Mounjaro / Wegovy with > 5st / 30kg to lose: Thread 4

[VelociraptorsVelociRapping]

Thread 4 (!) of this lovely community. Anyone using weight-loss injections to lose more than 5 stone or 30kg is very welcome to join us.

No discount codes, please - these need to go in the dedicated thread on this board and they will be deleted.

10/10 for ingenuity - never heard that one before............but don't think I would do it........

Without even thinking about any possible risks I'm getting the wobbles just thinking about it, the needle in me while while changing the dose knob, making the injection hole in my skin bigger - that's the way I imagine it because I couldn't hold it completely steady!

I might be over influenced by the microscopic photos that popped up in a feed somewhere of an injection site hole🤢. I naively thought skin was elastic and it just popped closed after the injection - a bit like the red seal on the Mounjaro vial! (only google it if you dare!)

just popping in to say HI, and ....

🥝🥝

I've done the same as @Swissrollover & used one pen needle for two doses. I did it in my thigh & it was absolutely fine, just slightly more bruised than normal because I held the pen down more (too) firmly to avoid any wobble!

I'm a bit funny about the pen seal getting perforated too many times...

Going ok here & heading for a wee run of milestones I hope🤞

I'm a bit stuck and hovering around the same kilo. This seems to happen about every 6-7 kilos for me, but I'm nearly at 20 off since August.

Still, I'm just going to keep on keeping on. This is the bit the MJ makes possible for me.

172.8 lbs this morning, I'd like to be at or under 170 by end of month, that would then mean I'd only have to lose 4 lb in Feb to meet my goal of being healthy BMI by end of February which feels achievable. It would also mean I'd have gone from Obese to Healthy in 6 months.

W2D2 for me today and a bit of a wobbly week emotionally - my divorce is due to be finalised this week and life is a bit all over the place. Usually I would be managing this via alcohol and sweets, so weirdly, I don't quite know how to handle it all... Sounds completely bonkers 🙄 I still have really good suppression, but there's a comfort void, somehow?

So, I'm going to give myself a 'treat' feeling by leaving work early today and I've cancelled my plans to go out tonight and am having a night in with the telly and watching nonsense under a blanket!

Sounds like a plan @MooBaggage ! Sorry to hear about your divorce, but at least you’re coming to the end of dealing with it!

@BingoWingsOverScotland keep on keeping on!

@InfoSecInTheCity such an achievement!! I would love to be in healthy at some point! 😁

New MJ musings from me today, because I do love to, but does anyone think there is any truth in keeping MJ in the fridge all through the pen’s life for better results?

I have always done so, but the last one I didn’t because I had visitors so wanted to move it out, so for the last three weeks of the pen it was in a cupboard. And the last two doses of that pen were much less efficient for me.

Then, this pen, newly opened and fridged, the last 48 hours have been intensely strong. Admittedly, I have gone up to 8mg, but it feels A LOT.

i’ve put this one back in the fridge! Am i now an MJ conspiracy theorist??? I am very keen to hold off a higher dose for now and i think thats why.

Any recommendations for relatively easy (I'm still around 19st) home work out videos? Years ago I had the Davina McCall ones on DVD but we don't have a player anymore.

I can feel I've got bits of thigh and stomach that are like a deflated balloon now the fat is going but I'm not ready to face the gym yet

When I started out my journey I did some Dance with Tanju videos - free online from a company called FitSevenEleven. They are dancing cardio videos, go as hard or soft as you like. I eventually moved onto some Joe Wicks and Yoga with Adrienne. I started at 18st10.

@Darlinghag I've always kept my used pens in the fridge, no reason other than it feels more logical to me and the kitchen is next door to the room I usually inject in.

I use for 6 weeks with the 6th dose on day 35, so just feels better in the fridge for that reason too. I have never noticed a significant difference with a new pen, but my suppression comes and goes anyway even mid week so there might have been and I have just never connected it to a new pen.

