Can only afford 6 months worth of treatment- worth it or don't bother?

[djbbb]

Hi everyone,

I'm really overweight now , 5ft 8, 16 stone. Had 2 kids and really struggling with the losing weight, I've been big all my life but all I think about is food now. I'm a bit nervous as I'm worried about side effects etc, but I figured if I don't lose weight now my health is going to suffer. I have hardly any energy, high cholesterol and really low self esteem because of my weight. I've had a baby 4 months ago and I've put on a stone just since I've had him.. 😭

Anyway, I'm on maternity pay- I really can't afford it. However, my mum has offered me £1000 as she knows how much my weight is effecting me. Obviously I am totally blown away by this, so so kind. This will buy me possibly around 5.5-6 months from pricing I've seen online. Is this enough? I've seen most people saying you have to go on a maintenance dose and others who've been on injections much longer.

I don't know what to do, I definitely can't afford anymore than what the £1000 covers. And I don't want it to be a complete waste of money if it's not enough! But in the other hand I'd really like to give it a go.

I know no one can probably give me a definitive answer, I would just like to hear experiences if anyone has any! Thank you ☺️

Yes I think it’s worth it. 6 months is a decent chunk of time, and you may be able to use discounts to get more than 6 months out of the money. It’s not at all something that the manufacturer would ever support, but you can extract the remaining liquid from the pen after 4 doses to use as a 5th dose which can help with the cost if that’s something you’re comfortable with.

Even losing 10% of your current weight would be beneficial and it’s likely you’d lose more than that over 6 months or so.

You’d need to think about building habits to help you maintain if you know you’re going to stop at some point. So really looking to embed lifestyle changes during the time on the medication to support you afterwards. It’s not impossible to maintain whilst totally stopping the medication.

Honestly no one can say. Some people are slower than others responding to the medication, I didn’t lose much on the lower doses. On the other hand I’ve read about plenty of people who lose loads straight away, you won’t know until you try it is the honest answer.

I'm down 18kg in 5.5 months and I have a pen and a half spare due to using the extra dose.....

Definitely worth it in my experience. I lose an average of 4lbs (after my initial bigger losses when I started) each week. If you’re 5ft 8 you could probably be about 11 stone and be fine.

So that’s 5 stone in six months you want rid of.
You'd do that by losing 11lbs a month, or around 3lbs a week.

Do it!

Have A look at SheMed, they are running the £99 a month again, you could do 10 months!
I’ve lost a stone in a month so far.
Good luck 🍀

I would say go for it, it really does help, and not just to lose weight. I feel more optimistic about my health and fitness, feel for the first time in years that change is possible.

if you shop around you could make the money do 6 months or maybe more, which should help you lose a good amount of weight and tackle your mental wellbeing around food.

i use Weight watchers to help me move to good food habits, with the intention of using this for maintaining.

Sorry, I was wrong. It’s £99 for the first month, then £159 each month after that.https://www.shemed.co.uk/eligibility-weightloss?adgroupid=172790248033&keyword=shemed%20weight%20loss&matchtype=p&extensionid=212921288928&targetid=kwd-2382660455945&placement=&target=&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAqdffKp83tXAKxp_6GRMwZ5IpeF1E&gclid=Cj0KCQjwhYS_BhD2ARIsAJTMMQaf3WloFN5OR02z3dh3r24O4Cbd_zYcL0fNRG7w1RplhJlR3Ohq_GkaAlFSEALw_wcB

I would say go for it, I've lost 5 stone in 6 months and am now titrating down.

I did it for exactly 6 months. Lost just under 3st went from 13 stone to 10.
I stopped at that point cos of cost and side effects but I've kept it off since.

The highest dose I went to was 7.5mg and I gave up cold turkey, no issues.

I've lost three stone since November. I don't recognise myself. You need to calorie count and use will power also but where all my diets over the last 30 years have failed this one has worked. Im. 5 foot 4 was 15 stone now 12.

I would say yes it’s definitely worth it, Going by the prices on https://monj.co.uk/discount-mounjaro-price-list/ you could possibly get 10 months+ if you swap suppliers each month for the new customer discounts/price match and use the bonus dose in each pen.

Definitely go for it. Medicine marketplace is the cheapest I think

@djbbb I would just say, if you’re on mat pay, how long has it been since you gave birth? I would not suggest starting Mounjaro if your baby is still tiny, and if you are breastfeeding then you won’t be able to be prescribed it.

I pay £119 per month for MJ. Planning on doing it for 2 months. See how it goes. Longer if I want. I’m on week 5, list a stone

It was never meant for short term use. How will you feel if after the six months you regain all of the weight which is highly likely to happen?

You've had a baby 4 months ago and I don't think it's right for you to start taking a drug like that: it has brutal side effects.

I've seen threads on here that the jabs almost pay for themselves with the amount of money you save on food.
It's a very generous offer from your mum so make the most of it. Hope it goes well for you.

You will be able to get more out of it than 6 months if you don’t move to the higher doses and stay on the 2.5-5 mg ones - you really don’t have to. One pen averages 120 per month for me. Take the extra dose in each pen - that’s five weeks per pen. You should be able to get a good 8 months. Agree that you need to wait until you’re not breastfeeding.

Agree that you need to maybe wait a bit longer if breastfeeding but I think it is worth doing for a bit. You can’t know what side effects you will get if any until you try it and you do need to be prepared for that which will be hard with a small baby if you do get them.

