Mounjaro/Wegovy with >5 stone/30kg to lose - thread 12!

[MooBaggage]

A supportive, idea-sharing thread for those with more than 5 stone/30kg to lose. We're a mixture of newbies, nearly theres, there and maintaining and we know what it's like to have what can seem like a mountain to climb - but we also know we can do it!

Nothing is off topic except referral codes 😊

Love your enthusiasm @RobinEllacotStrike ! Thank you!
And know what you mean and that you are a true testament to this advice (remember your photo of your stunning present self!).

All encouraging words most welcome. Along with @MooBaggage and others you are great and constant inspiration♥️.
I just need to remember that. Or better still- go back and reread a few previous threads.

Shar Pei sounds much more glam than saggy skin!!

I'm on a "no buy clothes year" but I might have to make an exception for a couple of boat neck tops with longer short sleeves - I like that look.

Heated blankets are absolutely a thing. Nothing better than cuddling up under the blanket, usually with a cat on my lap because my cats like my blanket almost as much as I do. I've recently changed the duvet on my bed as well. Instead of one duvet I now have 2. DH has a 4.5 tog duvet and I have a 15 tog duvet. I am sleeping much better now the duvet hogging days are over and I am actually warm!

Everything @RobinEllacotStrike said.

Also wow on the running, @Reginaphalangeeeee!!

Time and exercise really do help with the crepey excess skin. My legs looked like nothing on earth last summer. I did a downward dog in shorts and saw my thighs and they looked like some appalling alien life form. Quite ok now.

@MabelSpan I've also got the shivers today - although I'm on 12.5mg! It's hit hard since moving from 10mg to 12.5mg - lots of shivers in the couple of days post jab - and do you also get the painful/tender skin thing too? It's so weird...! Then it tends to settle down as the week progresses, so that I forget until the following week 🙄

I can't be without my heated throw - I don't care how hot it is, I need that intense heat on my skin!

I'm still showing as 2lbs over last week's weight and am still ignoring it..! Am predicting 1lb will have disappeared by tomorrow morning and the other might take a few more days, so am not stressing or recording it!

im more confused than ever today? I pay a premium for Mounjaro, because I appreciate my monthly session with my lovely pharmacist. I went today, and for the first time, had gained weight from the month before. Lovely pharmacist has told me that she feels my body is telling me that I have reached my ideal weight. I’m 10 kilos above a healthy bmi! I asked if she thought I should start titrating down and she said that she thinks this should be my last month and that I can then just stop. I was so surprised, I said I would think about it. I really really don’t get it. I haven’t told my Dh, because he thinks this anyway. What shall I do?

@MooBaggagei get the weird tender painful skin thing! Usually 2 days after the jab, different spot each week! This week it was on my arm, last week my hip!
My daughter has recently started wegovy and she was trying to explain this weird pain thing she had on her arm, I was like, it's a side effect!! (No actual benefits from wegovy yet, but we're 🤞)

@Zebracat I think your pharmacist is wrong.

Thanks @MoneyJo . I think so too, but she has been so helpful throughout this process, and it’s clearly not self interest so it’s really confusing.

@Zebracat that sounds like bad advice to me... I definitely wouldn't just stop..! I think most of us are experiencing a slowing down of weight loss as we get towards the end, which seems inevitable and probably a good thing as our bodies adjust, but (a) that doesn't mean we've therefore reached our ideal weight and (b) definitely doesn't mean the answer is just to stop. I know there isn't much evidence out there yet but everything I read talks about titrating down slowly and either having a very long tail off, or keeping on a low dose indefinitely, or sadly the weight does tend to go back on.

Maybe it's time to find somewhere else to prescribe - or have another chat with her next month re: staying on your current dose until you have hit your goal, before slowly reducing?

Thanks moo. It is weird isn’t it? I’ve never complained to her about the cost or said I wanted to stop, so she wasn’t taking her cue from me. I think I will try to find another provider, altho that didn’t go well for me when I tried before. Hardest thing is not telling dh what she said because I know he thinks this already, if I tell him Ill get the side eye for possible anorexia. I’m 12 stone something ffs. When I posted those photos , I sensed the collective indrawing of breath as you all tried to find a kind way of telling me I’m still fat, which I knew anyway, but here I am getting told again I need to stop. Maybe I just wear really clever clothes( except for that swimsuit!).

Yes, all of that advice is weird, @Zebracat . Being told to stop while you're still more than a stone over healthy BMI AND going cold turkey. Can you politely push back on your next appointment and ask what evidence she's basing it on and be honest that you don't want to stop yet and would prefer to titrate down when you eventually do?

