Do you still enjoy food?

[OuiOuiMonAmi]

I need to start but am wondering whether to wait until after Christmas, because I still want to enjoy Christmas food & drink. Would mounjaro take that enjoyment away or can you still enjoy food but just have less hunger/desire to eat?

That sounds ideal, exactly what I’m hoping to get out of it.

I still enjoy food and love eating out, I can eat a main course I just wouldn’t have a starter or dessert and wouldn’t eat much beforehand. For example, last night I ate out at one of my favourite Turkish restaurants. I knew I wanted to enjoy my dinner so skipped lunch to make sure I was hungry. I had a prawn and salmon shish kebab with bulgar and salad. Ate all of the fish and salad and most of the bulgar (left a couple of spoonfuls). Also had 2 cocktails. I enjoyed every bit and had a fabulous night. Today is my weigh in day and I lost 2lbs this week, bringing my total loss now to 11 stone 9, so it’s clearly working for me!

Mounjaro did stop me enjoying food but I didn't mind because I was losing weight!
I'm on Wegovy now and am enjoying food again. And losing weight. But everyone is different.

That’s how it works for me, I do think if you can’t eat a recommended portion then you’re on too high a dose. And it’s the issue with folks choosing to move up doses.

ive always been able to eat a recommended portion size, stop there, and have a couple of drinks, if my appetite was so suppressed I could only eat a starter, I’d move down a dose. As that’s really not what the drug should be doing and will give you major issues when you either come off or titrate down/

Restaurant portion sizes for a main are very often far far bigger than what would be a portion size according to a dietician so I have no issue with having a starter/side combination if that's the case rather than waste food. It's not indicative of not being able to eat enough food, it's indicative of restaurants serving portion sizes that are too large.

It depends on the restaurant, and I do find that the whole clearing your plate mentality is what makes us fat in the first place.

@Thelankyone I’ve always known my issue was not really related to what I was having 90% of the time but rather the amount. This is the first time in my life I’ve been able to feel full from a ‘normal’ portion of anything.
Even when I got down to a ‘healthy’ BMI for my wedding doing Keto I was hungry all the time (and probably fucked up my body even more!) and couldn’t cope with the constant, knawing hunger, it was deafening.
I’m so grateful that this medication has fixed whatever was broken and if I need to stay on a low dose forever I’m happy to do it.

Yes. But not all of the same foods and in smaller quantities. I've been on it for months now and have been wondering about how Christmas pudding will work!

I think some people do better waiting until they feel ready and have a clear run at it. That might be after Christmas for you.

That being said, lots of traditional Christmas food is still quite WLI friendly. Roast dinner with lean meat and veg, satsumas, nuts etc. Those are all things I eat fine on MJ. I also still like a roast potato or two!

Yes, very much so, but I do make much better choices these days. I still eat things like pizza, but instead of the stuffed crust large covered in pepperoni from the takeaway I used to have, I have one of the fancy best stone baked ones with chicken from the supermarket instead, and it lasts 2 nights instead of 1.

I do get hungry on occasion, but that takes house and hours, and MJ means I can make much better choices, and eat half as much too. I'm about 19 months in, 67kg down and feel like a completely different person.

You can still eat what you fancy at christmas, but it may be that you don't fancy the same things you used to.

I still have half a bottle of wine in the fridge from last weekend that I've not finished that I keep forgetting about. And its a mini bottle, so like 250ml in total. I fancied a wee glass of wine and the 125ml or so satisfied me

I think I’m unusual in that I really don’t enjoy food on mounjaro. It massively affects my sense of smell and taste - it reminds me of early stage pregnancy when your senses are really heightened. A lot of foods taste absolutely disgusting to me now.

There will be so many events you can put it off for Christmas, easter, birthdays, party, hen do, holidays, work dos, weddings where you want to "enjoy yourself".

You need to work out if your priority is to treat your obesity and improve your health, while enjoying yourself but in a different way to before, or to continue to eat excessively and continue to gain weight.

You don't know how you will respond to Mounjaro. It might not impact your appetite at all until you are a few months in and on higher doses, you might be a fast responder on the lowest dose, you might have no side effects, or you might have unpleasant ones..............or anywhere in-between.

You won't know until you try, but if you go in with the mindset you need to eat and or drink excessively to enjoy yourself perhaps you need to reflect on that more before starting/investing in yourself. Would you put off a medical treatment for any other condition if you couldn't drink because of it?

Christmas last year for me (6 months into MJ) was - enjoyed the occasional chocolate, but didn't miss not having the whole tin, for Christmas dinner had a light prawn starter, a protein focused main (lots of lean meat and veg, but less pigs in blankets, roast potatoes, sausage meat etc), and a tasty but small dessert. I had one glass of wine, didn't fancy more. It was a lovely meal and I really enjoyed it, I didn't feel like I had missed out when everyone else was gorging and groaning. I did find the snacking habit was starting to creep back in over Christmas and had to bring that back under control in January.

You could start now and depending on how you feel, stay on the lower doses over Christmas, potentially skip a week.

