Nov 25 starters - thread 2 - the one where we don’t eat everything in sight this Christmas!

[Springbaby2023]

Hi everyone, starting a second thread as the other one is almost full. We made it through month one, now here’s to a happy, healthy and lighter 2026!

I have a stone to loose to reach healthy BMi and another stone from there to fit my frame and sit around bmi 23 I think.

if I can achieve that and have a 4/5lb fluctuation I’d be very happy.

An alternative could actually be to increase your dose but go for longer periods between jabs. It takes 5 weeks for mounjaro to leave your system entirely, so if you are having manageable headaches that subside, you could try 5mg over ten days.

You mentioned managing hydration, have you increased your protein intake aswell?

have you been prone to headaches in the past at all?

@Springbaby2023 @Fifiellz its definitely a decision for me now to decide on my final goal. I may not want to go as low as 9 stone however my plan is once I am over this horrible virus then to really up my weight lifting game and see how my shape changes then. I would be happy if I stayed between 9 and 9.5 stone I reckon. I dont feel like my face is looking too bad right now but I'm definitely keeping an eye on that.

@RoundandSad so sorry you are still having problems with side effects. I am really prone to headaches/migraines but they have been better since being on MJ (other than the 1st week). I am guessing because of the increase in water and eating healthier. Nausea has been my worst side effect, usually day 3/4, but it does improve through the doses it seems. This week's been tough as I have been unwell with sinus/flu type symptoms.

I’ve had bad nausea on 3.75, so have dropped back to 2.5 and already feel better. I did push through a bit , but ultimately I’ve realised that I don’t want full suppression (however tempting that is!!) as I need to stay healthy without it at some point so I may as well learn now which I have the MJ support.
@RoundandSadit sounds like you’ve had a rough time with it since starting. I don’t think you should have to push through to this level, at least you without the benefits of a loss you are really happy with! Is it worth trying Wegovy as an alternative? A colleague of mine had awful side effects on MJ but has had really good results with Wegovy.

@RoundandSad I had headaches on and off in the first week or two but just took some Ibuprofen and rode it out. It happens very rarely now. Hope you feel better soon!

@StealthMama no I don't get headaches. Generally, I'm pretty well but haven't felt nearly as well as usual since starting this medication.

@JustBeach I wouldn't want to go through all this again on another medication. It's been a very unpleasant stressful experience. I'm trying to ignore it and just go ahead with normal life. But I have never been so obsessed with food. It's bizarre. And that's on top of the Pepto-Bismol and everything else that has to happen with this medication

@user593 this is week nine for me so I think it's unlikely to go away. I had the headaches from the beginning. At their worst, they will go all the way through to day five.

I had a whole thread about side-effects, while more than one thread probably and one thing I should explain is that I can live my normal life, none of it is such a problem that I can't just crack on with stuff. But it feels like it's making life unpleasant to take this stuff

I have contacted my provider via email so I'll see what they say. But I just have to make a decision. I think I run out in the third week of January. My original plan was for this to be a three month kickstart. So it's not a disaster to come off it I never planned to be on it long-term I did think it was realistic to lose more weight though I mean at ten pounds now it's kind of cancelling out at one pound a week which isn't much - at the end of three months I had really been hoping to be at least a stone and a half down to be honest, I expected more given everything I hear about how amazing this stuff is meant to be.

thanks for listening guys. It does sound like a lot of people are putting up with some pretty bad side effects but just cracking on with life. I wish we knew more about how the drugs worked.

@RoundandSad Maybe as pp said try Wegovy? My partner lost 20kg fairly swiftly on Wegovy even though he didn’t eat particularly well. He didn’t have headaches but had to be careful to eat early in the evening to avoid an upset tummy.

