Help before I give up

[TiredOfEverythingNow]

Hello All

Backstory. Due to insulin resistance, terrible levels of stress and messed up body from sepsis, I have gained a lot of weight.

I have finally got a grip on things and started go diet about 2 years ago. I preferred to do slower weightloss so my skin has chance to absorb as I go. I have naturally lost 3.6stones with good diet and increased physical activity. Nothing crazy, I struggle to exercise as single parents due to my ex not having the DC at all.

Anyway i am fed up of the slow weight loss so decided to start Mounajoro end of October. I must say I feel really lucky with how little side effects I have comparing to reading people's experiences especially on 5mg. Now I have caught the virus 10 days and boy was I sick. I have ended up on antibiotics which also collided with increase dose of mounjaro to 7.5mg. I have also quit smoking and lost 16lbs on 2 pens. Not sure if that's good or bad but it's moving.

Now the issue is I feel tired. I feel so tired I have no energy to get out of bed. I'm not sure if that's mounjaro, mounjaro and antibiotics, or mounjaro antibiotics and aftermath of illness on top of usual tiredness of being a single parent ( I have demanding job and other commitments that already make me tired). I'm struggling to eat too, all I crave is sugar.

What can I do to help myself? Or do I give up mounjaro ? I can't function like this anymore. I could sleep all day, every day !

Thanks all 🙏

What was the reasoning for moving up to 7.5mg? You could consider going back down to 5mg and see how you get on at that level.

Don't think I was loosing enough. Still waiting for a decent loss. Averaging 2-3lbs a week is nothing special for the cost and thought suppression could have been better. Also assumed the whole point of it is to go up monthly.

The standard dosage schedule is to go up monthly. In the clinical trials people went up until they got to a dose that they couldn't tolerate and then went back down. So if you're finding the 7.5mg not tolerable, then go back down to 5mg would be the logic.

Mounjaro is a long term process. 2 to 3lbs a week is a good level of consistent weight loss. Mounjaro should mean you can keep that up consistently over several months and reach your target.

But, you've been successful at losing weight without Mounjaro, so of course you could stop and save the money if you're not happy with the weight loss and the side effects.

Apart from the tiredness which I also had on 5mg and a bit of nausea, I don't have any other side effects on 7.5mg either. Wondering if there is anything I should / could be doing or whether the tiredness is normal.

As for the weightloss. I did but then plateaued hence why my decision to get on MJ. I think is very disheartening when loosing 2-3lbs but reading of people's massive losses.

There are always outliers, and you can't compare individual people's progress when their circumstances are unknown to you. There's a long running thread called the Slow Losers full of people losing at a much slower rate than 2 to 3 lbs per week.

You were already part way through a weight loss programme, when you started Mounjaro. My biggest losses were at the very start, at a very high weight and after not trying to lose weight for a long time. A lot of it was to do with reduced inflammation I think, and the fact that I could create a large calorie deficit because of my very high weight. That's not likely to be the same as your circumstances when starting Mounjaro.

If you continue losing weight at the rate you are, in 3 months you'll have lost around 24 to 30 pounds. So about 2 stone, or a bit more. How close to your target would you be if that were the case?

Are you eating regular meals? Reasonable portions?
Loss of appetite?

I think the virus and the recovery from that are probably the main issue. Especially if you're managing to eat a reasonable amount of calories each day.

2-3lbs/week is rapid weight loss unless you have a very high BMI (severely to morbidly obese) then it could be considered moderate. Comparing your weight loss to others when you don't have full visibility if it is being done sensibly/safely/healthily can lead to unrealistic expectations, especially when you have already lost all the initial weight that comes off the easiest at the start of any weight loss.

With the combined stress on your body from ongoing rapid weight loss along with a nasty virus and antibiotics I am not surprised you are wiped out.

I would focus on good nutrition over the next couple of weeks to help your body recover from these stresses, and perhaps consider dropping back down a dose to allow you to do this. Weight loss can wait a couple of weeks until you are better.

A high protein diet and lots of water really helps with mounjaro and avoiding water retention and dehydration, which can also result in fatigue and slow weight loss. Post viral fatigue is very common and can take weeks to recover. Antibiotics use will kill some good bacteria too, might be worth taking some kefir. Try and rest your body, eat well and take vitamins. Vitamin D really helps in winter with SAD, sleep and immune system.

Thank you for your response, appreciate the time.

As of now I have at least 4 stones to loose. I would be happy with that weight. To be perfect bmi probably 5.5stone....

Probably not... some days I do. First 3 days of every injection I could eat nothing but aim to push myself even if its protein shakes. I don't fancy most foods, even my usual favourites. Anything strong tasting puts me off, ie cheese.