I started around this time last year and enjoyed Christmas fully - I just ate less than I usually would have done.
I had some meat and the veg, no potatoes - not because I was avoiding them exactly but because I knew I’d not be able to manage lots of food and prioritised my favourite bits. I didn’t have a pudding. I didn’t feel remotely like I was missing out because I just didn’t fancy anything else. Also didn’t drink alcohol because I didn’t fancy it.
But I’ve never taken a week off my jab (other than during the supply issues over the summer), it’s expensive and I really wanted it to work and to get my health under control more than I was worried about eating more. For me it would have felt like defeating the point of buying the medication in the first place. Looking at my pre MJ photographs it’s clear I didn’t deprive myself of anything so one roast dinner in my lifetime where I ate a small amount of food didn’t feel like a hardship to me.

That’s how I feel, there is always a reason to break it, holidays, birthdays, nights out etc, and this is supposed to be a life time change in eating habits, a treatment for obesity, it doesn’t work if you jist keep saying well I won’t take it so I can eat loads. If you’re on the right dose you can eat a a recommended portion size, often more.

snd people need to think long term, in part eating like this is how we got fat in the first place. I enjoyed last Xmas. I had champagne breakfast with family, scrambled eggs and salmon, didn’t have the croissant, didn’t feel like it, had a few canapés later in the morning then Xmas dinner, turkey, stuffing, sprouts and thoroughly enjoyed it, a couple of glasses of wine, some dessert later, all healthy portions, so not big, I never felt I missed out as my plate wasn’t heaving and I wasn’t sitting stuffed. I felt in control. Good. I enjoyed a bit of everything, but just a bit and it was enough. And that’s the beauty of it, you don’t feel like you’re missing out as you feel you’ve had enough and enjoyed what you had.

if you’re going to stay on forever, I guess breaking to basically gorge is fine, but if you’re trying to learn new habits, learn when it’s enough, then it’s not.

Thanks for all the replies! Lots of good advice and different experiences to read about. For the record, I'm certainly not talking about going mad at Christmas and bingeing - I just wanted to be able to enjoy a normal Xmas lunch without feeling sick or not enjoying it.

Another reason I was wondering about starting after Xmas is I have some annual leave then and I was thinking it would be a good idea to start when I don't have to be in work (I have the sort of job where I can't just nip off to the loo). But then it seems as if you can get side effects any stage, not jhsut when you start 😥

I'm actually looking forward to a Christmas where I still enjoy all the food, just not in the same quantities as normal. Nothing tastes different and I'm still hungry, I just don't need as much, nor feel the need to snack or pick as much (though I still do).

I enjoy food just as much as always. I don’t crave it, but when I eat I always enjoy what I’m eating just as I would have before.

I know a LOT of people in real life on mj and only 1 has had side effects bad enough to give up. And on here it's a mixed bag. I just think go for it- you can always stop if it doesn't work.

Less potatoes = more freedom from my body

I think when you are just starting out and the first few months appetite totally disappears! Once you are on the higher maintenance dose and entirely used to it, you wat whatever and enjoyment exists.

When I started I simply didn’t want food. I wouldn’t have managed a giant Xmas dinner after 8 weeks. Everyone is different.

I’ve been in it for 16 months (I went in it for an autoimmune disease. I’m happy with weight now but consultant needs me to stay on it for my medical condition so reducing amounts so I don’t keep losing weight).

I have lost 5 stone. I’m 10.4 stone now. I eat whatever with no side effects. I still don’t really enjoy alcohol at all like I did before. I now enjoy food but simply don’t eat as much. A few months in I would not have coped with Xmas dinner. Having said that…it’s October. Get started!!

Really carby things simply don’t do it for me. I can’t really wag pizzas and enjoy them now, they just feel a bit gross unless they’re the thin and crispy ones. I don’t like greasy food.

Some foods I still enjoy, others I've gone off and make me feel a bit queasy.

I'm 7 months into mounjaro, 3 stone down with another 2-3 to go. I would say it's definitely taken the "shine" off food now and there's no emotional attachment to it, it's just fuel.

But having said that, I would rather feel this way around food than the constant obsession with food that got me to BMI 40 in the first place! It's like a freedom in my head!

I still very much enjoy things I used to really like, with the exception of tea which I completely went off from the very first dose, and switched to coffee! But I can't eat more than a small amount.

Foods I just quite liked before, I often feel I can't be bothered with now. I am looking forward to Christmas food as there are several things I really like. But now I won't feel like eating a lot of them so will enjoy every bite. A roast potato or mince pie rather than three etc. And on days when there isn't splurge, I will find it very easy to cut right back to allow for some sweet treats on the other days.

I think you should go for it now, and you'll probably enjoy Christmas even more. You may be completely misrepresentating how your relationship with food can change on MJ. (It's not the same for everyone of course). And if you start now you could be down a dress size by Christmas party time!

I wonder if it has ever occured to you that everyone is different?

Radical idea eh?

My OH has been on this medication for years and a starter is what he can manage.

A doggy bag for those who might order more and cant finish it or order what they think they can manage and then find they cant.