January 2025 Starters Thread 9!

[meatyryvita]

Time to check in losers!

How very strange. If you're certain that you're not miscalculating calories or grabbing bits here and there without logging them I'd definitely go up. I know that binge eating was responsible for a lot of my gain, but also mj made my body work so that when I ate well the weight came off so I think these is an element of that and maybe you need a higher dose for that to work for you?

Yes I'm tempted to spend less time on mj related things. This needs to be the new normal, not the new obsession!
I feel like 2.5 might not be quite strong enough, like I can eat too much but also I want to eat and it's normal for weight to fluctuate.
I thought I'd check my weight charts, I weigh most days but sometimes forget!
If I zoom out to 3 months it just shows a downward trend. I suspect after a little while that will flatten out now. Over a month there is a lot of jumping up and down and then over a week you can see my lowest weight is Friday (I don't think last Friday is on here but it was 8st 5) it then dips up over the weekend and then starts to come down again, so when I compared week on week for a particular day it was pretty static. Given that I'm tempted to try and stop weighing on a Monday (although this might be helping to nip extra eating in the bud). Ideally a Friday is the best day to weigh for me!
I love all this data (when it is positive, before I lost the weight I'd ignore it)

No, I’ve never binged, had a sweet tooth, poor food habits or even been overweight until cancer. Certain about my calorie intake. I’ve been weighing and logging for four years.

Have you had your thyroid checked? Definitely up the dose!! Did the cancer treatment put you into menopause?

Edited to add, I don't think my original post came out right, what I meant was that I think something was broken and even though I ate well I didn't lose weight but mj made me lose weight, hence I think upping the dose (to a dose that works for you) will work. Keep the faith ❤️

Yes had my thyroid checked. A chemical menopause for 30 months but then I shocked everyone with my periods restarting.

I literally log everything- like I’ve just had 27g of an M&S baguette with my salmon salad.

It’s just so frustrating for you @TomorrowPenny. I suppose it can’t do any harm to try a higher dose. Plateaus are really common but it doesn’t make it any easier.

I’ve not really plateaued on MJ but I had a couple of lengthy ones while low carbing. The only thing I did was to keep going and eventually it shifted.

I’ve succumbed to a craving for chocolate ice cream which would have been understandable if there was some in the freezer but I had to go out to buy some. I suppose I had time to think about whether I really needed/wanted it in that time

@SteveHarringtonsHair sorry to hear you’ve been under pressure of late. And that your brain is struggling to adjust to your new body. You’ve done amazingly though. Over 50lbs loss is incredible. 🫶🏻

@0ncemorewithfee1ing slow losses are soooooooo frustrating. I’m in that club and I’ve even got as far as calculating how much £ per lb it’s costing me. I have a friend who is flying towards a 4 stone loss. It’s getting me down.
I’m feeling sickly and weak again tonight. Seems that doing the 3/4 dose from the 10mg pen didn’t help much with tolerating it.

Wow this thread moved fast!

Agree about trying not to think about it all too much any more which is why I’m not posting much - I’m boring myself!

I had a bit of a shock yesterday morning when I got on the scales - 9 st 12!! I weighed last Friday and was 10.4 and had put on 4lbs in my first week of trying to maintain and eat a bit more. I have carried on just trying to eat lunch and have a few extras like a bit of chocolate/ice lolly of an eve and this week I’ve lost 6lbs? Weird. I was on my period last week and maybe it was water weight or something but I was pretty surprised nevertheless.

Don’t remember ever being 9 stone something in my adult life. The strange thing is though I’ve felt very bloated this week and don’t feel I look any different. It may be the humidity.

Feel for you btw TomorrowPenny
and others who are struggling -
im pissed off on your behalf! Subsisting on 1000 cals a day is no life long term, Im pretty sure il need be on MJ forever if I want to maintain the weight loss. I know for certain it’s done all the work for me by taking away my appetite - usually I’d be having intermittent binges on a diet and would probably have given up full stop by now - I’ve never maintained for very long without it creeping back on in the past, the summer holidays would be the time I’d give up - kids break up, we go on holiday, routine goes out the window and everything I’d done since January would be ditched in favour of enjoying myself. Then I’d lose motivation, slowly gain it all back and be back at square one by December. Every single year!

