March 2025 starter thread 6

[TheSpoonyNavyReader]

Thank you for allowing me to rant, share our ups and downs. Our group blows my mind of how we are so supportive of each other.
Some of us are now hitting the 12 week mark, some of us are nearly at their goal, some halfway and some still have a way to go, but we are all losing even if it’s half a pound a week. We have all come so far and are making a difference to our health.

Thread 6 blows my mind

@soupforbrains looks amazing 🤩

Morning all, post-vacation weight update! First morning it looked like I was up almost 2lbs, which is not much in the first place, but the next day (after resolving the post-travel constipation and post-flight puffiness) it looks like it was only 0.6lbs up. Which is basically nothing in the grand scheme of things!

I’m headed off to my reformer pilates class now bye 😂💪💦 so glad to be back to my routine

Weighing in after my holiday and I was fully expecting to have gained but somehow I've lost half a pound! Surprised but delighted but clearly the walks and keeping an eye on portion size helped.

I'm away for a week at the end of August and not sure I'll be able to say the same after that trip but for now I'm feeling happy and healthy ❤️.

SW on MJ: 14st

CW: 11st 4lbs

My goal was always 11st. When I was over 15 stone last year that felt unachievable so it's incredible to nearly be there. My new goal is to stay under 11st so I'm currently aiming for 10st 7lbs to allow me some wiggle room.

I've gone from a size 16 to a 12 which I still cannot believe!

Morning
I have name changed for this one as I don't want this connected to my other post. I've been on the thread since the start and read it avidly. I could really use some wisdom to help with my side effects if anyone's got a bit of time to spare.

1. The fan favourite, constipation. I've never been regular throughout my whole life. Regular for me was always 2/3 times a week but now it's once a week if I'm lucky and that's an effort. I take 6x psyllium husk a day (recommended dose) and try to drink plenty of water but I don't think my diet is good enough as I'm only getting to about 15g of fibre on Nutracheck. Not a veg fan but eat plenty of fruit and salad - anyone got any secrets they care to share?
2. Sleep. I'm really struggling to get to sleep at night. My mind is racing and I can't seem to relax and drop off despite feeling tired all the time. My eyes are constantly tired. I'm very active and run 3-4 times pw plus dog walks, gardening, gym etc. For those who sleep well, could you share your evening routine? I know I'm on my phone too much so I'm going to set some boundaries starting tonight but need some strategies to help me switch off. At the beginning I slept like a dream but the last month or so has been tough. I take magnesium supplements too.
3. I've been taking MJ since 9 March and have lost 22lbs. Most of this was in the beginning and I have been faffing for the last couple of months. Junk food is slipping back in as have biscuits. I think is is due to complacency. I feel that my body looks great. I can easily wear a 14 now and have had many compliments on how fit I'm looking. I spend a lot of time in lycra and actually have a small thigh gap!! I think this is stopping me from pushing on to get to my target. I have one pen in the fridge to start in 6 days and it's a 7.5mg pen. But I'm a bit scared to make the jump as I tried it once a couple weeks back and felt weird so thought I might continue at 5mg. I feel like this needs to be my last month of losing then come September, what I am is where I am iykwim? Anyone got any strategies for just pushing through that last bit? I'm going to track religiously and stop buying biscuits but anything else?

My stats are:
SW 190.6 / 13st 8.6 / 86.5kg BMI 27.4 *
CW 169 / 12st 1 / 76.7kg (which is amazing!) BMI 24.2
TW 153 / 10st 13 / 69.4kg BMI 21.9

*High blood pressure and heavily medicated

I'm sorry this is long but I really needed to get it out. If anyone has read this and got any advice for me I'd really appreciate it.

Today's plan is to eat my usual breakfast and lunch then track my dinner. No biscuits and loads of water. And pray for a poo..

Thank you xx

Advice please!!! No good some of you have been here.. it’s about injecting on Hindus.

i’m off away to Greece for two weeks and not bringing drugs with me. I’m meant to inject 2.5 on Tuesdays. This is my fifth or sixth month and I’ve lost 28 pounds and now have a bmi of 23.2.

i now eat normally but slightly smaller portions, and that’s the Mounjaro holding me back. I normally inject on a Tuesday but this week I injected on Friday. I’m leaving for Greece Tuesday.

Given Mounjaro half life - do I now -
— inject a full dose of 2.5 which would mean I will have about 4 corcukating in my body when we leave tomorrow - an increase in dose. That will likely take me through week one and by week two I’ll be on my own!

