Late April ‘25 starters - thread 6

[Stasis26]

New year, new thread, new username for me to reflect my the start of my first year of maintenance - I’m a wlinewbie no more!

onwards and downwards (or along) we go!

Thank you everyone for your advice, I will pinch the handweights that are under teen boy's bed covered in dust and put them to use! I also have a pool close by I've avoided because it is freezing, but maybe that will make me swim faster 😅.

@slightlysmallerPoisonIvy I'm sorry to hear you are struggling, I think you are wise to focus on increasing fitness, and I'm glad to hear your pain and inflammation have decreased. It is so much easier to start and stick to exercise when you aren't suffering, and I think it's ignored how hard it is to exercise to improve health when it hurts so much.
I hope you see yourself get stronger and feel better💪, good luck!

@slightlysmallerPoisonIvy I hear you. With the lipoedema I do feel like I have no idea what's going to happen, and it's so frustrating. I've found now that even though they have reduced, my left arm is markedly bigger than my right... And I'm right handed! I've got some support sleeves now so I can at least try to wear nicer clothes, but otherwise I'm sticking with stretchy shirts and hoping nobody notices how lopsided I am.
Not being in pain everywhere is so important though, I do remember hobbling to the bathroom every morning, it IS worth that alone.

@slightlysmallerPoisonIvy
Are you getting your medication on the NHS or private?
I am wondering if you need to talk to a doctor (weightloss medication specialist).
What dose are you on?
If you can't see someone up your calories (protein -eggs, tuna) for 1 week then go back down. This sometimes works and/or see if you can up your mounjaro dose.
What was your starting weight and what are you now?
Just trying to get a full picture.
I am sure you can kick-start the fat loss again.

I feel for you as it's so frustrating.

Week 45 update and its 2lb off taking me into the 9s!! Had a Talk with my doc when I was in with another issue and he says I've got another 5 lbs or so to being in the middle of the health bmi so think I will stop at that. Got some crepey skin on my tummy, thighs and upper arms so hopefully that will tighten up been smothering myself in bio oil 🤣 well done everyone on the all your losses and nsvs! Have a great week 😊

If my previous post sounded negative I didn't mean it that way. I'm not struggling, I was just saying I think I'm nearing the end of the weight loss side of things and moving into maintenance and I'm ok with that.
If I do lose a few more lbs I will of course be very happy about it but if I don't lose any more I'm ok with not hitting my goal weight. I've lost a significant amount and I'm healthier than I was and that's more important to me than the numbers on the scale or the numbers on my clothes label.
I guess people who don't have lipoedema won't understand stopping when still in the obese range but I can't actually lose enough weight to reach the healthy bmi range, lipoedema fat just doesn't respond to diet or exercise and can only be removed by surgery.

@Hawkmoth it's the right side for me, I think probably other people don't notice these things as much as we notice them ourselves, I hope anyway 😂
Not being in pain is so important, I didn't realise how much the pain was affecting my mental health and quality of life until I started mounjaro and the thought of going back to that is awful. I have enough pens to last me until next February and then I will try to stop but if I can't cope without it at least one benefit of still being a high bmi is I'll have no difficulty ordering again. Are you planning to stay on it long term?

@BudgieMom Excellent loss!

@slightlysmallerPoisonIvy I'm hoping to stay on until there's a cheaper alternative (pills). I have other health problems though and I don't know how long I'll get away with it before they want to start tinkering! It's in all my notes so they know, but I worry that one day a doctor will say stop.

I think I'm going to up my compression which hopefully will help my lipoedema and POTS. It certainly has helped with secondary lymphoedema, which I guess is the best I can hope for.

As for aiming for a healthy weight, pharmacist has said maybe BMI 27... But I'm at 29 now and don't feel like that's enough. Will just have to see how the next few months go.

@Hawkmoth Fingers crossed the pills will help in the same way. I don't use compression, I find it far too painful. Congrats on getting under 30! I think I'd need to lose another 25lbs to get there, I'm at 33.9 now

1lb lost this week and dropped down into the 9s 🎉. Think we’re in a similar place @BudgieMom and I certainly have the crepey skin effect!

It was a very stressful week work-wise (in both Houses of Parliament supporting ministers in two debates) and on both days, I decided to give myself the flex to eat whatever crap I wanted for dinner…burger, pizza, dessert, whatever. I choose a Greek salad one night at the hotel and then when faced with all the fast food at Euston, waited until I got to home and popped into M&S to pick up some chicken and salad bits…oh how life has changed!!!

