I don't think I can do this - Mounjaro

[Snoopsteandcooper]

I did my first 2.5mg jab yesterday and the side effects have been grim. I've been vomiting all day and the mere smell of any food is making me retch. I had hyperemesis gravidarum when pregnant and it feels like that again..Anyone had sensitivity to food smells? I don't think I can cope with this.

Poor you, sounds awful. I’ve only had a bit of nausea and that was bad enough so I really feel for you. Hope things settle down soon.

I took my first dose on Sunday and woke at 1am feeling sick and felt sickness all day, I’ve been ok since. I previously used ozempic and suffered the same symptoms, only ever for a day after injection. I can’t advise you that it will get better but offering my experience!

Try and give it a few days. Side effects seem to be at their worse for the first day or two after each jab and then they seem to settle down.

I had my first dose on Saturday felt supression straight away but 48 hours later It really kicked in and I struggled to consume more than 600kcals a day. Also have aches and pains in my muscles feel nausea and takes ages to eat anything! It’s been horrible. Today day 5 I think I feel slightly better and I will be able to make it to about 850 kcals so I hope the effects are wearing off. This is obviously too effective for me I’ve lost 5lbs in 5 days!
it’s no way to live I wish I could have been like most people on here and just had some appetite supression but still be able to eat enough calories to be healthy.
I can’t risk another week of this so I won’t be carrying on.
I just hope the side effects wear off soon.

I really wouldn't give up. I found I felt the worst just after the first dose at each level (so just the 2.5 and then the 5) but I've had two weeks of the 7.5 with absolutely no reaction except a complete lack of interest in food. I would stick with it for the month and see how it goes.

I'm so sorry that you're feeling so rough on your first dose.

I would take that as a clear sign that starting at 2.5 mg is too high for you. See how you feel when a week is passed - if you feel ok then I would try with a lower dose, maybe even as low as 0.75 mg - I wouldn't go higher than 1.25 mg anyway. See how you are on that, and if ok proceed with caution - only upping doses when appetite suppression isn't good enough and slowly.

I've attached some half-life graphs for you so you can compare. Hope you feel better soon.

I tried it, managed 2 jabs but side effects were so bad for 3 days after the jab each time it wasn't worth it for me. Yes I didn't feel hungry and lost weight but I've put it all back on as soon as I stopped! Wasn't worth the expense and the feeling like shite

@Tirzepatide thank you so much for sharing those graphs. Interesting stuff actually. I haven’t really come across many people that have found 2.5mg too much to handle but it certainly seems to be for me and to think they say it’s a sub therapeutic dose.
is it safe to count the clicks and reduce dose? I wonder if I should (if I feel better) reduce to 0.75. The first two days were great.

I would give it a go @Mounjarome - I’m no expert though. This is just how I would approach it. I would want to try this rather than stopping after one dose.

I think we have the same problem @mounjarome Thank you for sharing the graphs @tirzepatide. If I do try again, it will only be at a small dose as the effects are way too strong for me at 2.5mg.

Hang in there . It will settle. Eat something like cereal . Keep sipping water.

Genuine question as I don't know anything about these injections: won't eating so little long term result in malnutrition, poor health and healing and bone density issues?

You're not supposed to be eating that little though, that's the point. A calorie deficit for sure but not virtually nothing.

thanks for sharing the graph. That explains why I felt terrible 2 days after my 2nd dose. I was fine up till then.

I'm so sorry to see you've had such a bad reaction. Can you speak to your prescriber for advice? They might advise trying wegovy instead or something. Good luck.

Hopefully it calms down for you after a few days. I found the appetite suppression felt very strong after my first injection (like you say, kind of to pregnancy food aversion level) but it quickly faded down to a manageable level in the following days and has never been that bad even when I've moved up doses.

Luckily, I've never had any bad gastrointestinal side effects. If it was as bad as yours and it didn't fade after a week or two, I'd be giving up.

The goal is that the medication quiets the food noise (relentless thoughts of food, planning what to eat next etc), kills cravings, and dulls the appetite sufficiently that you can stick to a healthy diet. It makes long term healthy eating sustainable.
Clearly OP is responding very strongly to the medication so as suggested it would be worth her reducing the dose significantly and then gradually increasing to find the sweet spot where it effects her as planned.
I've been on Mounjaro for 4.5 months and am definitely not malnourished but have lost 3 stone, so very steady weight loss. The difference being this time that it's been easy because of the drug reducing appetite and cravings.

OP I'd count 15(?) clicks and go for a quarter dose next time. If that's ok you can take another quarter dose either a week later or after 4 days if feeling good. Then take a half dose a week later.
I'd take it as a positive you could be one of the people who can stay on 2.5mg for months and lose weight without incurring too much cost!

If she kept it up long term, yes. But the injections generally don't give you this level of suppression all day every day. Most people on the injections sub tend to be eating around 1200 calories a day, usually protein and veg heavy meals (salads, meat and veg for dinner, low carb etc).

The suppression, feeling full for longer and lack of food noise are meant to stop you from snacking between those healthy, filling meals and manage your portion control. They’re not meant to make it so you can’t eat at all. Some days it might be bad enough that you can "barely eat" (in which case you should focus on lots of protein) but if it's consistently like that then you need to be consulting the doctors who prescribed it.

Thanks for all your help, I'm now on day 4 and the nausea started to get better yesterday. I have lost 5lbs in 4 days already, but I guess mostly water weight as I was so sick. I have really had to make myself eat, but thankfully the aversion to smells is getting better. I will try a lower dose this week and let you know how I get on.

Glad you’re feeling better @Snoopsteandcooper you are on the lowest dose so are you going to do an unlicensed lower dose? What wil you do half the clicks? I did also wonder about this but as this lower dose has not been trialled yet I worried to do it without medical guidance.
im now day 8 and feeling much better have not taken another dose and until I know it would be safe to take 0.75 or 1.25mg then I will not be continuing with this journey as I’d never felt so ill before. I will try to carry on without it I’ve always failed before but hopefully now knowing that I can’t even take these injections will help my mind to beat these cravings.

I got my pen from Voy, so I'm going to speak to a clinician, hopefully tomorrow. I don't feel too worried about going lower, but will get advice before going ahead.

It could be the dosage is too high. As a T2 diabetic I used to have injections but only ever 1.5mg. Never had any side effects.

If 2.5mg is safe to take why wouldn’t half the dose be safe?

I mean not using the drug in a way that has been trialed it probably would be fine but they haven’t got data on that dose and also as it’s a pre measured dose you would not be using the pen correctly so I don’t know how you can be sure you are getting the correct dose.

Hey op, I had a similar issue, although my side effect was complete & utter tiredness. I was on 2.5 for a month (lost 11lb) but could barely function. I decided to go down to 1.25 & have been slowly increasing ever since (I’m currently on around 1.80 which is 22 clicks with a 5mg pen. My appetite is slightly suppressed, but as my main issue was tiredness I feel this is slightly coming back with the increased dose, I’m hoping to get to the 2 dose next week & see if that will work for me long term. Good luck with the reduced dosage too.