September 25 starters - new year, new trousers.

[outofofficeagain]

We won’t make it to Christmas without a new board.

Well done to everyone for getting this far and thank you for your company.

Here’s to a healthy and happy 2026.

Thanks @SoUncertain. I’m sure you’re right. I’ll spend a few days eating clean, upping the protein and avoiding alcohol. Although seeing “Wuthering Heights” tonight at one of those fancy cinemas where they bring cocktails to your seat and fear I may need a drink to get through it!

The changes to my diet and adding alcohol to the mix definitely cause extra feelings of hunger and bring cravings back. I had my first carb hangover after the October half term (eating out/takeaways), and it took several days to get back to normal, but I did get there. I know my trigger foods now. I don’t completely avoid them, and I’m trying to teach myself to deal with them, this feeling does scare me. How can I deal with it without mj in the future?

Your half term sounds similar to mind! Guests, pancake day, alcohol and baked goods! And yes much less suppression than usual. I’ll be surprised if I lose anything on scales this week and a gain wouldn’t be out of order. Also been on my period which I doubt is helping matters. It’s quite nice to have a bit of variety though and I’m sure it’ll come off again soon.

I’ll get back on it properly on Sunday but resigned to the fact I won’t be great until then. What I have found vaguely reassuring is that there is still some effect. For example I had a mid morning blondie and latte yesterday while we were out - but then forgot to have lunch when we got home. And today I had a bacon roll and then TWO multipack walkers crisps for lunch (which I haven’t even fancied most of the time on MJ). But now I’m still uncomfortably full 4 hours later. So I’m sure the MJ is having a helpful impact even in the less than perfect circumstances.

I don’t think I’ll up my dose on Sunday but see how I feel after a more normal week of eating and drinking and then decide about going up.

Hooray! I’ve got a whole lb off - my first loss since 26 December.

Hope this is means the plateau is now broken rather than just a fluctuation. Prepared now for losses to be much slower.

Thinking ahead…..I’m due to visit my sister in the UK in April for a week and I’m wondering how easy it is to order the medication online over there without going through the GP. I’d use my sister’s address.

I looked at MedExpress via the Monj website and I’d be saving around £60 for a 5mg pen with their discount on first pen, so it seems worth it. (I currently pay £210 to include next day delivery from NI to the south but they already have my prescription from my own GP.) The ordering looked straightforward but I haven’t put in all my details as I’m not ready to order yet and I’m wondering what other proof etc. they might ask for?

Do they post it with the freezer pack thingies so it’s nice and cold, the same as my current supplier? I could keep it in her fridge until I’m due to fly back home.

Any advice gratefully accepted. ☺️

Jeez, I feel so late to the party on this! 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

I was looking at the plotter website and was shocked at the amount of MJ in the system on injection day and the following 2 days. Then the rapid decline. It obviously makes sense when you think about it. I dosed on Friday teatime and I couldn’t face eating at breakfast today and haven’t eaten much yesterday either.

https://glp1plotter.com

I know some of you have talked about this before on this thread (it’s been 6 months after all!), but I don’t think I really copped on and understood that although I’m injecting 3mg weekly, I’ll have over 4mg in my system for about 3 days! I was assuming I’d have max 3mg on dose day. 😳

I can see how this info will be very useful when it comes to maintenance and considering dosing less frequently and/or split dosing etc.

@Chopsy123 I use MedExpress and it’s certainly very straightforward to get MJ. They prescribe it for you subject to self-declared height and weight, some medical history and, for the first prescription, a full length photo in tight fitting closed that you upload to their portal. This is cross checked with official ID that you also upload. You do have to provide your GP’s details and they notify them each time your prescription is renewed, although I think you can opt out of this if you choose. And yes it comes wrapped in cool packaging and with a decent supply of needles and wipes.

I don’t know how straightforward it is to get from them if you’re not a UK resident, aren’t registered with a UK GP and if you can nominate someone else’s address for delivery. My guess is that might trigger some queries. Whether they would dispatch based on your Irish (?) GP’s prescription, I don’t know. Have no idea how cross border arrangements work for this sort of thing. It might be easier just to bring a pen with you while you travel.

Thanks @GhostOrchid That’s really helpful.

I still have my NI number as I’ll be claiming my state pension in a few years and my British passport so hopefully that will be adequate as proof of ID.

