Mounjaro - 10 Stone or more to lose (Thread 3)

[TheFunkyDuckling]

Thought I'd kick start a new thread for this oh so supportive little group, as the last thread was reaching it's limit.

According to the BMI chart, I need to get down to 11st before I'm no longer obese! I've not been that weight since my early twenties, and considering I'm now 54 and menopausal, it looks like I'm always going to be classed as obese. It's bonkers!!

This is why I track everything else as well as just pounds lost. Whenever the next pounds milestone feels forever away, there's usually a win elsewhere between BMI, overall percentage lost, overall body fat lost, visceral fat lost etc.
I'm right on the edge of dropping into the 15 stones but also really close to my BMI dropping below 35, so I'm just regular obese and not class 2 or 3, and not far off having lost 20% of my starting weight.

I agree the BMI thing can be misleading, it sounds daft but I can’t even envisage my size 26/28 self dropping to a size 20 at the moment but do hope to drop a bit further. I honestly would be content at a size 14/16 at the moment. I want to be able to go into a normal shop and choose clothes I like, rather than order stuff online and hope something is big enough even if doesn’t fit that well.

That said, as someone that has always struggled with her weight, I’ve never in my entire life been happy with my body so honestly have no idea what I’d be happy with. I do know though, that if I get to a size that I feel good about and don’t want to lose anymore, that I won’t try to keep losing weight if my BMI isn’t in the right category. To me this is about me becoming happier and healthier and that won’t be defined by a BMI calculation, it will be about me.

@TheZingyFish I was the same. I started at size 22, BMI 42, 18 stone 2. Just realised what a lot of twos there are! Two years later, here we are. Six stone down and the end is in sight. Just keep going, day by day and you'll get where you want to be

BMI is absolute bobbins - as I have bored on about many times!

It takes no account of muscle, or boobs. It was only ever created as a descriptor across a range of population, not as a paradigm to aim for.

Pure bollocks from end to end!

OMG yes, I'd like to get my lovely slim legs back.

@Weightlossprincess I’ve definitely replaced a food addiction with a ‘buying things from Vinted’ addiction! I haven’t spent any money though 😆 it’s all been funded by the clothes I’ve sold that are too big for me now. I find myself hunting for things to sell so I can buy more!
I’ve bought some cheaper things to see me through the summer from Primark and Matalan. It’s amazing what you can buy on the high street when you’re no longer shopping for size 26/28!
I have my eye on a beautiful linen jacket from Seasalt (not on Vinted) but can’t buy it as it’ll probably be too big for me in a couple of months so I have to stop looking at it… it’s a nice problem to have

Im annoyed at myself. In March I cleared about 90% of my clothes as most just didn’t fit. So spent quite a bit buying new clothes in a bigger size so I didn’t feel bad about myself. Then I decide in April to start MJ. I’m the kind of person that needs to lose/gain a good few stone before changing clothes size so at least these new clothes will fit for a couple more months. I imagine they’ll start to look a bit silly when they get too big though. I mainly bought oversized t-shirts, shirts, leggings, nothing fancy as I’m on maternity leave. But still I don’t know why I’ve done this 😆 I think maybe as you go down each size just get a few every day bits and once you reach your goal weight you could get a capsule wardrobe. This is my thinking anyway - that way I’ll be fuming if I regain any weight so it should be a good motivation

Totally agree with you but it has become the yardstick we are all measured by.

I am worried about it becoming a 'reason not to treat' as I get older. I knew I needed to lose weight, I'm not daft. But is there a risk that health services could become unofficially rationed using 'healthy' BMI as a factor?

'Sorry Mrs Miggins, we won't operate on your dodgy elbow because your BMI is 29'. Followed by some mumbling about 'outcomes'.

I got rid of my smaller clothes the other year thinking they'd never fit again and now I wish I'd kept them, although the last time I was smaller was probably 11 years ago so nevermind!

@FatsiaJaponicaInTheGarden I've been on MJ since July 2024 just to give you an idea of how long it's taken for me to lose 48.6kg. it's not as quick process but eventually you will get there too :)

'Sorry Mrs Miggins, we won't operate on your dodgy elbow because your BMI is 29'. Followed by some mumbling about 'outcomes'.

There is an element of that with some doctors, certainly.

I'm 68 now and I was referred for gastric ulcer surgery in 2019. The doctor told me I had to get down to 10st (I was over 20st at the time) before she'd consider me for a GA.

It goes without saying that I failed to do this, and then the pandemic came.

I felt so judged. It was horrible.

I think if that doctor saw me now, she wouldn't want me to get to 10st. I mean, my clothes are size 12 now, so I don't look overweight anymore.

That's just because of Mounjaro.

There is definitely a level of discrimination in healthcare with women and being overweight. I was treat like shit when I was pregnant - my bmi was 50 when I gave birth and was told I had to have an epidural. I’ve also had sepsis recently but got told the temp was due to my weight. 🤔 Thankfully I can advocate for myself and got the life-saving surgery. I do reflect on this and think if I was slimmer I would have been treat better

BTW I have been approved by Second Nature for a 15mg pen - but the terrible English on their website isn't inspiring me with confidence.

