Mounjaro and binge eating

[Phish]

I'm hoping someone can help.

I've spent a long time research weight loss injections but I can't seem to find a lot of information relating to injectables and binge eating.

I am a binge eater and over the past year it gotten a lost worse. I now eat compulsively and constantly to the point where I just seem to be eating junk food all the time around my healthy meals. I am very rarely, if ever, hungry when I eat.

It is this constant unhealthy excessive snacking that I need to address as I've put on almost 2 stones in the past year and I was seriously overweight before that so am now obese.

For those using Mounjaro, do you think it would help with this? I have read a lot about it stopping the 'food noise' but does it stop the habitual need to eat even when not hungry?

Thanks

I am on MJ and I physically couldn’t binge eat even if I wanted to. But equally, I don’t want to. Food just doesn’t hold the same appeal anymore, and I barely think about it.

I'm on wegovy but yes, it would help you.

It definitely stopped it for me. I was a binge eater at times. It’s hard to explain. Like an hour will go by and you’ll realise you haven’t even thought about food. Or like I could eat one biscuit from a pack and leave the rest - that never ever happened before. It’s like the pleasure receptor isn’t spiked so you don’t crave the “hit” in the same way. I think food tastes different - I can still taste flavours but everything is a lot duller.
sometimes I feel sad about it sometimes because - the binge eating episodes aside - I love good and flavours etc and I don’t have that now. But hopefully the lost weight and coming off it eventually will be worth its

its how I imagine naturally slim people are all the time. You’re not havign tonight against an urge because the urge simply isn’t there!

It's definitely worked for me. I was a binge eater, snack on something and then just be back at the cupboard looking for more and more. If I knew there was something nice in the house I'd just be thinking about it and thinking about it until I ate it all.

It's stopped now. Most of the time I don't snack at all. If I do, I feel full very quickly. Even when I feel like a jab is wearing off a bit and the food thoughts intrude again, if I actually try and give in to them I might eat two biscuits and give up. I've been out for coffee and cake and just left half a cake because I'm done. I would never do that in the past. It's been incredible.

It's worked for me too. I'm only a few weeks in so I still open the cupboards, look at the food and then go 'nah I don't even want it'.

On the occasion where habit said 'ah go on though, eat the crisps anyway' - I've then ate them and thought 'I didn't even want them' and have then proceeded to eat no more.

Whereas in the past that would have led to more crisps / cheese / wine / sweets / chocolate.....

I'm amazed to be honest and know this is it now. I'll be on MJ until I've created a whole set of new habits.

I'm interested in how this works as this is me - I'm very rarely hungry when I binge. I see it as it's completely divorced from any physical need / desire so I'm not sure physical remedies would help.

Having said that, if I wanted to binge and only had say cat food, and all the food available in the world only had the natural appeal of cat food, maybe that would stop me??

I've been a binge eater for years and Mounjaro stopped it dead. As long as I'm occupied with something (even just watching TV or listening to the radio), food doesn't even enter my mind. Even when I was busy in the past, I used to be thinking about food and planning my next eating session in my mind. Now it's totally different. If I have a long period where I'm doing literally nothing, the food noise comes back a little and I can give into cravings. But that's an extreme case.

But even when I do give in and have a bad day, the slower gastric emptying means that I physically can't eat as much. So either I can't have the binge eating sessions or if I do, I'm still full later so eat less at mealtimes which evens it out.

I've also been a binge eater and would eat when not hungry or even full, and often not really enjoy it but be unable to stop anyway. On Mounjaro I haven't had the slightest urge to binge. That thought/feeling just isn't there even when I've experienced my usual triggers for it. There is a physical feeling of fullness on Mounjaro but it's definitely not just that at work.

Hi OP, I have a binge eating disorder which is triggered by stress - I eat compulsively to self-soothe, without feeling any hunger, and long past when most people would be uncomfortably full.

