Does Mounjaro just help you stick to your calories...

[Fordian]

Or does it do more?

Does it actively 'fight the flab' or does it 'just' regulate your blood sugar in a way that reduces your appetite, thus you eat less?

Is it 'willpower' in injectable form? Do not misunderstand me, if the answer to that is 'yes', then, Hallelujah! I certainly don't think WLI are in any way cheating! I'm seriously considering them! But I wanted to understand what they're acting on, actual fat fighting, or 'just' appetite suppression.

Thanks.

You basically just don't feel like eating and when you do eat you don't want to eat much.

I don't get 3pm cravings for something sweet or for a glass of wine at night. Just not bothered anymore

You still have to calorie count - to make sure you are eating enough as it's easy to just forget to eat

It helps your body to produce more insulin when needed.

It reduces the amount of glucose, or sugar, produced by the liver.

It slows down how quickly food is digested.

It reduces appetite.

It enhances feelings of fullness.

All these will lead to a deficit because you eat much less and don't snack or eat junk, which causes you to lose weight.

Does Mounjaro just help you stick to your calories...

Basically, yes.

No it does nothing to make you lose weight biologically, but does what @Herewegonowandagain has ably described.

Thanks everyone!

Can I ask, obviously the results people have reported strongly point to it being a successful strategy; but in non WLI dieting, you're always being warned not to undereat or your body will hang onto your fat more stubbornly, as it thinks you're starving; is this an issue either on WLI or once you come off them

Thanks

Lots of interesting wording here.

Adding to what @Herewegonowandagain has said, it has regulated my life long metabolic condition that has given me insulin resistance.

Only ignorant people would consider it cheating, so that doesn’t matter.

If you’re seriously considering starting this medication, plenty of clinical and research data can be found online which will give you the answers you are looking for so that you can make an informed decision.

Yeah, this is the myth of starvation mode and it's nonsense. You don't want to under eat too much or you'll lose muscle and get loose skin etc but your body doesn't hang on to fat if you eat too little.

Op, that’s not a thing.

from what I can see is some folks heard about a study decades ago, where people were starved, as in no food at all, and as time went on, it was a short study as you’d imagine, their metabolism slowed, as you’d expect, as no food, and they were becoming weak. And they then decided that meant your body clung onto weight and fat and spread that nonsense on the internet.

it didn’t cause their bodies to cling onto weight and fat. they all lost weight rapidly. It is just internet nonsense. And no one is going weeks without a single morsel of food. Even eating 500 cals a day is not starvation.

When I did the Lighter Life diet for 6 months the soups and shakes provided 800 kcals/day.

I lost a lot of weight, but as I got closer to my goal weight the weight loss stopped completely. The consultant said it was normal for women to plateau as they neared their goal and that if I didn't cheat and kept on drinking plenty of water and my 3 glasses of synthetic shite I'd shed those last few stubborn pounds.

I'm 5 foot 5 inches tall, and somehow my body managed to survive on 800 kcals/day for 5 whole weeks before I started to lose a pound a week and managed to hit my target weight.

My hair was falling out in clumps, but the consultant insisted that the sachets contained all the nutrients necessary. Which was obviously a load of nonsense, and the damage it did to my gut microbiome was probably the reason that I regained the 5.5 stones I'd lost with so much pain and suffering before 18 months had passed.

This time around I lost 10.5 kg eating between 3000 and 4000 kcals/day in the first month of following the Zoe food science podcast advice. I did weigh 160 kg to start with, but I didn't try to reduce calories, I just added 6 portions of fermented foods, nuts, avocados, olive oil, berries, green vegetables, whole grains, beans, oily fish and tried to eat as many different plants in a week as possible. The weight loss was so unexpected that I didn't believe it and ordered new batteries for the bathroom scales. 4 weeks later the new batteries showed I'd lost another 9.1kgs and then the weight loss steadied at around 3 kg/month for the following year while I continued to log everything I ate and was clocking up at least 2400 kcals/day.

The weight loss didn't slow until I started to reach the lower end of the obese BMI category. Last month I lost 4kg after lowering my calorie intake to 1700 despite the TDEE calculator saying my maintenance calories would be 1794/day if I was a sedentary office worker. Which I'm not, I'm a disabled old lady who can barely totter to the toilet leaning on a couple of sticks yet somehow my metabolism burns more when I eat more.

