Continuing Mounjaro... Part 22

[Jimmyneutronsforehead]

It's thread 22 time! As usual please fill up the previous thread before we make a start on this one.

Huge congratulations to every one who has made losses, and well done to those who have graduated the mounjaro club! We would love you to come back and share your tips for maintenance so we can all continue to learn and grow from each other.

Pointers for newbies:
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)
Mumsnet does not allow promo codes. Please do not post any. If you want one, ask and someone will PM you a code or there are now threads on the promo page that have codes for Mounjaro link below:
Promo codes :
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/promo-codes-bargains
Linking Wallywobbles site, as theyve very kindly compiled all threads so far, pointers for newbies, weightloss tracker, links to discount codes, tips and tricks and high protein recipes.
Site with all the info :
https://wattnext.notion.site/e880d9342b7a4bab94c244b34e0e5841?v=cc1edc3f1c2b41dab3011c8d9063df0a

Miss Mounjaro UK has the most up to date price comparison charts: https://www.missmounjarouk.com/

This one's the most recent I will also post the image.

Just to copy from the previous thread as it's highly useful information:
https://www.diabetes.org.uk/guide-to-diabetes/enjoy-food/carbohydrates-and-diabetes/carbs-and-cooking
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/cooling-resistant-starch#TOC_TITLE_HDR_6

MabelSpan:
For those who love their carbs, I grow my own veg, including lots of potatoes so eat them most days. You can dramatically increase the amount of resistant starch, a type of fibre, in your potatoes, rice and pasta and bread simply by cooking then cooling, ideally overnight or freezing in the case of bread and then reheating or toasting in the case of bread.

Please remember to do this safely if this is something you would like to do.

In light of being in close proximity to someone who has had complications from Mounjaro, I just want to say for any newbies: We are a wonderful community of Mounjaro users with a wealth of knowledge between us, but we're not a medical service. We are all people who have acknowledged the risk to benefit ratio, and are following our clinicians advice. If you do have any serious side effects listed on the information sheet that comes with your medication, please seek medical advice.

There are no questions too silly, no loss too small to celebrate, no hurdle not worth the challenge and huge congratulations to everyone who has made it this far in their journey and once again, welcome to thread 22.

Anyone got any recommendations for a travel case and cold packs suitable for flying?

Going to a hot country so definitely need to be able to chill it.

Wow @GlueNoGlue that's an awesome achievement 👏🏼

I just used my son's insulated lunch box with a regular cold pack! One tip though is to take a spare ice pack (one of those disposable ones) which you can activate if you get delayed. I had no trouble going through security. Happy travels!

@WorriedRelative I have ordered a Frio travel wallet from Amazon. The advantage is you run the cold packs under a cold tap to activate after which it stays cold for 45 hours. So, if like us you don’t have access to a freezer whilst travelling it will still work. Where we are going (in two weeks time) is over 30 degrees so we definitely need these!

@Eyesofmistyblue yes I ordered with Zava last Monday, approved Tuesday, not dispatched until Friday. Luckily RM delivered Sat but doesn't usually take that long.

Excellent thanks, are the cold packs OK to take through security? Also do they make other stuff wet?

@WorriedRelative they are designed to travel (for insulin pens). I haven’t used mine yet but will probably place mine in a plastic bag to be on the safe side! It’s up to you. If it seemed like the best bit of kit to me.

I need to order my next pen - was thinking of going for 5mg again as I am about 8lbs away from goal and ultimately want to stop MJ in a month or so.

But the past week on 5mg I've been really hungry, however I am controlling and managing it.

So I am loathe to go up to get more suppression when I want to come off in the near future, and part of me thinks it's not a bad thing to be feeling hungry now and learning to handle it?

I’m hoping someone has any pointers or advice. My BMI is now 26.7 and I’m worried about continuing to get MJ prescriptions. I’m around 4kg away from healthy BMI, but ideally I’d like to lose another 10kg to get back to my previous weight.

How is best to navigate this going forward? I’m with MedExpress who are a bit hit and miss with providing maintenance. So I’m not sure if they’d continue to prescribe to me. I’m then worried about switching providers now that my BMI is under 27 and whether I need to switch sooner rather than later.

I recently switched to the family chemist with a bmi of 25.4 they have a section on the order about whether you've already had the meds and to upload a screenshot of it. No problem ordering from them at all. I've also ordered another one from medexpress today with bmi 25 and it's been approved no questions asked.

