Mounjaro/Wegovy with > 5st/30kg to lose: Thread 7

[MooBaggage]

Thread SEVEN of this lovely community. Anyone using weight-loss injections to lose more than 5 stone or 30kg is very welcome to join us, no matter what stage of the process you are on. Share your losses, your non-scale victories (NSV), your frustrations and your love of Longley Farm cottage cheese and kiwi fruit here!

Nothing is off limits to discuss - from protein sources to B bellies; Hammocks to smart scales; feeling chilly to easier bum wiping 😃

Please don’t post discount codes on this thread as your post will be deleted. These need to go in the dedicated thread on this board

Massive onederland congratulations @Darlinghag& @WeAllHaveWings🎉🎉🎉

The sun is shining so obviously smallest brought us a horrible bug & I feel like death warmed up 🫠 BUT I had an Epsom salt bath last night having not had a bath since Christmas (pinkie promise I shower regularly!) & oh my goodness the space!! Clearly the reason my clothes size hasn't changed much is that most of the fat has come off my thighs/arse...

Congratulations!!
Curious to know how your skinny friend was sabotaging?

With regards to underwear, do any of you have an old-fashioned lingerie shop near you? None near me but there's one by my Mum (700 miles away grrrr). It's the kind of place where they have been fitting underwear for years and can pretty much eyeball the fit. I always try and get there when I go and see my Mum.

Totally off topic but still funny. Went to the beach today with the youngest (11) and my husband. I asked my son to go and find a decent log for the fire (as long as you haven't got an all out deflagration small bonfires are OK). So he did. Half a tree! My son can be very literal at times, thats for sure. There's nothing better than being at the beach with a camping chair, a fire to keep me warm and letting the youngest do his thing. I hope the rest of you are having a nice bank holiday weekend as well.

Forgot to add the picture of said decent log.

I would really appreciate some advice from the wise bods here. I have done 6 jabs of 2.5mg and due my next one today. The last 10 days or so I have had no suppression whatsoever so I want to up the dose. I have two options:

1. Take 3.75 today from my 2.5pen and then either continue with 3.75 next week or go up to 5 depending on effects/ side effects.
2. Take 2.5 today and another 2.5 on Wednesday and go on with a split 5mg dose until I feel brave enough for a full 5mg dose.

Which of these do you think is better? I am inclined to the second because it will let me finish my 2.5mg pen without faffing with clicks. But I am a bit afraid of doing anything other than what is prescribed so would really appreciate some advice from the more experienced folks here. Thank you!

I would go with option 1, because it sticks to the 1 x weekly dose and I'm not sure you're supposed to inject twice a week?

But obvs I have no actual idea...! Just feels like option 1 is closer to the recommended routine!

@SpunkyKhakiScroller suppression, or even the desire for it is very individual. I have not had any significant suppression since the early weeks of taking Mounjaro. What I do get is no obsessive food noises or cravings, as long as I pay attention to what I eat and don't eat too much sugar/carbs. Or if I eat a large meal and eat mindfully, I lose interest in it and I make the choice to stop eating. This is enough to help me stay in my calorie deficit, but I need to work with it too. "Suppression" for many people does not continue past the early weeks, so have a think about what your expectations are from the medication. Some rush up the doses chasing that suppression they experienced in the first weeks and before they know it they are at 15mg and nowhere to go. If you are on this thread with >5st to lose and a longer journey than most that might be a difficult place to be.

Regarding off license use. There are some things you can do which may break the prescribing guidelines but are minimal risk.

The 5th dose in the vial is the exact same medication as every other dose. It would also be within the 30 day discard rule if you inject on days - 0,7,14,21,28. The only new risk introduced is using a syringe and the hygiene around that.

Adjusting your dose down using clicks is minimal risk.

Injecting, regularly, more than once a week is an unknown risk so I don't do it. What I would consider doing, as my provider recommends this if effects of current dose are wearing off towards the end of the week, is injecting every 5-6 days instead of 7 temporarily until the end of the current pen.

If you are getting no effects for the last 10 days (not just no suppression) that doesn't sound like it would help you.

If you want to increase your dose from your 2.5mg pen to 3.75mg then you can do that with 90 clicks or 0.9ml. I assume you don't have a syringe to do 0.9ml so you would need to do 90 clicks over two injections, replacing/repriming the needle for each injection. This again is minimal risk as you have done your 2.5mg for the minimum 4 weeks, and you are injecting less mg that the next dose up. As this is your 3rd dose you should be able to do this without the pen locking. There will be significant liquid left in the pen which you could inject next week using a syringe. Let us know if you want links to suitable syringes for next week.

@SpunkyKhakiScroller Just to add being "afraid of doing anything other than what is prescribed" is a good thing. It makes you question what you are doing and you should do that until you get the answers that make you personally comfortable with your decision, especially when the internet is full of people doing all sorts with this medication.

