March Starters 2025 Thread 7, where we are now all having advice from Janice, Janice can do one!

[TheSpoonyNavyReader]

Welcome to thread 7.

Thank you for sticking around and making a little community of WL. This group makes me so happy that we are non judgmental and support each other.

Thank you 😊

I’ve just got 7.5 from IQ doctor for £194. They did want photos and previous prescription etc. And wanted to give me 5mg because last pen was ordered mid august but has all gone through in the end.

I have this exact feeling and it’s awful. Felt like i’d put 4 stone on overnight.
Thing is, it’s not psychological is it? It is physiological. Our stomachs do not hold onto food long so we just feel hungry. No amount of self control can change that!

Morning all! @Bipaloss , sounds like you have a sensible plan in place to get you through the coming weeks and I’m so sorry for you and your family.

Ok, I have to admit that I usually skip over 2 types of posts in this group but now I need help on both please!

Firstly, maintenance and secondly, click counting. I am lost on what to do with both and need some advice please.

I am achingly close to my user name being redundant which is insane.
SW 240lb/17st 4
CW 170.9/12st2.9
TW was 12st 4 then 12st 2 but would love to see 11s so reset to 11st11

i am on 10mg and im really noticing the effects wearing off now. I am a bit hungrier, a bit less satisfied with normal meals, more able to drink wine again. Nothing drastic and awful and still very doable but my body has got used to the meds that’s for sure. I am losing max half a pound a week but often maintaining or popping up sometimes. Still on a downwards trend but slow.

if I had lots more to lose then I would move up to 12.5 but I am definitely at the point of being happy with my loss and not wanting to focus on a scale number for the sake of it. If I lose much more then I won’t look right. I will always have a bit of a belly overhang after multiple csections and the chin/neck could do with a tighten but apart from that, I’m looking the best I’ve looked in decades and I am so thankful.

i currently have 2 shots left in one pen and then 2 full pens of 10mg. I am terrified of coming off completely because I have never been able to do this before, never felt like this before and have a million hormone issues that this wonder drug has kept at abeyance.

i don’t know how to titrate down but be able to control it all. I don’t understand click counting and use by dates and spacing out doses differently with the use by dates. I want to slowly reduce the meds in my body to see what happens and if I can live on a lower dose. If I can’t come off completely then I’m at peace with that but I am now wanting to get no lower than another few pounds and a bit of bounce up/bounce down wriggle room.

please help!

@Bipaloss, sounds like a good plan.

it’s weigh day for me today and a bit disappointed to have maintained this week at 82.3kg
sw 114.4kg
cw 82.3kg
gw 69kg

@needtolose70lb have a search for posts from @TheBossOfMe. She has nailed titration and finishing and has given some very good advice.

@needtolose70lb first off you HAVE actually lost over 70lb 😁 ! Well done. But for some reason you've got your starting weight in lbs off by 2lbs so it doesn't look like that. I only knew this immediately as it's my starting weight too so it's burned into my brain. Should be 242lbs!

Secondly counting clicks is really very simple. Every pen has 60 clicks per dose. Which means a half dose is 30 clicks. A quarter is 15. On a 10mg pen it's particularly easy.

45 clicks is 7.5
30 clicks is 5
15 clicks is 2.5

On a different dose, like 7.5 you simply do the same maths to figure out the dose.

If you want something less straightforward than half and quarter doses, use a calculator to divide the full dose by 60 to find out what one click represents, then work from there.

I'm not into maintenance yet but yes, @TheBossOfMe is good on that. Or a couple of people on the >5st to lose thread.

Hello all, regarding maintenance this has been my first week of being completely off Mounjaro and it has been hard. I have actually put on 1lb which feels really disappointing.

I felt that I'd done the right thing in coming down the doses very slowly but the hunger has definitely returned. I am having to be very conscious about sticking to my intermittent fasting but I may need a rethink about what I'm eating because I really don't want to be feeling constantly hungry.

I think it's probably a bit of trial and error to find out what works for me going forwards. And definitely having a set point in mind as I don't want to go above 10st 7lbs so now I'm currently 10st 8lbs I need to rein things in a bit now rather than ignoring it and it being a slippery slope of continuing to put weight back on.

So no real answers I'm afraid!

I'm really struggling at the moment 😔. Feel like I've injected water the last few weeks, I did the golden dose of my 7.5mg on Saturday so I did 8.75 and I'll be going up to 10mg this weekend but I don't feel any different. My portions are creeping up, food noise is returning like today I had a packet of crisps already 🙄. Willpower is zero hence the need for medication but I don't think it's working at the moment. Lunches at work are a bagel thin with cooked chicken, salad, plus fruit and a cereal bar. I feel like that's quite a large lunch and I miss the earlier days of MJ when I had noticeably smaller portions and definitely got fuller quicker. Hopefully the move up to 10mg will help!

Still got another 3 stone to go to be the top end of a healthy weight so really need MJ to be working for the price we have to pay now!

@needtolose70lb That's such an incredible achievement, well done.

Re titrating down, this is the way I did it. I was on 7.5mg when I reached goal weight, which I took as a split dose of 5mg and 2.5mg on day 1 and day 4.

First dropped the second 2.5mg, so 2 weeks on 5mg only

Then extended time between jabs so 2 jabs of 5mg every 14 days

Then titrated down again to 2.5mg every 14 days and stayed on that for 2 months

Then down to 1.25mg 14 days later (I think, slightly lost count of weeks)

And then stopped completely.

