So I said I would post a summary on the first anniversary of my taking Mounjaro. I didn’t just want to do a week by week numbers thing, so here’s the thoughts and experiences which I hope will keep fellow slow losers going.
I’m 59. I have been overweight and on a diet since primary school. At my heaviest in 2008 I was 15 stone 4.5. I’m 5’1.5”. I have PCOS and an under active thyroid. So there was a lot of work to be done.
Over the next 16 years I struggled down to 12.5 with SW (who I think get a bad rap…I found and still find going to a club weekly extremely important, a bit like AA but for food). Than I just yoyo’d, bouncing up then back down but losing nothing and getting more and more down. No self congratulation for what I’d already achieved, just gloom that I was still obese and that appeared to be as good as I could get it. No amount of exercise helped, I was on 1200 calories a day and felt I was out of options.
When I found myself googling bariatric surgery I realised I was losing my grip. Then I read about Mounjaro. Lurked on an early Mj Mumsnet forum for months. Then decided to give it a go.
so in the last 52 weeks I have only lost weight in 24 of them. My biggest weekly loss has been 2lb. I have gained three pounds three times (birthday week, Christmas and post operative immobility). But compared to pre Mj three pound gains were NOTHING. What pissed me off was my slow weight loss; a pound every now and again but always followed by a bounce back up. I felt I was getting nowhere and wondered what I’d do when I got to 15mg doses and Mj still wasn’t working. I came on here and wept and ranted.
Quietly, in the background, my body rolled its eyes at my stupidity and kept on doing its thing. Slowly, food cravings disappeared. Slowly, my weight started on a gentle downward trajectory. Slowly, I realised that my metabolically shot body can manage on 1000 calories a day and doesn’t get hungry.
Slowly, slowly, slowly. But my total loss in one year is 1 stone 10. 24 pounds from a starting point where I genuinely believed that no more weight loss was possible.
Tips? Accept as quickly as you can that even if you’re eating very little, if you listen to your body it can probably use less. Let it tell you when it’s hungry, don’t be dictated to by mealtimes. Don’t believe calorie calculators, let your body decide what it needs. Prioritise protein; it took me a long time to get off carbs. And even if you weigh every day, only record the losses. I genuinely believed I was getting nowhere because of the yo-yo’ing. But this summer, every single one of my summer clothes are unwearably big. And finding that out was the point at which I realised that, in fact, I’ve lost a lot of weight while I was complaining about not losing weight…!
so there you go, guys. Thanks for this forum, it may be only little but it’s powerful for those of us who aren’t coming from a starting point of 15 takeaways and eight bottles of wine a week 😆 and so don’t get that initial huge weight loss. I hope this account of my year shows that fast or slow, Mj will get you there.
Love you! Bye!