Ok well I know the jabs suppress appetite by fooling your body into thinking you've eaten.
But the resulting reality is your body isn't receiving the daily nutrition and ENERGY it needs to function, so no wonder you're feeling exhausted!
Eat small portions of foods you can tolerate at regular intervals.

If you aren’t eating well and basically starving yourself then that’s why you’re tired.

ad 2-3 lbs is great weight loss.

2-3lb weekly consistent loss is excellent progress. Any more would be far too quick and would certainly mean losing a lot of muscle. I’m sorry, but you have been given very unrealistic expectations of MJ.

We are on thread 4 of the long-running and very supportive community of MNers using WLI to lose five stone or more. Please do come and join us. There is lots of sensible advice about using MJ to lose large amounts of weight safely and sustainably.

2-3 pounds a week and you're unhappy as that's too slow?!

Jeez.

If you're not eating in an effort to speed that up then that'll be why you're so tired.

I am eating... sometimes probably a bit more shitty / less than I should but I do eat.

Example from yesterday.

Breakfast- 25g protein milkshake
Lunch - tomato soup with rice
Dinner - grilled chicken with salad ( with few chips from my DC)
Snack - protein bar, biscuits with my coffee.

Granted this is probably not enough as portions are not massive, but I can't eat more than that. I will be sick. I also drink berocca a day to make sure I keep up with vitamins.

So yes I'm very tired.... I'd say I'm used to running on carbs but I haven't for 2 years since keto diet. I read that tiredness is also a side effect of MJ so wondering if there is anything I could do / take to help myself because I can't run on tired for much longer.

Lots of posters on the MJ support threads list tiredness as a symptom, Op. Even on MJ losing 2 - 3 lbs a week is very good. I'm not sure why you would think that it isn't. You're obviously in a large calorie deficit.

Because I was loosing that with just diet and exercise.... i feel like paying all that money (especially as I order from big pharmacy as felt I felt those deals on MJ could make it unsafe / u trustworthy) is just not worth it. I'm still in the obese category so thought MJ will really make the weight fall off but i think that's unreasonable expectation now that I'm reading about it on Mumsnet. When I made my decision to take it I watched fb groups and tik tok...

Fatigue is an established side effect. I think in your case it has been exacerbated by titrating to 7.5mg when your body was already trying to fight off an infection. I would personally consider going back down to 5mg before giving up but of course you need to be able
to function.

Looking at your diet example - not enough protein, no fruit or veg. UPF’s in the form of shakes and protein bars are not great - try real food instead. Are you drinking enough water? Your weight loss is high - nor low!
Agree with others you need to review your nutrition from food and that will help massively with the tiredness.

I mean if you were consistently losing 2-3lb a week without it then you probably weren't going to benefit from it massively. That's more than people lose in the trials and ultimately it's not a magic wand - in order to be losing 3lb a week you have to have a deficit of 10,500 calories. Given most people will only be using 14,000 or maybe 17,500 calories in a week max, you're never going to get consistent weight loss higher than 3ish lbs. Because you'd have to eat almost nothing.

If you consume no calories or next to no calories you will be exhausted because you aren't fueling your body adequately.

Ultimately the only solution really here is probably to go back down to 5mg, eat enough to feel relatively well and then decide if it's making enough of a difference for you.

Most of the people who decided to use medication did so because other methods weren't working - so if you have a method that does work for you and that you can stick to consistently then you might well achieve less of a benefit in comparison.

For me, not on MJ, a loss of 0.5-1lb a week would have been hard to achieve. So achieving 2lb a week, consistently, week on week, was a massive improvement. That means I lost 2 stone in 3 months.

For you, that would mean in 6 months you would have lost enough to get to a weight you would be happy to stabilise at.

It’s hard to understand, as you say initially you lost 3.6 stone in two years and preferred to lose slow. Which is less than half a pound a week.

when did you start losing 2-3on your own? I think that’s missing from your post.

Your expectations were unrealistic, losing 3+ lbs a week consistently for months on end is very rapid.
if you were losing 2-3lbs weekly without MJ you didn’t need the MJ and can do it alone easily!

I had bad tiredness. I was advised to use hydration tablets and after a couple weeks noticed a big uptick in energy. I buy ones off Amazon called Zero (sugar free).

Eat more protein, drink more water- as much as you can.

Also 2-3 pounds a week is amazing. Well done.

I said 2 years for ease of dates. To be precise it wasnt 2 years, i started around Apri / May 2023 when ex left. I think I lost majority of the 3 stones in around 6-8 months. Then I had a slight up and down but that's because I was on holidays etc and wasn't holding back on eating good food. I have started MJ end of October 2024.