One month when I restricted my calories to 2000 (before starting Mounjaro) I was hungry all the time and after 4 weeks I'd only lost 0.4kg, so I decided that must mean that my weight was going to stabilise at a BMI of 33 and I should just concentrate on eating to keep my gut microbiome healthy. So I allowed myself to eat 2200 calories the following month which was enough to keep me from feeling hungry, yet when I weighed myself after 4 weeks I'd lost 0.5kg. So I actually lost 0.1kg more in the four weeks when I ate 200 calories more per day. My metabolism definitely slows down when I feel hungry and speeds up when I eat well. So at least for me the old calories in minus calories out equation doesn't work.

I think the dangers of under eating on MJ is that you risk veering perilously close to Eating Disorder territory. It can be a heady experience, being able to ignore food and I think most people dice around this in the first few weeks. Fortunately over-strong appetite suppression wears off and naturally settles down by about months 4-5.

Just in the same way that any thread on AIBU about food and portion sizes brings out pages and pages of insane competitive teeny tinies shrilling on about how little they eat, threads here on this board and tiktok etc etc tend to do the same. Unfortunately this gives the impression that this is normal and necessary. It is neither.

The amazing, great, wonderful thing about WLI is that you can eat normally. Like a normal person! There is no need to eat 500 or 800 calories a day or live off a cereal bar and a shitty protein drink. You can have delicious properly calorie counted meals (packed with seeds and nuts if you wish!), and you can eat them and really enjoy them and just allow the drug to work by ensuring that you will not feel the urge to eat too much and that you will feel satisfied afterwards.

Most people find that they start to crave healthier foodstuffs and fruit & veg etc and to be repulsed by UPFs and diet coke and Kentucky and chocolate and all the stuff that previously would be considered a 'treat'.

Regarding gaining weight again when you stop - well yes, all the studies about any diets shows that most people will regain the weight within 5 years. I don't know if it is a fact, but it completely makes sense to me that if you have starved and malnourished yourself through your WLI journey, then your body is going to fight back - and win - very, very quickly after stopping. Your body will be ravenous.

So better to take it slow and work with your body rather than fighting it. Why not take a few extra months and lose the weight gently and steadily without stressing and damaging the body, as a pp has described.

There is no need to undereat or do extreme low calories. WLI can hand you back control over eating, both in quantity and quality. It makes sense not to abuse that.

Oh I didn't know most people regained within 5 years. I have a very long journey. It will take over a year for me to lose the weight and I've "only" lost half a stone in the first few weeks so I'm not going to be one of the super losers either.

If after all this it comes back I will be so sad. I am wondering if at the end a low dose (cheaper) will be enough but over a grand a year will be a lot of money for us.

Actually he poster was talking about all diets, not specifically weight loss injections which has very different stats, the average is something like 15 % of body weight back on, so that’s 1.5 stone on a ten stone woman.

its also evidenced if you exercise and maintain muscle mass, then you keep the weight off on average, lots of studies.

you can also stay on a low maintenance dose for life if you chose, and can afford it, to ensure you don’t regain.

so regaining isn’t a given, don’t worry and that’s however fast you lose it.

Actually he poster was talking about all diets, not specifically weight loss injections which has very different stats, the average is something like 15 % of body weight back on, so that’s 1.5 stone on a ten stone woman.

No. You keep saying this and maybe it is because you are desperate to believe it. That figure only covers 52 weeks after stopping. That is again similar to the results of all diets. Many people can maintain a certain weight loss for a year or two. It goes tits up by year five however.

With regaining for me, I’m hoping the difference will be it works a second or other subsequent time,

has anyone else lost a lot of weight with weight watchers/low carb whatever, kept it off for a bit, then regained some but thought ‘it’s ok I’ve done it before I can do it again’ and then somehow psychologically it just doesn’t happen or work like it did the first time?

Im hoping as it’s more chemical, that won’t be the case with MJ, with life long bingeing I’m realistic it is highly likely I’ll regain without MJ and tend to go in phases. But if I get into an overeating/bingeing weight gain phase and it’s out of control, will use MJ again,
Im also planning to maintain at 27 to make it more achievable.

@12purplepencils yes me. I lost about 10kg on a Patrick Halford Zest for life plan. I found it easy and enjoyable. I kept it off for a couple of years then had another baby, went into perimenopause and am now heavier than ever. Even though I know what worked the first time, I’m struggling to do it for more than a few days now.

looking at injections to help!