What that did was allow me to get gradually used to the slow return of hunger, not feeling so full, and having a lot more food noise. Because it does come back - and I've had to train my brain to cope with it, learn strategies for dealing with it, and not get derailed by it.

The not feeling so full thing is fine, I didn't really enjoy that anyway!

The return of hunger pangs is a bit harder - that has taken a lot of willpower not to give in (I do IF so the hunger is real!).

I have healthy snacks in the fridge (mostly chopped cucumber with lemon and salt on it) that if I really need some mouth sensation I have.

I had to recalculate TDEE and calorie count at the start, but am back to being able to judge ok visually - have kept plate composition fairly similar but upped calories slowly to get to current calorie level.

Weigh daily, religiously.

Exercise daily, even if it's just walking.

So far it's working - have held at goal for 4 months now.

@TheBossOfMe ,brilliant advice, think I've maybe got a handle on this maintenance /coming off now.
A, don't eat after 6
B, eat an anti inflammatory diet as much as possible
C, weigh Every day without fail
D, take aswaghanda, l Theanine, turmeric, collagen, biotin
E, walk every day
F, no alcoholic drink, at all
Stayonitforever😂

@TheBossOfMehave your eating habits changed without mental input now or are you still proactively having to think like a slim and healthy person?

Ashwaghanda can make you extremely fertile 😂 just fyi

I'm three weeks since my last injection, I feel the hunger so deep.
Even after I've eaten I'm still hungry
I have maintained though rather than gained
I didn't want to be on it for the rest of my life but not sure what to do

@Imissgoldengrahams, if I get pregnant at nearly sixty I'll let you know 😂

Gosh ladies. I’ve only just realised I’ve neglected you. @Bipalossi can’t read your posts as I’m a bit raw from my own loss earlier in the year but I’m very sorry you and the family are going through this and I wish you all the best.

my weigh in on Saturday was a 2lb loss.
SW:20st
CW:15st10
GW: 11st7

im happy because I’m officially over half way to goal with 4st4 lost and 4st3 to go (at least to my first goal)

also somewhat excitingly the reason I forgot to post at the weekend is because I have, somewhat tentatively, re-entered the dating scene. I haven’t dated in years because I didn’t have the self confidence. But I had a very very lovely date on Friday night and we followed it up with a second on Monday evening so I’m I little bit like a giddy schoolgirl currently.

@Puddingpiper A bit of both, TBH. Mostly I don't have to think too much about what I'm eating, I never really ate diet food on the journey, so it was just smaller portions of what I normally ate, with more protein and fewer carbs. So it's just been about increasing portion size to eat to calories. The only time I really have to proactively think is when I eat out - I'm out a lot for work/social life and then I really do have to still do the "pre-planning" thing by looking at menus online first.

Ahh @soupforbrains that's lovely!

1lb off for me this week, 2lbs to original goal weight, but plan to build a buffer especially with Christmas coming!

Had a call with Pharmulous yesterday and plan to buy next pen with them to be on their books for maintenance rather than Oushk… but don’t plan to stop for a while as I want this weight to ‘settle’. I might in Jan start stretching out doses or doing 1.25mg. Got to see how it goes I guess!

I am feeling rough as a badgers arse this morning.

first things first weigh in. 1lb loss this week which considering I ate very poorly for the first half of the week and my erm… conduct last night it’s a miracle ive lost anything.
SW: 20st
CW: 15st9
GW: 11st7

last night I properly drank for the first time since starting MJ. It was a big event and had a sort of drinking game built into the even so I knew it would be a boozy one but it was also for charity so I wasn’t about to pull out. I got fairly trollied and staggered to bed this morning at 4am. I didn’t particularly notice that I got drunk any faster than normal but I DID notice that the acidity of the alcohol sad badly in my stomach and I ultimately just felt queasy all night and was also sick before bedtime which since bu that time I was sobered up fairly well I think was more to do with alcohol vs MJ than drunkeness. Especially as I am not a sicky drunk anyway.

anyway I’m now on a train into London as I’ve got a meeting for a charity I’m on the board of. Must attempt to put vaguely grown up airs on and disguise the fact that less than 24hrs ago I was behaving like a student at a Rugby Club ball. 🤦‍♀️🤣

Hi all. 7.5mg is no longer having the desired effect. im due to jab today and thinking of using my 7.5mg pen to get 10mg? how do I do this? do you think it would be wise to go somewhere in between? maybe 8.5mg?

Hope you're ok @soupforbrains ive drank at a work event this week too. Well done on your loss. I find im hungover for longer.
I need to increase my dose. MJ no longer working as well and I still have 2.5 stone at least to go. Hoping someone can come along with some advice

@popdepop you would need to jab twice. One full dose, then a second one counting clicks. For simplicity, 10 clicks would be 1.25, so you'd end up with 8.75 in total.

@soupforbrains well done on losing in the face of a challenging week! I believe the vomming is 100% MJ related. On my one foolish night on the fizz, by 4am (I'd been in a bed a while by then) my stomach had clearly had enough of the stuff still sloshing around in there - when normally it would have been long gone - and behaved accordingly. I've never been a sicky drunk either. Wishing you strength for the day!!

thanks @GiveMeWordGames think ill go for the 10 additional clicks. Can I use the same needle?

I can't see why not if you're doing it straight away.

What you're going to have to do is keep a note of how many clicks you've done and what's left in the pen.