Continuing Mounjaro...part 16

[ObsidianTree]

Please note: Mounjaro will only be be prescribed initially if your BMI is above 30. If you have additional health conditions you can get the medication with a BMI 27. (Prediabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol or heart problems)

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 - Some people find that they don't need to go up a pen dose each month if the current pen dosage is working well for them. If you are unsure when to go up, speak to your prescriber.

8 - If you are having bad side effects after titrating up or you are struggling to eat your calories each day, your dose may be too high so should consider lowering your dose. Speak to your prescriber if unsure.

9 - 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

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

11 - 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

12 - Protein is important as eating less protein can cause muscle wastage and hair loss.

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

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

13 - 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.

14 - Drink lots of water. Water helps with the weight loss. Try and drink at least 2ltrs a day.

15 - 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.

16 - 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

17 - 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.

18 - 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.

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

MedExpress:
2.5mg and 5mg. £149.99. 7.5mg £169.99, 10mg £189.99. 12.5mg £209.99. 15mg £209.99 Coupon codes no longer working!

The Family Chemist:
2.5mg and 5mg £149. 7.5mg £169, 10mg £169, 12.5mg £194, 15mg £199

Zava medical:
2.5mg £139, 5mg £139, 7.5mg £169, 10mg £189. 12.5mg £204. 15mg £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 £149, 5mg £149. 7.5mg £169, 10mg £179, 12.5mg £199, 15mg £199

Asda:
2.5mg and 5mg £179. 7.5mg £189, 10mg £189, 12.5mg £204 15mg £204

There are others not listed.

20- You will still be prescribed Mounjaro when your BMI falls below 30. However, it may be harder to move suppliers once you BMI is below 30 if you wanted to move.

21 - Worried about your supply being cut off when you get to a healthy BMI? Below is some info on some places maintenance plans.

The Family chemist :Would consult you as approached healthy BMI to discuss maintenance under close supervision(if you started with family chemist)
Curate: up to 2 years
Cloud: up to 2 years
Boots: Cut off at BMI 23
Asda: Cut off at a healthy BMI
Pharmacy2u: Will supply for maintenance
Bolt:Individual assessment once BMI 22 and does offer maintenance
Zava:Once healthy BMI will stop prescribing this treatment
Med Express: BMI 25 and cut off.

22 - 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

13th thread:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/weight-loss-injections/5096704-continuing-mounjaropart-13?page=1

14th thread:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/weight-loss-injections/5102149-continuing-mounjaropart-14?page=1

15th thread:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/weight-loss-injections/5107426-continuing-mounjaropart-15?page=1

Thread for newbies just starting out in July:

https:/
/www.mumsnet.com/talk/weight-loss-injections/5101435-mounjaro-july-2024

Video on how to inject:

Had a routine follow up appointment today regarding a recent procedure, I ‘admitted’ to my dr that I was on mounjaro and he said his daughter was taking it too, and was positive about it. Made me feel loads better!

@GreyFinch Yes, I have had the head rush. Normally when suppression has been strong and my blood sugar has obviously plummeted.

@CiderJabs exactly the same place as you. We’ve pretty much done this journey together. It’s also far too early so going back to sleep. Need all the sleep.

Yes head rushes for me too. Mj lowers your blood pressure anyway and I'm is usually borderline low as it is.

Also If you have reduced your food intake you may have lower blood sugar so a double whammy.

@coffeeandteav I haven't seen it but is do know about the research that was probably referenced re: blindness. I think I'd take that with a pinch of salt - the patients they studied all had diabetes to start with, and the condition they are talking about can develop in diabetes anyway. Although they found it was higher with some particular injections, I don't think they can prove it was due to the drug itself and not just an occurrence due to the diabetes.

They definitely need to do more research to look into it. But I'm not worried - yet.

Also it's about weighing up the risks and benefits. How many people taking weight loss injections would go on to develop diabetes due to their lifestyle that may not now due to losing weight?

