Staying on 2.5mg - anyone else?

[Bananafofana]

I’m on week 7 of 2.5mg : I am losing 0.5 - 1kg every week so have stayed on that dose. Anyone else? After 7 weeks I am 6kg down (almost a stone).

I’m wondering if anyone else has just sat on the starter dose and if so for how long?

I haven’t gone up a dose as I didn’t want to lose weight any faster and risk gall stones etc.

Yes. Nearly six months in, got to goal on 2.5mg and am very easily maintaining on 2.5 every fortnight!

I stayed on it for a couple of months. No point in going up if it’s working.

Fortnightly? I space to 10 days for maintenance but hadn’t thought to push to 14 days.

and for @Bananafofana i stayed on 2.5mg for my whole journey loosing 5 stone and maintenance for the last 6 months. I still feel the benefits now. I think I might be very sensitive to it?

Thanks all for your input. Really interesting to hear.

I too think I’m both sensitive to it and also have quite fast metabolism. I know that sounds like a strange thing to say as I was overweight but I was eating 2500 - 3000 calories a day (when alcohol factored in) and had bmi of 28. I qualified for a private prescription as I had both high BP and high cholesterol.

I’ve been losing weight on around 1800 calories a day, often up to 2000 one weekend day every week when I have two glasses of wine. Due to injury I can’t do high impact exercise so just half an hour of walking every day.

I’m going back to 2.5 after a month on 2.5 and then a month on 5. I felt ready to go up a dose, but I feel dreadful with constant nausea and not being able to eat anything a lot of the time. I also can’t exercise because I feel so bad, and I know this is not the way to do it.

I think I must be particularly sensitive to it, and am looking forward to a lower suppression that means I can eat three small meals a day without spending the weekend in bed feeling sick.

I haven't stayed on 2.5 for a long time, but I just wanted to say it's so refreshing to see someone taking things at a steady pace, and staying on lower doses instead of trying to chase rapid weight loss. I seem to be seeing a lot of people pushing up the doses every 4 weeks because they are 'only' losing 2lbs a week 🤦‍♀️

I took 2.5mg for 6 weeks. I then went to 2.9mg for a week, and then 3.33mg for a week. I was going to do 3.75mg this Friday, but I am thinking I will stick to 3.33mg as I am getting to that point where I nearly forgot to have breakfast yesterday morning, didn't have any snacks and didn't have my dinner until gone 8pm because I was busy doing stuff and had dinner because it was getting late, not because I was hungry. Even though I don't think I will lose the full KG this week, I am able to objectively look at it and know it's because I am due on in the next week, plus I started doing body pump and had aching arms for days afterwards, do there could be some fluid retention or slight muscle gain. Also, I am still 10kg down in 8 weeks which is the main thing to look at the bigger picture and not get upset because I have only lost half a pound one week.

Anyway, if 3.33mg keeps working for me, I will stay on that as long as I can and only move up very slowly. My next increase will be 3.75mg

i am on my sixth week of 2.5 and intend to stay at this dose throughout. I have a slow metabolism but the same starting bmi as you (high cholesterol). I feel I am loosing weight too fast (12 pounds in 5.4 weeks) and I am making myself eat more with a balanced 'clean' diet. I'm hoping to reach my goal weight of a bmi of 22 by end July.

I’m on even less than that. I’m 3.5 months in and have been on 1.6mg since the third week (having tried 2.5, then 2). I never seem to get any more used to it to be able to go up at all. I’ve lost a pound a week, and have a couple of months left to go now to get to goal weight.

I went up to 5mg for my second pen but had such bad side effects I took a week off then went back down to 2.5mg, by taking 30 clicks out of the 5mg pen, and have stayed on 2.5mg.

I have been on mounjaro since the middle of December and I am losing 2-3lbs a week and have lost over 3 stone so far.

I am going slow and steady and it will take as long as it takes to lose the weight I need to.

I’m staying on 2.5 for my second pen, I’m in week four so don’t know yet whether that’s the right decision, but don’t want to race through the doses if I don’t need to. I can always go for 5mg next time.

I did my entire ‘journey’ on nothing higher than 3.75, 4.5 stone down. If you can then I would as it’s cheaper for a start!