• do I inject 1.5 and just have 3 circulating in my body.
• I habe t had bad gi effects for a while now upper burps for a couple of months etc. We have a lot of travel plain and hydrofoil.

thank you for any advice!

@MJ122025 sounds like you’re in the bittersweet spot right now, feeling/looking good but still hoping for the last bits of weight to fall off. I can empathize with that, I’m finding it a bit difficult to think about switching to maintenance as the losses are a bit addictive for sure.

I’ve also always had constipation issues that got worse with WLIs. I’m not taking psyllium husk, but I add inulin powder to my coffee (tasted off at first but I got used to it quickly). I also take a probiotic. When doing both religiously, I go once a day (right after my morning coffee, when it’s time it’s time iykwim).

My sleep has been all over the place since starting, but whenever I needed help with falling asleep, swapping the phone for the physical book right before bed was helping significantly.

Also yay twin, I also lost 22lbs and my starting weight was very similar :) it definitely slows down but it makes sense, smaller bodies burn less energy. I’d also be worried about muscle loss if I was loosing quickly still. Regarding doses, I’m on Wegovy so the titration schedule is 0.25mg—0.5mg—1mg—…, but I did 2x0.5mg pen and then titrated slowly (literally by a few clicks) to 0.7mg (now on my second 1mg pen but stretching each over 6 weeks doing 0.7mg). There’s many click charts online that you can take a look at and do lower doses than 7.5mg if you feel like that’s what you need.

I wonder, if you only have one month left on MJ that many of these issues will resolve themselves as you come off, i.e constipation and sleep issues. Diet is going to have to be a conscious effort to sort out, maybe do some work on your thinking around food and why you fall back into those habits.

Sleep, I have a strict routine, I try to get off my phone early in the evening and I have a set time I go to bed every day, whether I have finished watching something on TV or not. I then listen to an audio book while I go to sleep, nothing too interesting lol. I find this helps with the racing mind. I do the cogntive shuffle if I find I really can't settle:

"Cognitive shuffling scrambles your thoughts so that your brain can't try to make sense of things. It interrupts the processes of memory, evaluation, planning, scheduling and problem solving.

Here's how it's done.

1. Pick a word such as "bedtime".
2. Begin with the first letter "b" and think of a word that starts with the letter "b". For example "broom". Bring up the mental image of a broom. Then think of another word that begins with the letter "b" and visualise that word. Keep going until you run out of words that begin with the letter "b".
3. Go to the next letter in "bedtime" - "e", and think of words that begin with "e". Visualise the words as you think of them.
4. Continue at your own pace, but just keep going until you fall asleep. If stressful thoughts come your way, just acknowledge them and go back to shuffling your thoughts instead.
5. An additional tip: Breathe in as you come up with the word. Breathe out as you visualise the word. If it takes longer to visualise the word, you'll be giving yourself lovely long out breaths which will calm your body."

@Flamethrowers I injected a lower dose early before I went on holiday because I was having bad side effects and I didn't want to ruin my holiday with them. I was on 7.5 and injected on Sunday and I did 5mg on the Friday before going away on the Tuesday. I then skipped a week and did 5mg when I got back, and then back up to 7.5mg. I found this worked for me

Thank you @LilyLondon, I'll look at inulin now. Sadly I don't drink coffee but I'll find a way. Def agree about a book, I have a massive tbr pile so no excuses! I agree about the muscle loss, I need to get in the gym more as I feel like i have bingo wings.

@tryingtobesogoodI've never heard of the cognitive shuffle before but it sounds great. I remember my mum used to get me to think of things for every letter of the alphabet if I couldn't sleep. Animals and countries etc which sounds similar.

Thank you both 💓

@MJ122025 - I take a sleep supplement stack as well, find it really helps, the 3 in 1 Magnesium L-Threonate, L-Theanine & Apigenin supplement from Amazon.

Weigh day today - over 6 weeks since hitting goal. In spite of a very social weekend that involved takeaways, roasts, ice cream and a fair amount of wine, I'm maintaining nicely, still a bit low on weight, 3lb below goal. I'm actually wondering if the 2lb below goal is what is supposed to be my weight, I seem to hold at this weight more easily than the weight I actually set as my goal, which I've never really held at for very long. Sitting at 119lb today. Something about set weight theory probably in action here.

For those of you starting to think about maintenance, a few things I'm finding useful. Definitely daily weighing when possible (have been away from scales a few times so not always possible). Hunger has crept back in as I've started to titrate down on doses, but I'm trying to be extremely mindful about drinking water when I'm hungry in between meals - so avoiding the tendency to snack. If I'm really ravenous and it's a long way to go to a meal, then it's fruit - frozen grapes are a current favourite, or a really nice orange - or something like a pickle! That tends to sort the hunger out until mealtimes.