It is always very interesting seeing new drugs come out - I think anyone taking it now needs to be aware how new it is and how much research is going to be done over the next 5 - 10 - 50 years etc and who knows where we will be! It's all very unknown right now.

Help I'm stuck! I'm around 3lbs above a healthy BMI, but have been stuck now for 4 weeks. I have good suppression, but just can't seem to shift any more weight. Any tips? I had really wanted to lose another 10lbs and am on a 10 dose, but just can't seem to make any progress.

Increase your calories for a couple of days then increase your exercise slightly. It works a treat to give the metabolism a kick.

Alternatively, switch injection sites.

That’s good to hear.

Morning! Note to self… don’t take psyllium husk when you’ve had beans on toast for dinner 🤦‍♀️

Yet another upset stomach on a higher dose.

My heart rate is always between 52 and 56. Since starting Mounjaro, it's in the 60s.

I had a Google and saw that one side effect is an increased heart rate.

Thank you for the new thread! 16 already…. I’m on dose 6 of 2.5mg. Suppression still high, will see if it starts tapering off towards the end of the week.

Yes @FlappyFish I think we are practically MJ twins! And we have prob started within a couple of weeks of each other. I've sort of lost count of how many weeks it's been!

I'm regretting not getting a second pen to stockpile and now I can't her any more. So I'll have to ensure I use it wisely.

Any recommendations on recording losses?

I was on Voy for first two pens and they had a great function on site. Showed each loss and a graph etc. moved to Zava now n they don't have that.

For me I need the visual! 🙈

Sw: 17.11 (well 17.6but had lost 5lb prev couple wks before starting so I'm gonna go with 17.11 🤣🤣)
Cw: 15.1
Gw: not sure yet

I use mfp but not happy with the graph, so also looking for a good visual graph style recording app.

I use ‘happy scale’ the free part and it shows a graph which I like

Does everyone use the bonus dose? I’ve just had my last 5mg this morning and debated trying to use a syringe to get 2.5 my out to make a 7.5 but I don’t want to accidentally take too much. Now I feel I’m wasting money not using the bonus though. I thought about using it next week for another 5mg but it looks slightly less than a full dose to me

@Jpeg24 I like Happy Scale for tracking weight, nice clear graphs and their trend information is useful too.

@@ObsidianTree

My heart rate is in the 90s usually around the 70s.

My Dr wants to investigate for POTs, I do have other symptoms

Me too. Feeling miserable :-(

Nutricheck is really good for graphs. There's graphs for weight lost, BMI, muscle mass etc. It was reccomended to me for the calorie counting aspect but it has been a game changer all round.

Thanks for the new thread, @ObsidianTree !

I'm another hypothyroid one. The research I did suggests that there are 2 ways MJ can boost the effects of the thyroid meds: one is having a higher dose relative to body weight as you lose, and the other is slower transit times through your stomach meaning the drug is being absorbed for longer - the exposure point mentioned earlier. Either way the best plan is to re-test and adjust the disease, which you're doing, hope your heart rate comes down.

Only a 200g loss for me this week, but that was after a hectic weekend when i struggled to keep my water up. Since my official weigh-in yesterday I've actually gone down another half kg this morning, so I think it's just a blip.

And, wonderful NSVs:
I'm no longer obese, just overweight
I can see my old shape coming back and it's so welcome
I can do up a lovely trenchcoat I've had to wear open since I got it
A selection of too small tops and trousers now fit

Still not managing to get to the gym though, need to get on top of that

Same

Hi,
hope someone can help me. I'm on my first pen. Last dose due today and it won't wind up to the full dose. Are you not supposed to get this last bit out?

My second time injecting in my thigh and same as the first time my appetite suppression has already begun to wear off after 3 days. I'm day 4 since thigh jab and could eat anything and everything. Think I will stick to the stomach for all future injections. So odd how the different sites affect the suppression for some of us.