MJ and social eating/ treat eating?

[OneDayIWillLearn]

My BMI recently crept back over 30 and I need to lose weight, so I’m going to start end of August once some big trips are over. I’ve always used WW or nutracheck in the past and I’m thinking about adding mounjaro into the mix this time to help me stick with it long enough to get to a healthy BMI.

One thing I am struggling to imagine though is how using mounjaro would fit with how I’ve eaten on diets before. With WW I would always save my treat points for the weekend and have a more relaxed Friday and Saturday night dinner - typically I’d have two small cans of beer (or a couple of G and Ts) then a couple of glasses of wine with half a homemade pizza and some garlic bread. Having that to look forward to made a big difference to me and I did it all within weekly points or calorie counting. But from what I’ve read I worry I’d be sick if I ate something like that on mounjaro!! Can you ever have more relaxed nights if you’re taking WLI? Does it bother you if not??

I’m also thinking about special events like a weekend away with old friends coming up in the autumn which I know will be quite foodie (and involve some drinking). I don’t mind reining it in a bit but I’d hate to feel like a party pooper.

I’d just be really interested to hear how others deal with this. I guess food has always been a big part of how I relax and what I do on holidays etc - part of the problem for me I suppose but it’s hard to imagine life without it!

I think everyone reacts to it differently and you won’t know how it is for you until you start. For me, I’ve never had any sickness or nausea, or any other side effects really. Mounjaro makes it a lot easier to stick to a calorie controlled diet, but I could easily out eat it if I really wanted to. For the most part I’ve been able to eat and drink, including alcohol, as normal if I wanted to, but I’ve been able to make better choices. The mindless need to snack and keep eating after I'm full has gone. I’ve been on it since February and have lost almost four stone. In that time I’ve had weddings/hen do’s/weekends away with friends. I’ve just been more mindful of choices while still enjoying myself. I’ve been trying to set habits to maintain for life and that includes having occasions where I eat/drink a little more than usual.

I went off alcohol really. Many people do. You won’t be able to eat as much, but it’s not a big problem.

I think it’s only difficult if you haven’t told people.

Unfortunately for long term success I think cheat days etc have to take a back burner or you really are just undoing all your good work especially with carb laden meals.
On MJ I naturally gravitate towards healthier food and stick to good proteins. I did eat pizza and pasta in Italy but with a protein focused breakfast and only ate 2meals a day. I lost weight due to all the walking I think. Cutting out dead calories like alcohol has helped.
I think on WLI it's helped me have the space to think long term rather than it being a quick fix diet.
Socialising is fine, I just eat less! I'm away tonight with friends and will have a nice meal but I'll only eat 1 course and probably not all of that..that's fine though. Socialising does not have to equate stuffing your face.

The thing with diets before mounjaro is that you were depriving yourself of the foods you saw as ‘treats’ and looking forward to them as a reward for the hard work and suffering during the week. On MJ, you won’t really want or need the ‘treats’ at the weekend anymore as healthy eating won’t feel like a chore. You’d rather eat the healthy food and begin to learn that the deprive/reward cycle is not needed (or very healthy!).

I’m pretty much able to eat and drink everything but in smaller quantities than before and certain things I just don’t want eg I can really take or leave chocolate and walk away from a sausage roll!!

I am a real foodie and could never have had bariatric surgery as it would have impacted my social life too much!! MJ, however, simply adds some restraint to the quantities😁

This does all come with a caveat though…

We are all different and all respond to the medication differently. You’ve experience may be completely different to mine and you may not be able to enjoy certain foods or alcohol without suffering the consequences! You won’t know unless you try.

You just eat less of it. I never had any problems with type of food when I was on MJ, I could eat pizza and garlic bread, it would just be a much smaller portion than I was used to. It is true you naturally do gravitate towards healthy stuff generally I think as when you are eating a lot less, I think you become more mindful of eating the right stuff as you can’t rely on volume to get a decent nutritional balance any more. You want to get the most bang for your buck! But I never had any issues eating out, I’d still have a coffee and a cake with friends. The rest of my intake would just adjust to account for it, and does now I am off it too.

When I started Mounjaro, for the first couple of months, it was sometimes difficult to eat and I would perhaps have struggled eating out.

But once I settled into it, I purposely chose to stick with lower doses to help lower food noise/cravings/help with portion control but not suppress appetite.

I can eat more if I want to, Mounjaro helps me not to, it is a nice balance for me. If I eat too much of something very high in sugar it can leave me feeling a bit yuck later, but I could easily eat a well chosen stater and meal out and share a dessert.

I don't drink much anymore, I don't actually enjoy the taste now, so can't share much experience of that. I've had one or two wines/vodkas and been fine.

