Huge shock on the scales- is Mounjaro right for me? Please share your thoughts.

[OneOliveOtter]

Hello,

Ive been wanting to get back into horse riding to heal some trauma I had from my childhood. Riding schools understandably have a weight limit and the ones I’ve looked at tend to be around 13.5 stone, with a couple of outliers going up to 14 stone. This meant I had to weigh myself which I haven’t done since my pregnancies.

Im 5ft 9 and a size 12/14 on top (usually the matters as I have very large boobs, 32K!) and a 14/16 on the bottom depending on the shop.

I stepped on the scales and I currently wear 15 stone 9ish which was a bit of a shock. I know I am overweight- I have very fat thighs and my boobs are massive and my tummy is flabby. But I didn’t realise I could be quite so far away from being able to ride again. My BMI is 32 so I do qualify.

Has anyone used weight loss injections in this situation? Losing 2 stone on my own feels completely insurmountable. I already eat fairly healthy but I probably fall down in terms of snacking and sweet stuff.

I think I need some help but I don’t want to be silly about this.

My mum died of bowel cancer two years ago, she had struggled with her weight for most of her life and had brief period of losing a lot and then gaining it back. I have regular colonoscopies and have reduced my consumption of things like red meat, I don’t drink etc but I’m aware that not being classed as obese would be another step to staying as healthy as I can. Can anyone offer any advice?

Totally agree with you. It is a brilliant drug. I think there’s bitterness toward people who use it by some people here. Maybe because it’s a private prescription usually. And this means you only get the drug if you can afford it. This might be fuelling the rhetoric of towards us cheating lazy fat bastards.

@PrincessofWells sorry but mounjaro is definitely THE miracle drug, go for it OP it will change your life.

Have to say it’s really not been that much of a miracle for me. I’ve not had much appetite suppression at all and still get a lot of food noise. My willpower has had to work really hard. It doesn’t necessarily work for everyone. I’ve a few pens left from a big stockpile I made when the prices rose (I was 2 months in) but I’m going to go it alone after that and ditch the pens. I’m quite envious of those that it works well for!

Aww, sorry @Gingercar its so interesting listening to people's experiences, it was absolutely miraculous for me, I couldn't imagine being without it now, I think it impacts people in different ways.

I’ve still lost a lot of weight, so it’s not been a bad thing. I can’t decide whether it worked at first or if it was like a placebo to me. But I’ve slowly come to realise that for what I’m spending it’s not worth it. Ive got another three pens, so will use them up seeing as I paid for them (and I never get side effects), but won’t buy any more. I’m not meaning to be negative- just giving a heads up that it might not be the miracle people expect.

I was 12. 5 stone when I started at 5ft 5, I felt horrible and fat. As soon as I started taking it there was a shift, I'm 5.5 stone down and it feels amazing still

You’re seven stone now? That’s quite tiny for five foot five!

@Alltheyellowbirds im actually 7.3, so not quite 7.5 stone down, a bit of a miscalculation, on my part lol, still I'm proud of my loss.

Bloody hell editing again, not 7. 5 st, 5 st3 about 😂

Haha. Still tiny - don’t lose too much more!

Hi all
I have posted on a previous thread but realised it was quite old so hoping to get some more replies on here. I realise what I am going to say will probably really split opinion but I’m happy to hear it. My whole life I have struggled with food. I was quite big when I was a teenager but managed to lose weight in my mid 20s and maintain it. I put on nearly 5 stone when I was pregnant and worked really hard to get it off. I have struggled to get the last half a stone off I managed to do it before Xmas with A LOT of effort over about 16 weeks but I have now put it back on. I constantly have food noise and always have. I am capable of dieting and losing weight but I find it all consuming. I want to try M in order to be able to diet without the constant food noise - I need to be honest i am not overweight but I am unhappy at my current weight. I would like to try it short term to see if I can get back to my goal weight and then maintain. I’d like to hear people’s personal experiences and opinions please.

It’s a prescription only med for obesity as such you won’t be able to buy it legitimately,

Hello
I am aware of this. I am able to get it from a pharmacy. That’s not what I’m asking.

Maybe ask the person who is willing to prescribe it to you for advice, as the almost entire majority of people posting in this section will be obese or overweight with a weight related health condition and that’s their reason for taking a prescription obesity medication.

The fact is that the risks of taking a prescription medication for a condition you don’t have are not outweighed by any health benefits for you.