It’s more about saving money on a couple of pens for my stash rather than needing them at the time as I can still get them from my usual provider, but it’s a decent saving so worth trying, I think. 😁

Yes! This really hit me this week when I felt so ill after my 3rd dose of 7.5, checked the Shotsy app and my levels were over 10mg. Really helped me understand how side effects can kick in at any time, presumably when your body hits a cumulative level that is just too much for it.

Did another weight check this morning and was shocked and delighted to be 89.2kg. Was hoping to have just dipped below 91kg I recorded on Friday, so it was very pleasing to be well down on that.

Along with alcohol, I wonder if salt is a factor in inflating weight. My sister in law defrosted and cooked the Christmas gammon we didn’t get round to eating so that was our dinner a couple of nights last week, just before official weigh day. Delicious but rather salty.

Just back from a lovely walk round the local woods with DH. The crocuses are out and the daffodils are on their way so it feels like spring is just round the corner, finally.

NSV was that I wore my cagoule. I remember a couple of years ago I couldn’t even get the sides to meet around my hips so I could zip it up. More recently it’s been zippable (just about) but made me feel and look a little like a sausage. Today it zipped up easily and actually looked and felt quite roomy. DH also commented that I’m walking much quicker than I was. I should be, I’m 20kg lighter!

Nice one! Well done on the NSV too!!

Salt is definitely a factor for increased weight as it makes you retain more water.

My NSV this weekend was that we went to a veryyyyy hilly zoo and I was easily able to keep walking at a good pace the entire time, even up the hills :) we did 20k steps too! Didn't eat the healthiest in terms of food items but didn't eat massive portions so feel like my calories are likely reasonable anyway.

@SoUncertain Well done! Great step count too.

Do you think it was weight loss alone that helped improve your stamina or have you increased your average amount of exercise too since September?

I hopped on the scales this morning just for a peek and was chuffed to see
12st 0.5lbs. (76.2kg) Ooo, I’m so close to my first Target of 12st, set by Nutracheck. I was 14st 12lbs at the start of this journey. (94.3kg)
I’d like to get down to 10st eventually. ☺️

Thanks! Yeah I'm fairly sure it was the weight. I am down about 45 lbs, which is a small child, and I certainly wouldn't have wanted to carry DD up and down those hills! 😁

Congratulations on your loss @Chopsy123 ! You're way over halfway to your goal! 🥰

Well I’ve broke my plateau. After increasing from 5mg to 6mg for a week and then on to 6.5mg for a week I was down 3lb today. I haven’t noticed any real difference in suppression but it must’ve done something! 5lb to go to target now.

I’ve noticed the last couple of weeks I’m losing more hair. Not horror story clumps you hear about but more strands when washing and in my brush. It’s not enough to thin my hair but I’ve got loads of breakage around my parting. I am heading towards menopause though, my hormones are all over the place at the moment so it could be from that rather than the MJ.

In other news I managed to use the hard twist method to use my golden dose but realised that as the plunger is stiff when you push it down it doesn’t accurately measure the dose so I have no idea how much I took although I know it was too little rather than too much so that’s something 🙈

Congrats on breaking the plateau! I haven't dared to do the twist for the golden dose, but do use insulin syringes to do it. I prefer the pen needles to the syringes as much easier, but really don't want to waste the additional medicine!

My news is that I accidentally joined a gym last night 🤣 I went swimming and asked the guy on the desk if I could pop my head into the gym for a nose. Ended up having a full walkthrough and talking with them about being too intimidated to try it. They said that they have 80-year-old ladies who go and that I'd be fine. I thought if they can do it, I can too!

Well unsurprisingly I had a STS when I weighed in yesterday: 11 stone 6.75lbs which was exactly the same as the week before.

I usually do a few ‘unofficial’ weigh-ins through the week though and today’s weight of 11 stone 5.75lbs was 2lbs down on the same day two weeks before, so I still think the trend is ok. 11 stone 4lbs is where I am a healthy BMI again so that feels very close now!!

Food noise is definitely back though and I’m only 3/ 4 days post jab. Desire for chocolate and crisps, not getting as full, thinking about eating throughout the day. Not as bad as I would have it without MJ but jeez it makes things harder!!! The fact I’m a bit stressed about work things isn’t helping.

So I’m debating whether to ‘top up’ today, or in fact bring my next jab right forward….or whether to try and hold out until Sunday and go up a dose then. And going round in circles about it 😵‍💫

@SoUncertain you’re sensible to use a needle as you know how much the dose is. I’ve tried twice with needles and can’t get it into my skin but that’s because I’m probably being a wimp! Brilliant news about the gym, once you’ve been a couple of times you’ll be a pro and won’t think anything of it.