@user593 no as I said in my previous post I can't face going through all this again

Forgot to say, since I started taking this medication, within a couple of days, I felt as if my skin was very dry. Noticed in first week. Now there seem to be actual dry patches this can't be coincidence.

guess next step is micro dosing and then give up if that isn't an improvement

@RoundandSadsorry you’re not having the outcome you hoped for with this! For me, the minor negatives (some nausea and the cost are vastly outweighed by the positives - the ease of 1-2lb weight loss a week, improved mental health and brain fog, improvement in a health condition). It’s been a really really positive experience for me. Maybe if it’s not feeling like that it’s time to look at stopping otherwise you are just paying a lot of money to feel worse than before! You don’t know that an alternative would be worse than MJ, there are lots of stories of people tolerating then better. That could be you! I know it’s not the same, but I was prescribed a medication for a health condition and had horrendous side effects that never settled down, I was loved to a different med and after a couple of weeks it’s been smooth sailing!

With the dry skin - are you dehydrated? Try drinking more water to see if that helps? It’s one of the things I’ve noticed when I’m not drinking enough!

@JustBeach no as I said in my post I am not dehydrated

I did explain everything in my post

i'm actually feeling better than usual today given that it's day two because I changed the schedule

So having a longer gap, I actually feel normal so far! That's something. Normally day two is the absolute worst. Well, it's all horrible really

I finally seen some other people on the other threads saying that they feel dreadful
And they had to stop

I think micro dosing is next and then stop if that doesn't help it really isn't worth it feeling bad half the week

I don’t feel like there are loads of people on this thread @RoundandSad so it might not be the best comparison, but I’m sure a lot of people suffer from side effects so you’re not alone. I’ve definitely had my ups and downs, after my first 5mg I thought there was no way I can do this but then it’s not been as bad since then, however I’ve since had other random side effects (this dose I seem to have a red itchy area at the site) as well as differing levels of effectiveness. I think for me it’s a case of taking it dose by dose and weighing up whether the positives outweigh the negatives. I’ve been on the slower loser side so I can definitely see how if I was having an even slower loss and more severe side effects then I’d be thinking twice about it all.

Hi I’m keen to join. I’m a restarted and Christmas has not been massively successful for me - at least have not gained - but in it did this month!

I always think the struggle of Christmas makes January so much easier, not so many people going out, everyone is 'being good' so the temptations are less for sure!

Hope all goes well for you!

Hi all. I took my first 7.5mg dose last Friday so wanted to share my experience.

To date, I’ve had zero side effects so made the decision to step up from 2.5 - 5 - 7.5 every 4 weeks as per the standard guidelines.

Perhaps that was the wrong decision as I’ve since read people are just staying on whatever level they are finding effective.

7.5mg has been extreme in the sense of appetite suppression. I’ve gone from little appetite to none whatsoever. I’ve been lucky with zero side effects since I started. My only side effects are through a complete and utter lack of desire to eat or drink anything, so I’m a bit dehydrated and have to remind myself to drink.

Based on that, I think I’ll try going back down to 5 mg this week (45 clicks of 7.5mg pen I think) as I don’t think I need this high level.

I am still in awe of this miracle drug. I’m losing on average 1.4kg per week according to the Shotsy app. Down over 12kg in total already. I just can’t believe it.

I had fully intended on going up each month but I have felt full appetite suppression even on 2.5 and also nausea so have not gone further than 3.75mg. If I had no side effects then I probably would have done the same.

I feel the same, it has been a miracle for me, I know I couldn't have done it without for a number of reasons. I have relatively little to lose I guess overall but have lost 26lb so far since 1st Nov so just under 12kg I think that is. I am finding it relatively easy, obviously some of the side effects arent amazing but compared to the results they are minor for me.

@SexyFrenchDepression this is my experience too. Relatively little to lose, I only just qualified, and nearly at goal but I absolutely could not have done it by myself. The last 10 years of trying have proved that! I could never get lower than 10.3 by myself, and now I’m sitting at 9.8 and a healthy BMI for the first time in 10 years. In 5ft 3 so a few pounds shows! I’m aiming for 9, and then to sit between 9&9.7 going forward. 2.5mg is my limit too, otherwise I have zero appetite or thirst. This is a complete life changer of a drug!
what are your plans for maintaining? I’ve got one more 5 pen then I’m done, but planning on taking 2.5 from it.

