Alcohol and Mounjaro

[NewoIkkin]

Starting Mounjaro in the next few days, with a lot to lose (7-8 stone). A large part of why I’m overweight is excess calories from wine. I’m trying to decide what the best approach to alcohol is whilst I’m on this medication.

Option 1: Try to avoid booze completely. Pros - this will aid weight loss. Cons - I like a drink and will find it difficult to abstain at social occasions and on holiday. I’m concerned that with this “all or nothing” approach I’m in danger of falling off the wagon in a big way.

Option 2: Try to reduce my alcohol intake (social occasions only, swap wine for lower calorie alternatives). Pros: I get to enjoy a drink. Potentially a more sustainable lifestyle change in the long-term. Cons: slower weight loss, risk of drinking to excess if I allow myself “just one”.

FWIW, my parents favour option 1 (they want me to lose as much weight as possible as quickly as possible) and my husband favours option 2 (he doesn’t think option 1 is sustainable and thinks moderation is more sensible, plus I think he enjoys drinking socially with me.

I’m honestly torn. What have others done?

TBH if it works for you like it works for me, and seemingly lots of others (there was another thread on injectables and alcohol a few days ago), you won't care. You'll look at the drink and be like - meh. Or drink a few sips and then forget it's even there. It's like a desires off switch. It's bloody brilliant.

You may find you don't get a choice! I was a bottle of wine a day, plus extra at weekends, kinda girl, and from day 1 I found I just didn't want alcohol. No cravings, no interest, nada. In subsequent 7 weeks, I've had the odd G&T (maybe 1 a week) to be sociable and it was fine but I wasn't particularly bothered either way. Some have reported being extra hungover or even very sick after starting but I haven't drunk enough to test this. Research is showing good results with MJ and addictions of all sorts so there's something going on - seems that social, occasional drinkers are impacted less than problem drinkers. You won't know till you start but seems like a good opportunity to stop wasting calories on alcohol. It's very possible to still be social without drinking a lot - 0%beers are now my treat or posh tonic and juice.

I don’t think so. Daily drinking at home had definitely become a habit, but one that wasn’t hard to break when I became conscious of it. I just drink slimline tonic or flavoured water instead. Social occasions are more difficult because I have bad anxiety and find it very difficult to talk to people without a few drinks in me. Last time I lost a significant amount of weight (over ten years ago) I just didn’t see anyone socially for six months, but I don’t want to do that again.

Only you can decide what’s most important to you. I’m not sure doing what your parents want is going to work long term if it’s not what you want.

You may find that alcohol turns your stomach anyway.

The deeper issue really is that you need to look at your relationship with alcohol. You have reached the stage where it has caused a large weight gain and you don’t sound ready to make long term changes as you are still looking for ways to be able to drink, you need to work out what is most important and why. You can get therapy to overcome social anxiety or other techniques rather than use alcohol. As you can see, it’s destructive long term and has serious side effects. I gather you do not drink during the day to manage social interactions just in the evenings? You could meet people in smaller groups or find other activities to enjoy. You have come to rely on it for emotional reasons so it is not always a physical addiction, rather an emotional crutch. This is still an unhealthy dependent relationship with a substance if you need to drink it to function socially or provide a drinking companion for your husband.

Im not trying to convince you to give up drinking but this drug is a big cost and outlay and really can cause gastro symptoms, you need to work out what’s going to give you a good quality of life into your older age. You need to decide what you are going to commit to otherwise it won’t work long term and be sustainable

I suspect it will be
Option 3. You won't want to drink.

I barely drank while on the drugs, it had zero appeal. One of the times I did have a drink I was sick the next day.

@Menora thanks. My husband’s main concern is that if I go to extremes then I am more likely to fail than if I take a more moderate approach. This is based on past behaviours when I have cut out alcohol, sugar, starchy carbs completely, or eaten very low calories for a while, or started exercising for two hours a day etc. When these have proved unsustainable I’ve gone back to the other extremes again.

I think I’m going to quit for a bit just to reset and then see how I feel after a few weeks.

Haha that would be amazing

I think you'll find 'going to extremes' will come to mean something else on MJ. You've a lot to lose so if you're going to commit to MJ, you're going to be on it for 12months plus. During this time, you're going to spend a lot of money and your relationship with food (and alcohol) will change completely. Most days, when you get to your therapeutic dose, you'll be struggling to eat enough rather than struggling to reduce what you eat, you'll forget to eat, leave your plate half full. You need your husband to understand that everything will change, hopefully for the better and for ever and that keeping him company while he eats and drinks as usual will just not be possible for you. I'm not judging (I'm 7 weeks in and have learnt this through experience) but this is a serious drug, with considerable effects and if you're going to stick with it and succeed, you need to be prepared for it to completely overhaul your life, which has probably come to revolve round food in the years you've put the weight on. BTW, some people find that anxiety levels fall on MJ, and that confidence increases as they lose weight.

I’m going to ask an honest question, is your husband really supportive of your attempts at doing this? As from what you have briefly written, he is not being supportive in the true sense. Hes already setting you up to fail and one of the original reasons was he likes to drink with you. Does this mean if you were to stop drinking he wouldn’t try to help by drinking less around you? Does he continue to eat foods around you that you are trying to reduce?

i agree with the concept of moderation absolutely - you don’t need to say you will never drink again but if your whole social life is set up around alcohol I can see why this might be disconcerting to make a big change. You don’t need to go to extremes I agree as more likely to fail. You could just do less of things that you choose to like food and alcohol and more of things that would help like exercise but gradually and not OTT. I don’t exercise for 2 hours a day, not even every day!

@NewoIkkin my DP really struggled when I first started my weight loss journey as he no longer had a partner in crime and although I know he loves me, he was sabotaging me and we really became strained over it. He would keep encouraging me to eat things he had bought for me and indulge with him. This was because he wanted me to join in so he could give himself permission to do it. Me losing weight shone a huge light on his eating habits and still to this day it’s a source of tension at times. He's so much better now than he was and he does support me but I had to put in a lot of boundaries to say no, and stop him trying to show me love through food or join in to make him feel better about making poor choices.

Oh he’s definitely is supportive and knows I need to lose weight. If I were to decide that I was going tee-total and didn’t want any booze in the house then he’d do that. He wants to lose a bit too, and get healthier, but has the mindset that “all-or-nothing” approaches are doomed to fail and that we need to be looking at long-term lifestyle changes. He’s also a bit worried because last time I did rapid weight-loss he had lots of people going to with him concerns about my health, and then obviously I put it all back on and more, so he thinks slow and steady will be a better option. He will 100% back me whatever I decide though.

@NewoIkkin this is really good to hear I’m glad he’s supportive

It is a big change, you will not want to eat as much. This will be the time to find new habits and develop a new lifestyle. It’s not a temporary crash diet measure if you do it the right way

I had a horrific banging hangover this morning from drinking 3 singles of gin with diet lemonade

(I'm on MJ 5mg - just gone up to this dose and not hungry at all)

I was a daily drinker but MJ gave me an instant off switch. My family is amazed. I have probably had 3 small glasses of wine in 2 months.