@slightlysmallerPoisonIvy and @Hawkmoth not being in pain is definitely worthy of celebration 🎉 🎉🎉

It’s easy to get caught up in looking at the numbers on the scales, isn’t it, but as we talked about a few posts back, it’s that ‘where you’ve come from’ to ‘where you are’ that’s the real comparison. Whether that’s less pain, less swelling, ability to flex on food choices, more mobility, that’s what makes it seem crazy this isn’t more widely available on the NHS. I wonder if it will ultimately be once the prices come down and pill forms are available etc.

@Coventree hopefully the skin will tighten up when we move into the maintenance phase but if not it won't bother me. I would rather have crepey skin than any bad health issued from being obese.

well done @Coventree !🎉

@BudgieMom Crepey skin is much easier to hide under clothes, there's no hiding the fat! Let us know if the bio oil helps

Hi everyone!! Advice needed from anyone a wee but further in this maintenance journey than me… so last weekend was my first 2.5mg injection after being on 5 for months and the 3.g for a month or so every 10 day and oh my word I am so so so hungry and thinking / wanting food all the time. It’s depressing and honest making me panic as those thoughts were under control/ medication. Why do I actually feel hungry though?! Why is my stomach gurgling and thinking it’s empty even 30 mins after I eat. Anyone else have this?! Maybe I just need to get used to it and try to engage will power like crazy. Ahhh helplp

Hello everyone 👋

It's been a while! I have been popping on and meaning to reply but have been in the duldrums so thought I'd spare you all 😂

I've been hovering around 123lbs (I'm 5ft 1in so this is fine) for ages now. Had decided I wanted to try for 120lbs but it just wont happen so I'm sticking where I am.

I'm still on 10mg and quite honestly I am not sure I can drop if I'm maintaining on that level? I'm often quite hungry and I'm noticing I'm tucking into more sugary / sweet stuff at the weekends (I weigh on Friday and jab on Sunday). I know what I need to do but can't seem to do it.

There's absolutely no way I could manage on a lower dose so I'm kind of stuck paying £300 a month to maintain. I can live with this for a while but not forever.

I need to give it some thought and obviously need to - once again - detox on sugar. Once I stop with refined sugar I'm good, it's just stopping to begin with. I need to get my head in the game and that's the hard part. For me my whole issues around food have always been psychological.

I'm quite crepe-y on the tummy and underarms but as a PP I look fine in clothes. Hoping to tone up a bit for summer, I've started a light weights regime that I can manage with my arthritis.

I'm going to have a proper catch up and see how everyone is getting on.

Can't believe we're all heading towards our 1 year anniversary.

@Crunchymum
Similar size to me.
5ft2in 120lbs today 119lbs a few days ago. But I've gone down to 3.75mg and hoping to go down to 2.5mg from May. I am definitely enjoying more chocolate treats, but staying the same. I need to try and work out how to say no but not to beat myself up if I say yes.

I went to the gym for the first in years. As well as swimming.
Hoping I can keep this going.

Maintenance is definitely the hardest part. I know i need to get off mj as I don't want to be on it forever.

@Crunchymum I am sure you could move to a cheaper maintenance supplier. I paid Oushk £155 for 5mg pen last week. I am sure 10mg will be cheaper than £300

Keep going everyone. Remember where you've come from.
Im going to the football today no more turnstile anxiety!

Morning all - been meaning to check in -
life just so busy at the moment and I don’t have much to report. Still taking 2.5mg weekly from a 10mg pendemic purchase and it’s still doing its thing as my weight has now been the same - at target for almost 3 months. When I finish this pen I have a 5mg and going to try gradually reducing more. Thinking I will try 20 clicks (1.67mg) and see what happens with my appetite and scales. If I start gaining I’ll go back up to 2.5mg. Quite excited to get to our anniversary of this thread. It’s amazing how many of us are still here 🙂

Thank you @merlin23 ❤️

I must admit I've not shopped around for maintenance prices. Is it easy enough to do?

When I've previously looked into new suppliers there doesn't seem to be an option for maintenance? You tend to have to go through the process as a new patient? (I guess there is the option somewhere to confirm you're already being supplied by another chemist)

I'm also on some other medications so I've always just stuck with the supplier I know will approve my prescription.

I'll so some digging.