@JustBeach I am not sure re maintenance. I have a couple of pens stocked up and originally intended on ensuring I had enough to get through 1 summer just to make it a bit easier to stick at the weight. I am 10st 2 at the moment so BMI 24.6, definitely want to lose around another stone before the spring. I never wanted to stay on long term but now I am wondering if I could stay on a really low dose, or even just 2.5 every 2 weeks for a longer time.

I am glad I have increased dose a bit though as already I am used to it and by day 6/7 feel hungry but then still cant eat too much. Before I wasnt feeling hungry even by jab day. It means I can come back down slowly and see how it goes. I imagine itll take me till end of March minimum to get to 9 stone as I doubt I'll continue losing 2lb a week now. Once I'm well and can get to the gym hopefully that will give me a boost. I am feeling weak at the moment but that will be the combination of this virus as well as lack of strength training.

I feel surprisingly chilled about the lack of exercise, I think that is because the weight is coming off anyway so I am not so panicked about not going to the gym, it can become quite obsessive for me so I need a happy medium. Having a disordered eating background really makes navigating dieting/exercising tricky but this is the first time I have felt I have a normal relationship with food. For me it was bulimia as a teen (which I didnt disclose as it wasnt on my records - rightly/wrongly) and whilst I havent been sick for 30 years my eating has always been more binge eating with no filter even though my weight has been controlled mostly until I hit 40! The jabs make me feel ok to eat when I want but normal amounts. I feel confident I can continue this.

Sorry for long post! Its strange as I dont think I realised how much the jabs have changed things mentally also so lots of realisations going on!

Well I had my second bad night in the 5/6 weeks I’ve been on MJ because I ate dinner too late (and also perhaps ate a little too much). So the burps/ cramps/ nausea have returned reminding me not to do that again. I should have just skippped dinner (couldn’t eat earlier as DP was out and DCs were unruly). On the plus side, I lost 1.8lbs overnight after slowing down a lot.

@Possiges interesting to hear, I have my second 5mg pen to start at the weekend. I’ve not been having the huge suppression some people have (eating around 1600 calories a day) and still getting food noise so I do think I will go up to 7.5mg.

@user593 I find eating late and what I eat massively impacts the side effects I feel. I want to eat with the kids more this year anyway so I think that will be good motivation.

@Springbaby2023 That’s what I normally do, eat at 6pm with the DC, but it was a bit chaotic last night and I missed my window! Definitely won’t be doing that again. I knew it could be an issue because my DP had the same problem when he was taking Wegovy.

Could you go up to 7.5 this week by giving yourself an extra 30 clicks directly after your 60 clicks of the 5mg pen? I found the difference between 5 and 7.5 to be instantly noticeable.

Checking in after a bit of a hiatus, my baby has been seriously poorly in hospital, but we're finally back home & recovering.

I haven't lost any weight - which I was a bit surprised about, purely due to the stress & anxiety meaning I haven't eaten much! I've also not been moving around as much & I missed taking my injection by a few days since I was in hospital.

Currently exhausted & focusing on catching up on sleep, so hopefully I can get back to it in a few days

So sorry your baby has been poorly @PatheticDistraction , hope you can all rest and recuperate now.

@SexyFrenchDepression I also have a history of bulimia when I was a teen. I don’t look at it as being a v significant thing and didn’t declare it either. I’m very different now after all this time but I can still get obsessional - just generally it’s a tendency of mine.

I’ve had a great whoosh this week, after staying the same for a fortnight I have suddenly lost 4lb, which is bloody amazing. I really thought I wasn’t losing cause I was maybe eating close to maintenance.

I took 3.75mg last week and I have 14mg left in my current pen so I think I’m going to do 4mg tonight and see how I feel. Then might edge up toward 5mg.