Yay on the increased muscle mass HeidiNotSoHeavy youve been inspirational throughout and I wish I had even half of your energy and strength - my exercise has been practically nonexistent 😬

Well done @JoanCollinsDiva. We weigh the same!! However I am less happy about it as I have STS this week, despite eating 800-1000 calories a day. Grrrrr!

I’m planning to enjoy my food in France and take the gain, then up my dose to ten when I get back and really focus on getting rid of this last half stone.

That's amazing, @JoanCollinsDiva - it's so great to see numbers on the scale we never thought we'd be able to reach.

Sorry to hear several of us are struggling - I'm thinking if maybe another GLP might work better? Some people don't seem to respond to MJ so maybe a Wegovy?

I have 100% felt the same both in terms of losing and this thread. I once pored my absolute heart out and got one (lovely) response which made me feel really shitty. I do try not to take it personally even though it’s a bit hard - mostly because the only people who know irl are 2 blummin men so this is my place to talk

Just catching up and want to say to those of you who sometimes feel unheard - I hear ya - and am always nodding along in agreement or feeling sympathy for your struggles/elation for your achievements, even if I don’t mention them all specifically. I remember worrying about you when you disappeared for a while myladyjane and hoping you were ok - but I know you mentioned you were stepping away for a bit - and it was lovely when you came back!

I often talk to dh about the fab women on my “MN MJ” group as I call it. He is pretty interested in the whole thing and I can waffle on at him for ages about it or talk about things you lot have mentioned.

I think we’re all fantastic tbh. One thing we all have in common is that we’ve realised something isn’t making us happy and done something about it. And despite the drawbacks/side effects/cost we’ve persevered to achieve our goals even though it’s been really difficult for some of us. We must all be pretty proactive and resilient people. Not everyone can say that!

We’re all in it together and I am psychically sending every one of you love, sisterly solidarity and very unmumsnetty hugs through the ether 💪

Thanks guys ❤️

You’ve been my weight loss twin throughout Zempy
I know re the low calories - it always baffles me how low I have to go to lose weight as I’m pretty tall too - 5”8”. Tdee is bollocks. When I put on 4lbs in a week for eating a tiny sandwich for lunch every day I was like “wtf” and felt like launching the scales out the window. I think it’s going to be a struggle finding my maintenance cals and be very much trial and error.

yes it's honestly so annoying seeing naturally slim people with high metabolism posting on social media those 'what I eat in a day' videos. OK some of them are making things up, of course, and just pretending to eat. But some of them genuinely think that all people can eat as much and be slim, so therefore anyone bigger must be eating truckloads. If I ate 3 full meals and a few snacks in between, they'd need to cut me out of the house.

What a lovely post @JoanCollinsDiva ! ❤️
I agree, I read through every post but often feel like I haven't anything useful to add other than sympathy. But we're all part of a very valuable community here.

Woken up feeling grotty today because we had the windows open last night, always plays havoc with my hayfever.
however my scales are being very kind to me this morning and showing a big drop from yesterday - this always seems to happen the day after weigh in!

Going to do a home workout now before it gets too hot. i don't feel like it at all, but I'm focussing on consistency and doing it anyway.
So glad it'll cool down tomorrow, I'm not one for heat at all!

@MJalltheway when I feel like that, I'll give myself permission to do 10 min and then quit if I still dont feel like it.

Kettlebells DONE ✅

@HeidiNotSoHeavy i saw a post from Sally Gunnell about it this week, basically saying that even if you show up and put 10% effort in, the key is that you've shown up 💪 To be fair (and I know it's early days for me with this level of exercise so the novelty is still there!) I've only not been keen this weekend because of the heat, I normally love it!
Very chuffed now anyway because I didn't touch my lightest kettlebell at all today, definitely getting stronger 😁

and yes plodders and people who are stuck - look at your full graph. We are all lighter than in January! And if I had not started MJ, I would undoubtedly be even heavier, as I would be unhappy being so heavy, and console myself with food.

The thing I've noticed in this heat is that it's not affecting me as much as before I lost any weight.

@TomorrowPenny I've been hovering around 2 stone loss for the last month now so I totally understand your pain and frustration.

