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.

Oh @soupforbrains is that a P&O ship? You look absolutely amazing and I'm wildly jealous of your Carribbean cruise.....DH and I were looking at them last night but because of DDs adding to the cost and being in school we may have to wait until we can go just the two of us!

@RuthEvershedforPM ,know what you mean about the boobs, god knows what size I am now but they look bloody awful, I too was a 36Dd,/E, they look like saggy socks now,
This time last year I was at my heaviest, and busting out of my clothes, and after a terrible Christmas this year where I couldn't really eat much, I'm probably the lightest I've been since teens.

Thank you everybody for the lovely comments. I have to say I’m pretty happy with the shape of my body now I just want it to shrink a bit all over.

still 3 1/2 stone to go for me so I’m nowhere near close to goal yet.

@GameOfJonesno it’s not P&O. P&O has a pretty poor reputation these days. And then, celebrity, Royal Caribbean and Virgin all really seem to cram people into their ships.

we go with Marella, which is Tui’s British cruise line. It may not sound very glamorous but it’s one of the more upmarket lines these days because they don’t just shoe horn as many rooms as they can.

for example we docked alongside ships from Virgin, MSC, Celebrity, P&O and Foyal Caribbean. All ships with an almost identical hull and size to ours. But loooong them up online they all had between 4,500 and 4,800 people Max capacity. Whereas Marella has 2,800 max capacity. So it feel less faceless and there is far more open space on the ships, 9 restaurants a dozen bars etc. i highly recommend. 😊

weigh in day
SW: 20st
CW: 15st1lb
GW: 12st7lb

so already back down to just 1lb over my pre-Christmas/cruise with weight.

@Fairfaxandflavor - yes I am the same weight as I was a teen. It’s mad how I thought I was enormous and I am objectively tiny. Still doesn’t stop the comments. I had a root canal in the week - FIL at breakfast this morning ‘tooth hasn’t stopped you eating love’ he had a full English - I had eggs Benedict … 🙄🙄

@RuthEvershedforPM ,wow, that's a cheeky comment from FIL, Ignore, hope you enjoyed the eggs benedict. Eggs have been my long time go to since march, had them tonight with prawns and avocado.

Restarted 2.5 17/12 (3.5 weeks ago) and weekly weigh in . Did jab after 6 days jab 3 and 4 and this seems to have kickstarted things as this week started feeling like I’m taking MJ again. Going up to 5mg tomorrow after 7 days.

SW MJ 18.1 st /115 kg (BMI 37)
Finishing MJ (7 Months) 13.8 st/88 kg
MJ round 2 14.8st /94 kg
CW 14.6st/93.2 kg (BMI 30.3)
GW 11-12 st /70-75kg (BMI 23-24)

loss on 2.5mg round 2 : 0.8 kg/1.764 lb (3.5 weeks)

wasn’t expecting to have loss on 2.5 based on people’s comments but was a good start of first stabilising weight first two weeks (over Christmas) and some loss the second half, im pleased with that. Aiming to loose more like 2.4kg/5 lb the next 4 weeks to keep me on track on my average towards goal.

been a lot in news around staying MJ long term (but then also news around SE long term effects) , I can truly understand this as being off MJ and being on MJ is two different worlds even on low dose .

Hi can we talk about suppression? I started in March on 2.5mg and had strong compression from the start. Went up to 5mg in April (wish I'd stayed on 2.5mg) then 7.5mg in Aug. Got to almost where I wanted by early Sept and dropped to 2.5mg. Continued to lose but only a bit. At the start of Dec I went back up to 5mg which im still taking.

Is it possible that I've confused myself because I don't feel like I've got much/any suppression. I'm hungry at mealtimes whereas back in the summer I wasnt really hungry much at all. I do think about food a lot as well however I've just spent a few weeks with a house full of nice food. Thats all gone now so today feels like a clean slate. I've jabbed but am wondering whether I've ruined things by jumping around so much?

I'm 166lbs (started at 190) and targets is 150-155. Lowest weight was 159 at the end of Nov.

Any thoughts or am I being ridiculous?

I've just read that back and realise it sounds like I'm completely naive and haven't done any research since I started. I have, I'm just interested in opinions and experiences.

Not being ridiculous at all.

Our bodies will adapt to the drug being in our system is my understanding. Also being hungry at mealtimes I think is a good thing as we need to eat, the initial suppression of zero hunger is not realistic for long term health.

I’ve not been above 5mg (only did that for about 4 weeks and had zero inclination to eat) 3.75mg seems to be my sweet spot. I am at the top of my maintenance at the moment as I am aiming for 72-75kg.

For reducing I was advised to follow my body by firstly stretching out the days from 7-10, when I could do 10 at that level drop half a dose again jabbing when needed. Private consultant I spoke to said the long term data on best way to exit MJ is not there but she expects best results to be that it takes as long to come off MJ as the patient was on it. Partially for suppression and partially for the psychological part to catch up. She has had many clients who have gone from high doses to nothing and are regaining within 4 weeks.

Not at all!