I am currently on week 10 (I think) of Mounjaro treatment, paid for privately. It's been VERY effective. I'm using a provider who also offer coaching and medical calls alongside the prescription and have found those aspects brilliant too (DM me if you want a discount code!) but it's the medication alone that has made the most difference.

I was in a downward spiral when I started, in a very stressful new job and actively gaining weight. I had almost zero control over the compulsive daily bingeing. The jab arrived in the post on a Friday morning, and I'd literally just been thinking (obsessively!) about what I was going to have for lunch... I did the jab and the desire to eat went away, within minutes.

In the past 10 weeks I've not binged once. My "problem eating" has comprised eating a small pack of crisps on 2 occasions. Before the jab it had been huge sharing packs, or multipacks of small ones, every night. Since I've been on MJ it was my birthday and I didn't fancy cake so we stuck candles into a bowl of strawberries...

It's honestly been like night and day. Weight loss aside, I hope I can stay on this medication forever because my life is so much nicer without the constant food obsession!

Wish you all the best.

Thank you all. It sounds like it's definitely worth a try. @WoolyMammoth55 please could you let me know which provider you are ordering from as I think the additional support will definitely be something I need.

I'm another where almost immediately after the first injection I just stopped thinking about food and eating. It is the most bizarre thing, and I was extremely doubtful it would work. It's like the interest in food has just dialled right down. I haven't snacked at all this first week, and have really not felt hungry at all. I've been eating small amounts just because it's meal time, rather than hunting for food or thinking non-stop about what I'd like to eat but think I shouldn't. I've just realised I haven't even thought about icecream once this week when I nearly always used to find myself wanting it of an evening.

I've DMed you

Hi did you find out what provider they order it from

You do need to be careful. Ozempic exacerbated my binge eating. I think I subconciously thought it would sort it all out for me.

I am 11 weeks into mounjaro now and 25lb down. It worked much faster (within hours) which helped. I have 'tried' to binge a couple of times and basically failed. Stopped mid cake slice (unheard of) because I lost interest. Was much much easier to get back into the diet afterwards too.

You need to be very very careful not to depend on it though, the first weeks can be inconsistent with suppression, some people don't feel much until higher doses.

Marking place I'm really interested in this.

I’ve suffered with BED for over 2 decades.

I started Mounjaro on 16th May (8 weeks ago) and have lost 2 stone.

I haven’t binge eaten at all, I haven’t thought about binge eating, I don’t constantly have food thoughts in my head.

I’m eating really well, healthy foods cooked from scratch and I feel amazing.

My mental health has improved beyond words - Mounjaro is like a miracle to me!

I was an evening picker. We would sit in front of the tv, drink lager and eat snacks a couple of times a week. The later it got, the more sugar I craved. And of course the next day I would be tired and having 5-6 chocolate biscuits to get me through the day.

Now... nope. I just don't fancy it. I had an alcohol free beer in the garden tonight out of habit, but honestly, my body would have been just as happy with a pint of water.

I am on Wegovy, not MJ, but it's incredible!

Yes, it gives you the headspace to sort all the other things out. It is such a relief to not have the constant food chatter.

This is exactly how I feel too. Mounjaro has helped me so much. It’s also shown me how my naturally healthy weight friends live - not with this weird food compulsion. Reminds me of men who complain about being chained to a lunatic (their sex drive)! My food drive was like that. Currently tamed by Mounjaro.

I've been using monjourno for nearly 2 months now and it's great, however my provider (medexpress) has said that because my GP has advised that i have Binge Eating Disorder they can no longer continue treatment. So I signed up for boots and just had another note to say because of the previous diagnosis for BED they won't provide it either. I suffered quite badly during the pandemic but the referral for CBT wasn't until 2022 by which time it was mostly under control. Now I don't really feel like I have an issue except for boredom snacking/grazing which monjourno has totally sorted. If you have an official diagnosis for BED - where are you getting your pens from? I feel like if I go to the GP, I will need to jump through a tonne of hoops for years when I know this is working now...