For the moment I would buy Nutracheck which is about £30 for the year and start recording your daily calorie intake. Work out your TDEE, there are calculators which do this whilst breastfeeding if that is applicable and maybe try to eat just under that for now which will get you gently started.

When you do start the suggestion of monj.co.uk is a good one, I have switched several times so far and it has been fine. There is currently extra in each pen which can be syringed out at the end if you want to giving an extra dose though the manufacturers are going to be stopping having the extra at some point.

Be realistic as to what you might lose. 3 or 4 lbs as someone has been doing above just isn’t realistic for me and I average 1.3lbs a week which I am happy about. Be prepared that as with any form of dieting the loss isn’t consistent, you will have weeks where you stay the same or gain but that is normal and over time you should steadily decrease of it works for you. It doesn’t work for everyone, about 10 to 15% it doesn’t work for but odds are in your favour.

Our shopping bill is down by £100 a month so it is working out to not be much each month.

You won't be able to take the injections if you are breastfeeding.

£1000 will get you more than 6 months. Go to monj.co.uk for discount prices. Also, if you get 5 doses out of the pen it will last longer

It’s worth it even if it’s just for 6 months. I only bought 4 pens and used them for 20 weeks because I was using the bonus dose. I started with a BMI of over 33 and in 20 weeks, I was a BMI of 24.8.
I stopped and maintaining without the jab and I’m still losing weight albeit slowly but everything has changed for the better. I’m happier, exercising well, not experiencing any extreme hunger and eating and snacking on the right things and overall, I’ve not piled on any weight since I’ve been off the jab

Hi everyone,

Thanks so much for all the advice. I wasn't aware of monj website so will be using that! In terms of hopping to different providers to get their discounts, is it difficult? Do I just need to provide the previous prescription to them to prove dosage?

To answer a few Q's, I'm not breastfeeding anymore. Stopped last month when he was 3 months old so he's completely FF now. No where online says about not being able to take them postpartum (though I don't know if it's the best idea or not)

If needs be I could wait a while, I'm just eager to get started and get healthier, I feel so fat and sluggish atm 😔

Thanks for all your experiences, they've been very helpful!

Also regarding 'bonus dose' I've seen a few people talking about it on TikTok, how do I do it? And do all the pens do it?

@djbbb

In terms of hopping to different providers to get their discounts, is it difficult? No it's very straightforward, you just fill out their online consultation and it will ask if you are already taking a WLI, you say which one and what dose, then you should be able to order the same dose, or one higher/lower if that's what you need.

Do I just need to provide the previous prescription to them to prove dosage? Yes, the simplest way is to provide a photo of the prescription label on your previous pen box that shows your name, the date and the dosage.

Nowhere online says about not being able to take them postpartum (though I don't know if it's the best idea or not) My only caveat about that is that being tired and having to deal with a small baby might be tricky if you are unlucky and get any gastric side effects, or if it makes you feel very tired which can happen for some people. But if you have good support at home then it's not necessarily an issue.

Regarding 'bonus dose' I've seen a few people talking about it on TikTok, how do I do it? And do all the pens do it? There's two ways you could use the remaining liquid. Once you've done 4 doses, the pen mechanism locks and won't twist to enable you to do any more doses. You can try to force the twist so that the pen mechanism breaks free. You can then use the pen as you did before, and do one more injection. I managed this twice, but the next two times I tried, the whole internal mechanism broke apart and the pen was totally unusable. So, in that circumstance, you can buy (from an online supplier like UK Medi) separate syringes with fixed needles that you can insert into the pen seal (where the short needle is usually attached for a normal dose) and draw out the remaining liquid. You can then check what amount of liquid you have got, and check what dose you are going to give yourself, and then inject with that syringe. Or you can just decide in advance to use syringes and not bother trying to force the mechanism.

All the pens will always have leftover liquid once you have done the 4 prescribed doses. It has to be there, as some liquid is needed to prime the pen each time you inject. You might need to prime more than once if you have a duff needle which can happen. Hence there being plenty of spare liquid. What is left after the standard 4 doses is usually between 0.6ml and 0.8ml or so. A normal dose from any pen strength is always 0.6ml.

Of course all of the stuff about the leftover medication is not at all supported or suggested by the manufacturer of the medication, or by the pharmacies. It's up to you to decide if you want to try to use it or not.

I’m on my 4th pen and it’s the best thing I’ve ever done my DH is on his last pen now doesn’t need another we started at the same time. £1000 is definitely enough , I use pharmacy online it’s £134 ish a month , though you have delivery on top and the first month you also have to buy needles and a sharps bin. If you don’t manage to shift all the weight you want to you will lose enough to make a massive difference to how you look and feel. It’s bloody brilliant and it’s transformed my life . Also an odd thing is I’ve only lost 3 lbs in the last 2 weeks but in that time I’ve gone from 16 jeans to 14 ! Started out size 20 . I’ve lost just under 2 stone and it’s been so easy. Not constantly feeling hungry has been such a relief , ve had very few side effects, straight after the jab I feel really cold but that wears off , have to take senna maybe once twice a week , then if I over eat ( very rare!) or eat shite I don’t feel great , bit of insomnia first week or 2 , other than that the other side effects are actually good ones and hopefully I am no longer prediabetic . My other medical conditions have also improved which I did not expect at all. Honestly give it a go and personally I wouldn’t wait , you’re miserable and tired which is taking away your baby joy! You don’t have to feel this way , try it.