I need advice

[thebestpartyever]

I started Mounjaro on 1st August, and I weighed 15 and a half stone. I was really determined to lose weight as quickly as possible and so I went on a VLCD as well, at 800 calories a day. As you’d expect, I lost weight rapidly and now weigh just over 11 and a half stone.

I am short so still have another stone and a half to go for a healthy BMI, although being totally honest I’m not really fussed about an extra half stone. So I’d like to lose around another stone.

However, money is really, really tight and I have to be honest with myself and admit I can’t do both the VLCD and Mounjaro. I think I want to stick with Mounjaro as realistically I can’t stick to the diet without Mounjaro anyway. But it does mean in the new year I’ve kind of got to rethink my eating.

I need some help with a diet. Suggestions of what to eat, I’m OK with fairly slow weight loss but would like it to be steady, maybe a pound or so a week?

There are some foods I just don’t like, mostly veg and salad to be honest! I like some but not many!

Help!

You've done brilliantly with the weight loss so far, huge congratulations. I'm not being arsey here, but I am genuinely unsure what you're having an issue with. Isn't a VLCD really cheap anyway - much cheaper than having to buy the amount of food for a normal level of calories?

No. The products cost a lot of money and that’s on top of a family food shop, so it’s just for me, and costs around £300 on top of Mounjaro.

I’d ditch the diet products rather than the Mounjaro for sure. I’d look at simple meals like lean protein with whatever veg or salad you do like. Maybe Greek yoghurt and berries for breakfast, if you eat things like that.

I think we’ll need some more info on the VLCD, is it a total meal replacement regimen like Slimfast? Or actual food?
If it’s real food it would be easier to replace/work out I think.
General rules are to prioritise protein and veg, I also track everything in MFP and stick to my calorie goal set in there.

Slim Fast isn’t a VLCD. I am doing a complete meal replacement, no ‘normal’ food if you like.

Greek yoghurt and berries are nice. I just need ideas really, since I haven’t eaten normally for a long time I don’t really feel confident making good choices tbh.

Oh are you doing a packaged 2/3 ready meals a day with a milkshake kind of thing?

Honestly I would just go to whichever supermarket you shop at/iceland and look at the packaging for calories and buy 2/3 ready meals a day from there. Nutritionally they’ll be equivalent to what you’re getting now, and it shouldn’t cost £300 a month.

I'm confused sorry. You are on a very low calorie diet? I don't understand why that would be expensive? What does your diet consist of now?

Surely whole low calorie foods are quite cheap. Are you batch cooking?

I would start with a small number of meals that you stick with until you're confident with those, and then add in more as you feel able to. You could go with decent quality ready meals instead to begin with if that’s easier.

Even if you are very petite 800 calories a day is not recommended by any medical professionals long term. It’s recommended for a 12 week limited period to kick start weight loss only.

You should calculate your TDEE and aim for a deficit of around 500 below that, as long as that number is at or above your BMR (the minimum amount of calories you need to sustain basic bodily functions).

focus on protein, fibre and good fats, switch out some of the carbs you would previously have put on the plate with green veg. I typically do things like green beans instead of spaghetti with bolognaise, stuffed mushrooms/peppers instead of lasagna.

Oh just saw your update. I would batch cook low calorie meals. I cook a lot of Malaysian, Vietnamese and Japanese food for example. I also do low calorie version of British Indian restaurant style curries.

Do you mean you only like veg and salad, or you don't like veg and salad?

Skyr is high protein but little/no fat, like yoghurt but I think higher protein do similar to yoghurt with berries, could also have few grapes and or some mixed seed or few nuts (Aldi or grape tree good value for these. Get a 5:2 diet book of eBay maybe for egs of low cal food/meals

What exactly are you eating as your VLCD? I've been on mounjaro for a few weeks and seem to naturally want to eat about 800 - 1000 cals a day, never feel like eating more.

For breakfast I have either plain porridge or fage yoghurt with a bit of muesli sprinkled on top, for the crunch. Usually a protein milkshake type drink sometime during the day. Then something with meat in the evening, sometimes just chicken and vegetable soup or a bowl of chilli, or cold meats with salad stuff/roast veg, or tuna and mixed beans in vinaigrette, or salmon with scrambled egg. Drinking lots of water. I only want astonishingly small portions compared to pre-mounjaro eating. My food bill is, at the most, a third of what it used to be, I'm full of energy and am losing weight pretty quickly.

I work in a pharmacy and can’t believe how expensive mounjaro now is!
How small are you exactly? 11 stone is a healthy weight for people between roughly 5ft 3 and 5ft 7.
Although I work in healthcare I do not believe in these low calorie schemes that are advised by other healthcare workers. A consistent healthy diet and regular exercise will ensure you’re a healthy weight and also feeling better mentally.
If you don’t like the taste of vegetables you could try to blend them up and add them to something like a curry that’s full of other flavours that will overpower the taste of the vegetables. Homemade smoothies or yoghurts are also a good option for breakfast. Wholegrain rice and wholewheat pasta has slightly lower calories and more fibre so will make you feel fuller for longer. There’s lots of recipes out there on TikTok and Pinterest (I would recommend Pinterest more as TikTok is full of trends and are not always trustworthy)
I would also try and do a small 10-20 minute workout in the morning, even just 5 minutes if you don’t have time. This will make you feel more awake and improve your physical and mental heath which you’ll find in turn will have a positive effect on your diet.
I hope you manage to find something that works for you

Do you exercise OP? If not, start to incorporate daily exercise into your routine, it'll guve you a few more calories to pay with and building muscle helps burn calories too

As far as meal planning goes, use ChatGPT. Set your calorie targets, either daily or for a specific meal. Ask ChatGPT to suggest meals that prioritise real foods, protein and fibre. Then ask it to suggest alternatives to ingredients you really can't stand.

