Mounjaro…. Thinking about giving up.

[Nunenco]

Hi All, was hoping for some words of wisdom please. Been on Mounjaro for 9 weeks now. First months 2.5mg no issues at all. The first week on 5mg was fine too but since the second 5mg dose I haven’t felt well most days. So I decided not to up the dose for the 3rd month. I’m due to take the next dose tomorrow and have not reordered yet. Cravings have slowly returned on 5mg but I do t think I can handle 7.5mg. I suffer with nausea and now also starting to feel lightheaded/dizzy.. I have reached out to the supplier’s support team (Asda) but they are merely giving me information I can find on the web. I still have about 3stone to lose and feel like I’m letting myself down if I stop now but I just would like to feel normal again. WWYD please? Thank you.

I hated 5mg, I felt so ill on it but you will find it's quite common on that dose. I was fine once I moved up. Not sure the science behind it.

sorry you are not feeling well. What are your meals looking like ?

Pretty bland and boring tbh. I’m not a breakfast person so usually have a small (funsize) apple around 11.30, my go to lunch is a tuna salad or salmon flakes. Home made so not swimming in oil or mayonnaise and for dinner usually a jacket potato with some home made veggie chilli sauce, beans or I make a filling of whatever is left in the fridge. Alternatively go to dinner is an omelette. The idea of anything more adventurous makes me feel green 🤢. Just thinking about it.

i purposely didn’t move up a dose last month because I was worried I wouldn’t be able to function I/e make it in to work. So that is interesting

i Know it can be hard when you are feeling nauseous, but sometimes the side effects of nausea and light headiness / dizziness can be caused by not eating enough? Could you manage something a bit more substantial at 11 ish- like some yogurt with your apple ? It’s totally your choice how long you stay on 5mg , you don’t have to move up to 7.5 if that’s better than stopping completely?

That’s why I stayed on 5mg this month. If the nausea was getting better I’d probably continue the 5mg but its not improving and to top it, feels I have hit a plateau as well. I lost more weight on 2.5 than on 5mg. Part of me thinks I just have to though it out.

Have you hit a plateau though? How much have you lost? It is normal to loose less when you are in your second month. 1-2lb a week is a decent healthy loss. I have been on MJ since last October. My losses are slow now but so long as over t8me I am loosing it’s fine. I did 2 months on each dose and just about to start my 3rd pen of 12.5.

What have you tried for nausea? I find pepto bismol, helps and ginger lozenges or peppermint tea. I did find the jump to 5mg quite tough but it was boxing day! When that settled and I moved to 7.5 I didn’t have any issues.

I lost just under a stone in 2.5 then 6lbs during the second moth and third month so far nothing. Some days I’m a pound up and lose it again a few days later. I have tried travel sickness tablets and pepto bismol before bed. Will try some ginger tea tomorrow. Not tried ginger yet. Thank you

Try to up your protein intake, eat little and often and drink lots of water as this will help with the light headed dizziness from low blood sugar. I've had the symptoms you have experienced too and I'm upto 15mg now on 4 weeks of it but it's super strong and I'm struggling to eat!

I have been wondering if the dizziness blood sugar related as the feeling often comes with craving sweet. I have tried to eat small amounts of fruit which seems to help a bit.

I felt rough on 5mg then started to feel better by the end of the pen, went up to 7.5mg and this knocked me for 6 for a few weeks then symptoms started to subside. OK on 10/ 12.5/ 15 though. I think this is normal where your body is getting used to the meds, 5 is double the original dose and just as your body is getting used, it jumps again by a third.

I was most ill or had most side effects on 5 and plateaued after month 2 - 7.5mg is my good dose - fewer side effects and if they are they are very brief (but no nausea more bowel tmi)

I found 7.5 to be a better jab I felt less tired constipation gone more energy. My suppression is good and can look at food again and not think oh god do I have to eat that my taste is back to normal everything tasted so bland at 5. It maybe you are better going up

You haven’t mentioned eating protein which is essential in every single meal if you want to retain your hair & keep your muscle. It’s also filling and packed with nutrients. I’d make a conscious decision to eat protein every single meal.
Id then suggest you go up or down a dose but I wouldn’t give up. You’ve done so well. You’ve got this.

