Put on weight on mounjaro

[Kellyklara]

I have been on mounjaro for two months. 2.5mg.

I don't feel like I have been eating anymore than normal.

I have put ON five pounds. It is very annoying.

Yeah it might work for some people.

But the cost of it, it's not worth it for me.

That's a shame OP. Many people don't lose on 2.5mg and your provider has let you down a bit insisting you stick to a dose that is not working.

I prescribe Mounjaro for diabetic patients.
I always advise high protein and fibre diet , low carbs and 2-3L water daily for the first month. Eat food as close to its natural form as possible ( so low UPF) and every patient has a good weight loss, feels full of energy and reduces abdominal fat.
Interestingly, and this is just based on the 250 patients I look after, those who continue to consume diet drinks like Diet Coke have a slower weight loss.

Op can I ask when you put on the 5lbs? Are you weighing daily for example and it has slowly crept on or have you just weighed now and realised you are 5lb up?

The reason I ask is because where you are in your cycle might have an effect. I can gain upto 5lbs the week before my period which then slowly comes off when my period arrives.

Thanks @Motnight. I hadn’t intended to sound critical (and in fairness I think you’ve responded quite defensively) but I was trying to understand whether 2.5mg hasn’t worked for you or if you’ve not worked for MJ. If you’ve not much to lose then that might also make a difference.

I stayed on 2.5mg for month 2 as I lost a stone in four weeks. But I was genuinely in deficit every day and have a lot to lose.

It sound like it might not be the right choice for you.

I don't think I've been defensive at all.
I am just fed up with these mounjaro threads on this forum.

When any OP writes anything, not just me, she is told straightaway that it is her fault.

If someone posts a thread about side effects, she is told it is her fault for eating something wrong.

She will then say, no, I actually ate very healthily all week, she will then be told that it was her fault for doing something else

It really irritated me when a poster wrote on here "you need to put in some of the work, you know",
without even asking me what exercise I was doing. I exercise every single day. It is rude.
There are so many Mounjaro threads on here that are cruel and nasty to the OP, when people actually need support, not cruelty.

I’ve been on it a similar length of time, and given it’s been working for me, I’ve stayed on 2.5. I’ve lost about 7kg and am really happy…. I’m definitely eating a lot less. No snacks at all (l loved dark Kit Kats and peanuts etc) and I’ve gone right off alcohol. This morning I had a small cooked breakfast (I’ve not told family I’m on the jabs) and although I had half what the others had, it was too much. I’m not going to bother with lunch as not hungry.

But if it’s not working for you, I’m sure it’s right to make a change and stop.

I know many people don’t like him but team RH actually has a GLP1 plan where you can track your intake. I’m on the normal plan a d as it focuses on protein, fibre and water intake I have lost all my cravings. I also think I was chronically dehydrated. You do have to sign up for a year but I’ sure there may be similar plans.

It didn't work for me either. The only time I lost weight was the week I went up to 5mg and it made me really sick, with terrible heartburn. Sounds like you are doing lots of exercise and eating a healthy diet, good for you.

You need to track your calories and work out a realistic daily calorie target , eating less than you did before means nothing - if you were eating 2000 a day before and 1500 now you could just be gaining weight at a slower rate. Your posts are coming across as defensive and maybe imply that deep down you know you haven’t made the changes needed - MJ isn’t a magic pill you still need to diet. Sorry that upsets you but it’s true ! Try moving up a dose

No one was critical.
No one was saying it is your fault.
The advice from your provider was odd given you had not lost anything.
People were trying to help figure out why you had not lost.
It's too hot for this, am out!

Have you posted on this forum before under a different username OP, when you were very sick? Your writing style seems familiar. I notice the current username was created today. Thread went in a very similar direction.

@Kellyklara was your prescriber’s advice to stay on 2.5mg specific to you or a general approach? I think many of us are just a bit puzzled as the advice has usually been broadly is that 2.5mg is the starter dose and often not therapeutic so, while some people do stay on it it it’s working well for them, normally the advice would be to move up to 5mg. I think the concern for you is that your prescriber is either offering poor advice or that general advice may not be right for your situation.

If you’re fed up of threads about Mounjaro you could, I dunno, maybe avoid the WLI topic in its entirety…

OP it sounds like you were hoping you'd be able to use mounjaro more cheaply by stretching it out using only 2.5mg when in reality that's not an effective dose for quite a lot of people. I'm guessing when you considered affordability for yourself you based it only doing 2.5mg and can't afford to do bigger doses?