I’m over 20 weeks in on 2.5 - lost 4 stone so far and intend to remain on 2.5 throughout

I've done this. I started on 2.5mg and managed it for 14 weeks before it didn't work as well for me. I've now moved to 3.75mg and been on that for a few weeks, the suppression is huge again and I'm intending on staying on this for as long as I can. I've got gallstones from previous diets, so am conscious of slow and steady weight loss.

17 weeks in, I tend to lose 1lb per week, and I'm at 0.5lb away from two stone weight loss.

2.5 is all some people need, I agree that if it works for you there is no need to go up. My MIL is planning to maintain with 2.5 not only for weight but the other benefits that come from it, reduced inflammation, improved menopause symptoms, digestion, no alcohol temptation.

I stayed on 2.5 for the first 10 weeks. I ordered the 5 mg but am just doing 45 clicks so 3.75 - I dont intend going any higher than this, I'm losing a steady 2 - 2.5 lbs a week and I'm happy with that. I feel better on 3.75 than I did on 2.5, just more energy, no sulphur burps etc so for now a dose that suits me. I think people tend to rush up the doses every 4 weeks because thats what you do, but really unless you need to, I think the lower the better.

amazing to hear about all your losses - thank you all for sharing.

i would love to stay on it for life for the control it has given me over misusing alcohol as stress release and also aches and pains - it used to take me half an hour for my joints to warm up in the morning and now I am pain free. It’s not just weight loss, I felt it after one week and one kg. Truly amazing - has anyone got a link to explain the science behind the reduction in inflammation?

@PurpleCoo ive realised the other reason I don’t want to lose too much too fast is I don’t want people to notice too much…only my husband knows I’m on it (and only then in case I had an anaphylaxis reaction the first jab!) and I loathe talking about my weight to people.

None of my female friends or acquaintances are larger than a size 10: all women in their 40s and 50s who take their appearance VERY seriously. I’ve always told them flatly I don’t discuss weight as my sister had an eating disorder and I can tell a few are chomping at the bit to say something now I’ve lost a stone but are just about managing to hold their tongue!!!

I'm on dose 26. Not QUITE what you asked, but I've remained on a low dose. 4 x 2.5mg , then I took 3 months at about 3.75 before hitting the giddy heights of 5mgs for a month. I have dropped back down to 4mgs for the last 4 doses, as I was feeling nauseous. My average loss is 0.8kg a week, and I've set my calories to "maintain" on nutracheck for now as my BMI is 24 and I'd like to focus on fitness for a bit.

It is so tempting to push my dose up, drop the calories and get skinny. But this feels better for me.

I've had 13 doses of 2.5kg and am still losing weight

Same as you. On 2.5mg, 7 weeks, have lost a stone and over 6% of fat. The whole point is to maintain without it if possible, so I'm definitely staying on 2.5mg until I try without. It's worked wonders for me on that dose.

I stayed on the 2.5 dose for 5 months. I lost at a slow rate that averaged out at 1.8lb per week. There is no way I could have increased to a higher dose as I had very strong appetite suppression on 2.5.

I have several types of arthritis and it definitely helped reduce inflammatory responses in my body. Although that could also be that I ate so much better too.

If it is working for you @Bananafofana why not stay where you are.

That's amazing well done! Can I ask how you are able to maintain? I was wondering how they still prescribe you if you're at goal weight as when I go to reorder they ask for pics etc still (are you allowed to just get a maintenance pen with a healthy BMI?) Thanks !

@Sunshinesally77 I think I have one of the more relaxed providers (Phlo). They seem happy as long as I am happy. Six months on from my earlier post and a year after first taking it I now ordering it even less frequently. I had a pen in April and then another in mid September when I felt like my weight was creeping up.

No doubt I am breaking all sorts of guidelines right now but I think they will catch up with the way people are actually using the drug.

Sorry - also meant to say that I am fairly consistent with my diet and active lifestyle. I had some habits which made it more difficult to lose weight and I have mostly ditched them.

Oh wow, I first posted on this thread back in April when I had lost 4 stone at just over 20 weeks on 2.5mg. I have now lost over 7 stone and done nearly a year, still on 2.5mg with no intention to move up. It’s been life changing for me and I can eat so much more now than I could in the early weeks, months even, but I’m still losing weight. It’s slowed to around a pound a week now but that’s perfect for me at this stage.

@northerneast that’s fantastic. I wish the same for myself!