I am not sure what personal experiences or opinions you want or need as you seem to be decided on your course of action regardless of the risks.

Hi
I have read some of the responses in here and there are definitely people who were not obese to begin with and certainly aren’t now. For example there a person in here who is now 7.5 stone and continuing use. If you’re obese and you get to a certain weight you’re supported to continue use but as someone who is just unhappy with their weight this is seen as unreasonable?

I was asking for people’s experiences of being on it and if the side effects are worth the quieting of the food noise.

If you are not overweight, let alone obese, then you should not be able to get it from a legitimate pharmacy. Taking a controlled drug for the sake of half a stone is madness, you’d be better off paying for therapy.

So. No, the risk of side effects is not worth it given that there would be zero health benefits for you. That’s my opinion and also the judgement of the MHRA in the UK. And, these are questions that can and should be asked of the person who is going to be willing to prescribe it to you. If they are going to be prescribing against the guidelines in this way, they will need to be able to make a case for why they prescribed to you should they be asked by the relevant regulatory body.

The point of an obesity treatment is to move the patient from an obese weight to a healthy weight and then keep them there. It would be odd and unhelpful if you had to stop taking it the minute you stopped being obese, or overweight (BMI 27+) with a weight related health condition. Starting to take an obesity medication when you are not obese or overweight is clearly not the same situation.

i completely get what you’re saying but there are many many people who don’t use it in that way. Some people who are overweight continue to use it when they have hit their healthy weight to continue to lose more weight for the way they look rather than their health. I don’t see how this is different from someone who wouldn’t be considered overweight medically but also bothered about their weight.

Hi
thank you for your advice. Unfortunately I have found therapy ineffective.

Reaching a goal weight anywhere within the healthy range is very normal and not somehow unfair on people who are not obese/overweight who would also like to lose some weight. There is no one single “healthy weight” that we must stop at.

If you have been obese/significantly overweight, the likelihood of regaining some or all, or more, of the weight is extremely high. This is not the same as someone who has never been obese. Reaching a healthy weight and then maintaining that for a lengthy period is necessary to prevent rebounding. Getting to the lower half of the healthy weight range is a very reasonable response after having been obese. It’s not about looks, although that’s a secondary benefit.

I get that you feel this is very unfair for those people who want to lose weight from a healthy weight to a lower healthy weight for cosmetic reasons, rather than health. But no one should be recommending or promoting a prescription-only obesity medication for that purpose.

Thanks for the reply. I think what I’m getting at is if an obese person lets just say for the sake of it gets to 9.5 stone, they are healthy. But they want to lose another half a stone that is not for health benefits that is cosmetic. So I really don’t understand how it’s different.

You cannot just discuss arbitrary weights in isolation though. BMI would be a better concept to discuss than absolute weight. 9st 7lbs could be overweight for someone who is short and from an ethnic minority where overweight/obese is classified as a lower BMI than other ethnicities.

I am now down to BMI 25, and need to lose another stone or so to get well into the healthy range. I may decide that I need to get down to BMI 22 or 21 to be happy that I am as healthy as I need to be and with enough leeway not to risk being near the overweight boundary if I put on a few pounds at any point. That’s a personal medical decision for me, it’s got nothing to do with the cosmetic look, other than if I felt that I was still carrying excess weight. I am still at this point carrying the physical legacy of having been obese, and the changes that has made to my body will be fighting to get me to put the weight back on. Can you really not see the difference between that and someone who is BMI 23 and would like to take an anti-obesity prescription medication to be BMI 21, just for the cosmetic look?

So you did the very hard yards of losing all the weight yourself without WLI… & now you want some help for that last sprint to the finish line? I get you trying to relate it to someone who’s lost all the weight WITH WLI, wanting to stay on them to reach the lower end of the bmi spectrum. However sadly for you, it doesn’t work that way - with legitimate prescribers anyway. If you’re getting it on the black market you’re adding in further health jeopardy. Then there’s the maintenance forever more to consider. But in answer to your question about sude effects, every person is different. IME the less someone has to lose, the worse the side effects.

Hi
essentially yes. Is that really so bad? I am not getting it on the black market.

I’d recommend it. I’ve recently finished and I picked up so many good habits along the way. I realised I was overeating (even with healthy meals) and eating too many carbs. Have kept the changes up post Mounjaro and am maintaining my weight give or take the odd pound.