Me again.

So I managed to eat a ridiculously tiny amount yesterday as I said. A yoghurt pot, some fruit, a 28g bas of crisps and a bit of hummus. The day before ( Sunday) I managed a slice of toast and a cheese burger, fries and milk shake over 2 hours.

Well. Yesterday evening was terrible. The gastric pain just built up through the afternoon and evening , the gas and stabby take your breath away sensation was horrid, ended up with me ( yet again) vomiting with a real Halloween style, head spinning drama . I brought the lot back up, fries and all and ( look away if you are of delicate constitution)

It was fizzy. I'm assuming that means the food I'm eating is literally just fermenting inside my stomach and not actually going anywhere else and that is what is causing the terrible, almost constant offensive wind, pain etc.

All of this from one dose of 6.2 mg after being in 5mg from 2 months. Thank god I was too nervous to go up to 7.5mg an away! My DH has put his foot down and said a flat out no to me staying on the 6 mg dose and I'm in agreement . I'm due another very soon and I'm going to wait an extra 2 days to hopefully get the 6mg top up out of my system and go back to 4-5mg which seemed much better for me. He's very concerned that my digestion is shutting down etc and I'm losing far too much weight far too quickly. Today I'm 14st 8 lb , down from 17st5lb on 9th August. It's no longer feeling like a win, and it's certainly not fun so back to 4-5 mg it is.

I hope I don't bring anybody down by posting about this but the simple truth is that these drugs are very very powerful and from the research me and my DH did yesterday, they can cause long term issues with incredibly slow digestion and voiding. I have had great success up to now ( but not without problems) but it's now swung to being harmful andI feel it's only right for me to be honest about it and give a "warts and all" report. It's not fun having to self administer enemas every week just to poop, and end up vomiting with such force that you seriously pull muscles in your diaphragm and struggle to even breathe.

So I'm going to try step back from this thread for a week to gain some clarity and try to focus less on seeing the scales move and more on feeling better and being able to eat.

I mean this gently. But the issue doesn’t appear to be what the drug does, that is explained, it is your behaviour on It. Eating a hamburger, fries and milkshake and toast in a short window was always going to see you having gastro problems I’m afraid then only eating carbs basically the next day. Crisps and fruit.

where is your protein . You need to make healthy choices, take a probiotic and something to keep you regular, like psyllium, husk or fibrogel,

it is not the medication making you unwell, it is the food behaviour when on it that is. If you want to continue on your weight loss journey with the meds, I think you need to commit to doing it in a health manner. If you can’t, then it would be better to come off them as you will be unwell.

Morning all!

I have been a bit MIA here and have a lot of catching up to do with this thread, but just wanted to share that I have now been on MJ for 5 months and have lost 61.5 lbs! I entered a brand new weight bracket today which I never thought possible. I am so chuffed.

SW: 107.2 kg / 236.5 lbs / 16 st 12.5 lbs
CW: 79.4 kg / 175 lbs / 12 st 7 lbs
GW: 70 kg

@Waiting9 I moved to Oushk from Medexpress a couple of months ago at a BMI of 26, primarily for their maintenance plans. This was a smooth process and the service so far has been faultless.

@TheBoldHelper

It's not my behaviour. 95% of the time I eat low carb with a focus on things like 60-70 % meat, stir fried veg Greek yogurt, nuts and berries. I take inulin daily, make my own kefir, sauerkraut and kimchi. and I supplement well and typically have a very well rounded diet. I ate a burger patty with a slice of cheese on Sunday and small portion of fries that I couldn't even finish. And a piece of toast, 4 hours earlier. That was after such a tight restriction going up to 6.3mg that I couldn't manage more than a single slice of wafer thin ham in one day on Saturday. The crisps ( Doritos) were used to scoop up houmous on Monday and only intended to try to create an appetite so I could do my best to eat anything I have really struggled to eat at all and if you search my posts I have had vomiting and extreme constipation a week after every increase but as my family had stomach bugs I somewhat stupidly assumed it was related to that, I didn't put it together due to the 5/7 day delay.

