Mournjaro July Starters 2nd thread

[MeridaBrave]

New thread.

First post re: lifting heavy.
I mentioned on the other thread about lifting heavy for 6-8 reps and I was told it was bad advice. Clearly it’s not my advice made up by me - it’s from world leading female health doctor expert Stacey Sims. There is plenty online from her (loads of podcasts) so have a listen. I’ve been lifting this way for 3 years since the outset of menopause symptoms, on her advice and I have significantly increased muscle size and strength. She also has written a couple of books which are excellent.

Clearly this can only be done with good form or it will lead to injury. Either use a PT (as suggested on the last thread) or use the resistance machines in the gym which basically lock you into the correct position.

I am using WLI as I don’t have the willpower to sustain a deficit for more than a couple of weeks. For me, I haven’t really chased suppression (I’m still on 2.5mg) but even the lower dose has shut off the food noise, and make me feel full quicker and for longer.

I’ve had a 1.5lb weight loss this week, but I’d gained 1.25lb last week so that’s 0.25lb loss over the last 2 weeks.

I’m hoping this isn’t the beginning of a stall. I upped my protein and water this week hoping that would help. I’ve lost 9.75lb in 9 weeks but had hoped to be at the stone by now.

Have you recalculated your TDEE since you lost weight to make sure you're still in a good deficit? It's surprising how quickly it drops.

W10D1 for me and another nice loss. I've been swimming every weekday for the last two weeks and am definitely noticing that I am getting faster, it's also really helping with my weight loss as I don't lose much at the weekends when I don't swim but then it picks up during the week.

SW 139.7kg
W1 -3.8
W2 -1.9
W3 -1.7
W4 -0.9
W5 -1.5
W6 no change
W7 -2.3
W8 -1.2
W9 -1.3

Regarding Mounjaro mimics GLP-1 hormones which affect a range of things including insulin sensitivity and metabolism.

I have an interesting observation from this week.

I have a high calorie deficit (at least 1000 cal) with no carbs, no fat, whole foods from scratch. I usually lose 3-4 lb per week (from a 40+ BMI I should add).

This last week has been incredibly stressful, sustained every day at work. I've eaten no differently. My loss is 1lb.

My thinking is increased cortisol, staying at high levels all week (I have cried at the stress of the week two mornings this week). This has put my body into alert mode - it is thinking something is wrong, we need to protect resources here, and so my metabolism has slowed.

I may be completely wrong, but that is how I imagine my body to be reacting. Seems logical to me.

The stress levels at work will be decreasing. I'm acknowledging this as healthy and necessary stress because I'm challenging myself way out of my comfort zone. All part of growth. So I'm currently not concerned by the decreased rate of weight loss. But I hope it doesn't continue for you long.

I know if I wasn't on WLI I'd be eating all the biscuits and chocolate in trying to cope with the stress. So I'm definitely benefitting still.

That's really interesting, I hadn't thought about it before but it makes perfect sense. Also a really excellent example of how the MJ helps us stay in control when normally we would be spiralling into overeating, it breaks that link between mood and food which can be so damaging.

I'm now 10kg down, so averaging a kilo a week, which is great. It feels very very good to be able to feel my muscles again! And I can get up off the floor without using my hands. Gradually rediscovering clothes I used to wear.

My only slight concern is that I feel like my sertraline is no longer effective, and I'm a bit concerned this is due to Mounjaro. I can feel the free-floating anxiety rearing its head again. So will have to go to the dr and talk that over, but not convinced a GP will be on top of the subject.

It shouldn’t drop much if you are losing fat, but yes it will drop significantly with muscle loss.

I lost 9kg to the end of August, see here the two analysis from bodytrax. Less than an apple worth of difference.

I know even the fanciest bathroom scales aren't good at measuring body composition, but mine are telling me I've put on almost a kilo of muscle in 10 weeks. Very gradual. But: I'm in the low 30s, @MeridaBrave your muscle mass is amazing!

I’m a bit confused by the muscle mass thing, I think there must be (at least) two ways of measuring it. My BMI is still 26, so somewhat higher than @MeridaBrave and my fat is 31% or 23kg so that makes sense. Bone mass is 3kg, water 50% so again very similar. But my scales show “skeletal muscle mass” as 24 kg. While im happy to believe that @MeridaBrave has more muscle mass than me I think it’s except likely she has double . I’m fit, lift weights and exercise at least six times a week. Anyone know how that’s working?

My “fat free” I think would be 52kg, assuming it’s just total weight less fat? So I think it looks like your version of muscle is fat free less bone? Whereas mine is almost but not quite taking the water weight off too?

