So many users deciding mounjaro doesn’t work without following instructions!

[Toooldforthisbollocks]

I am reading frequent threads (and hearing irl) how mounjaro doesn’t work so someone is giving up. Most of them were expecting to not feel hungry pretty much as soon as their first injection.
Do people not read the advice on dosage and expected results before they start?
Whilst a few users are super responders and feel suppression at starting and lower doses, the majority of people need to move up to find a dose which suits them.
The fact that mounjaro doses go up to 15mg shows that even this highest dose is needed for many people.
Is it because they have read on social media about somebody achieving great losses and suppression from day one of 2.5mg?
Expectations seem to be very unrealistic and if it is causing people who experience a far more common slow build up to suppression to abandon mounjaro at 2.5 or 5mg etc then this is a sad mistake.

Do you have any advice to give please?
I'm on the 10mg and haven't lost anything yet, neither have I had side effects.
I'm being patient but wondered if I'm in the small percentage of people that mj doesn't work for.
Have you heard of/know anyone who finally started losing effectively at 12.5 or 15mg?
Very interested to hear back from you OP!

I had minimal results on saxenda and wegovy but have found mounjaro is working. For the first 8 weeks I was losing about a pound a week so slow progress but since moving to 7.5 I’ve noticed a big difference. I lost a stone in 4 weeks. Decided to stick to 7.5 for another month as I had a few days of feeling very nauseous but that now seems to have passed. It’s certainly not an instant fix and takes time but from my experience with other medication I was expecting this. Hoping for another 2 stone off by my holiday at the end of October.

Are you tracking your calories, protein etc and weighing food etc? Do you know what your MBR is to gauge? Are you experiencing food noise, cravings? Are you able to eat your usual portion sizes?

Aside from not just reading the instructions, I don't think people realise it's not a magic drug and that you actually have to put in some effort too.

I lost really well, but I stayed in a calorie deficit for the whole time - a proper one, including things like milk, butter, mayo etc. I monitored it all.

I also exercised throughout the week and made sure I was doing around 10,000 steps a day (not a magic number but a good indication that I am actually moving on not sitting down all day).

Edited to add: I think people grossly over-estimate how many calories they should be eating. For me, MAINTENANCE is less than 1,600 because I am short and have a sedentary job which means to lose weight I need to be nearer 1,100 calories.

Isn't the OPs point that you shouldn't be getting all your advice from t'internet. Ask your pharmacist or read the guidance with the medication. I'm sure Mumsnet and other social media can be useful for peer support but nothing you are an outlier in some way cos medication affects people differently.

Providers give information on dosage and the need to move up slowly as needed.

Also the initial 2.5 mg dose is described as a titration dose so not intended as a therapeutic level at all but still people complain that they haven’t lost weight after a week on 2.5mg!

Social media can be useful for peer chat but so many people seem to think asking Fanny online is just as useful as asking a doctor or a pharmacist, when in fact unknown online posters frequently write all sorts of nonsense.

Why on earth would you let somebody you don’t know, who has no medical qualifications advise you about a prescribed medication?

I also agree with pp that many people have very unrealistic expectations. Some think it is a magic injection which will make them never hungry at all, stop all non hunger eating and dissolve fat at a rate of knots.

Also agree many people hugely over estimate how many calories they need to limit themselves to lose weight, and do not track their calories effectively. If you guesstimate instead of weighing portions it is easy to inadvertently eat maintenance level instead of weight loss levels.

Then people blame mounjaro and give it up in a fit of pique.
Worse still they then moan about the drug so deterring others, who could have been helped after a lifetime of struggle, from trying it

I need to learn to scroll on by because I am becoming disproportionately annoyed!

I think the media’s reporting on it might be partially to blame too. The fact they refer to it as ‘the fat jab’ or ‘the skinny jab’ makes some people think it causes fat to just melt away. If you stray into the comments section of any newspaper, it’s filled with lots of smug ‘just eat less, move more’ type comments because there’s a perception that you don’t have to work hard if you’re on WLI.

