Plodders Club 🐌

[PlodAlongPolly]

Hi,

Anyone on WLI and in the slow lane v. welcome here for a bit of plodding supportive chat!

Plodders, bobbers, plateau-ers, stallers and stuck ducks come on in! Would be great to chat with others who are in the same boat, ie travelling at the speed of snails on their WL journey.

I have a mountain to move (nearly 5 st), am not ready to give up on Mounjaro yet and would love a bit of company here on this long haul to reach a healthy BMI. 🦥 🐌 🏔️

Come join me if you have a long way to go (either due to slow losses or amount to lose) and would like some peer support to keep going when the scales are being stubborn. It’s hard being on WLI when it’s not working as well for you and progress is slow or stalled. This is a safe space to share anything, the good, the bad and the side effecty. Anything positive (scale or non scale related) as well as freedom to vent and grumble as much as you want

If you taking WLI and trucking along nicely or nearly at your goal weight that is fantastic but please post on a different thread.

My weight loss is slooooow to the point of standing still at times but I’m sitting on an easyJet flight waiting to go on holiday. Last time I flew easyJet just before I started WLI I struggled to do the seatbelt up. I was nearly in tears I was so upset.

today I have put on the seatbelt easily and had to tighten it loads. I’m feeling so excited to go on holiday, to go swimming, hiking and drink cocktails by the pool.

there are times that I find this whole thing frustrating but it really is changing my life, albeit slowly. Very slowly.

Hello

accidentally posted a reply to someone else on a different thread, so edited it to be my introduction! I've been lurking for a while reading your posts and think I probably belong here!

I started in May and while I had good losses in the first 2 weeks, I also had terrible side effects so I decided to split my dose and increase it really slowly. Progress unfortunately was at a snail's pace, and has recently been going backwards - because I was reluctant to put up my dose again.

So, I have bitten the bullet and am going to up it a bit each week until I start losing again!

SW 115.5kg
CW 107.2kg
GW 75kg

Another 1lb lost, which I am v v happy with!

It’s hard isn’t it but I think you made the right choice to gradually up your dose over time @Doggymummar as sometimes it takes the higher doses to start being effective for a lot of us. If you’d stayed on 5 the effects may well have dropped off and progress stopped. Remember how far you’ve come and even with slow progress it’s heading in the right direction and all your efforts will be worth it in the end 🫶

I have noted that with the different experiences of others on various threads that it seems some people can sense the effects of the meds more strongly and tangibly (like suppression and food noise reduction) while others don’t. It looks like that although the pace and lbs dropped varies massively from speedy 🐇 and lots of lbs, to super slow 🐢 and less lbs, that overall WLI do help weight loss, fast and slow. I think even the threads that pop up like ‘not losing weight on MJ’ etc are probably stuck in a stall or plateau (I feel like an expert on these now as have been through so many!) in a lot of cases anyway I know it doesn’t work for everyone. I’ve also found it very encouraging to learn about the other positive health benefits it has like inflammation reduction and blood sugar regulation/ stabilisation.

I found an interesting article from a private GP practice in London that highlights a lot of these other medical benefits: https://drsophiakhalique.com/the-secret-life-of-mounjaro/

This has helped me during stalls to keep in mind that quietly other good things are going on inside, even if the scales are being stubborn! 🙇‍♀️

Week 68 for me now. Just done my four week average and it is 0.9 lbs/wk, which I am really pleased with as it means I am still losing at double the rate I was for many months before the last two. Been on 15 mg for three months now, last two months have been noticably better than many many months before that when I was on the lower doses.

It can be frustrating but I do think that slow is better than fast - less chance of hair loss/loose skin/gallstones. It really doesn't feel that long ago that I was doing my first injection. I've lost 4 st 2 lbs now. I feel and look so much better, even though I am still obese (7 lbs to go until overweight - I will be so pleased if I can start new year not obese!). Now I am here I am fine it has taken me 68 weeks to get here.

I'm still trying to shift my focus on to all the other non-weight loss goals. Obviously, I have more control over my rate of progress there but it is lower than my weight loss progress! Still 😳. Only one way to change that...

