Mounjaro, 10st or more to lose, thread two

[Iwouldratherbesinging]

Starting a new friendly and supportive thread, we’re almost full on the last one.
original thread is here https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/weight-loss-injections/5226758-mounjaro-10st-or-more-to-lose

I'm on 15mg :( My consultant did discuss the possibility of up to 20mg (as I am being prescribed it off label anyway) - but it is nicely controlling the issue I see him for. It started with the weight loss being a nice side effect, but having lived without the constant craving and noise it was amazing. And I was really enjoying losing weight!!

@TragicMuse for nausea I find dimenhydrinate tablets very effective.

You can get them on Ebay.

Link here

Hi all - I'm new here and so glad to have found you. I actually had tears in my eyes reading the last few pages of the original thread, and all the things people are looking forward to doing. Simple stuff really, like fastening seatbelts and fitting into chairs and going on rollercoasters - it all seems like a distant memory for me. I've been on the other kind of rollercoaster - the weight gain/loss/gain type - for so long I can barely remember life when I was 'normal' (I use the term loosely!) I very badly broke my ankle last summer,and needed two surgeries - it really brought home to me how desperately I need to shift this weight. I started mounjaro on 21.3, and have lost over 17lb. But this isn't unusual for me at the start of a new 'regime' - the difference here is that I finally feel like it's sustainable. I'm not only eating less, I'm eating better. It's like a switch has been turned off in my mind, and I no longer crave the crap I used to binge on - I was up to three takeaways a day at one stage, waiting until I was in the house alone because I was so ashamed, sneaking out to hide the evidence afterwards. I was a slave to it. I didn't think mounjaro would work for me, because I've always thought of myself as an emotional eater, not one who ate because they were hungry - I was never hungry, due to the take-aways, chocolate and crisps! I have genuinely not had the slightest urge to touch any of the above since my first injection - long may it continue.

That said, I was so pleased to find this thread, because I need to lose almost half my bodyweight to even be without in touching distance of the top range of my recommended BMI - which genuinely seems like fiction, I don't think I've been that weight since I was 17! Having such a long journey to take is going to be tough, and it will be more pleasant in the company of my fellow travellers!

SW: 307lbs
CW: 289lbs
GW: 160lbs

Welcome @eibbed999 I'm sure we are all pretty much in the same boat, or were. My first goal was to get unmorbidly obese, I started at BMI 42. I've been MJ over two years now and my BMI is 29. Next goal is to be just overweight. My advris just follow your own goal, we are all different.

I hate and despise BMI, it’s absolute bobbins.

it was created as a descriptor across a population range not as a diagnostic tool or a paradigm to follow.

My teen, for example, falls into the overweight category. I have no idea how, they are a tall and willowy thing, there’s barely anything to them.

Hate hate hate it.

Ooh, thanks! I’ll get some…

@TheZingyFish well done! 7lbs off is epic for your first week, I’m not tracking calories as such but I know that my appetite will improve as I head towards jab day and will consume more calories in those days, so it will sort of even itself out over the week. It’s working for me so far…
babybel, nuts, protein yoghurts and grapes are my go to on those ‘can’t eat’ days.

Hi @debbiedj, so pleased that you found us ☺️

At the start of my journey I was driven by BMI, I probably still am to some extent as I ‘celebrated’ when I finally appeared on the chart at the top of the NHS obese category. But the more I have read about it the more I have become to resent it. According to the good ol’ NHS, my highest acceptable bmi is 24.9 which puts me at 10 stone, I have no memory of ever being 10 stone! I dread to think how much loose skin I’d have if I ever weighed 10 stone. I’ve set myself smaller goals, my next goal is 14st, then 12st 5lbs, I can’t think beyond that at the moment.

Several years ago I did the VLC Lighter Life diet and lost around 7 stone. That weight loss still left me overweight and of course I put it all back on with 3 stone more of interest.

Now I'm 3 stone down with around 9 stone to go to get to the mythical 'healthy' BMI. In a way I feel like I am back where I started. Except I feel better about it.

This feels different. Last night we had salmon with broccoli and rice for dinner. Pre Mounjaro I would have found it a depressing meal, worthy. It was absolutely delicious!

Hi @eibbed999. I really resonated with a lot of your post. What I will say is that I am very obviously an emotional eater and not having that crutch since I started MJ last August has been strange to get used to. It's definitely affected my mood at times and I have felt quite flat, I think because I am actually having to deal with my feelings and not just reach for some more food.

@Motnight that makes perfect sense, the flatness. As well as food being 'a treat' - because being mordibly obese is such a treat isn't it??? - it is a distraction from things we perhaps don't like about ourselves and our lives. And then we gain the weight, feel undisciplined, are socially ostracised (or at least feel like we are) and hate ourselves even more. It's a very nasty vicious circle. So far I have just felt liberated and relieved to not be controlled by food, but I suspect that one day before too long - I am only 4 jabs in - the self-sabotaging boredom will kick in and I'll persuade myself I 'deserve' something I shouldn't. I do feel though that with mounjaro I at least have a fighting chance of resisting!

