Lost nearly half my body weight and ive maintained for nearly 6 months

[LolaLouise]

Hi all

I started mounjaro at 99kg and finished at 52kg which puts my BMI at 21. My HBA1C has gone from high 40s to 28.

I was quite unlucky with side effects - they were debilitating at times. I powered through them and became successful. Some however, have left me with permanent issues but on balance its a small price to pay for overall health

Ive changed many things. I was an iced coffee addict, now i limit myself to one a day. I hate drinking water but have found a low calorie flavoured water i can drink. I go to the gym 5 mornings per week. I have to chose to actively engage with every meal. I cant eat infront of the tv mindlessly anymore. I have to pay attention, eat slowly, and the second i start to feel full remove the food.

Its hard going to without MJ, everything is a choice, i have internal battles every day, at every meal, and every drink, every morning in the gym. Its never, ever easy. It goes against what i want and what my brain tells me. Food noise still exists, the hunger still exists. I have to actively decide to ignore it.

i wanted to post purely to share my journey, but also, to offer real honest advice to people. None of my journey was easy, not taking it, not side effects, not the permanent physical problems i have, not maintaining. It’s been hard - but i figured some people may want the open honest answers to their questions.

Well done OP
amazing loss
if you were to go back to the beginning now, what would you do differently?

They work in a few ways. They make you feel fuller faster. They make you feel fuller for longer. They do both of those by increasing how responsive your brain is to the glp1 hormone, which is basically the hormone that tells your brain you are full. Being naturally less responsive to that hormone is why people experience food noise, even when logically you know you are full, you still think about food constantly because your brain isnt getting the message enough, making not over eating incredibly hard. So MJ boosting those receptors reduces the experience of food noise. It also boosts insulin production but specifically when the body needs it, and increases sensitivity which makess tissues react to glucose more efficiently and high insulin makes it harder for the body to burn fat. It also reduces glucagon in your bloodstream, helping to keep your blood sugar more stable as high insulin can cause blood sugar crashes which makes you crave the sweeter/less healthy food.

Go though the doses slower, and exercise properly and effectively right from the start alongside to reduce muscle loss and focus on health rather than my reflection and the number on the scales

Blimey where abouts do you live ? A months wait for bloods is insane! I'm a Medical Receptionist and the longest people wait is a week. Normally can be done in a couple of days. My issue with quick weight loss was gallstones but this was a few years ago when I foolishly tried meal replacements. Needless to say weight went back on with that...not all of it but most after the Op. I only had side effects with MJ when I went up to 12.5mg and then I just felt queasy for a couple of hours on 2 days.

It was mostly because id started my new job and wasnt allowed any time off during training and couldn’t get too and from a clinic in my lunch break. They only offered times outside of 9-5 1 day per week and the earliest ooh apt when i got my form was over 4 weeks wait.

I live in Wales, for bloods 4-6 weeks to get a telephone appointment with GP to get approved for bloods then 4-6 weeks to actually get bloods so from first sending e consult to bloods, up to 3 months!!!!! Then 1-2 weeks for results to come through then unless urgent (ie life threatening), 4-6 weeks for appointment to discuss results. No app here - only way to get results is from GP, Reception won’t give results. So potentially nearly 5 months to find out what’s wrong - it’s a nightmare. England is so different - DD lives in England and has totally different experiences