Why we lose weight !

[DubLass]

I know people are saying that we lose weight on Mounjaro because we eat less but I DEFINITELY think there is more to it than this .

I've been watching my weight all my life so am very clued in on calories .
I've been averaging about 1200 -1500 a day and I've lost about a stone and a half quickly.

There is NO way , even if I had eaten like this , that I would have lost that weight if not on MJ. I might have lost a couple of pounds. If even !

So what's going on ? Does anyone agree ?

Well it's not removing or shrinking fat cells, but it does affect you blood sugars so perhaps it makes you more efficient at using up energy stores or converting food to energy rather than storing it as fat.

But I think for me the most important thing it does is make me able to absolutely stick to a calorie deficit all the time. Every single day. My TDEE is quite high as I am/was very obese so at the moment it's easy to be in a large calorie deficit and maintain that indefinitely.

A podcast I was listening to the other day had a comment from a doctor that prescribes GLP-1s and he said he found his patients had a higher resting heart rate when on the injections so maybe they are increasing metabolism.

It also reduces inflammation in brain and body, inflammation can cause bloating and water retention. There is studies linked to it helping symptoms in alzheimers patients which is really positive.
Some people are prediabetic without any symptoms or have insulin resistance so it also helps to reverse it

I also think there is something else going on. I’m losing weight faster than I normally would, and a lot of fluid. My face and tummy is much slimmer/smaller than I normally am at this weight, it’s like all the excess fluid is coming off, leaving what is actually fat. I’m not even sure if that makes sense. But there is something else.

and I think it’s to do with insulin and how the body processes it. Maybe insulin resistance being reversed.

I would love to know / understand . But for me anyway , the weight loss is far in excess of what would have happened if I had stuck to the number of calories I am on now .

To be fair, people do MJ a disservice by simply calling it an apetite suppressant. It's much more than that, so it's not 'something else' per se. It is what Mounjaro is and doing what it's meant to do.

The two hormones (GLP-1 and GIP) that MJ mimick play a key role in controlling blood sugar, but they also have a significant effect on metabolism and appetite.

When Mounjaro activates these two receptors to increase the level of incretins in the body, it helps your body to produce more insulin when needed, reduces the amount of glucose, or sugar, produced by the liver, and slows down how quickly food is digested. All these contribute to weightloss.

So if your issue is simply eating too much, the suppression and help with eating less will help you to lose weight anyway. If your issue is to do with these hormones not functioning properly in your body (and eating less didn't work for you in the past), it regulates them therefore helping you to finally lose weight as you carry on eating less.

This can explain the reason it seems to work at a lower dose for some people and a higher dose for some people - because their bodies need less or more help with its functionality/metabolism/hormone balance.

This is also why some people will not be able to do without being on Mounjaro longterm (or for life) because the hormonal issue it's solving in their body cannot be replicated or aided without medication.

Thanks . That's interesting . Do you have an article or where did you get that info ? Science background ?
I think it makes it MORE worrying that the weight will pile back on if / when we stop the meds.
I'm pretty confident I can stick to the calories I eat now but that never worked before ....

It depends. For some people, simply carrying on with eating less will suffice. For some, they need more help with their body system therefore getting off Mounjaro will stop that help.

I'll try and find some links but it's easily googled on how mounjaro works. I've just put together and summarised all I have read from tons of articles and research.

I'm just going with the 'magic' theory 😎.

That's a really interesting explanation. I went to chat to the nutritionist at my GP's surgery before I started it (privately) and the nutritionist did say that some very heavy medication I had to have about 15 years ago would have affected my hormone levels even after I stopped the medication. I'm hoping that I will be able to stop it at some point but perhaps I won't be able to...

https://mounjaro.lilly.com/what-is-mounjaro

https://www.lilly.com/news/media/media-kits/mounjaro

https://www.drugwatch.com/drugs/mounjaro/

https://www.diabetes.org.uk/about-diabetes/looking-after-diabetes/treatments/tablets-and-medication/glp-1/mounjaro

That makes sense, I feel like my body didn’t work properly before in some way, and this medication has somehow cured that. I’ve always gained belly fat. Even when slim, I’ve never had a flat stomach. But even at 2.7 stone overweight now and over 3 stone to goal . My belly is shrinking back fast, and I can see it will go flat.

whatevrr that was causing me to gain excess body fat, and I don’t mean eating all the pies has been fixed.

Who knows? There may be an advanced version that will help hormonal issues longterm after being off it. That would actually be a great thing and I can see that happening but when is the question. Or there will be MJ in the form of tablets or so that makes it easier to take as a long term daily medication like other long term pills.

(Excess or unexplained) Belly fat has been known to be a sign of hormonal issues. From some photos of people on MJ online, it's so clear that the belly fat is usually the first to start visibly reducing even when signs of weightloss isn't as visible elsewhere on their body. Likely as a sign of the hormonal issues being balanced and finally losing the excess fat in the belly.

Another link and it explains it from a weightloss angle.

onlinedoctor.asda.com/uk/tirzepatide.html

Thanks, and it’s Yes my stomach and my face. I am losing weight elsewhere, but my stomach and my face is very noticeable. I had that nine month pregnant swollen belly look. And it’s completely shrunk back.

Also it occurs to me, the blurb for mounjaro says higher weight loss than say wegovy or ozempic. Which I thinks it’s way more than simple appetite suppression,

Apologies for two usernames . When I downloaded the ap I had a different one .

I think that for me, in eating less, my stomach is shrinking. So I can no longer nail a large fish and chips with a bread roll. I just start to feel sick. This is why I can see a lower maintenance dose being useful to lots of people. It will help us to keep our stomachs smaller and. Void as much rebound weight gain.

This is really interesting. I was only saying to my friend today that despite not having a massive weight loss (only 9lb in 4 months) my belly has shrunk considerably and my belt fastens 4 or 5 holes tighter. I don’t have any appetite suppression yet and am about to start 10mg so hoping to see some more weight loss soon

Can you please post the name of the podcast?

@IMustBeInvisible There’s a lot of information in your post which I haven’t come across before. In the future it would be really helpful if you cited directly where you’re pulling information from, instead of a batch of links in a completely separate post, as it just helps others verify and research such interesting information.

For example I have been slim my entire life but gained weight between 2022-2024. I literally overate hence the weight gain. I used MJ for 4 months and got my BMI down to normal weight. The highest dose I took was 10mg. I don’t think the fact that I took 10mg suggests I have a hormonal imbalance at all. In fact I don’t think my hormones are out of whack as I was previously slim as opposed to being lifelong obese. So seeing your last 2 paragraphs caused me some concern and I’d love to research it further but can’t see the sources.

Gosh. I wish that was my experience. I've had a bad month so been eating my old before-mounjaro heavy-carb diet (despite constant indigestion and feeling like my stomach was going to burst). I gained weight. 😫

Your insulin goes up which I find fascinating after we have been told for years that the reason we were not able to lose weight was that insulin was the fat storing hormone and carbs were to blame. Actually, it is the opposite. On Mounjaro and other injections, insulin is raised and we lose weight!!!

@NewDaye it's a bit unfair to tell a poster that in future they need to add citations directly to any claims they make about anything - this is not an academic discussion board and if we were to apply that "requirement" then Mumsnet would be a very different place. Can I suggest if you're interested you could cut and paste the post (or any future posts that you would like to research) into ChatGPT and ask it to find you academic studies which support those facts?