I’m only at the start of my journey 2.5mg) but it’s clear you DO have to work at it. You need a calorie deficit and exercise helps too. Although my cravings have decreased a lot, several times a day I still have to remind myself to make good choices. It’s certainly not the lazy way out.

So I think people read headlines, don’t do their research and then take WLI without making any real lifestyle changes. Of course it’s not going to work. It’s a tool not a magic wand.

It's the same as all the conversations about "the weight will pile back on".

Yes, it will if you don't make the lifestyle changes needed. Again, it's not a magic wand.

However I have been off Mounjaro for almost 6 months and I've lost a few more lbs rather than gained.

Same here. Hit target last summer and am the same weight still (I gain and lose the same 3-4lbs depending on whether I have eaten too many carb rich foods!)

was also a slow-ish loser - took 18m to lose 6.5st (so about 1lb a week, though I tended to lose 7-10lb over a few weeks and then plateau for a month!)

I completely agree with the PP who says that people overestimate how many calories they really need. I’m active in the gym (lifting) and live in a city so walk a lot, but my work is sedentary. It seems that the years of diets haven’t accounted for the fact that I can only eat c.1250 calories to lose weight (I’m 5’7) particularly given my age (46 - perimenopausal). I’ve always eaten a relatively UPF free diet etc. so it really is just eating much less!

All of that said I was lucky in that MJ worked for me within 24 hours of my first dose. Having a bit of a plateau now though, after six months and on 7.5mg, so not all plain sailing!

I read the info from Eli Lily. I did notice that a year on the results from weight list weren’t massively different between people on 5ml and people on higher doses. Probably statistically it matters but visually the bar chart didn’t go up massively.

I think the jab helps keep a lid on eating generally but you lose big amounts if you “diet” at the same time.

We really do need lots less food than we imagine. I think the eating disorder message is too bandied about.

I eat far less now and when I look back at what I was eating, I’m horrified. I also matched my husband meal for meal and he is taller, more active (does a lot of running) and has a very manual job. There’s no way I should eat what he eats!

Mounjaro helped me regain control of that - and almost 6 months later I’ve not slipped back into old eating habits at all.

Yes, strangely my DH has also learned that I simply cannot eat as much as him - or even half of what he eats - and hope to maintain my weight. He hadn’t realised before (he loves cooking, restaurants, a good takeaway, accompanied by a bottle of wine… skinny bastard) that I just cannot eat the portions he was serving or ordering.

He now doesn’t encourage me to eat more than I am happy to put on my plate, and accepts that if I take a side plate and pop a bit of curry and rice on it so that I can join him and the kids, that is fine. He doesn't comment or draw attention to it any more. He’s really proud of the loss and the maintenance and can see I am happier and healthier… but he’s learned as much as me about the difference between the male and female metabolism… esp when the female is peri or post menopausal!!

I lost a lot of weight a long time ago before jabs, and I can’t believe what I used to eat when I think about it. Mainly the size of the meals. Massive bowl of spag bol covered in cheese and garlic bread on the side, I just don’t know how it fit in. And then I’d be snacking after
So true how stomachs shrink

@Disturbia81 I think that’s a really important point too - I’ve noticed when I’ve lost a good amount of weight before without WLI , I simply couldn’t eat the same amounts anyway - when I got up to 16 stone at one point I could really match my H easily -

@Alwaysthebridesmaidpassmethewine First so sorry to hear this

1 it might be that you produce enough GLP1 already so your body is not responsive

2 do you drink a lot of water, if I don’t drink a lot of water I don’t lose

3 do you eat a healthy eating pattern but in a calorie deficit , if you eat in calorie deficit you will loose no matter MJ or not

4 hats of to you going for that long without loss as that’s a huge expense without results . I find this almost unbelievable (sorry for being blunt but being on something for 3-5 months spending 1k £ and not working must be disheartening )