Thank you @MooBaggage and especially @WeAllhavewings for your thoughtful and helpful answers. I decided to go for 3.75 from the 2.5 mg pen for today. I have ordered a 5mg pen which should arrive before I am due for my next dose so I will decide at that point if I want to use syringes to extract the next dose from my 2.5mg pen or whether tobgo straight onto using the 5mg pen.

It's a very good point you raise about chasing suppression. I will think it through and try to be more mindful about going up the doses. I had very high suppression and no food noise initially and it all came back in a rush the past 10 days. I could have dealt with the return of one or the other but both together knocked me back into my old, unhealthy patterns of eating. But that is what I need to grapple with and overcome and not go straight to higher doses. Thank you for reminding me of that.

@SpunkyKhakiScroller much like @WeAllHaveWings I don’t have suppression and never really have. I could easily sit and eat as much as I wanted and as often as I want. The big difference for me is that Mounjaro makes it easier to say no.

Before, I’d see a slice of cake and want it, if I said no, then I would think about that cake obsessively, I’d be justifying it ‘oh well if I don’t have a big dinner I’ll be able to stick to my overlay calorie target’, my stomach would start to rumble, my mouth would water and I would not be able to stop thinking about it till I ate it.

Now, I see it, I smell it, i think hmmm that looks nice. I tell myself no, and I forget about it and move on.

if my stomach starts to rumble, I look at the clock and think ‘it’s dinner in an hour I can wait’, and I can. That’s it. I’m not counting down the minutes. I’m not thinking about food all the time and plotting out how I can get a snack between meetings, or on the way to my next appointment.

So while I still feel hunger, and have the ability to eat till I’m overfull, I don’t have the burning craving to do it, I feel more in control.

I’ve really let myself down these past few days. I’ve been eating loads and not tracking calories at all. I think I’m just so disheartened with not losing any weight for so long, I just thought, why bother trying.
But I went shopping today and saw myself in the dressing room mirror (I don’t own a long mirror), and I actually looked quite nice, and being smaller suits me, so I need to get back on the wagon. I’m scared that I have ruined it for myself and won’t be able to stop eating loads now that I have started.
Spoke to the private pharmacy I ordered the 7.5mg from and before the authorise it they want a letter from my GP explaining why they can’t prescribe me 7.5mg 🙄 such a pain in the arse, like it’s easy to just get a doctors appointment to ask for a letter!! But, 6.25mg isn’t working for me, I’m still as hungry as ever, so I don’t even know if there is any point going up.
Sorry, I’m rambling

Ramble away, @alwaysscared that’s what these threads are for, no need to apologise for it. I think it’s really positive that you saw yourself in the full length mirror and liked what you saw. It’s the result of all the progress you’ve made so far.

I really don’t think you’ll have ruined anything over the last few days, by eating more than you have been recently. I do totally recognise the fear about that though, I think it’s really normal to worry about things like that.

I’m sorry it’s such a rigmarole to get your 7.5mg prescription, but hopefully the GP can do the letter and you can get on and start with the 7.5mg. Would it need an actual appointment at the GP or could you send them an email or message them somehow to ask for it?

Brilliant losses over this weekend - I hope one day to join Onederland 😊

I've had minimal/no suppression this week - am surprised at how fragile my eating (and drinking...) habits still are underneath it all 🙄

I've eaten more but have stayed the same weight this week. Due to inject tomorrow, so will increase slightly to 6mg and see how the week goes.

I'm mindful of suppression chasing - am trying not to dwell on it, but feel like I need a bit of extra help - 6mg will hopefully be just right.

This coming week - no alcohol, more water, back to smaller portions. I've managed all 3 today, after a self indulgent Friday and Saturday!

Hmm sabotage. At breakfast both days she pointed out that I hadn’t got any marmalade, I didn’t want it, I wasn't having toast, but she twittered away and then, helpfully got me some. She gathered up all the food I left and brought it back to our bedroom, just in case. She continually suggested we stop for coffee and cake. She offered alcohol at every opportunity.
I have had this before. I think some thin people feel a superiority to their fat friend, and don’t want to let it go. I’m away this weekend with my Dh and it’s so different, he is eating less because he doesn’t want to tempt me. I’ve told him it’s fine, he can eat what he likes, but he wants to support me( and doesn’t want me waking him at dead of night, guilting over something!) I’m still not sure how much I should eat, but mounjaro is telling me that carbs are not my friends. I’ve always been a Carb lover, and Im fearful that they are my open the floodgates food group.

@SpunkyKhakiScroller I also don't get suppression as such. What I get is a complete indifference to food. Yeah, I could chomp my way right through the picnic food for tomorrow but actually I CBA (and I'm also in bed and have no plans to get out!). I log any losses using an app and I generally move up when I start plateauing.

@alwaysscared instead of getting an appointment could you do an e-consult instead if your GP has that option? I'm more likely to ride my pet unicorn up the street than get an actual GP appointment so I use e-consult for everything.