I understand the concern about finding another provider. I've wondered about that myself a few times since I'm like you and going to an in-person, also lovely, pharmacist. Until relatively recently I had very little paper trail apart from the boxes and prescription labels themselves as I would make each appointment while at the previous one. Now I do it by phone and get an email confirmation.

I have checked they would support me if I needed to go back on after stopping. Also, his advice has been very much about tapering down carefully, stretching the time between doses and being alert for the hunger roaring back.

PS YOU'RE NOT STILL FAT!! But it doesn't sound like you're where you want to be and the numbers agree with that so on that basis you should keep going.

@MooBaggage Hi Moo! The skin thing is one side effect I dont get! I turned my electric blanket on in bed last night, I just couldnt get warm and then about an hour later I was fumbling around for some snuggle socks, I cant sleep if my feet are cold. I also had a really dry mouth again during the night. Its funny how you forget the side effects as soon as they stop!

@Zebracat that advice does seem off. I thought it was considered pretty standard now to slowly reduce the doses and then come off or remain on a low dose. You must do what is right for you.

I am someone who will have to stay on a low dose for life. I really hope the prices come down.

@Zebracat you are definitely not fat!! I'm sorry if I contributed to you thinking that's what I thought 😥 I felt you looked like I do right now (I'll try and post a photo later) and I think I'm now a bit overweight. Even I don't think I'm now fat!

Our BMIs put us as a bit overweight with a little bit more to go. I certainly still have bigger boobs than I'd like and some squidge on my stomach - but that's not being fat and you are not either!

Apologies though - I was giving an honest view but didn't at all mean fat xxx

I am still stunned at the fact someone posted here (or somewhere!) that the average UK woman's BMI is 27.6... which means I am now below average, with my BMI being 27.2..! Women in my age range have a higher BMI of 28 point something.

I was so gobsmacked I didn't believe it and had to google but it's true - based on NHS research done in 2024.

How can I have gone from a BMI of 43 and being the biggest woman I knew, to now under the average UK woman?

No wonder our minds are discombobulated..! And maybe no wonder those around us sometimes think we should stop at around this point, as maybe we now start to look smaller than lots of other women they see.

But onwards and downwards for me - I will hit that 24.9 (at some point) goddamnit...!

Well I don’t know if I’m coming or going right now. I know I’m not fat really, Lord knows I spent enough years being fat. But I’m certainly not confident that I can stop dead, do a bit of strength training and maintain. Amazing that we are smaller than average though.
I currently pay £315.00 for 15 mg Mounjaro,. I felt it was worth the extra for her support. I will look for a new provider.
My son is getting married next week, I have a dress but none of my bras quite work, so I’ve just been trying to buy one. Most of my size 38 bras have been retired because they are too big, so it was a massive surprise to feed my measurements in and be directed to bras that are a 40f. I know that’s not right.I don’t like a tight fit either, my Dd who’s a similar frame does boob or bust and insists that she’s a 32, and I can’t agree.so it’s not like I’m used to wearing bras that are too small. I started mounjaro wearing a 40f. Could @MooBaggage and anyone else around 80 kilos with a large ish frame and a full bust tell me their size?

I am a 36f or 36g depending on style etc. Nothing is ever simple is it!

@zebra- you are absolutely not fat! You are perfectly normal sized!
I’m more less in your position , only you have far better posture- good legs, toned arms, straight back and unsaggy breasts.
I look ok now, not the fat person in the queue any more. But having invested so much time, money, sweat and mental effort I’m not going to settle for okeish, I’m going for a final push to be slim slim.
I am 72kg now - weight I was roughly 20 years ago when pregnant with dd. I want to see if I can get to 60-62 when I was 16yo.

But I also want to tell you : my friend who’s been on MJ 18 months , also premium service , private GP from the start, £250 consultation fee each month at the start, on top of the price of a jab. Now, consultations less frequent, but still costly.
He has received the same advice as you - you don’t have to strife for ideal weight, just settle when you’vehad enough and stop whenever you want. And when you notice weight creeping on after some time, get back on jabs.
We’ve had arguments about that but he’s adamant that’s the right advice and approach.
I disagree. From what I’ve read from online doctors and my zava - advice is to roughly mirror the maintenance time to the time on the WLI. 12 months actively losing and roughly 12 months maintaining. Titraiting slowly and spreading the time between the jabs.
You look more then fine. Don’t think otherwise💃

@Zebracat Bras are the bain of my life! Clothes seem way easier to sort out in comparison...