Aw yay happy holidays! What a great win with the seat belt too woop woooop! 🙌 that must have been a great validation for all your hard work and progress so far, get you having to tighten it up loads, you go! 🌟
I had a similar win at a kids fairground, previous year when we took the DC I nearly couldn’t close the safety bar over my tum, it just would not go down far enough to click in, had a panic and sucked everything in with all my might to finally click it down with it wedged tight over my tum - this summer it went straight down and clicked in no drama, yay! 🤩

Bon voyage @tryingtobesogood and have a lovely time from all us plodders x

Hi and welcome to Plodders Club @notgonnafail! 👋 you’re in good company here and please feel free to lurk or post as much as you want! 💛

I and I’m sure others here can relate to your experience. I particularly felt the first increase from 2.5 to 5 was awful, got crazy gastric side effects and also knocked other medications I was on, so I had to drop back down and progress halted for several weeks. To encourage you when I did start increasing doses again gradually (in the hopes to start losing again) the side effects were much better, nowhere near as bad as that first dose jump and some even stopped. I hope you get the same with much less /manageable SE. For me now on 12.5 I do still get gastric SE but it’s not constant and is more manageable.

Well done on your weight loss so far and all the very best with upping your doses :)

(Might be worth having a chat with your pharmacy to check it’s safe to increase weekly, as the standard dose increase is 4 weekly)

@notgonnafail also meant to say (and I hope this makes you feel better that you’re not alone) but my progress has also gone backwards a few times including right now. I was 2 lbs lighter a month ago, then it crept up 4 lbs then stopped a while and has now bobbed back another 2. So I am still 2 lbs more than I was a month ago 🫠 but….

… overall down 16kg since starting nearly a year ago. Much less than some but it was impossible before so if slow and gradual (with stalling and bobbing) is the way my body can handle weight loss then I’ll take it! :)

Well done @AllRevvedUpWithNoPlaceToGo ! Every lb counts 🌟

Well done @AlmostStopped you are such an inspiration to keep going, where you are now at just over 4 st down is amazing! I think we’re at a similar bmi stage as I’m also 7lbs to overweight, at this rate it will take a while 😬 I was hoping for by Christmas and wondering whether trying to set this as a goal might be helpful for motivation (or not!) not sure. Need to get moving more so maybe if I can do this it will help get back into steady progress.

Also reading your post I think I need to take the leap to the last dose of 15 mg as maybe it will power a bit of a boost like it did for you! 3 doses of my last 12.5 pen to use then will start on the 15

And I agree that slower is better than fast for all the reasons you said @AlmostStopped and more. I think it’s meant to help more with maintaining.

All the best with your other non-weight loss goals, I’m struggling to get started with mine (fitness/ muscle tone), are you finding anything helpful for motivation? At least posting on here gets me thinking about it more!

I raise the dose by about 3 clicks of a 5mg pen a week, not a full 2.5mg or more, prescriber has no issue with it and is happy I'm feeling ready to do so. I have been splitting my dose in 2 anyway, on her advice, to smooth the big leaps when going up. I just stayed to low too long because I didn't want a return to how I felt in the first 2 weeks. As soon as I got even a tiny sulphur burp if I raised it even 0.25mg in a week, I panicked!

It's time to stop being nervous about it, as I've never had any suppression of food noise or appetite, so I will just increase slowly until I reach the point where I either do get one or other type of suppression, or I get SEs I can't bear, and then I will stay where I am for a few weeks!

I am in it for the long haul as I have fatty liver disease and autoimmune liver disease, so need it to work but not to reduce my already limited quality of life.

It’s hard when side effects are rotten @notgonnafail hopefully they will lessen as you move up doses as your body adjusts. That’s great you’ve got support with a gradual approach and hope you get suppression soon 🤞. I’ve also got fatty liver disease and was pleased to read about the positive effect on the liver it has!

@PlodAlongPolly Since splitting the dose in week three the SEs really disappeared. They've only reared their heads a tiny bit when I raised the dose, so I am only just reaching 5mg over the course of the week now. But, the memory of those first 2weeks is still very vivid as it was rotten, but I'm hoping that my body will cope with it better now it's more used to the MJ!

Sorry to hear you have fatty liver too. From scanning the other threads, I've noticed that a lot of us who are losing slowly, and/or had really bad side effects, and/or who didn't see much benefit until they got to higher doses are often those of us with serious metabolic dysfunction - insulin resistance/pre-diabetes or diabetes, fatty liver etc. Makes me wonder if the medication is working on that for us first, before it lets us lose the weight? I really hope that one day there will be studies looking into that, so that future users will know why they are responding more slowly etc

Thanks @PlodAlongPolly ! Well, we can try/hope to lose those 7 lbs by Christmas! Approx 11 weeks until Christmas/12 weeks until new year. 0.6-0.7 lbs/week average. Slightly mad that I feel that is a challenging target!