I brought a t shirt online- slightly misleading photo though as it looked longer on the model than it is IRL- I tend to wear dresses rather than t shirts for more bum coverage! My teen daughter told me that it looked 'alright' which coning from her is a compliment. However it's the kind of thing I would have never brought a year ago, the style just wouldn't have suited me.

Hmm. Reading this struck a chord with me. I dieted down to a healthy weight approx 10 years ago now. I lost 3.5 stones with ww. My closest, and very slim friend started behaving in exactly the same way. It started with always having to meet at coffee shops, where she would arrive early, so there would be cake waiting for me when I arrived. She never did this before I was dieting. Snippy comments and zero encouragement left me really hurt and confused. Yet she was super interested in how much I had lost every time I went to weigh in. It escalated to open criticism of my appearance, and really nasty comments about me to others. Once I got down to goal weight, she was unbearable so I had to go NC with her. We had been really close for 15 years. It took a while for me to accept what was happening, but she needed me to stay fat, stay in my lane. I couldn't believe that someone I thought so highly of could hate me for losing weight.
I'm not suggesting that your friend is this bad, but please be careful there. Try and nip it in the bud if you can.

@Zebracaturgh that stuff can really mess with your head 💐 my mother is a master of the art!

I don't have suppression here either - I could eat huge volumes no problem but MJ mean that I don't have food calling to me constantly & even better I don't feel left out/unloved when others eat things without me. (I've never figured out what that's about but pre MJ every one happily tucking into food I don't like or can't eat made me genuinely tearful 🤷‍♀️)

1lb loss this week

Starting weight - 217.5 lbs (BMI - 33)
Current weight - 152.8 lbs (BMI - 23.2)
Total loss - 64.7 lbs

Have now lost 30% of my starting bodyweight and only 12lb to go to hit the ‘ideal’ weight for my height according to the online calculators.

Morning everybody,
I hope you all have a lovely Bank Holiday, if it is one where you are, if not...I hope the sun shines on you wherever you may be!

Weigh and jab day for me.
SW - 20st 3lbs (4th Aug 24)
CW - 15st 7.2lbs (5th May 25)
WL - 3lbs
TL - 65.8lbs - 56.2lbs to go approx
Average WL - 1.7lbs
23% body weight gone
54% goal progress

I feel I am properly over half way now and really think that I am going to get there, only 4 stone 0.2lbs to go!
How hard can it be?😉😀

Crikey you lot. You are so encouraging. I don’t know what I like best, the awesome stats or the properly reflective musings on the effects of MJ and the process. Thank you to all of you. Just off to a birthday party today, not apprehensive, I know I will be able to make the right choices.

Morning all!
second weigh in and after losing 7 pounds the first week, only one down this week so trying very hard not to react as I usually would and convince myself it’s not working!
onwards and downwards …. Happy bank holiday to all and thanks for such a fantastically supportive thread:)

@Zebracat Have a lovely time at the birthday party!

@AdotHam Dont be disheartened, you have lost 8lbs in 2 weeks! Thats amazing!😀
I also lost 7lb in my first week then nothing in week 2. Its just swings and roundabouts. Once you have been going for a litle while, work out your average weekly loss, that is much more telling than daily and weekly weigh ins.
Keep up the good work!😊

Thanks @MabelSpan !

really helps to hear other people’s experiences 💜

@AdotHam it’s not a linear path, some weeks you’ll have big losses, others small, others you’ll gain or stay the same. I have found some general patterns to the madness but even with weeks and weeks of data it’s impossible to really know what’s going to happen. The one thing I can say with some confidence is that if you keep going you’ll be smaller in a few weeks than you are now. I’ve put an image of my week by week tracker on this post. There tends to be a bigger loss every 3-4 weeks which I believe is hormone linked.

Yep with you there @MooBaggage
would absolutely love to reach Onederland.

Aware and concerned about supression chasing and fragility of relationship with food, likely made all the more complex by Mounjaro because now I have more insight and a ‘fix’ for it which I can see is not a forever fix and surprise surprise, I am going to have to explore this complex horrid relationship with food rather than ignore it.

But, for this month, I’m stuck on 5mg as already issued it, but would prefer 7.5mg.
Admitting a silly thing I did yesterday, I ordered syringes and tried to extract some of the ‘golden dose’ to top up 5mg. Same day and within date of normal jab.
So I gave myself the normal 60 clicks then extracted last 0.6ml from pen. Decided to inject up to half of it as top up. The diabetic needles I used were much harder to inject. I pinched the skin and pressed a very small amount which seemed to bubble under the skin, so I stopped and freaked!
lesson learnt. I’m not gonna mess with extra syringes 💉 🙄
i’m gonna just have to cope and get on with 5mg.
Heavy weekend of 2 meals out + desserts so just have to rein in now.