Mounjaro February to April 24 starters - Thread 5

[DesparatePragmatist]

Continuing the journey for those of us who have been on MJ since early 2024. Previous thread here:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/weight-loss-injections/5262448-mounjaro-february-to-april-24-starters-thread-4?page=39&reply=146714858

@Flapearedknave 9 is a good number!

It is! But I am very large (now a 30hh) on top and have a large ass as well 🤦🏼‍♀️ my waist is small, should measure!

So I do worry about looking gaunt, which I already do in some pics

I should try and weigh my boobs 🤣

I lost almost all of my weight (20.5kg) on 5mg. This took me down to 66kg, BMI 25.5. I stayed on this dose for a few months, but I really wanted to drop just below BMI of 25. So I upped my dose to 7.5 a couple of months ago. I bounce around a lot between 66-63.5kg. Currently I am at 65.1kg. In a sense I am maintaining, but I want the baseline to be closer to 63.5
MyTDEE is supposedly 1740kcals, but I am sceptical, I think 1500 is closer to the mark. To lose, I try to stay around 1200. I bought 3 7.5 pens right before the price hike, I would really like to shave off the final 3lbs, maintain for a bit and then drop to 5mg, both for cost reasons & side effects. I hope I can. Suppression is good, but I think my metabolism is very efficient. On a typical day I eat a v light breakfast, & then dinner. If I eat too little I feel really awful, so I always eat something in the morning, even tho I am not particularly hungry. Am content with the quantity & variety of food I eat, I would just like to see a lower number on the scales. We shall see, I will report in from time to time.
On the other hand my clothes are getting looser still & my stomach is flat!

@Smallsalt some of us are still posting on thread 4 too so that’s maybe why it’s even more quiet than usual here.

Nice to hear that people are still doing well :)
Ive lost 6lb over the last few weeks due to a dodgy tooth but am expecting to put that back on this week while I’ve been working away and eating far too much bad stuff. I’ve dropped down to 7.5mg and will try and keep reducing either weekly or fortnightly if I can. I’d like to be able to maintain on less than 2.5mg eventually or stop altogether.

I’m just checking in. I need to get a grip and redo my tdee and get more exercise as I’m stuck at a bmi of 26. I’ve 3 pens left and am contemplating whether I can tirade down and stop on 2.5 . So glad I’ve got to this point before the price goes ncreases.

I have been maintaining ok, been doing some spacing out of doses which means I'm a little ahead of my orders now. I've just started one 10mg pen and have another to use after that. My orders reopened today but I was dithering over the price with Bolt and whether to not bother ordering at all. In the end I've ordered a 5mg with SwiftDoctor so I can get on their maintenance support. I thought it would involve some back and forth but they accepted me as a new customer very quickly. I went for 5mg rather than 7.5 just because of the price. Hopefully I can maintain on that.

I'm 'ahem' maintaining on 7.5 and have put on 3lbs .......

That's being on a 10 day gap, so went back to 7 days last week.

Then I'm hoping to drop a mg and maintain properly.

I've 3 pens from when Ouskh allowed it, does anyone know what kind of gap is allowed before I run the risk of dropping off their books?

No, and I’d like to know myself! I ordered three pens from them in late August and now have four full pens in my fridge. Given that I’m now dosing 2-3 weeks apart (am planning to jab today after a 3 week gap with weight stable) I won’t NEED a new one for several months.

Oushk usually say 6 weeks but at 2.5mg, you can pretty much dip in and out as you please as it's the starter dose so doesn't matter if you've had a supposed gap. Now, with the new maintenance set up, its 3 orders in maximum 6 months which gives a good indication that'll they'll probably be ok with 8 weeks if you time it right.

I took 10 this week and have barely been able to eat or drink anything!

Much stronger effect than 12.5 or 15!? Weird af

Hello just checking in. So I’ve been trying to titrate down to 5mg once per week. I stopped calorie counting too. I’m not eating as I once was but I am definitely just shoving in everything left right and centre without any pause.

So I’m going to pop back up to 10mg I think (currently doing 5mg every 5 days). I put on about 10 pounds too. Is anyone else finding this? I’ve always had such a negative relationship with food and am a comfort eater/boredom eater. I hoped I’d be able to be without this medication at some point but now it’s looking unlikely. But anything to not go back.

It’s not just the physical side of it all. I was so unhealthy and lazy before. I’m running 3 times a week, I’m doing fun runs, assault courses- I even did a skydive. I totally feel like my life is as it should be and it makes me a bit sad that without the meds I think it would all disappear :(

@Scalessayeek if you have been more active than previously some of your 10lbs is possibly muscle. Do you feel bigger, smaller or the same as when you hit goal?

