Start of mounjaro journey..

[ByHappyOchreEagle]

Hi I took my first dose on sunday evening, felt fine just a bit of a restless sleep and feeling cold. All day yesterday, tmi diarrhoea, the nausea and sickness linger, extremely gassy burping (it stinks) and had to force myself to eat something. Any advice i’ve seen people recommend to eat smaller bites, stay away from greasy foods etc to prevent the eggy burps but mines are non stop causing stomach pains with hardly eating anything, I do struggle with IBS so unsure if it’s something in MJ working against this. Anyone similar or have tips to combat this? I’ve bought gaviscon and rennies.

In my experience this is entirely diet related.

I know Mounjaro taught me that I needed to eat a lot less volume of food, as well as making whole-food, low carb, low fat food choices.

You don't have to 'force yourself to eat something'. Especially not in your first week.

Fasting has well documented health benefits - it's not harmful.

If your body is telling you not to eat just yet, it is OK to decided to fast. Just keep your water intake up, have an electrolyte in your water and/or take a multivitamin. This won't last long-term. Then when you are ready to break the fast, keep it plant based with lean protein and fairly bland.

Drink a lot of water, and other non alcoholic drinks, with electrolytes if you can but if not just add some squash or similar, and try to eat some light and plain - soup or something with protein but light so think a salad with meat or omelette. It will get better in a couple of days but you need to keep fluids high and small regular snack size meals.

If you're having unpleasant gastro symptoms, stop eating. Not wanting to eat is your body's way of telling you to fast (its what happens when youre poorly). There is often a lot of psychological baggage tied up with doing that though.

Dr Pradip Jamnadas and Dr Mindy Pelz have helped me a lot to not be afraid of - and understand - fasting.

Thanks for all the responses that’s really helpful as I am new to all of this, by forcing myself to eat I literally didn’t mean multiple meals a day just simply soup is the only meal I had yesterday to hopefully take the nausea / faint feeling away. Will this happen after every weekly injection?

It should lessen over time.

Feeling faint is a concern. Do you mind sharing your BMI? Most overweight people have enough energy stores in their body to be able to manage on low calorie days. But if you're in healthy range and do a lot of exercise, this might cause feeling faint because there's less available energy stores.

Sure it is 34.9.

I do have an autistic child who struggles with sleep so this is probably a contributing factor.

What food did you have in your system? In my experience any gastric problems are caused by the food I've eaten - either just too much in volume, or greasy food (can't eat Walkers crisps anymore).

Drink plenty of water (and I mean plenty), avoid heavy carbs and fatty foods. If all you want is soup just have soup. You're not going to do any harm eating very little for a few days. The side effects should lessen, but if they don't perhaps you'll be one of the very few people who can't take the medication.

Do you exercise? If not, feeling faint is more likely linked to sleep or something else than lack if calories. After all, we are on WLI specifically because our bodies has an excess of energy stored (in the form of fat cells).

Food will generally stay in your digestive system for 2 days. Plus Mounjaro slows down transit through your digestive system. So you'll now be feeling the effects of food you ate a few days ago.

If you don't feel like eating, don't be afraid not to eat. But make sure you drink water. Adding a pinch if salt to your water or black coffee can help balance electrolytes.

If all you feel like eating is soup, just have soup. You don't need to have bread with it. You could have a half or quarter portion. You'll clear the gastro symptoms by clearing your digestive system.

You dont need to eat like this forever more, it's not long term. But learning to eat intuitively by listening to what your body is telling you was one of the biggest benefits of WLI, for me. That, and cutting through all the psychological 'You must...' rules we place on food.

Sorry to hear you've been feeling unwell. It was a bit hit and miss for me to start with. I definitely found that things like a really crunchy salad with a bit of roast chicken were more helpful than soup, which made me feel a bit green due to the sloshing effect of more liquid on top of all the water I was already drinking. As others have said, maybe don't have anything for a bit and see if your body nudges you towards something in particular. I developed a mania for sweetcorn in my first month. It subsided, but was very strange as I'd never normally eat it.

I've been on MJ for a year and lost 7 stone currently on 12.5mg. For me these are usual side effects. I wouldn't worry it is your body getting used to the meds. They do calm down. They may resurfave when you move up doses.

Sometimes its just random example I woke up with a bad tummy today and haven't for ages. Its the MJ life!

It can be food related from a day or 2 ago, especially around jab day stick to higher protein low carb like chicken and veg, alcohol and carbs are big triggers. For me I could tolerate one slice of pizza but anymore and emergency bathroom trip. Been on mj 14.5 months, did have some food aversion, change in taste of some foods and low grade nausea most days but now ive switched to wegovy i have zero side effects so that could be an option if side effects continue.
Drink plenty of water to help clear your system and stay hydrated.
It could also be your body reacting to a new drug, should settle soon. I jab on Fridays or Saturday morning so if I have any issues, it settles by Monday.

Just to add a note of caution, nausea, diarrhoea and feeling faint on Mounjaro aren’t necessarily your body “asking you to fast”, they’re very common medication side effects, especially in the first weeks and particularly if you have IBS. Fasting on GLP-1s and the stacked impact on blood sugars of both as far as I am aware is not well documented.

For many people, not eating at all can actually worsen nausea and dehydration. Sipping fluids and having frequent small, bland, protein based or nutrient dense foods often helps more than tipping into fasting, including for sulphur burps and acid. If faintness or diarrhoea continues, it’s really one to run past the prescriber rather than pushing through it. Or speak to your local pharmacist for help managing side effects.