Motivation. Good question! I think it has to be action - forcing myself to make that first step and then motivation seems to come from there.
I did manage to clean the bathrooms to an 'ok' standard but not exactly note worthy for an entire weekend. I somehow managed to waste most of the weekend on hunting for bedroom furniture and failing. Again. Including a depressing trip to nearest city (and hour away) to look in John Lewis.

I think I need to set simple goals and stick to just two areas. Once I have actually started being consistent with a couple of things I am hoping that will bring the motivation to add more things in. Any one else want to join me in setting some simple non-weight loss goals for the week?

House: Do 20+ mins/day of housework beyond the 'perpetuals' (basic tidy/bins/laundry/dishes/swish and swipe). Should double up as exercise!

Exercise: Do shoulder exercises every day (supposed to do 5 x week so aiming for every day might actually hit that). It is by rehab class again tomorrow (that costs quite a lot) and yet again I've done nothing inbetween. Just found email with exercises - sent over a month ago (!). It had a link to the portal and has videos of each exercise, able to tick when complete and rate difficulty for each one. Just finding this out now and have actually done it! So that is a win!

I forgot to say - yes, I think trying 15 mg is worth a go @PlodAlongPolly . I've been really surprised by it. Maybe there is something special about 15 mg! It took a month on it first before the difference started. Could be coincidence of course! I quite like that all the decision about doses has gone now (for a long while at least). Nice change after sub dosing nearly all the way up, a little too cautiously perhaps.

I did four weeks at 13.75 mg first, I probably didn't need to though.

Ah that’s good @notgonnafail yeah I had the same with upping doses and SE thankfully it has been more manageable going upwards from 7.5 but I know what you mean, I still remember how strong the SE were when I stepped up to 5 many months ago!

Thanks re: liver and it’s good to know we’re on a medication that actually benefits it. Yes hopefully there will be studies on things like this in the future and like you said to better inform people of the potential reasons for slower losses. Maybe even guide people with what they can do specifically to help weight loss progress with a metabolic disorder or other health conditions, that would be v helpful. I’m glad I found out when I had a diagnostic for something else and my liver got picked up at the same time, there were no symptoms so I wouldn’t have known otherwise.

I hope your gradual increasing is going ok and if you get more trouble with SE feel free to post on here or elsewhere on the WLI board as fellow jabbers may come up with some good ideas about how to subdue them.

Why not @AlmostStopped Christmas is a good goal to aim for! 😄 I’d love to be at least a couple more pounds closer to ‘overweight’ by then anyway 😆 I could have written your bit about the depressing trip to look for furniture at JL, also about an hour drive away. When you’ve gone specifically in the hopes to find something it’s disappointing to come away empty handed, I hope you find what you’re looking for soon 🤞 Well done on the housework and exercises though, all good stuff. I’ve also just been given some physio exercises with the videos (for my back), maybe we can encourage each other!

So yes I’m in with the non-weight loss goal of starting my exercises and doing them 3x a week to start with, and be consistent.

Housework is a constant treadmill due to my delightful mess makers so can’t really list that as a goal lol. I guess I could go for ‘try to attack the housework with a more positive mindset’ as one though!

Thanks @AlmostStopped that’s really encouraging to hear about the 15, I’m also wondering whether to sub-dose or go for the full whack. Great chart! 👍

Hello Plodders, how is everyone getting on?

Plodding along for me but managed to drop the 2 lbs from ‘bob-a-long’ month so pleased with that. Trying to figure out what on earth to wear for an event this weekend, seem to be in a weird middle ground now where my big clothes are loose but smaller ones (put away in storage) are too small. Last time I was this size was about 6-7 years ago so where are all the clothes hiding?! 🤷‍♀️ pretty sure I wasn’t walking around nude!

Morning, I came back from my holiday with a cold and only 1lb heavier which I’m chuffed about. Well not about the cold obviously.

I am now focusing on dropping a few pounds before Christmas. I am 1.5lb from the next stone down and it’s driving me nuts. Time to actually diet I fear 😧

Did you get rid of them? I got rid of my clothes in the next size down but have lots in this current size.

Not a bad result at all from being away! Apart from the cold obviously and hope you’re feeling better @tryingtobesogood

That is tantalisingly close to next stone down! Keep going, keep plodding and it will come off 🌟 will be a great Christmas present to yourself, a lovely new number 😊

Very possibly, I have no idea! 😂 I might have squirrelled them away but can’t for the life of me think where. Have checked the usual clothes hoarding hot spots. Oh well! Managed to pick up a passable dress at the charity shop, so that will do for now :)