120lbs is fantastic by the way. Well done you, I bet you look and (more importantly) feel fantastic. Enjoy the football.

You pay Oushk £5 for a maintenance call. Then I had to supply before and now photos and step on the scales on the call. Give evidence of mj prescriptions. It was all straight forward.

@Crunchymumthe ones most talked about for maintenance are Oushk as Merlin explained, Pharmulous and Swift dr. I did my last order with Swift so I’m on their books and confirmed with them that I was at goal and planning to come off - they allow restart for 12 months since last order (at 2.5mg) but will also support ongoing maintenance. Worth having a chat with these 3 suppliers and seeing what’s the best fit. You def don’t need to be paying £300 a month.

Hi people. Weighed today ,and I’m 80.7 kgs. That’s a loss of a whole kilo after weeks of small gains or stay the same. So target now is not getting back to 81. I am almost within 2 kilos of my dhs weight, so that’s very motivating. I have hope again!

SW 17.7
CW 12.9
loss this week 2lb

Im chuffed to bits with a 2lb loss this week - I hovered around 12.11 to 12.13 since Christmas!!
my goal is 12.7 (maybe 12 for a bit of wiggle room!!) I know 100% I couldn’t maintain at a lower weight and I’m comfortable, happy and feel bloody fantastic at this weight!!! My BMI will be about 26-27 which is still classed as overweight but that doesn’t bother me - it was over 38 when I started this journey!!!
2lb to go to my 5 stone weight loss - I cannot bloody believe it!!! 😝
Have a great week everyone!!!

I’ve also just switched to Swift Dr for maintenance and they seem to be more flexible (and much cheaper!) than my previous provider.

They charged £30 for the initial consultation. You get an ongoing £10 reduction for maintenance, making the price of 2.5mg £139. I was paying £189 with Juniper.

Their cut off is BMI 21 and they allow you to reorder up to 12 months after last purchase. They are happy to push gaps between pens but do not condone click counting.

Excellent and quick service so far.

Now I need to work out how to cancel Juniper - which is proving difficult 😬

2lb loss this week and feeling 🎉🎉🎉.

SW: 15st 4lbs
CW: 9st 11lbs

Wanted to get below 10st originally and now creating my buffer zone (9st 7-10st) - hoping to be at 9st 7lb for our one year MJ anniversary!

Keep going everyone 👏

Hello old friends! How is everyone doing? Hope everyone is well!

I haven't been on for a couple of months (I'm sorry I haven't caught up on all the posts as there are just too many but will read back after this) but thought I would pop on and post a quick update. I noticed our 1 year anniversary is coming up soon, I didn't plan to stay on MJ for this long but here we are!

I was maintaining fine on 3.75 for the whole of Nov/Dec/Jan. February I decided to increase time between doses to 10 day and then 2 weeks. I started introducing chocolate back into my diet over Christmas and still maintained. It turns out this was a BAD idea because it opened the flood-gates. What started with a a couple of pieces every now and again ended up being a couple of large Tony's chocolonely bars a week! Inevitably pounds started creeping back on. However, I have noticed this quickly and pulled it right back, have upped my dose to 5mg to hopefully lose those extra few pounds. I have lost 2 of the pounds in the last week or so and hope to lose the other 3 before I go on holiday at Easter. My diet has generally gone off the rails so will use this time to get my diet in check so hopefully a few weeks on 5mg will help reset although I will say I am seeing less effect from even this higher dose than before. I didn't even go up to 5mg when I lost the weight originally. Has anyone else found this?

I really thought I had cracked it and got into good habits, but it really doesn't take much to slip back into bad habits.

On a more positive note I got out all my old holiday clothes from the loft and my old 7 for all mankind jeans from 2005 and managed to fit into most of it, including a lovely Topshop maxi dress which I last wore in 2013. I doubt I will wear the jeans again as although I could get them on, the waist is so low on the hips that my tummy/skin bulges over the top and creates a nice donut shape around my middle which is not a good look 😝

Well done.

I love the diversity of this thread and our weightloss journeys. I

started 21. 9.

current 15 stone.

Hope you get back on track okay @violetmondays…I think bread and chocolate will always need to remain an occasional treat for me when I get to maintenance. Ha, high waisted, hold it all in, jeans are a godsend compared to hipsters!

We’ve both lost 6st (more or less) @wendywoopywoo222🎉…and a whopping 12st between us, let alone everyone on this thread. Our yearly total is going to be amazing!