I haven't really done any exercise other than infrequent qigong, however I've noticed that I am more active generally than I was - is it NEAT? My reason for not exercising is I've had a niggling Achilles tendon that has been feeling worse every time I go out for a walk. It's feeling better but I'm going to try rowing when it gets a bit cooler. I'm hoping that helps. Onwards and downwards 😊

I remember once having a long relatively polite argument with a personal trainer I'd made an enquiry with. I was wanting to lose weight for my wedding, he was telling me that in order to fix my metabolism I'd need to gradually eat more and more whilst maintaining weight and reset my body. He was probably not wrong but it sounded like a year + long process and really not what I was looking for 4 months out from my wedding!
I guess fixing my metabolism will need to be a long term goal as I need to be on sub 1000 cals to lose weight and I'm sure I gain at 1200-1500, which is no life!

Week 26 jab today, 6 months!!! Definitely couldn't have stuck with this for so long without mj. 🙏

SW: 15.13.0
CW: 11.12.0
Loss this week 1.2lbs

Shouldn't feel too bad about this as a loss is a loss, but was weighing 11.11 mid week, argh! Wonder if this heat makes us hold on to water more in order to have a reserve for sweating?

Couple of small nsv's this week:

1. was looking for something to wear in this heat today and pulled out a pile of old polo tops. Size 16 and it fitted very comfortably. Given I was a 20 pushing 22 up top before, this is a massive improvement!
2. Walking along the road I could hear this vehicle coming up behind me. Driver had his window down and started to wolf whistle before he got level with me and saw how old I was and styled it out into some sort of tune. I had to laugh! 🤣🤣🤣

Also, feeling inspired by all you lovely lot lifting weights and not knowing where to start, I suddenly had the brainwave that there must be some sort of program on my power plate. Did the beginner program a few times which didn't seem to do much so moved up to the intermediate program. OM-effing-G! Huge difference and have now lost the use of my arms! 😂

Had a rubbish week in terms of movement and sleep. We were targeted in a robbery and I got no sleep for 48 hours and then I’ve lived on broken sleep. Not gone far from the house all week so steps are low but I’ve kept myself busy and I’ve definitely not over eaten, I’ve not turned to junk or booze to help. Pleasantly surprised to weigh myself this morning and be a whole 4st off since January or 25.4kg. So 25.11% of my starting weight whilst still on 5mg.

I actually hit a BMI of 24.9 on my Birthday which was a great start to the day. Shame the day took a turn.

2 neighbours commented on my weight on Thursday saying you’ve lost loads. You look great. To be honest I don’t take compliments normally and I don’t do these things for anyone but me but it was nice that people have noticed.

4/1/25 - S.W. 15st 13lbs
21/6/25 - C.W. 11st 13lbs

Oh no @MisseyLurker I'm sorry to hear about the burglary. I hope you weren't hurt? Did they get much? The worst bit is the feeling of invasion it leaves you with afterwards. Stuff can be replaced but it's horrible knowing how easily they can get into your house and the feeling of vulnerability that stays with you. Be kind to yourself 💐
Congratulations on the weight loss though; we must be almost twins on this journey apart from the obvious difference in height 😂 as I've got a way to go to healthy BMI. Happy birthday too! 🎉

@mince3point14159265 Thank you. To be honest the fact they’ve been in doesn’t bother me, they were actually pretty tidy and moved things carefully. They were after watches. I know they were after my partners but they only got what he had around which wasn’t really what they were after. They unfortunately took all of mines including the one I got when my Grandad passed. In total they took £200k of watches and a mini car key. They weirdly left the keys for 2 Porsches.

It’s the fear they might come back to get what they didn’t get last time but what they clearly didn’t know was they had been sold to
fund a property purchase so they were never going to get them. Unfortunately the insurance won’t cover the items because a neighbour had left a window on the ground floor open, which they have been repeatedly warned about and the insurance company are saying the building wasn’t secure. But it’s just stuff and I’ll just have to go without some nice things for a bit. I’m in no rush to replace anything.

As for the weight loss, thank you and good effort on yours too. I did notice we had a very similar trajectory. It’s nice having it come off slowly, whilst I’m sure we would all love it to go whoosh! I much prefer a slow and steady loss.

I’m 5ft 9 hence being in a ‘healthy BMI’ range now but it’s so easy to slip back over into overweight by having a binge. I am tracking what I eat and drink to keep me focused and on target.

Good luck with your journey. You’ve definitely got this!