Should I increase my Mounjaro dose?

[Asiama]

Hello everyone, I am coming to the end of my first month of Mounjaro 2.5mg. I have had no side effects and my weight has reduced from 80kg to 77kg. I now need to order my month 2 dose, I should continue on 2.5mg or go up to 5mg?

Appetite suppression has been pretty good, it wears off a bit by the end of day 5. I don't know if my body will get used to 2.5mg and then next month if I don't go up to 5mg then I will get hungrier earlier - what have been other people's experience?

Will a higher dose help me to lose weight quicker?

If it makes any difference, I have PCOS too.

Thank you.

I am considering the same. I am about to finish week 2 and I have gone from 94kg to 87. No side effects at all. I think I have decided to order the 5mg and only use 2.5mg while it works. Then I have the option to increase if I find the suppression decreasing.

I bought the 5mg pen for my second month as they were the same price, but have continued to take <5mg. Having the 5mg pen meant I could increase my dose if I wanted/needed to during the month. I am on week 11 now and taking 3.75mg (45 clicks).

My approach to this is I am stay on the lowest dose possible that gives me the level of appetite suppression I want. I don't judge it by weight loss as I am calorie counting too, so I know if I am within my calorie deficit target, helped by MJ.

I am going to be on this for at least a year, so I don't want to race up the doses, having the 5mg pen gives me flexibility, but I plan to stay on 3.75mg as long as possible and will only increase when I struggle to stay in calorie deficit.

I'm going to get the 5mg for my 2nd pen..

I did a lot of reading about this before I started and read the 5mg is the actual dose. The 2.5 is just to get your body used to it.. now I've had good appetite suppression on the 2.5 but have made a choice to go up to 5 as that's what is supposed to be..

Fingers crossed I've made the right choice and don't get too ill with it..

Yes I've gone up to 5mg but haven't taken it yet, have just had my 5th bonus dose of 2.5 which I took abit early as suppression was wearing off. That is a good idea about going to 3.75, think I will try that next week. I think it depends also how long you intend to take it, my intension intention is to finish before Christmas (ie 4pens in total).

Thank you all. I hadn't considered 3.75, that's a good idea. The 5mg pen costs £10 more. I am also hoping to stop by Christmas so don't want to go up and up and then potentially have withdrawal symptoms when I stop.

May I ask how you are all doing now? And, a dense question alert!

If I have a 5mg pen but want to reduce the dose to half that, or .75, are you just not turning the end around so much?

I've just started and slightly nervous of it all but very grateful for your thoughts and experiences!

@Jugglingmum21 what it boils down to is that with every pen, no matter the dose, a full dose will be 60 clicks when you twist the bottom of the pen. So, for example if you have a 5mgs pen then 5mgs would be 60 clicks. That means that if say you wanted to give yourself 2.5mgs from a 5mg pen you would need to twist to 30 clicks for that dose. Alternatively, if you wanted to do a bridging dose halfway between 2.5mgs and 5mgs of 3.75mgs it would be 45 clicks. Personally I've was on 2.5mgs for 3 months but not losing weight in the end so I'm now on 3.75mgs and definitely have more suppression so hoping I will start losing again on that dose. I will stay on it until I think it's no longer being effective and then increase to 5mgs and so on. It's a personal choice, some [like me] go slow and steady and others race through the doses - neither way is"wrong" in my mind. Good luck!

What do you mean withdrawal symptoms, there isn’t any. Your hunger returns, and you may think it’s excessive as you aren’t used to it. But I don’t think there is withdrawal symptoms,

That is so helpful, and kind, thank you. And thanks for sharing your experience. I did feel 2.5mg was having an impact, gone up to 5mg and perhaps a bit too much. I'm definitely in the slow and steady camp and what you've described is really helpful. Thanks for taking the time 😊

I started straight on 5 mg I have been on it for 5 days and lost 7 lb but have been hungry a lot, I also can't exercise because of my severe arthritis . Would it be better to increase my dose after the first 4 weeks

@Holli222 I think you'd be better off discussing that with your doctor or pharmacist, the one that prescribed the 5mg dose as a starting dose for you instead of the 2.5mg. That's not the normal prescribing practice, so perhaps you have some specific issues that need to be taken into account?

Who prescribed you 5mg as a starter?

This is exactly what I am doing, and I am at a similar point (week 12 for me).

The only thing I would add, is don't assume it's stopping working for you if you experience increased appetite at times. I have a couple of hungry days leading up to TOTM, and had a couple of days where I craved carbs when I was unwell with a nasty cold. Although it's tough for those couple of days a month, for me, it's perfect the rest of the time and it's not worth increasing the dose and risking unpleasant side effects or losing my appetite too much. Most of the time I want to eat within, but not exceed my calorie allowance

Who prescribed 5mg as a starter. And if you lost 7lb in 5 days how are you hungry , as for most of us (not saying all) first week on 2.5mg MJ is that the hunger is removed completely and we had our biggest looses on that week itself due to water. Surely you must be having massive SE when starting straight on 5mg?

Not to scare you but it’s unusual to lose so much weight on a starter dose when you have pcos. Are you certain it’s the drugs causing it and not something else?

@PurpleCoo This is a very old thread 🤣 8 months on from my post I am still on 3.75mg! Suppression doesn't happen often which suits me as I want to be able to eat and enjoy food, but food noise/obsessive cravings and still feeling satisfied with smaller portions still is which is perfect for what I want.

Stopped calorie counting not long after that post as I had a base line for what I should be eating now. TOTM doesn't impact me (2 year post menopause)

Hiya just reading through your post and I’m thinking of doing the 3.75 is this ok as it says get rid of the pens after 30 days? Thank you x

@Emma198342 Yes, because first dose is day 0, and then 4 weeks later is day 28

If you take the 3.75mg you will be able to take 5 doses out of the pen on day 0,7,14,21,28 all within the 30 days discard date and you will be able to take them normally using pen needles, before the pen locks.

There will be enough liquid left for a 6th dose on day 35 which is 5 days beyond the 30 day discard date, if you consider this you would need to do your own research to find out how you feel about this risk. You would need to use a syringe to extract the last 0.45ml for 3.75mg.

Also be aware all pharmacies will not support this use of the pens and some may question why you are not ordering every 4 weeks as prescribed. You don't want to start stock piling pens when you don't know what your future doses will be, or have pens arriving weeks before you need them incase they arrive slightly warm, so you might need to get creative.