Damn, I just went to my scales app and I have misread my muscle mass as kg, whereas actually it's percentage. What an idiot. It's still gone up a percentage point though!

I take the body composition readings on my scales with a pinch of salt, though, because since I've had them, they've consistently told me I'm a whopping 45% fat. I KNOW I've lost fat and that measurement has never changed!

I guess, as with most things, it's different if you have a lot to lose. When I started, my calorie goal to lose 1kg/week was 1750. 14kg later it is 1550.

Oh, absolutely! None of them are very accurate. Mine are at least fairly consistent at least averaged over a week or so. I’m just interested in the huge difference in the muscle mass. I’ve seen people on Reddit as well saying that a target muscle mass of 60-70% is good which would be utterly impossible on my scales, and other sources suggest 30%. So there’s something fundamentally different in the measurement somewhere.

21/06/2025 SW 85.72
13/09/2025 CW 75.9
TW I think I'm going to aim for 69 kg, this is about 11 stone.

To be in the not overweight BMI, I should be about 10 stone. That sounds a bit thin to me, I'm naturally of a wench type build, with bum and bosoms.

I think if I was much under 11 stone, my tits would start to look very sad. I'm used to having big tops, I don't want to start looking like someone else, just a slimmer version of me.

Anyway, the TW will be under review when I get there.

From memory, (dim and distant) last time I was 11 stone, I was a size 12 on the bottom, and 14 on the top. I'd be very, very happy with that.

Currently, I am now a biggish 14 on the bottom, and a 16 on top. When I started I was a big 16 on the bottom, and an 18 on the top. So I'm definitely getting there.

Good luck everyone for the coming week, I hope those of you that are plateauing soon start going down hill again.

Well done @Nellieinthebarn , fabulous progress. Definitely stop where you feel happy, all cause mortality is actually lower for those in the overweight category than the “healthy weight” category, especially for those over 50. Clearly managing diabetes can change that and require a lower weight, but otherwise there are really no health differences between “healthy” and “overweight” so it’s really down to how you feel.

NB: I’m not talking about obesity here, that starts increasing health issues pretty rapidly as you go up. Just the 25-30 BMI range.

I definitely don't understand the various readings - this article made it sound like there are too many methods of measuring for there to be a standard. However it does suggest that for a woman my age, my 32.2% is bang on, so I'll take that!

I dug into my scales stats a bit more and the residual fat mass (RFM) number has decreased - not by enough but I'll take that as well!

Yes correct there are two ways of measuring. The bodytrax (from the photo) just splits as:

Fat
Bone
Muscle (the rest)

Thats because BIA scales (and dexa) are unable to split between muscles such as the heart or lungs vs skeletal muscle. I’ve had a dexa done before with a similar reading for muscle.

That all being said I’ve been into weight lifting for several decades and I do have very high muscle mass. I currently am managing to squat with an 80kg bar for example.

10 weeks in
starting weight
83kg
current weight 75kg
still on 2.5mg
current bmi is now 26 so I’d like to ideally get to 70kg then stop. However not sure what will be best in terms of maintenance or cold turkey.

I suggest another 2.5mg pen and wind down
eg week one 50 clicks, week two 40 clicks, week 3 30 clicks, week 4 25 clicks, week 6 20 clicks etc

Even from 2.5mg I think stopping abruptly is not a good idea. Once you get to 15/20 clicks the dose is tiny so maybe can stop then.

I’m in a very similar position, although I’ve gone up to 5mg. My plan is do another maybe four weeks on 5mg to get to 70kg. Then I’ll slowly drop down to 2.5mg to try to avoid the end of diet bounce. I then intend to stay on 2.5mg at least over the winter (reducing it if I lose more weight). I think for me cementing the loss and taking some time to work out my new maintenance diet with less food noise and cravings is very important, particularly over the winter and Christmas period otherwise I could just pile it all back on. I’ll then see how I’m doing, current plan is to come off next spring as I tend to find warm weather easier.

@AirborneElephant yes completely agree. I’ve had quite high suppression on 2.5 so was thinking I might try to half that once at target or do one injection every fortnight through the winter to maintain until I’m brave enough to go it alone.

11 weeks in and I've lost 22.5lb which is 12.6% of my body weight.

Well I say 22.5lb but I'm one week in to a two week all inclusive holiday in Lanzarote so I've no idea what I weigh right now as there are no scales.

All I know is that 3 of the dresses I wore at the start of the holiday are now too big and my bikini bottoms fell down in the pool this morning, resulting in an emergency trip to the shops to buy smaller ones.

Thankfully the only people around to see my mishap were my 12 year old twins.

I'm planning to lose a bit more than what I want (6lbs or so) and then lower the dose gradually. Gives me room to gain weight and still be at my goal