I went up 12.5mg (one dose of 14mg) during my first round I mainly went up each dose except couple of months on 10 and 3 on 12.5 , reason I went up was because the effects was waiting and I wasn’t loosing

I restarted on 2.5 4 weeks ago (9 week break) and 2.5 is now where even close to how it worked first time around , although getting stronger my body deffo is more immune to it this time around , starting 5mg today so let’s see how it goes but I’m not surprised you experiencing less effect this time around

on another topic did anyone have any success stopping hair loss? First round I had some loss , nothing major but after restarting it’s in chunks, especially when washing hair the towel is full of hair after and if this continue I’m going to end up bald! I have upped my vitamins, having haircut tomorrow but also highlights which probably will make worse 😩

I am currently taking a very small dose every two weeks, and my experience is the suppression is as high as ever even from a small dose. I feel immediate relief even from a small dose then by day 5 the hunger starts to return and I have to start using my willpower, plus all the joint pain comes back, tough shit for me though I'm coming off, can't justify the cost,plus it's been months since my last order, I have one more 5 pen that could potentially last for months if I get desperate, but I wouldn't be prescribed now as way too low bmi. I never went higher than 5,and I've never gone longer than 2 weeks so far, but I will carry on with IF, and sit with the hunger and hopefully keep it off. 🙏

I have experienced some hunger throughout, not been an issue. Not every single day, and seldom before about day 4, but regular. It's just been at longer intervals and taken less to fill me up. Never thought of it as a bad thing.

Very close to goal now, seemed impossible at the start, can’t wrap my head around it to be honest, but feeling great.

Thank you @Puddingpiperand @Bipaloss,your posts make me feel less weird. I will persevere.

For hair loss I used Seed and Soul, a small company and I take two tabs a day. I did see a difference over a couple of months. Seed and Soul

Wow and wow and wow !!!! Well done , close to goal now , brilliant 🤩

I’ve moved the goal now from 64kg to 62kg, still top end of a healthy bmi. Then hopefully start titrating down and hopefully settle on a lower dose for maintenance. I’ve no plans to ever come off it.

7st is absolutely amazing, flipping well done!

Weigh in this week and back to maintaining at goal at 10st 7lbs. I'm considering trying to lose a couple more lbs and have 10st 7lbs as my upper limit now I've been at this weight a few months but I'll see how it goes. The Christmas weight gain of a few lbs came straight off once I got back to being conscious of what I'm eating.

Hi everyone,

Despite making a pledge that I would spend the winter in jeans and jumpers and would buy clothes when the weather got better and I had hopefully lost more over the winter..... I am failing miserably!

It's so nice to buy clothes that look good as opposed to barely fit I can't help it! It's a mixture of charity shopping (so much fun because there are loads of smaller sizes) and a bit of fast fashion - feel a bit guilty about that but I haven't been able to do it before.

Winter definitely harder food wise but trying to keep to protein and veg mantra. Looking forward to the warmer weather again and all the lovely salads and grilled chicken and fish!

Hi 👋 great to hear news from all. So many stories about effort and graft and self care.

I’ve now lost 4st and 30% of body weight. Unbelievable. Another 4lb to goal weight.

I’ve had a bit of an about turn from watching Stacey Sims stuff on weight training and nutrition and am now fuelling with protein coffee every morning instead of intermittent fasting and the weight has continued to slowly drop after a December plateau and has melted Christmas 2lb gain.

It’s really challenging my IF beliefs and practices, been doing some form of IF for 15 years. But it seems to be working. And now maybe protein and weights is my new maintenance plan rather than IF and weights.

Weekly weigh in for accountability

SW MJ 18.1 st /115 kg (BMI 37)
Finishing MJ (7 Months) 13.8 st/88 kg
MJ round 2 14.8st /94 kg
CW 14.5st/92.3 kg (BMI 30)
GW 11-12 st /70-75kg (BMI 23-24)
loss on 2.5mg round 2 : 0.8 kg/1.764 lb (3.5 weeks)
loss on 5 mg 0.9 kg /1.9 lb (week 1)
total loss round 2, 1.7 kg/ 3.7 lb (4.5 weeks)

5mg really kick started things this week, I actually lost more then the previous 3.5 weeks (was similar when I moved up to 5mg first round)

.

Another huge milestone reached this morning, 100lbs loss. Just 14lbs left to goal. I really can’t believe it’s real. I’m beyond happy and grateful and I feel fantastic.

That's fantastic, @northernlight20 . Wow!

I'm in my goal range now and so very close to a healthy BMI. I'm losing 1-1.5lbs a week on average now which is slower than before but probably realistic for where I am. Basically I want to get to less than 11st 7, then start titrating down.

43 weeks in, on 10mg. Early 50s, 5ft 8

SW (March 24th 2025) 17st 4
CW 11st 11.5
GW 11-12st

OMG that is such amazing news from everyone.

I think I might be about to restart MJ. And bizarrely it’s nothing to do with weight this time, it’s about inflammation. I’ve slowly had a gradual increase in back and joint pain since coming off it - I’d assumed the cause was being overweight but apparently not since I’m still holding around goal. More problematic is the increase in snoring, which entirely went away when I was on MJ. My sleep is now really disrupted by it 6ish months after coming off MJ. That’s all about inflammation. I spoke to stupidly expensive Juniper today and they’re happy for me to restart at 2.5mg and then titrate up (looking back at sleep and exercise charts, 3.75mg was my ideal for managing inflammation without too much appetite suppression so not losing more weight). I know that’s not what this is being prescribed for but I’m not sure I care. I want the really mobile and well rested version of me back. MJ gave me that. I truly believe it has applications that we haven’t even begun to understand.

So interesting. Could be similar for me, tho hoped in an affordable way, the inflammation benefits are so wide ranging. I hope it’s not too long before the oral version is more widely prescribed in NHS as a multi use treatment for all the inflammatory diseases and processes.