Sorry if I came across as critical, it really wasn't meant to sound that way. I was just trying to be helpful as I know how much people want this to work as we're all needing to lose weight for our health so I was just trying to be supportive.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

I can weigh 5lbs up if I weigh at night compared to the same morning!

Did you weight first thing in the morning on both times? Where were you in your cycle? Had you had a salty meal or carb heavy meal before the second weigh in? They will make you retain water. Muscle is also more dense than fat so if you have been gaining muscle but losing fat you ate actually smashing it!

There are so many variables. I weigh daily so I can see and track my cycle and how different foods affect me.

I know what you mean; there are posters who insist side effects are always the fault of the user eating incorrectly, when in fact some people just react to the medication that way and it's not diet-related. I have seen people really grasping at straws to blame a poster for getting diarrhoea or vomiting and insisting that they must have been eating fatty food. I know from personal experience that 5mg and above makes me very ill whatever I eat.

However, a 2.5mg dose is not effective for everyone and it doesn't sound like it's effective for you, OP. Reaching the highest dose in the shortest time frame (going up every four weeks) isn't a problem if that's what you need to do. Some people find the magic happens at 5 or 7.5mg, for some they don't lose weight until they get all the way to 15mg. If you didn't lose weight in your first month, it seems like your provider gave you bad advice in telling you not to move up.

MJ won’t cause you to gain weight so you need to explore the cause, I would agree you should probably stop using it if it isn’t working for you and you can lose weight without it.

Im interested in the recommendations of the provider here though, I have used MJ for 8 months and have very several suppliers and I have always chosen my dose. There has never been any discussion or questions about it, I choose.

Is your calorie deficit including the calories you earned by exercising? I don't include them as it isn't accurate, so recommend you calculate your TDEE and only count the consumed calories. Don't forget drinks!

I agree that a move to 5mg after 4 weeks should have been the usual advice if you weren't losing on 2.5mg, so wonder why you were told to stay on it.

In your situation you should be losing weight so I would contact your provider again. Tbh I lost nothing on 2.5.

If you’re able to lose weight easily without MJ, then yes I agree, it’s not cost effective for you to continue.

It is worth saying though that if you’re using MJ as intended, it’s extremely unlikely (like almost impossible) that you would gain weight.

Gaining weight is usually related to hormonal/medical changes in your body or eating more than your body needs. If the former has been ruled out then the latter is statistically most likely - ‘user error’. It’s not judgy to say that.

But again, if you’re able to do the job without spending money on MJ, then you absolutely should. Probably wise to stop reading threads that upset you too - not good for anyone’s mental wellbeing.

I didn’t lose hardly anything until I went on the 7.5mg. I wouldn’t worry about going up the doses too quickly either because I’ve had my best losses on 12 & 15mg and I’m still losing. I think some people need a higher dose than others, it’s hard when you read about people losing a lot on the lowest doses and you don’t lose anything but remember that your journey won’t be the same as everyone else’s. Also worth noting that I can put on anything up to 6lb the week before my period is due, it comes off again pretty quickly but it’s demoralising when you step on the scales.

If you are eating less calories than your body is using you will lose weight. It is physically impossible to put on weight if you are eating less calories than you actually use, unless it's just water weight, but that should only be possible for a short time. You also have to be consistent and eat a calorie deficit every day, if you are gradually putting on weight you are eating more than your body is burning so you must be mis-calculating calories, it is not an exact science, soup is something that can be particularly variable, homemade or bought, meat or vegetable, thick or thin, and portion size.

If you can lose weight without mounjaro stick with that.
As a prediabetic I found the lower doses weren't very effective with suppression for me, I had it for a few days for few weeks before it wore off. Ive just started 15mg Mounjaro also reduces inflammation and corrects blood sugar issues and often at the start works on visceral fat and water retention.
I have lost weight consistently almost every week, now 3 stones down, with a daily target of 1200 cals which i track strictly but often eating less than that. Eating more protein and less carbs really makes a difference as well as drinking lots of water.
This heat makes us retain water too.
To be honest I would say a pack of strawberries and soup is mainly carbs, which isn't great for fat burning. Your body goes into fat burning when you have mainly protein and low carbs or after it uses up your glycogen stores from carbs first, so to lose fat quicker it's best to go higher protein and low carb or you'll be stuck just burning carbs.