I am simply being honest about what is happening and you choosing to focus on 48 hours of my diet , the one time that I tried my best to eat ANYTHING is odd. I'm not in any way attacking you or saying that what anybody else is doing is wrong, and I'm not suggesting that anybody else should stop these drugs. I'm simply being honest about my own experience and hoping that if somebody else is going through similar they can put the pieces together and not struggle through it blindly like I have done. It's still very early stages with these injections and I thought honesty was the best policy.

I don't think I'll be back to this thread . It's been helpful at times and nice to see people's progress but I feel like I'm a negative Nelly and going against the grain with my experiences and that's just not welcomed. But I wish everybody whose progress I've silently cheered on all the luck in the world and I really hope you meet your goals and don't regain. 😁

@WitchyBits I don't know your full history as have only seen your last post (or don't remember earlier ones) but you have a very fast weight loss - nearly three stone in about 12 weeks. I am wondering why you felt the need to increase the dose to 6.2mg if you were already losing fast. The higher doses exist for those that don't have a good response to the earlier doses. Your response to 2.5mg and 4-5mg was good so why not stick to that. You can then have less unpleasant side effects and enjoy the process more.

I also agree with @TheBoldHelper that the food choices over the last two days could have been better. I get it's the weekend, need to fit in with family activities etc but side effects are made worse by high fat foods. The leaflet suggests eating 'bland, low fat foods' if you have side effects. Your (very vivid!) summary of it fermenting in your stomach because it couldn't move down the digestive system is probably exactly what happened. I think you need a lower dose with psyllium husks, chia seeds (someone said they really clear you out!) and other foods to help the constipation. Then you can start to reset your diet with better food choices. Healthy 80% of the time and treats 20% might be a good place to start. That will allow you to build better eating habits for when you have hit your goal weight and are on maintenance.

I hope you feel better soon. 💕 PS your DH sounds supportive which is great.

Cross posted with you @WitchyBits. Sounds like a combo of the increased dose (and your reaction to it which you have now made the connection about) plus a much fattier meal than usual caused the symptoms.

You make your own kefir? Ignore all my diet comments! But a lower dose is probably the way to go. Do stick around - we only have the info in what we read so advice might not always be fully relevant but it's always meant well.

To be honest @WitchyBits you don't sound like you really want any advice or discussion, so maybe not the best place for you. Nothing that the @TheBoldHelper said was wrong or untrue or unkind. You felt like shit because you ate shit. And like @Choux I don't understand why you moved up a dose in your circumstances.

Good to hear from you @3wDavid and very well done on the fantastic progress. I don't post on here so often these days either as just plodding along, also over 5 months in, 57lbs down and a couple more to go to hit the 10's and target. Truth be told, am a bit bored with it all and very glad to be at this end of the journey!

@WitchyBits Hope you get over this soon but just wanted to agree with your plan and add to the advice to step down your dose. As others have said, the guidelines only suggest increasing if lower doses are not working for you and, with your rate of weight loss, they clearly are and being unable to eat healthily is defeating the object.
I don't mean to scare you but I listened to a podcast which featured a lady who had persisted despite GI side effects and has now developed a long term problem. She said, with hindsight, she wished she had stopped the medication at the first signs of food not moving through her and it may be worth considering if that may be the best thing for you.
I think, because these meds work so well for some, we all want it to be the same for us but we are all different.
Good luck

Morning Live on BBC One have just done a really good item about Weight loss jabs.
Dr Xand Van Tulleken gave really good information and it actually wasn't all doom and gloom as other discussions I've seen.

He was very positive about the future of these drugs.
No mention of MJ, as it was just about semaglutide but it actually didn't leave me full of rage (like Dr Hilary does).

Bless you @WitchyBits 💐

I'm glad you have your dh supporting and looking after you

3st in less then 3mths - more like 2.5mths is a lot and you are both right to be wary

What has your supplier said ?

It's good to hear the bad experiences as well as the good

For some it doesn't seem to make much diff in 7.5/10

But others find 5 too much

@SnacklessWonder I was about to say exactly the same thing!!!!! I cannot for the life of me understand why people inject themselves, and then eat pure crap, and expect to feel ok.... this isn't a miracle cure... it's an aid, to be used alongside making much better choices with what you put in your mouth...

Odd question - has anyone noticed an increase in cystitis type symptoms? I've never had cystitis in life but I've had two small episodes in the past month or so.

Yes! I had a round of antibiotics but I've got the feeling back again. Didn't think of Mounjaro.