Oh and for ideas, a good starting point is to write up exactly what you want your diet to look like, what foods you enjoy, what you don’t enjoy and then ask ChatGPT/copilot to do you a 7 day meal plan. Something like:

Context: You are a nutritionist working with a client who is aiming to lose 1 stone in weight
Task: create a 7 day meal plan with recipe cards and shopping list
Daily calorie limit - 1400
Macro goal - high protein, moderate fibre, moderate fat, low carb
3 x meals and 2 snacks per day.
Recipe style - quick and easy, no more than 10 mins prep and 30 mins cook time
Likes - beef, chicken, pork, green beans, asparagus, baby corn, cabbage, peppers
dislike - lamb, Brussels sprouts, avocado, fish, seafood
Allergies - peanuts

This is the first 2 days copilot gives me with the above prompt

Day 1
Breakfast: Greek yoghurt (200g) + 30g mixed berries + 10g chia seeds
Snack 1: Protein shake (30g whey + water)
Lunch: Chicken stir-fry (150g chicken breast, peppers, baby corn, soy sauce)
Snack 2: Cottage cheese (100g) + cucumber sticks
Dinner: Beef mince bowl (150g lean beef mince, cabbage, green beans, garlic, olive oil)

---

Day 2
Breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs + 50g spinach + 20g cheddar
Snack 1: Turkey slices (80g) + 1 boiled egg
Lunch: Pork loin (150g) + roasted asparagus + peppers
Snack 2: Greek yoghurt (150g) + 10g flaxseed
Dinner: Chicken fajita bowl (150g chicken, peppers, cabbage, fajita seasoning)

Everyone will have their own way to success, be patient as you try to find yours. For me I have been trying to retrain my tastes away from addictive, soft UPFs and sugar/sweeteners. I assume your VLCD “products” are UPF so I would ditch them. I focus on whole foods and protein, proper food you need to chew, for day to day meals where possible. Bulk out with veg/salad and a small amount of carbs. I ditched the Pepsi max etc early on and I think it makes a huge difference to cravings.

I’ve been on Mounjaro for 18 months and as time has gone on my tastes have changed and I enjoy things I would never have before. It took time for my tastebuds to adapt back to the variability of whole foods but it did happen.

Getting an airfryer was a game changer as it made chicken, steaks etc quick, easy and tasty. I eat more fish (salmon, trout, mackerel) when I never ate any before. Some I tried, could eat, they weren’t awful, but didn’t actually enjoy, but tried to treat as fuel and got them again a few times and have now acquired a taste for them.

Start with lots of the veg and salad that you do like and add a little of something new (or some veg/salad you didn’t enjoy before) regularly. Get as good quality veg and salad as you can, the flavour is much better.

Realistically I’m not going to be able to commit to regular exercise for a while. So I do need to think about diet. There are some good ideas here and I’ll have a think. The main thing is that I plan meals because if I fall into mindless eating I’ll gain weight, even if I’m not eating much.

I’m only 5’3, and I’m definitely overweight at 11 and a half stone. Not massive and not obese but still.

Why do you feel you can't do the VLCD on mounjaro, I would've thought it would be easier so why is it one or the other?

Because of the costs involved; my pay is going down in January and I just can’t afford both

@thebestpartyeveri think some of the questions you are getting is because you’ve said you can’t do VLCD due to cost, but that acronym just stands for ‘very low calorie diet’ it’s not the brand name of whatever meal plan you’ve been buying. Anyone eating a combination of foods that add up to around 800 calories a day is doing a VLCD.

Sorry, I'm really tired and I should stop going scrolling and go to go to bed

I got confused for a minute there and didn't realise that you had been doing both of these things all along

I think you've got some good suggestions than you basically want to make up the calories from real food rather than buying prepackaged stuff

If you google the amount of calories and ask for a day meal plan, you'll probably find lots of things

have you got used to being on mostly a liquid diet? Or do they have meals?

Breakfast - Two eggs, one slice toast
Lunch - Vegetable Soup
Dinner - Chicken thighs and two veg, like mixed broccoli and carrots
Snack - Banana

Easy peasy

I'm 5ft 3, I'm now 9st 0.5lbs bmi 22.7 11.5 stones was definitely overweight for me. I was bmi 25 at 10 stones and for myself had to get to bmi 23 to be classed as normal due to ethnicity, anyone except Caucasian is classed as overweight at bmi 25.
I've done it slowly but have generally had to eat 850-1000 cals to lose 1lbs a week. I have switched to wegovy a month ago and my losses are quicker, lost 1.6lbs this week with eating 850-1100 a day, 3lbs in 4 weeks on it. I don't exercise at all, have an office job and drive everywhere.
I mainly eat chicken or fish and veg with protein shake for breakfast and nuts and high protein yoghurt as a snack.
Wegovy gives me stronger suppression and satiety. Can you Switch over or reduce your mj dose to save money? Slower losses are better for maintaining muscle and avoiding loose skin.

Are you on the Cambridge plan?

Op, this is a really big mistake, you need to relearn to eat a healthy balanced diet, with regular portion sizes, in a defecit when in the weight loss phase and then at maintenance. You will find it very difficult to do if you continue.

I think you need to stop with the meal replacements immediately. Move to eating normal healthy food, train yourself to what you should eat, otherwise you’re storing up long term trouble.