I am 2-4 lbs heavier than my goal after 10 months of maintaining. It depends what I have eaten. Am currently on 7.5mg but considering trying 5mg soon. Your 5 mg every 5 days is 7mg over 7 days so similar dose to me. I am now calorie counting everything and my smart watch tells me how many calories I burn. If I overeat one day compared to my energy burnt it’s ok but I try to ‘save’ it back over the next few days. Not doing this for a decade or more is where my weight gain came from so it’s a new habit for me.

If you don’t change how you behaved in the past you are going to slowly go back to your past weight. Exercise is definitely good but 80-90% of maintenance is about what you put in your mouth. It’s easier not to eat it than it is to eat it and burn it off so I try to make healthier choices and eat smaller portions of the treats as much as I can.

When MJ wears off its like I've learned nothing! My appetite increases and the poor choices creep in! A small weekly dose keeps me in check but who knows how long I can afford to keep buying / how long they'll let me now my BMI is 22.

@Scalessayeek I've been trying to work my way down.

When you say you went to 5mg, did you do a sudden jump or was it gradual?

I have been trying to stay on each dose for a month before going down again. I am down to 10mg and possibly will try 7.5mg next week.

Lowest I got to was about 10st 4lbs. Have been maintaining around 10st 7lb/8lb. I am snacking more tho and can eat bigger portions. I find I am up a few lbs after weekend and it goes by end of week. So that's ok and happy to be at around 10st 7lbs.

I will go down to 7.5mg and see how I feel.

I feel like I shouldn't really need as much of the medication anymore so really want to try and get down to 5mg. I want it now to help my autoimmune conditions and maintain my weight. I am hoping... In theory, if I titrate slowly I can maintain on around 5mg.

Same! If it wasn't for MJ I would probably be obese again! I have no self control!

Who are you with @ThirdStorm ?
Cost pressures aside, if you're with a maintenance friendly pharmacy, I don't think they'll cut you off, at least not without a warning so you get chance to gain a bit (it's only 6lbs between bmi 20 and bmi 21 for example, so not beyond the realms to be able to gain this quite quickly if need be?).

I too am maintaining on a small dose and it's working out pretty doable, cost-wise - whatever your dose, counting clicks from a one size above pen, halves the cost. The price rises sort of forced me, but now I'm spending less per jab than i was before.This app is a really handy way to check cost per dose/number of clicks:
https://www.vrgrowth.co.uk/mounjaro-clicks

Good to hear from you @obsidiantree . Sounds like you're doing really well 👌

@KrankyKumquat I'm with MedExpress, not maintenance friendly as far as I'm aware and for my last order my BMI was 23.5 which is what I believe their cut off is.

@ThirdStorm
Yes, medexpress have cut people off. Time to arrange a move methinks, if you want to stay on. SwiftDoctor will take you on at your bmi, also Oushk and Pharmulous. Probably others too but they're the ones I hear good things about. I know Swift and Oushk will let you do month on, month off and order every 8 weeks if you want to count clicks and save money as long as you're on a low dose.

I found Swift really easy to move to. I thought they might insist on following up with me but it was their standard evidence of prescription, full length photo holding a piece of paper with the date on and a copy of my ID. All approved very quickly, and my BMI is 22.

@ObsidianTree I titrated down from 12.5 to 5 over about 5/6 months so nice and slowly. Went up again here and there when I had trips away to help rein things in.

For me there is just this underlying compulsion to overeat without thinking. I may look into cbt to see if it will help.

The only reason I hoped to stay at 5mg was costs reasons but I think I’m going to go back up to 7.5mg, at least for a couple of months. I’m looking at it in terms of ‘this is what my body needs’ to stay on an even keel and not ‘I’ve failed, I’ve learned nothing’ as frankly, I didn’t need to ‘learn’ anything. Like most of us probably, I know what to do to lose weight or keep it down. My issue is that without this medication at a high enough dose, my body is battling my mind and is constantly desperately trying to tell me to eat more or eat things I know don’t serve my body or my health. This medication allows me to make the right choices without too much effort (but being mindful - choosing the high protein option, choosing to avoid the UPF option etc).

I think this medication really works for me on a hormonal level and sometimes I’ll need more support to regulate that, than others. I started maintenance in Feb/March and 5mg has been fine for me until August or thereabouts. So I’d like to go up to 7.5mg and whether that means I stay there or not (in either direction!) remains to be seen.

Hopefully that perspective offers something to anyone thinking that going up a dose or injecting more often is a failure on your part to “learn the lessons”. I firmly believe that for most, it truly isn’t that but rather the body’s need for extra hormonal support from time to time

First couple of days dropping to 5mg from 7.5mg, and finding the suppression much higher and far less sugar craving. Let's hope this lasts the week!

Good luck! May I ask, was it a different pen?

Yes, a new pen. Do you think the 7.5 might have been 'off'?

I don't know, it might have been, odd to get much higher suppression on a lower dose. Some people are getting good suppression on lower doses because they are in a 'smaller body' but you are getting getting much higher on a third less of MJ. Let us know how your week goes and next dose. Have a good one.