I'm 81kg at the moment, am 5'8" and very big of boob. I only wear Molke bras - I used to only wear the 'original' but these days like the flexi bras. I'm currently in a Molke flexi bra that is size 32JJ/K/34J/JJ/36HH/J. That's how they're sized - they give a range of 3 x sizes. I've got mine on the smallest setting, so the tightest hooks, as I do like it tight under my boobs to give the lift I desperately need! I love Molke because they are non-wired, very sturdy and give a really good lift even without wire. Sexy they are not.... but they're comfy and practical!

I think in a 'normal' bra I'd probably try on a 32J (ish) or 34 H/J. Something like that.

Bra sizewise- I was 42F/G; got to 40E now. Not a huge change😅

@Zebracat - and congratulations on your son’s wedding next week! It’s great news and is going to be a fabulous event. You’ll look and feel stunning💪♥️

@Zebracat I have a theory about why you were given what most of us here would consider bad advice.
The cynic in me is wondering how these companies can compete with each other now that most people know someone who has lost a load of weight on the jabs… prices are highest ever, pens getting less doses in, years before the triple next generation drugs come in… so what are they relying on. I am sure they now want us to ‘fail’ so we return time and time again. Not sure low maintenance doses are as cost effective for them as treatment.
I hope I am wrong but life has always been geared against overweight people, I don’t think the weight loss injection industry has/is changing that.

As for bras. I am lost! Always shop bravissimo and pre weight loss was a 40JJ.
I found older grown out bras from smaller day and worked down to 38H.
Bra so stretched out and comfy I am not sure what actual size but fearful a brand new 38 will feel tighter than I am used to.

Thank you so much to everyone who replied. I thought maybe my pharmacist just wants me to succeed so much that she’s convinced herself I have succeeded. She really is lovely, and I have a feeling the parent company would not have approved her advice.
I’ve just tried on my entire stock of bras. The sizes range from 36dd right up to 40dd, some are so old the print has rubbed off the label. They all fit, more or less, the 38s aren’t quite as supportive, the 36s aren’t quite as comfortable. I don’t really want to buy a new bra, I may be seeking the impossible anyway- a bra that works with a sleeveless dress with quite big arm holes, whilst also offering side support.

re bras I've given up on them. I just wear soft bra tops now. I've no idea of my size but I used to be a 42G. I am much much smaller now.

I do love the boody bras and I wear these most days (and smiliar cheapies from primark to yoga).
https://www.boody.co.uk/products/wireless-full-bust-t-shirt-bra-black

I do need to get a more lifting bra to wear with a couple of dresses (for special occassions) but I've been waiting until I have stabilised weight before investing in something I won't wear too often. I will need to get properly fitted I think esp as my breasts are emptier now. Certainly smaller than they have ever been since I was a teen.

When I was bigger I really loved the Snag bras.

@Zebracat can you go to one of those smaller bra shops for a proper fitting? Those women know what they are doing.

re body shape/size etc - I have had to accept that I am and unreliable narrator about my body. I love my new slimmer self. But in many ways when I look at my belly/thighs etc it seems the same as when I was 52 kilos heavier. I know its not, I feel in my movements/life/clothing that its not, but still I feel the same. I acknowledge this is dangerous. I'm not as into the numbers/stats as many on GLP1, but I am accepting that this is the way forward. As my feelings/thoughts about my size/body are mixed up & confused I need to focus on the numbers. As a very erratic weigher etc this isn't natural for me, but I am accepting numbers etc will be a vital part of maintenance.

@MooBaggage thats amazing about BMI average!

One thing my nurse friend pointed out re people who have lost a lot of weight and BMI is we need to remember that our extra skin is heavy. So you might have the same BMI as someone who has never been overweight but actually be slimmer - our excess skin etc may mean we can be a point or so higher,but effectively the same IYKWIM.

I've hated underwiring for years and am generally drawn to sports bras for a balance of comfort and support, but not the ones which come up to your neck and flatten you into submission.😁

Specifically I like the Triumph Tri-action Workout and Triaction Wellness ones

The Wellness comes in a neutral/beigy colour which might work with a large-low armhole sleeveless dress.

https://uk.triumph.com/triaction-wellness/10184765.html?color=00EP_Neutral%20Beige

I'm somewhere between a 36-38 D (having started out a 42E/F). Currently wearing 38s which I bought about 5-6 months ago but needing to use a tighter fastening than I was.