Depending on how much you can move search for "walking workouts" on youtube there are a few on there that might ease you in.

I am sticking with walking for now, outdoors and with some decent inclines as I tried a couple of indoor walking workouts and anything with side steps/turn etc make my hips sore and my ankles can't cope with anything too bouncy! (I am a menopausal physical disaster zone really!). I managed a chilly 6 mile walk around Culzean Castle (Scotland) gardens at the weekend (some of it pushing a buggy with a 2 yo old in which added weight training 😉), although the hill back to the car nearly did me in!

Thanks I'll have a look. I live out in the fens so not much of an incline to be found around here 😂I'm currently at about 7000steps a day but I'm worried about lose skin I can already feel bits of my thigh and stomach getting soft and a bit deflated so I definitely need to start toning up a bit.

@WeAllHaveWings interesting!! I will be keeping an eye this month and seeing how that goes!

@WafflingDreamer i recommend grow with jo and get fit with rick, loads of at home stuff and they accomodate lots of beginner levels!

Hi, I hope I’m doing this right, never used Mumsnet before!

I started Mounjaro on Nov 22nd. I’ve lost 2st 4lb of 7st target so far, on my third pen, and now on 5mg. I have been on 5mg since just before Xmas.

I have zero appetite- none, nada. I have forced myself to consume between 150 and 300kcal a day for the last 8 days. I am living on dextrose tablets, most of my calories are coming from them.

I have a visceral response to even seeing/touching or smelling food. I have to use my left hand to open my mouth, put food in, and then clamp it shut so I don’t just spit it out….

I’ve lost 7.5st on my own before starting Mounjaro but it’s taken 4 years and I’ve just lived in a deficit and worked slowly. I am an HCP and know this isn’t the correct way to get nutrition in, I know it’s not enough, but on 2.5mg I lost a stone in the first week and then just another 3 or 4lb across the rest of my month. So it essentially became pretty ineffective.

anyone been through anything similar? Does it pass? It seems each week I want less and less food. The ED part of my brain battling for control is screaming at me to stop eating entirely. The sensible, well educated, health professional in me is arguing that I need to reduce calories but still eat.

I’m knee deep in an MSc, but falling asleep at my desk. I have three children who I’m forgetting the basics for (don’t worry- husband works from home and all their needs are met!). This isn’t me, I’m the most organised, practical, focused person!

Even writing this out has exhausted me. I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to give up, losing the weight has been so freeing and I have so much more confidence. On the flip side, that confidence is being shared with my duvet and nothing else because I can’t get the energy to move!

Anyone been here? Does it pass? Any suggestions?

That sounds like your dose is too high if you have absolutely no appetite at all. You could try dropping down to a dose somewhere between 2.5mg and 5mg, by not doing a full dose of the 5mg pen. Instead of turning to the 1 position, you count the clicks/marks on the pen and only turn to 30 clicks. Or you could drop back to 2.5mg and see how you go on that.

You talk about the "ED" part of your brain - have you been anorexic in the past?

Should have tagged you in that post @MidwifeOnMounjaro

How about some drinks like Huel if you can't eat much? The black edition ones have 40g protein and about 400 cals.

@MidwifeOnMounjaro 4lbs across the rest of the month is still a pound a week. Sounds like the 5mg is coming with quite significant side effects for you - I'd recommend speaking to your provider. They may recommend to drop back to 2.5, or there are a number of us who do an unofficial 'in the middle' dose - so some people take 3.75 as a step between 2.5 and 5.

The lack of calories you're getting is quite worrying particularly over so many days. Please do contact your provider ASAP.

I'm losing 1-2lbs a week, it's not fast but it is sustainable. I know the fast route is tempting but its not a healthy or safe way to do this. Sorry if that comes across stern!

I also think you should take advice on this from your provider or GP, especially if you have or have had an ED. As I understand it there are quite significant risks in taking GLP-1s with ED. Your experience is very different from my own and I have not seen / heard anyone else saying anything similar either.