Still meal planning a lot - very, very mindful still about plate composition and portion size. I've increased calories gradually and am now at my maintain TDEE, which I've just done by changing portion size rather than changing what types of foods/macro blend I'm actually eating. So it's still protein and vegetable heavy. I've never really done diet food - even when in lose stage I just ate less of my normal diet. And I don't deny myself "treat food" - allowing myself smaller amounts of what I want works better for me than denial.

Exercise has gone a bit out of the window because of everything going on in my life, I'm trying to find time to do more weights, but it's hard right now. However, you will all be happy to hear that the skin issue is starting to slowly resolve itself even without enough exercise. Stomach still looks a bit doughy, but nowhere near as bad as a few weeks ago. Slathering body cream on twice a day, and taking collagen supplements religiously. Arms need work, I still have a hint of bingo wing going on, which isn't good!

I am feeling much more hopeful that this has worked and maintenance isn't going to be an issue. I genuinely feel like MJ gave me the time and space to refocus my mind and my relationship with food. I'll continue to keep fingers crossed.

This is such a great update for you but also really useful to read. Thank you for keeping us updated on the maintenance experience. I never thought I’d ever be thinking about maintenance - and I still think I will probably end up needing these jabs long term - but I’m now within a stone of my original target weight (actually 10.5lb off it 🤯) but want to lose at least 7lb more than that.

Well done on staying mindful. It makes sense just to increase portions and not dramatically change what you’re eating as your base diet.

I seem incapable of updating on an actual weigh day but this morning I am:
SW 17st 4lb
CW 13st. 0.1lb
TW was 12st 4lb but would like to see the 11s

So I seem to have settled in to a 7-8lb loss a month now which includes some faster loss weeks and some static ones with days bouncing up and down a bit. Again, I’m proud of myself for not thinking ‘fuck it’ when I’m not losing. I’m not even sure I should feel proud. I’m just ‘not’ thinking bad things. It’s like a magic button that the jab has hit.

I have also definitely taken the foot off the perfect pedal. I’ve had a few big drinking nights that haven’t made me feel great and I haven’t been able to walk as much as I was but I am still averaging 8k a day over the week which is more than double pre-mj.

off on holiday at the end of the week and so I’m not sure how that will go but I’m excited about wearing smaller clothes and not sweating so much from sheer obesity. Also looking forward to having some photos with the kids rather than being the one behind the camera or hiding behind everyone else.

@MJ122025 for constipation I found prune juice very effective when I was struggling in the early days. A bit too effective actually so just have a small glass once a day and see whether that makes any difference. You can buy it in Tesco or Holland and Barrett.

I think I've got a pretty good sleep routine and my main tips are to keep a consistent bedtime and wake up time each day. For me, I want to be going off to sleep around 11pm so I start my wind down routine each evening at 10pm. That means screens off and no looking at my phone. I do a few yoga stretches and then will go and brush my teeth and do my skincare routine and then get into bed and read a book. It means the main problem I have is if I get too into the book I'm reading and don't want to put it down! 🤣

If I'm ever struggling to get off to sleep I listen to The Sleepy Bookshelf or Nothing Much Happens podcasts on my phone which are both storytelling audio with the aim of helping you go to sleep. I put a timer on so it switches off after an hour but I'm almost always asleep by then. If I'm ever not I just put it on for another hour and tell myself that resting in the dark in bed is the next best thing for my body after actually sleeping.

I started really focusing on sleep hygiene (cool and dark bedroom, no screens, reading before bed, consistent bedtime etc) after suffering badly with insomnia during the first Covid lockdown and it's well worth trying to improve if you're struggling.

Thank you @GameOfJones. I'll try those suggestions.

