Calorie counting

[northernlight20]

I have lost over 7 and half stone on mounjaro since March 2025. Lots of ppl in real life know this and always ask for advice. I know lots of people taking mj and hardly losing any weight, they ask me for advice and I tell them to calorie count to make sure they’re in a deficit and they tell me ‘what’s the point of being on the jab if you still calorie count’. I see on these threads too, people jabbing and then complaining they haven’t lost any weight at all but ignore the calorie counting and deficit advice. Seems people think you can just jab and lose weight, which is not true. I don’t have a question, just my observation really. Waste of money to spend and not even attempt to calorie count when you aren’t losing any weight.

I think though once you’ve started doing it it gets to a point where you know roughly and can judge it so no need to count for life . You only need to be forensic if you’re not losing weight. So many people think they are eating in a defecit and not losing, when they simply are not in a defecit.

then we see starvation mode, set points, or medical issues trotted out as reasons. You still need to put the cals in to gain, unless you’ve a condition giving you high levels of inflammation. And you’d be very unwell if that was the case. And your body keeps losing weight if it’s in a defecit. It doesn’t magically stay at a certain weight even when it’s not getting enough fuel, as once again what’s it fueling itself with.

people find all sorts of reasons to explain why they don’t lose weight, when it’s nearly always simply you’re consuming too much.

You are 100% right OP. Even the posters saying they dont calorie count, they are still eating in a deficit so will have a decent handle on how much they can eat.

You won't lose weight if not in a calorie deficit so counting the wrong number of calories is pointless also. So many people on here also insist they are counting calories, which I am sure they are however they are not actually adjusting their TDEE/deficit. I started on 1300 and was losing weight but now on 977 (I'm short and now healthy BMI). I never add on for exercise as this is notoriously inaccurate.

I dont always religiously log calories any more as I know roughly what is the right amount to eat but if I am at the gym more I do so I can most importantly track macros.

Its not true though, you didnt just take the jab and lose weight. You took the jab and reduced what your were eating/ate healthily so therefore in a calorie deficit. Its irrelevant if you specifically logged your calories or not. If you had eaten at maintenance calories or above you wouldnt lose weight.

I wouldn't have had to log calories to lose, I had to log calories as even on 2.5mg MJ I would have probably eaten 6-800 cals a day as had no appetite so I knew I had to get my nutrients in better. For some people it doesnt give any appetite suppression till much higher doses so really important for them to calorie count.

If they’re on WLI and not losing weight and eating the same amount of calories - doesn’t this simply mean they’re on too low a dose?

This sums it up completely, a big part of using MJ for me is undoing all the damage endless diets have done.

I am now, 10 months in, feeling ready to “diet” on top of MJ doing its thing.

i have lost a steady 1lb a week btw

Eating the same amount of cals as what please?

the drugs don’t melt the fat off, you need to diet, be in a calorie deficit, if you’re not losing weight then you’re not doing that.

You don’t understand that some people are more than 7 stone overweight? Do you live under a rock?

Quite possibly, some people dont feel any suppression till really high doses but many people dont ever get the full suppression others do so still have to work to eat less, albeit its not as hard as without the jabs.

People could easily eat at maintenance calories if not eating the right stuff/right sized portions. It still boils down to whether you're in a calorie deficit at whatever dose. With excellent willpower then you can achieve the same results (I couldnt as kept slipping up, otherwise I wouldn't be on the jabs).

I had no noticeable effect at all from mounjaro until I got to 7.5mg. Even then I have never had the high level of suppression some people apparently experience.
The accounts of struggling to eat enough are completely alien to me.
I have moved up the doses over time to 15mg and I could always have easily eaten enough calories to prevent weight loss all of the time.
Mounjaro has helped me limit my calories but it has still been a conscious effort.
If I hadn’t calculated how many calories I need to limit myself to and stuck to that I wouldn’t have lost any weight at all.

The jabs ultimately work by reducing blood sugar levels, basically same as going low carb.

But if you still eat mostly carbs you are working against the jabs. The jabs work best if you eat more fat and protein.

But people don’t want to change, they just want a magic jab, same reason people have liposuction.

Exactly, its so strange how people are happy to spend all that money but not adjust their eating at all.

I know there are some people who they dont work for but the majority on here have made huge changes to their lifestyles and the results are amazing. Its not easy for many people on them, battling against side effects and also still feeling pretty hungry a lot of the time, it still can be hard work. I have been mega lucky on them but being on the monthly starter threads there have been some extremely difficult journeys for some and they have really had to put the effort in.

I took this to mean the same amount as they were eating before WLIs. To me this would mean they are not getting appetite suppression and not making the effort to eat in a deficit. Going up a dose could help if they weren't as hungry then I guess so would naturally eat less but given the fact that the more weight you lose the less calories you need then it wouldn't necessarily keep working.

This is the exactly the same for me.

@Nanda66 have you been side effect free?

I haven’t had any side effects at all and my theory is that those of us who don’t get very significant suppression must be more easily tolerating the medication and therefore not as susceptible to unwanted side effects.

@Sweetiedarling7yes, I don’t get any side effects. The only side effects I’ve ever had were on the first couple of days after the first jab. When I eat I can eat normally and don’t feel full up quickly like some seem to.

i’m currently on 7.5 and not losing any weight so I think I may have to increase my dose. I’ve felt the same on every dose so far.

This was definitely my experience. I lost weight at first without calorie counting (my diet wasn't completely atrocious to begin with) and lost 2 stone without needing to calorie count. It was a slow loss.

I then stalled for months and was so frustrated, but really didn't want to calorie count. I've been on MFP on and off for about 15 years now and when you cook from scratch a lot calorie counting can be a pain and I felt like I just couldn't do it any more. But the only way I got out of my plateau was calorie counting, cutting down on carbs and drinking way more water. The next 2 stone has flown off since then.

You don’t have to actively count calories but you do have to change your portion sizes if you want to lose weight on MJ, which is obviously what the OP was alluding to.

Folks who carry on eating junk food and snacking on crap (just a bit less of it) are unlikely to be very successful on WLI’s.

The WLI’s don’t magically dissolve the fat. 😂

Exactly. There are so many people who seem to think they work some sort of sorcery. The scary thing is that some of these people are actually on the jabs so clearly havent done enough research.