I am loving reading everybody's stories, and knowing there is a place to come to ask those 'mounjaro for dummies' questions!

Hi all,
just checking in. It sounds like lots of good progress being made as well as some struggles.

i am still losing incredibly slowly (I am
11lbs down in 9 weeks) which is hard because I have so far to go but hopefully I’ll eventually get there.

my body shape has definitely changed a bit though as I’m comfortably a 24 now when I was a 26 and I’ve noticed some of my 24s are on the loose side. I’ll just keep plugging away.

I am also keeping an eye on my BMI, I started at 52 and I’m now 40.7 so getting very close to finally dropping in to the lower category which I’m happy about.

My wife has lost more than me, and is taller, so she’s just gone in to the overweight category. She’s really buzzed about it and it’s made me consider where I want to get to and I realised that I don’t actually care if I never reach healthy. I’d need to be 9st something to be in the healthy category. I just don’t think I’m going to put that pressure on myself, probably an awful attitude to have but all I care about is being healthier. Fitter. More active. I started at 52 so anything is better than that.

I’m already noticing my physical fitness improving. I don’t want to be skinny with loads of loose skin either. My first goal which seemed a million miles away when I started was being in the 15s. I’m now 15stone 7, and still motivated to continue but I’m already experiencing the benefits so my aim is to ignore the scales and bmi and just keep losing until I feel happy with my health and activity levels and my appearance

I seem to have hit a plateau the last couple of weeks. Although I've officially lost 1lb each week actually my weight has hovered between 247 and 244 (17st 9lb and 17st 6lb) since the 22nd March. I weigh almost every day. I'm averaging 1500 cal/day, hitting roughly 110g protein a day.

I started doing an 'easy' 30 min HIIT and a 30 min weights workout 5 times a week at the end of Feb and I hit an average of 10k steps a day.

In my sensible moments I know I probably just need to ride it out and keep going but I keep having stupid moments where I think i should drop my calories lower. My BMR is 1831 at sedentary.

Someone reassure me about your plateaus, I've still got another 6st to lose its not like I'm struggling with the last couple of pounds I could really do with my weighloss picking up a bit!

I was stuck at 202lb for nine months, so I know what a plateau is. It's extremely frustrating but if you are genuinely eating in a deficit the weight will eventually let go. I'm about 178 now and losing about half a pound a week. I would look at your calories again, have you recalculated since the beginning? I think 500 below TDEE is what they say to lose a pound a week, although it doesn't work for me. I don't know BMR.

Gosh, I have so much admiration for you for riding that plateau out @Doggymummar . It looks like I'm just out of a month long one now and that felt endless.
Pre MJ I would definitely have hit fuck it mode and eaten a load of crap, because what's the point trying when it's not working, whereas it's been very refreshing to feel frustrated but not self destructive.

So my current tdee is 2208 so 500 less is 1708 and I'm hitting 1500. I've made sure I've been super strict this week as I felt I had started to go back to old habits of stealing bits off the kids plates. It's just annoying to have so much to lose and not see any movement

It is frustrating and expensive too, but I really trusted the process and things started moving again eventually. Even though the scales didn't move my size changed and things got easier. For me it's so much more than a weightloss drug, many other things are improving too.

Please tell me your remedies for gas (at both ends). I get sulphur burps so bad and constantly feel like I need to fart too. It's getting me down. I've cut out all carbonated drinks but any other tips and tricks I'm willing to try .

@HelpMebeok you could try looking at a low sulphur diet eg example at this website

https://www.gidoctor.net/low-sulfur-diet/

Mounjaro slows your digestion and can produce excess hydrogen sulfide. It's tricky though as lot of things on the list are things you'd normally want to be eating on a low calorie high protein diet.

People also say that peppermint tea or capsules can help.

I use Guardium for burps, if I get them, as for farts, better out than in in my experience

I’m the same and I’m struggling to go up a dose because of it. I’ve noticed that I need to eat little and often for a couple of days after my injection, if i have a normal size meal the day of/day after my injection that normally triggers me to become bloated and gassy. I’ve tried buscapan, rennies, omemprazole but nothing has worked. My next step is going to the doctors and asking for a h-pylori test, as even before I started Mounjaro I do get heartburn.

If you find anything that works please let me know as it’s having a huge impact on me too

I swear by a portion of kimchi or sauerkraut each lunchtime. Tablespoon. And it has to be raw kimchi or sauerkraut. Keep gut biome healthy.

Did you change doses at all? I'm wondering if a month on a lower dose then going back up will kick start things again.

I away for Easter, my mum’s house does not have bathroom scales and I’m
going cold turkey on the daily weighing!!

I also haven’t told her so skirting around the smaller portions/appetite is going to be…interesting.

I just don’t want the praise for being on a diet when there are so many more interesting things to talk about!

We’ll see how it goes. I’m buckling in, it might be a bumpy ride!