My symptoms lessened when I moved up to 7.5mg. Also, I realised that quite often my nausea was actually hunger. Try eating little and often?

I’ll try to up the proteins. So far I have been eating mainly fish and eggs. Will try to add some Greek yogurt as desert and try to add more protein to meals.

Thank you for the advice and support . I’ll give it another month and try the 7.5mg and increase protein and stock up on mint/ginger and hope for the best.

Good to hear that you are going to stick with it, and planning to get more protein into your diet.
One thing that struck me was that you mentioned jacket potato. That is a big lump of carb, and while it's obviously better than chips, it's still not ideal if you're wanting to kick start from a plateau. I would personally try to forget the big four - potato, bread, rice and pasta.
If we have a home made curry for example, rather than rice, or cauliflower rice, which we've had our fill of quite honestly, we break a cauli into bigish florets, sprinkle them with a bit of garam masala and chilli flakes and put them on a baking tray in the over - delicious and low carb and goes perfect with a curry.
So if I was to suggest anything, it would be to make an extra effort to lose the carbs.
Good luck! ❤

Me too. Didn’t feel well on 5 but have been miles better on 7.5. Not sure why but there seems to be a trend that way.

It could be blood sugar related. I have experienced light headeness on a couple of occasions and eating something small usually helps it. So i am guessing it is low blood sugar with me.
Eating fruit as snacks is a good way to help this. You shouldn't worry about sugar in fruit as it is a healthy snack and eating 2 pieces a day would be beneficial.
There is also nothing wrong with jacket potatoes. There's a lot of misinformation about carbs. The carbs to avoid are processed ones - cakes/biscuits/crisps/processed bread etc. You can eat unrefined carbs - in fact you should, they are good for you. Potatoes and rice are excellent sources of nutrition.
I also struggle to eat breakfast most days so I will eat something mid morning.
I also had a 'stall' in the 3rd month. It's just your body getting used to it. The weight loss started again after a few weeks.
I definitely wouldn't go up a dose with your side effects so i would probably stick with 5mg for a bit longer and see if it settles down. If it doesn't you could consider dropping back to 2.5mg instead.

@IsItSnowing "There is also nothing wrong with jacket potatoes. There's a lot of misinformation about carbs. The carbs to avoid are processed ones - cakes/biscuits/crisps/processed bread etc. You can eat unrefined carbs - in fact you should, they are good for you. Potatoes and rice are excellent sources of nutrition."
Sounds like we'll have to agree to differ, which is fine by me 👍

I haven’t read all of the responses 5mg worked fine with me (except feeling freezing cold) , but had dizziness (to the point I nearly fainted few times not due to weightloss as I was on a plateau ) when starting 7.5 mg followed by sugar cravings , had some chocolate every day for a week and resolved the issue and not returned since so could be low sugar

I’m on my second pen of 10 mg (5 months in)

I’ve been on it now for over a year and have lost nearly 8 stone so far - bit to go yet. I too found going up to 5mg hideous and think it’s because it’s a doubling of the dose even though it is just going up 2.5. The rest of the time the increase is less. Does that make sense? 5-7.5 mg is much easier.

I found 2.5 mg fine but the transition up to 5 mg was tough (before I even got to 5 mg). I'm 60 weeks in now and feel fine on 15 mg (and have done for at least 30 weeks even when going up the higher doses). It was the earlier doses/first 6 months or so that were the issue intermittently.

Got through about 10+ week injection site rash weeks (guessing now but approx week 15-25), the odd sulfur burp episode (never have those now) - an occasional really bad bout ending in feeling very ill and vomiting...

In your position I would try dropping your dose down slightly if you are not feeling great on 5 mg. Maybe try 55 clicks (4.6 mg) or 50 clicks (4.2 mg) and see how you feel before giving up. You may even benefit from going down to 45 clicks (3.75 mg) if you are feeling nauseous, and then going up slowly e.g try 5.0 mg again when ready and then go up to 6.25 mg rather than 7.5 mg as the next step.

Graph shows how I changed my doses going up, when needed.