Going up the doses

[Fatmumslim01]

I'm 3.5 months into MJ and 23 pound down. I did 5 weeks on 2.5, and have been on 5mg since. I have 3 doses left in my 5mg and then my next pen will be 7.5 as I'm feeling 5mg isn't working anymore and my loss has stalled.

I'm nervous about going up "already". I know the guidelines are to go up each month and the studies show the most weight loss on 15mg but at the start of this journey I was hoping to stay on 2.5 for as long as possible to save money, then I had to move to 5 as 2.5 wasn't working as well. And now I'm thinking of moving to 7.5 for the same reason. But it's getting more expensive and I'm also worried that 7.5 is the half way point of the dose strengths and I'm not anywhere near half way through my journey yet as my BMI is still 35, down from 40. But still a long way to go. And I'm hoping to stay on this long term as the non weight loss benefits are great.

But what if I get to 15 fairly soon and I feel like it's not enough, there's nothing above 15mg. And 15 is like £150-200 a month whereas if I had stayed on 2.5 some places do it for less than £100.

Those who have gone up th doses and got to 15, how did it feel then? And how do you manage and justify the cost?

I've over a year in and really stalled at 10 and wish I'd held out longer at lower doses...
Half a stone ish a month is good going.

Personally I'd take a long term position on it and double down on diet for 1 more month before going up.

I moved up monthly except I did 2 months at 7.5 and two at 12.5. I’ve been on 15 for 3 months. It’s by far my most effective dose. I don’t feel like I need to go any further with the dose. It’s now giving me chance to play around with my food choices, calorie and exercise levels and it feels like I am learning longer term skills.

The cost is not an issue for me so I appreciate I have this luxury - I lose slowly and am expecting to be on MJ for 2 years. It’s a long term project for me. Is there anyway you can reframe your thinking along the lines of it’s a marathon not a sprint?

I pay about £180 month with Oushk for 15mg using the monthly discount code

I moved suppliers for this reason, it cut the price a lot which took some of the stress away. I’m on my second month of 7.5 after thinking I was going to drop back down to 5mg as the food suppression was too high. But we do build a tolerance and I’m accepting that I will have to move up again when 7.5 doesn’t have the same effect.

I lose a pretty steady 1.5lbs a week on average so I have a rough idea of how much longer I need to take it for. Would working that out help you plan ahead?

I'm expecting to be on it very long term if not for life as the non weight loss benefits have been amazing etc. this is the problem in going up that if I reach my goal on 15mg and need 15mg to maintain for potentially life that's very expensive whereas if I manage to reach goal on 5 and maintain on 5 that's alot cheaper. But equally if I'm not losing weight on 5 then maybe it's time to go up

Some people titrate down when they reach goal to find the lowest they can maintain on. It’s not set in stone that you would be in 15mg for life

I’ve gone up a dose after every pen 😂
What I would say is that 5mg was by far my least effective; I was hungry pretty much the whole time.
I’m on 10mg now but was actually happy on 7.5. I just figured it was worth experimenting. But 7.5 is probably where I’ll settle.

Also, I have always used Monj to find the best deals each time. I’ve moved supplier with each new pen. Not as convenient but worth it to save money.

Thanks yes I'm already using monj and switching each month and will also look at price matching. Monj is such a great resource!

I paid £139 inc delivery (using price match) for 15mg so not much more than the 5mg. I’ve been using MJ over a year now & my first 2.5 pen was £149.99 plus delivery so you may find that the price is lower by the time you get to the higher doses.

I don’t expect to stay on 15 once I have reached my goal. I’m going to titrate down until I find a maintenance level and then stay there indefinitely. I’m sure by then there will be even more data and advice about maintenance and there is a pill form in development which will be cheaper

I'm 9 months in and on 15mg, I was prediabetic so needed the higher doses as they wore off quickly for me and needed 10mg to control my blood sugar symptoms and carb cravings. As for cost, why dont you work out how much you save on food now compared to before? I worked out one month only on supermarket food shopping went from £150 to £85 so I've saved a lot due to eating less. I didn't eat much takeaways before but had macds maybe a meal every 1-2 weeks, I now eat one burger once every few months, so save at least £5 a week there (costs less with nhs discount). I no longer buy breakfast at work and eat much less at lunch and barely snack, so probably saved £3-5 a day there. I don't eat out at all, maybe had 3 meals in 9 months now..it all adds up.
As for maintenance, you taper down which allows you to eat enough calories to maintain. You wouldn't maintain on 15mg, that's too high. I'm with oushk on maintenance and get 15% off and free delivery. 15mg cost me 160.99. When I started in October costs were super high as not many were on it and 2.5mg cost £145!!