Link below has some info, including potential risks. You are doing so well but it may not be worth it for you. In any case, at some point most of us will be coming off these meds, so we need to use this time to learn new behaviours that will help us manage our eating and weight in the long term. You don't seem to be getting much opportunity to do that right now! And 5mg is a low dose.

www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/glp-and-eating-disorders/

@MidwifeOnMounjaro Another one here adding to the chorus that you need to eat so, probably, need to drop your dose down.
This drug is not intended to stop us eating, nor to give vast continued weight loss so 1lb a week is not ineffective, it is far more in line with expected weight loss than a stone in a week (1-2lb a week is a sensible aim).

The aim of using the drug is to reduce the appetite just enough that we can eat a sensible and sustainable calorie deficit, not to suppress the appetite and don't eat.
I follow an American doctor on TikTok/Insta who runs holistic healthcare clinics, using GLP1s alongside diet, exercise and other meds/supplements. He says that a sure sign of a dose being too high is suppressed appetite which leads to not eating which, in turn, leads to slowed metabolism (symptoms are slow or no weight loss, tiredness, inability to think/function and coldness)
I would suggest speaking with your provider and going back to 2.5mg while you re-establish healthy eating (use a TDEE calculator and subtract 500 to find your calories to aim for while staying in deficit), healthy activity, hydration, etc. Please do not get sucked into disordered behaviour as it is so hard to escape from once there.

@MidwifeOnMounjaro you are a HCP what would you tell a patient that told you this story? I don't think you should take another injection without have a full conversation with either your provider or your GP and sharing everything you have said in your post so you get the appropriate support.

Thanks all for your responses. To clarify, I absolutely don’t think a stone a week is the correct weight loss, I had gained 1.5 stone on a medication and held a significant amount of water weight hence the quick drop. I didn’t expect that going forward at all- don’t panic! :)

My GP/provider agrees around 3 a week is ideal for me (BMI currently 34, 16.5 stone) I would be happy with that for sure.

With regards to ED, I had a binge eating disorder, which has been controlled with my steady weight loss over the last four years and hasn’t reared its ugly head, but now in a surprising twist it seems to be wanting me to eat close to nothing, rather than before when it was basically anything that stayed still long enough. Again, it’s a topic GP and provider are aware of, but not the recent effects as that’s only been the last 48 hours.

I get no other side effects, bar the suppressed appetite.

and (I’m sorry I can’t scroll back up to see who said it) I absolutely agree that I would want my patient to drop back a dose if this was their reaction- I just really needed to know if it’s hit anyone else like this and if I should expect the suppression to calm.

i had a jarring event happen last Monday, and I’m not sure if part of it is the stress of dealing with that situation too. I’ll book in with the GP now I know that it’s not the standard response to 5mg.

thank you all so much for commenting ❤️

Good luck @MidwifeOnMounjaro
I hope it settles down for you and you can find a Goldilocks dose that works just right. In my very limited understanding I think MJ is supposed to help with BED but perhaps it's been a little too effective. Anyway, good luck and huge well done for all your progress so far 💪
Come back and check in again!

Hope the GP can help @MidwifeOnMounjaro. Keep trying little and often to eat, 300 calories a day is nothing so it's no wonder you're feeling weak,

You can get clear protein drinks which taste and smell of very little, that may be a way to get something in if everything else is off putting. Or hot sweet tea/coffee with milk/cream just till you get some appetite back.

I just had a proper "fuck it" moment and impulse booked for me and DD to go to Spain in the Feb half term. Leaving DH home because he needs to work and away we go to somewhere with a beach and at least a bit warmer than here hopefully.

@MidwifeOnMounjaro I agree with what everyone else has said & really hope you can adjust your dose to allow you take in enough nutrition. Fwiw I take an in between dose.

@WeAllHaveWings I'm very envious Culzean Castle/grounds is one of my favourite places in the world!