You've all been so helpful today, thank you 😊

Pre Start Weight: 15st 6.5lbs
Start Weight MJ: 15st 0lbs
Goal Weight: Undecided

Current Weight: 13st 2.0lbs
Loss on MJ: 1st 12lbs (26lbs)
Total loss: 2st 4.5lbs (32.5lbs)

Week 1: 3.1lbs (2.5mg)
Week 2: 2.1lbs (2.5mg)
Week 3: 1.5lbs (2.5mg)
Week 4: 1.6lbs (2.5mg)
Week 5: 1.7lbs (2.5mg)
Week 6: 0.5lbs (2.5mg)
Week 7: 2.6lbs (2.5mg)
Week 8: 0.6lbs (2.5mg)
Week 9: On holiday for week - MJ injection and weighing missed
Week 10: 0.6lbs (2.5mg)
Week 11: 4.0lbs (2.5mg)
Week 12: 1.9lbs (2.5 mg)
Week 13: On holiday for a week, weighing missed (2.5mg)
Week 14: Gained 0.5lbs (2.5mg)
Week 15: 1.0lbs (3.3mg)
Week 16: 0.9lbs (2.5mg)
Week 17: 1.0lbs (2.5mg)
Week 18: 0.9lbs (2.5mg)
Week 19: Gained 0.2lbs (2.5mg)
Week 20 2.4lbs (2.5mg)
Week 21 0.3lbs (2.5mg)

Disappointing but not unexpected loss of just 0.3lbs this week, and mostly due to timing. We had wine, peanuts and Chinese takeaway last night so I know that that usually adds a pound onto my weight that wasn’t there yesterday and probably will be off by tomorrow.

There have been a few tantalising glimpses of 12st Xlbs as the scales settle this week. With any luck, it will be a definite weight soon as there’s something about breaking a stone barrier. I’ve not been this weight since 2014 and it was a fairly stable weight between 2000-2004 so maybe I’m pushing through a set weight.

@MJ122025 I’ve not tried the psyllium capsules as I was concerned about not drinking enough water with them but I use the husk version in water. Frankly, it’s bloody awful but it’s been good for preventing constipation. I’ve also started to add 20g of chia seeds to Greek or protein yoghurt to get my daily fibre intake up quickly and avocados are full of fibre and good fats too.

doing ok now - my slow losses (a gain in fact in week 1!) have continued with few plateaux so I’m grateful for that.

SW 15st 10
CW 13st 3.75
GW 11st?

I was often dispirited at the beginning of all this, partly as I was heavier than I thought but I’m now a couple of dress sizes down and it’s so worth it to just keep plugging away.

I’m also keen to see 12st something on the scale!

As I think I wonder if the problem might be lack of water to make thee husks work. I've been guzzling it back today so will see if that helps..

Well, I’ve not done any injecting on Hindus 😀 but before I went away for a week long holiday in April, I injected a half dose 4 days before travel and a full dose the day before. This was one of the only times that I’ve had any noticeable degree of suppression and felt quite sick at times (which had never happened before either). If you’re used to dealing with those kind of side effects and OK about it, you could try that approach. That was with a week long holiday rather than 2 weeks though.

@TheBossOfMe Great to hear that you’re still below target but not so good about the loose skin. I have proper full on batwings flapping about as I’ve lost 2 inches off my biceps and have been searching for solutions. As a result, my Facebook feed is full of Ayurvedic body oils and Arctic Circle plants in face cream so I ordered a load of essential oils, carrier oils, Shea butter and beeswax to make concoctions that I’m slathering on daily. My skin condition is great but I don’t think it’s tightening anything up, and I have to be careful not to slide off the toilet seat now 😳😀

Managed to gain 3 pounds this week 😭😭😭 not even holiday week! Some I think is TOTM water retention, some is I haven’t ‘been’ IYKWIM (will be on the prune juice tomorrow if upping water doesn’t work!). The rest I’ve no idea as I’ve been tracking and I’ve had less than 1800 calories every day, so whilst I may not have lost I shouldn’t have gained 😞. Anyway instead of kicking the fuck it bucket I’ve had loads of water today, and am trying to up protein and fibre and not give up in the hope that it comes off again next week.

Hello! I thought it was weird that this thread had gone quiet and it turns out it hadn't, I'd somehow stopped watching it. 🤔
I've had to catch up on loads!

Anyway, good to find you're all still here and still going strong. Sorry about the stalls and small gains but some fantastic NSVs and coming back from holidays having barely gained and even lost is a win in my book.

18 weeks, now on 7.5 mg

SW 17st 4
CW 14st 5.75
GW 11-12st

I think we should rename the threads to the Mumsnet Constipation Support Group…

Start Weight: 23st 6.4lbs
Initial Goal Weight: 12st 5lbs (24.9 BMI)
Current Weight: 19st 11.4lbs
Loss: 3st 9lb (51 lbs)

For the first time in I don't know how many years my weight starts with a 1! Granted, it's still 19 st, but I can't remember when that last happened. There is still a long way to go, but I'm pleased with how things are going.

Haha so true! 😂 off to buy the gross prune juice from Tesco tomorrow as 3 litres of water today has had me glued to the loo, but only for number ones 😂😂