That's before I consider the many phone calls I received, from people who clearly hadn't read what I'd written.

I won't be getting another pen from them.................

BMI is pointless, even more pointless on the NHS calculator as they’ve stopped asking your sex, because of the gender identity stuff. I use the British Heart Foundation and on that mine has gone from 53 to 47.5 (I’m almost on their diagram!). Apparently my healthy weight is 7st 7 - 10st 4 which is so wrong it’s hilarious. The last time I was 10st anything I was about 24 and limited my food constantly. The last time I was 7st 7 I was probably around 7 🙄. I’m 5’4 and aiming for a size 16 and I think that will be around 11st 7 and that’s BMI 27.6 which would be absolutely fantastic from where I am now. I’d never given my boobs consideration - I have huge boobs, even when much slimmer - so if they try to ration my healthcare then I’ll suggest they weigh them separately, subtract from my weight and that’ll bring me to the normal weight range 😂

They are rationing healthcare already. I have osteoarthritis in most of my joints, severe in some and my GP apologised that she was unable to refer me to orthopaedics as they won’t accept referrals for anyone with a BMI over 35 I think it was. Not even for advice and maybe injections? No she said, they won’t accept the referral. This is in Lancashire. I understand why they wouldn’t want to operate on my knee at my current weight, but I really don’t understand why they can’t give advice, help, drugs, injections etc. Remarkably Mounjaro seems to have, not cured it, but reduced my pain by around 75%.

@Kay2000 that’s great news about your joints. It’s really appalling to hear about the BMI restrictions though - you should be able to access healthcare the same as everyone else. I felt similar re IVF but at least that was based on research and evidence. I wonder what their rationale was for refusing to even provide advice!

The BHF calculator information doesn't change if I change my sex on the calculator, it gives the same BMI (understandable given it's just 'w / (h x h)') and the same healthy weight range regardless. The only thing that differs is if I change the ethnicity to something other than White European, which shifts the category boundaries lower so that Healthy ends at 23.

I wonder why they ask for your sex, other than to change their person icon to have long or short hair!

@Kay2000 that's so rubbish that they won't even have a conversation about your osteoarthritis. That's such a clear refusal to treat you because of your weight. They just expect you to have no treatment for however long it takes you to lose weight to meet their requirements, despite not getting any help to lose the weight.

Can anyone tell me how long you spent on each dosage. Only on week2 so trying to getvmy head around everything.

@LordJohnGrey I did 4 weeks on 2.5mg, 4 weeks on 5mg then had a bit of a wobble about moving up to 7.5mg due to side effects. So I did two more weeks at 5mg but from a 7.5mg pen, then a week at 6.75mg before doing a week at 7.5mg. Since then I’ve been on 7.5mg all the way through. So 30 odd weeks now.

I went up every 4 weeks till I got to 15mg

I did one 2.5mg pen, one 5mg pen and I’m now on my third 7.5mg pen and planning to stay here for a while. It feels like the right dose for me, good suppression, good weight loss and no side effects as yet 🤞

Oh that’s interesting isn’t it because there definitely should be a difference and not whether your hair is long or short 🤦‍♀️. Women have more fat, men more muscle (on average. I definitely do, my husband definitely doesn’t 🤣).

I’ve been struggling to go up from 5 to 7.5, because of side effect of nausea and diarrhoea. I’m not getting my food noises reduced like I was and I’m definitely hungrier but am still able to use willpower although I’m not losing much weight. . So I tried 7.5 and on the second dose I had horrendous diarrhoea. Back to 5mg. I tried five extra clicks this week, so 5.3 or something but felt sick again not the next day but the day after. I’ve just ordered another 7.5 and will continue to get 5mg from that, increasing slowly if I can.

I just laughed when the GP said she could refer me at BMI 35 as I knew this was about 8 stones away, which seemed impossible. Now with Mounjaro it seems a possibility. Still feel like it’s an uphill struggle but with a bit of help.

I think the issue is that BMI is indicative of obesity, but not a diagnostic measure of obesity. But it is being used as a diagnostic measure when it's used for the prescribing criteria for WLI. So, person A who has a BMI over 30 due to a muscular build would be able to get a prescription, whereas person B with a BMI of 28 but a higher body fat percentage than person A would not be able to get a prescription. It's a blunt tool, but I suppose that the issue is that the MHRA needs to set a clear prescribing criteria for everyone.

For me, I would like to get into the healthy BMI range for my height - I'd like to see what that's like and if it's maintainable. I am so tired of being considered overweight or obese, it would be nice to be unequivocally a healthy weight.

@Doggymummar how long have you been on 15 mg? I have been on 12.5 mg for about 10 weeks now but definitely feel as though suppression is far less for me than it was.

Welcome all you newbies.

@Weightlossprincess your starting stats are close to what mine were although I was nearer 22 stone than 21. I've lost just over 5 stone, most of it since August.