@OneDayIWillLearn I feel you with the hunger. I jabbed yesterday and am starving today. I think I only had about 5mg yesterday where as the week before I had 6.5mg. I may pull my dose day forward if it doesn’t improve over the week.

@Kazzaa46 well I cracked and jabbed another half dose (2.5mg) this morning. I came in from a dog walk, made a coffee and started thinking ‘now what shall I eat with this…?’ and decided another 4 days of this was more than I could take!

I was planning to move my jab day from Sunday to Monday anyway. So hopefully this will see me through until Monday and then I’ll try 5mg and see if that’s enough of a step up from 50-clicks-from-5mg to get the food noise to quieten down again. Of course I’ve now got remorse about going off-piste with the dosing but fingers crossed I’ll be ok….

Last check in from me today, ending on a high with a 3.4lb loss this week.

Week 24 results:

SW: 12st 3lb
CW: 8st 8.7lb
GW: 9st 1lb - TARGET SMASHED 5/2 🎯
LGW: 8st 7lb

Week 1: -6lb
Week 2: -2lb
Week 3: -1lb
Week 4: -2lb
Week 5: -3lb
Week 6: -2lb
Week 7: -0.5lb
Week 8: -1.2lb
Week 9: -1.4lb
Week 10: -3.6lb
Week 11: -3.1lb
Week 12: -0.3lb
Week 13: -2.9lb
Week 14: -1.8lb
Week 15: -3lb
Week 16: -1.7lb
Week 17: -1.7lb
Week 18: -0.4lb
Week 19: -3.1lb
Week 20: -0.4lb
Week 21: -3.4lb
Week 22: -0.1lb
Week 23: -2.3lb
Week 24: -3.4lb

Total Loss: 3st 8.3lb

Good luck to you all on your journey!

Newsflash from me - this morning on the scales I was 11 stone 4.5 lbs which means DRUMROLL my BMI today is 24.9!!!!

It’s not my official weigh in day but it’s the first time I’ve been a healthy BMI for 6 years! In fact I’ve only been a healthy BMI twice in the last decade, once in 2017 and once in 2020, and both times it lasted a couple of weeks before I regained.

I feel quite emotional! It’s almost exactly ten years since I got pregnant with my eldest child and from the decade since, I realised 4 of those years I’ve been either pregnant or breastfeeding.

I know the feeling of remorse when going off-piste 😩

I’ve been playing around with the plotter tool a lot and trying to find the right balance. On 4.75mg my suppression is too much on days 1-2, whereas on 4.25mg (and 3.75mg) days 5-7 are willpower days. The first few days on the lower doses are perfect, and I can easily get to and remain within my calorie and protein targets. I can eat more if I wish, but it’s about making the right choices, and I’m not relying solely on mj to keep me on track.

What I would like to understand is the benefit of having very high suppression that then gradually drops versus maintaining steady suppression throughout the week by injecting every 5-6 days. I probably wouldn’t do this if taking over 10mg, but with lower doses, the “high” doesn’t even reach the levels you get with 10mg.

I remember reading somewhere that originally MJ was supposed to be taken every 5 days, but they thought it was too confusing for users and made it once a week instead. I’m not sure how legitimate that source was!

I kind of like having high suppression some days and lower on other days. I jab on Sunday, so my suppression is pretty strong until about Friday, allowing me to live a little more at the weekend (go for meals out etc.). The higher suppression earlier in the week means I have a big calorie deficit for the week, and eating at or near maintenance on a day or two at the weekend isn't a problem at all, and in fact is likely good to stop metabolism ramping down too much.

If you are finding it far too much suppression then you sound like it might be better for you to split doses though. I haven't done it before, but a lot of people seem to get on well with it x

@Atalosswhat2do
@OneDayIWillLearn

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳

Congratulations to both of you on your incredible achievements!!

You’re both Weight Loss Superstars!!! 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Plateau broken for me too. Went up to 7.5mg last week and have binned 1.5kg. Felt really tired for the first day after injecting, but I think I feel better on this dose than on 5mg.
@Chopsy123 There are still some providers that let you opt out of sharing with the GP. Have a browse on the MJ discount site. I haven’t told my GP bc I don’t like him and would rather he didn’t have that information after he fat shamed me a couple of years ago, instead of offering to help with an issue I had. Get a drip we’re fine for me and so were Hey Slim.