Everyone is very different though. You will need to try for yourself.

we always have homemade pizza and a beer on a Friday night. I’ve continued to do this throughout my MJ use (currently 4 months in and 2 stone down…). I only manage half the pizza which is fine - I have the rest for lunch on sat and sun! I don’t look forward to it all week like I used to though… MJ removes that food/reward link and once that’s gone you don’t really worry about your weekly treat anymore.

I’ve just been away on our annual big group holiday - I couldn’t drink as much as everyone else - after about 4 drinks I just don’t want anymore and I wasn’t particularly interested in all the snacks but I was still able to join in with group meals I just had smaller portions. Honestly, nobody cares about how much you are eating / drinking if you just quietly get on with your own thing.

I haven’t had any side effects at all. I can drink a couple of glasses of wine as before and that’s all I want to drink.

As for food, you are just thinking and behaving like a person who isn’t obese. You won’t be thinking that you can’t wait to eat pizza and garlic bread so you won’t feel a disappointment that you aren’t going to eat it. When you go away with your friends you will be looking forward to seeing them and the chat rather than what you are going to eat.

For example, last night my dh and kids went to the cinema. I know for a fact that before I would have got some fish and chips and eaten them on the sofa while watching handmaiden’s tale. But I didn’t because I didn’t want fish and chips I had a packet of crisps and a glass of wine and watched it though.

IMO no need to wait until the end of summer - I’ve just got back from an all inclusive and still lost 1.2lb.

Been to a wedding while on MJ too and totally fine.

I still eat whatever I want - chocolate, Nando’s etc. Just WAY less. And I want different things, ie I want those ‘treat foods’ less frequently, and want fruit and salad more than before. So don’t feel like I’m missing out, as I’m not wanting it. And if I do want it, I have it, and have no side effects.

SO true. So freeing 😍 so restful. Life changing.

This is a very good way of putting it. You won’t be looking forward to pizza and garlic bread all week and then unable to eat it and disappointed. You just won’t be thinking about it in the first place and if you end up not having it, it won’t make any difference to how you feel.

food has always been a big part of how I relax and what I do on holidays etc

This is what changed for me - I still like to taste interesting/delicious food or have a glass of wine, I just don't have as much as I used to - and I don't look forward to it, I just kind of feel neutral about it. I also no longer see it as something that signals relaxation or being on holiday. It's psychological as much as anything else - breaking the link between food and happiness, food and comfort, or food as solace.

I have heard that some people on WLI find that once food is no longer there to take the place of negative feelings, or soothe them, they can feel more unhappy until they figure out another way to deal with those feelings beyond food if they've been using food as a way not to feel feelings. That's not everyone though, for sure.

MJ has changed my relationship with alcohol and sugar, I still have them occasionally but most of the time don’t want to eat them and don’t miss them. I have found I physically cannot overeat heavy carbs, it gives me stomach pains. As per pp, you can still eat out you probably won’t be able to finish it though! The biggest change has been a mental one, I was raised to never waste food and have overeaten my entire life because of it. The initial guilt in leaving food on my plate was enormous.
I’ve lost 6kg in 4 weeks and am now overweight, not obese 😊 I will continue until I’ve reached my goal weight, being 6kg down has already done wonders for my confidence and my health

My own personal experience is that Mounjaro makes you feel a bit like you do when you lose your appetite because you’re unwell. I don’t mean it makes you feel sick, just that general sense of being “off your food”, when you can eat because you know you need nutrition, but you’re not all that hungry.

It's just not a problem. I've been on it since January, I've been for meals out, holidays, socialised all as normal. Just eating much less food! You can find at first that eating very oily or carby foods can upset your stomach but you just adapt. I love food and look forward to delicious meals, they just happen to have much less carbs and more protein/veg and I eat a smaller portion.

As everyone has already explained well, I no longer crave the same ‘treats’ at all and don’t feel like I’m missing out having less of them or making different choices.

one thing I would recommend to try to keep the balance you describe would be to make your jab day a Sunday. That way you will have least suppression at the weekends and most chance of enjoying what you do have. i still share pizza and have a couple of drinks at weekends - but the difference is I have 2 slices then want to stop! Not a whole pizza! We order a lot less as DH and I are both on MJ.

@OneDayIWillLearn that's an interesting post.
First of all, I would say don't put off until the end of August, start now. There's no time like the present. MJ will help on those "big trips"!
As quite a few people have suggested, you probably won't see that weekend pizza as the big treat you previously thought. That's one of the plus points, you start to see those naughty foods as less of a reward, which can only help long term with your relationship with food. If you think of pizza as a reward, then you'll end up in an endless spiral I think, which MJ helps you to break.
I usually find if out socialising at restaurants that there is usually something on the menu I see as a healthy option. For example, if we go for an Indian curry, I would choose something like tandoori chicken or a shashlik, both things which are baked in the tandoor oven without sauce. Or at an Italian, I'd avoid the pasta and go with a salad or a steak. There's always something. And MJ has stopped me craving a thick oily curry sauce or carb heavy pasta or pizza, I have really gone off the thought of them. If there's wine on the table, I just need fewer top-ups than anyone else because I tend to drink much more slowly.
So with MJ, you will find that less and less you "look forward" to those weekend treats, which is great. And you'll find that midweek, eating less is no chore and no hardship, so you don't feel you need a treat anyway.

