your holiday.

@WannabeHealthier let us know how the stock goes.

I feel too scared to buy shares. Even though they might well be a sure bet! Plus also my spare money goes on pens! Plus holidays! Lol

I feel like my tummy has settled after yesterdays issues. I ate hardly anything yesterday it was really bad. I can see why electrolytes and protein shakes are important now as they were my main source of fluids and food yesterday! Today I need to make sure I eat well.

Hi.
i haven’t been on the injection for 3 weeks now as I couldn’t afford the next pen. Managed to lose 3lb in that time. I go away in 5 weeks and really would like to lose the last 13lb.
Does anyone have a code for MedExpress please? That’s who I was with before.
The food noise has definitely come back.

Thank you

1.5lbs off for me this week. Had to work quite hard for that as just not getting the food noise suppression on this dose - but it is still limiting the quantity I can eat at one sitting.

That's 16.75lbs in 6 weeks so I'm happy with that.

First mini goal would be to lose another 10lbs in the next six weeks in an absolute ideal world. I love what I think @ObsidianTree has said though that the time will pass anyway so either way I will keep going 😊

Have a great week everyone!

@TheOverweightFortySomething MedExpress have stopped giving codes.

A lot of us have moved to Zava as they offer 15% off referral codes. See a code above. Although, if you don't have loads to lose, they might reject you.

I think Curate might be cheap and willing to take people with BMI under 30, but I don't have any codes for them. @montysma1 is there any curate codes?

Thanks @ObsidianTree I'll see how it goes this week.

No GI problems at the moment, which makes me laugh as they were constant pre MJ!! Everything the same as usual, just weight seemingly disappearing into the ether!

Perhaps it's just a bizarre MJ/flying after effect?! 🤔 😏

Thank you.
Just logged into my MedExpress account and they have taken 30% off. I only went up to 5mg and found that was enough. They are letting me have it for £123.
I’ll keep the basket open till Friday and then order.

I'm now onto 5mg but I'm still struggling to eat most days.

I have low level nausea 24/7, I have almost no energy and it's making parenting small kids hard!

I don't really know if this is sustainable, maybe I should have stayed on the lowest dose (even if symptoms were still bad), I'm struggling to even face a daily protein shake

Anyone on the same boat?

How did you manage 30% off? Med Express seem to have forgotten about me, I’ve had no reminder to buy my new pen from them even though I’ve just done my 4th dose of 5mg. I’ve switched to ZAVA for the discount code anyway so don’t really care, but I was surprised not to get a “time to reorder” email like I did last month.

Rather than double my dose, I did a couple of weeks on 3.75mg before moving up to 5mg. You may find that an easier transition.

@Creamcheesedreams if you found the symptoms bad on 2.5mg, then I think go back to 2.5mg. you can do this by taking 30 click dose from the 5mg pen.

Hopefully your body will get used to the 2.5mg and you won't have bad symptoms for long.

Then when you feel 2.5mg is no longer working, do what @MelissaLouRocks suggests and try 3.75mg dose. Which would be about 40 clicks I think from the 5mg pen.

@TheOverweightFortySomething I think people reported having MedExpress codes which took off money but then they couldn't check out and actually use them.

None of us have been able to use a MedExpress code for a couple of weeks which is why we switched to zava.

I would try to check out today and see if it lets you. Otherwise you will either need to pay full price or switch to another supplier.

I don’t know. I just went into my account to reorder a new pen

Stall has finally broken after 2 weeks, now 10 stone making it a 2 stone loss since starting MJ in mid March, 40 pounds in total from my highest weight. Woohoo. Hoping it'll continue going down again now. 4 pounds to go until healthy weight for my height, yearly diabetes blood test on Thursday. When I last had a review at the GP back in feb I was 12 stone 8 on their scales and my BMI is flagged all through my notes on my NHS app like a blooming stick of rock. They better bloody weigh me on Thursday