I find that taking Mounjaro and using Nutracheck meant I had to get out of the mindset of 'cheat' or 'treat' days. I don't think it's helpful and I think that why I failed at Slimming World etc - I have a lot of time for some it but find some other aspects completely delusional now, the idea of trying to create cheat desserts or saving up 'syns'. I think you just have to build a balance into your everyday life. You can do that with calorie counting. There's no reason you can't have pizza and a few drinks if you want them, it won't necessarily make you sick but it might change how you view the pizza and alcohol - you might not want it (I've definitely had a couple of pizzas). The main thing about Mounjaro is that you should feel full quicker and for longer and be unable to over eat.

I agree with pps that you won't WANT those weekend treats half as much as you think you will, or at all.

You can't know how much MJ will affect your ability or desire to drink alcohol etc but what I would suggest, if it's the weekends that you're thinking about, is to jab on a Monday. It's what I did - without any particular plan originally, it was just when I got my first pen - and it meant that the suppression and any early SEs weren't as strong by the weekend. I still never fancy more than a glass or two of wine and mostly don't want any, which is nothing like I was before MJ.

I agree with everything that has been said but i do feel like a party pooper at times! I feel i used to be a bit more fun having another serving on that delicious dish a friend made or having a couple of extra glasses of wine… one of my friend (who knows i am on MJ) will both look at me like “what?? You’ve changed!!” But also serve me water to pre-empt another friend from giving me a glass of wine!
DP (who is also on MJ but has less suppression/nausea than me) has told me that it was a problem for him that we cant have our ususal cheese and wine fridays… he accepts it and is glad that i am on MJ but he misses that part.
saying that, i dont miss it so i think it is more a problem for the other people in my life who are used to me eating more and deinking more.
i have a friend “who parties a lot” (ie. A drinking problem). When she started an intervention to help her with her alcohol issue, she told me and not many other people. it was very painful for me to see how other people were egging her on to drink, encouraging her to go out and rolling their eyes at the fact she had signed up to a 10k walk… so i think it is more difficult for other people to adjust to our new self.

What pp have said but also you can time your Injection - for example take on a Monday and suppression will be higher during the week and a little looser at the weekend

I still eat out on MJ I just have small portions. I tend to choose a starter and a side so when I ate out recently I had buffalo chicken wings with Garlic tenderstem brocolli.

I have found my tastes have changed. I don't want to eat unhealthy food that I used to call treats. It completely changes your attitude to food, and I don't feel the need to have treats nearly as much. I go on holiday most months between March and October, and I do like to have fish and chips if I'm at the sea side. I go with a small portion, and really enjoy it, but I don't need to be treating myself all day every day when on holiday, or at the weekend.

I still go out socially for meals. I just choose (and want) healthier options (no, not boring salads!!). I have had things like Brazilian fish stew, African chicken curry, really nice tasty stuff that I have enjoyed, but I can't eat big portions.

I still enjoy cooking. I'm about to make Vietnamese chicken curry from scratch and really looking forward to it.

Before MJ I used to eat a pudding every night, usually a small cake or a few biscuits. Now, I still want my 'supper' but it's usually just a cinnamon or sesame bagel with just butter. Previously I would have smothered it in Nutella or jam, but that's far too sweet now.

I don't think anyone I eat out with thinks I am not eating much or avoiding anything in particular. My choices look pretty normal.

Can't comment on alcohol as I am teetotal

I think your worries are part of the process. I had them too - I think a lot of people did before starting MJ. I was worried I wouldn’t enjoy holidays or nights out. I do, though! It takes a while to adjust. I usually order a normal main course in a restaurant and I’ve made my peace with leaving food on my plate now. I can still drink a lot, too, and I weirdly feel like I get less hungover on MJ. I just don’t eat as much in terms of portion size, snacks (I almost never snack now), puddings etc. I still have occasional takeaways but now I can’t eat a whole portion.

I just wanted to say thank you for the posts, I’ve read them all and there’s a lot to take in but overall it’s reassuring and does
me think I have to try this! My head is full of food noise/ use of food to soothe/ reward-deprivation cycle etc so I almost can’t imagine life without it but it is an intriguing prospect!

I will go back and read all the posts again but just wanted to acknowledge and say thank you for now…