Mounjaro- worth it?

[Rainboat]

Hi everyone! Hope everyone is having a great term break.
i’m thinking about starting Mounjaro but feeling a bit anxious. Could someone please let me know of the side effects that you had and how do you manage them? I already have a bit of constipation issue, so I’m just scared that I’ll make it worse.
also, what happens to all the fat on your body? Does it just hang loose when you loose the weight?
I’m 5ft 7in with BMI 33.

It’s the best thing I have done for my health, I started at 15 and a half stone, and have been 9 stone for about a year now, all my health issues have resolved, I no longer have high blood pressure l am off the meds, which was highest dose of two, so the maximum, my sleep apnea has gone, and my cholesterol has halved and is now healthy, optimally so. My gp did all the blood tests and I’m smack bang in the middle of healthy for all of them

im staying on a low maintence dose, it’s critical to my health, and I want all the health benefits the drugs bring, plus I don’t want to live my life feeling deprived and battling with my weight, I’ve been there done that and it’s a fight I can’t win alone.

i have no lose skin, and I’m in my fifties, but I have eaten my protein, and worked out throughout the weight loss phase and then went straight onto body recomp when I hit goal, so upping my cals to maintenance but mainly with protein and continuing with the work outs, which saw me drop another two points in body fat and regain it in muscle. It’s visible on me.

it takes efffort to do it right, the number on the scales is only part of it. Doing it in a healthy manner, with a healthy diet, sustainable weight loss of up to 2 lbs a week, and staying hydrated, so 3 litres of water a day, eating your protein and doing strength training are all part of it.

if you can’t commit to that, then hold till you can. Because you will lose muscle and muscle is active, it burns cals, fat is inactive, so your maintenance cals will be low and you will find it impossible to maintain your weight if you come off as you are able to eat so little, and you won’t like what you see in the mirror, your tummy or boobs won’t shrink as you wish, your arse will be flat, you will have more lose skin than you should as you’ve no muscle to hold it up and you will feel shit about your naked body.

All this is excellent advice. However sometimes the necessity to loose weight becomes urgent so worrying about maintaining once goal weight achieved or appearance has to take a back step. Eg certain operations on knees, hips etc wont be performed if BMI too high and people can be in a great deal of pain. Other health issues can also suddenly become urgent requiring weight loss. Once immediate issues resolved your advice can then be followed.

Im a year in and lost 3 stone which im really happy with as I've had plateaus but the loss is balanced and I've no loose skin or dodgy face.
However, the side effects, of which I had none have increased significantly. Sulphur burps, 2 full days of diarrhea every time I eat. All this despite dropping a dose. I have a stone to go and ready to give up.

I don't think you'll likely be going below 2.5 to maintain - that would be in the placebo/homeopathic territory. Personally I'm still on 12.5mg to maintain, haven't been able to get any lower yet.

Many people start on 1.25mg and actually effectively lose weight with that dose. The maintenance threads are full of people successfully maintaining on such doses. I wouldn’t say it’s “homeopathic territory “ at all, judging by people’s experiences

Considering the lowest dose is 5mg, and 2.5 is just to initiate treatment to help the body get used to it and has no therapeutic benefits in trials, I think it’s maybe pushing it to call it a dose, it’s a quarter dose,

I lost 3 stone in six months.
Lots of diarrhea and nausea at night time but I am happy to put up with it.
I never got above 3.75 mg as a dose and now maintaining on 2.5 mg every two weeks.
Still get nausea for week after dosing but it is so so worth it.
I do have some loose skin but I'm late 55's and don't do much weight training etc ...I am a keen runner and found it easy to carry on with that

I’ve lost 26kg in 10 months
no side effects really. Or very few
I’m definitely looser skinned now. Buttocks no fat on them. But worth it

I have lost over 2.5 stone since November on 2.5mg, I went up briefly to 3.75 but didnt need to. I know lots of people that have lost way more than me on 2.5mg also.

Lots of people do and it works for them. I have lost loads of 2.5mg, nearly at goal weight now so will go to less than 2.5 to maintain. I struggle to eat more than 1000 a day on the low dose.

I had nausea and tiredness at first, 1st week was hard, it gradually got better. 3 months later I have no side effects, have stayed on a really low dose and now 7lb from goal weight. To me its been 100% worth it so far

Hi, I quoted someone which means I am responding to them, and the post was about 1.25mg.

Yes, but if 2.5mg means I lose weight then I would expect that 1.25mg would be a suitable maintenance dose for me eventually, the weightloss threads are full of people maintaining on less than 2mg so it clearly does work.

Were you obese before pregnancy or has that come on afterwards?

For me, I had loose skin after DC1 because I was massive during that pregnancy due to water retention and then lost it all again quite quickly. At this time I wasn't obese. Over time and more pregnancy I put on weight, so the loose skin filled out. Now I've gone down to a normal BMI, that skin is emptier and looks crinkly like it did before I became obese. Because Mounjaro was never going to fix pregnancy related issues!

But that’s clearly untrue. There are loads of us on these WLI boards who are losing really well on 2.5mg.

I’ve been on 2.5mg for 6 months, lost 3 st so far and still steadily losing, so I’ll be looking at going lower to maintain.

Yes, I was a bit obese before pregnancy as well, but didn’t have a pooch, it was belly fat, but after my c-section, got a very ugly looking pooch now.

Its such an individual journey isnt it. For the first few weeks I could hardly eat over 500/600 calories so I really can't imagine going up to 5mg. 2.5mg now means I can stomach food fine but I dont think about it and could go all day without eating if I didnt make myself.

My overhang has pretty much disappeared with the weight loss. It isnt loose skin, just the fat has gone. Its not perfect since having my DC 20 years ago but if I work on my abs it pretty much goes.

Ah, one of mine was a CS too, which didn't help stomach wise. I don't know to what extent the post section hang is fixable, always thought it was to do with how the skin had been sewn back or something? It looks better with clothes on than it used to though. And no doubt my level of stomach fat now (BMI 24 something) is healthier than it was in the low 30s when I began.

Would agree with pp that a good place to start is working on your abs. If that still isn't sufficient, at least you'll have stronger stomach muscles regardless!

What have you done to resolve it. Have you been doing strength exercise, moisturising /massaging it, eating your protein?

my has gone, but it takes work, it doesn’t just disappear sadly. If you’ve been doing the work it could just be genetics.

Yes weight training, cardio and ab work have flattened mine, I thought it was forever!

That’s great. Did you start off by microdosing or did you begin and maintain the 2.5mg? I’m considering trying it and would be keen to attempt doing it that way if possible.

I’m on Wegovny. I’ve lost about a stone, down from 11.11 to 10.11. No loose skin but didn’t expect to have. My back pain has gone though.

I only had 8lb to lose, been on 2.5 dose for 8 days and already lost 3lb. Even though it’s a short term fix for me I’m already worried about putting it back on. I’m going to take it every 2 weeks and let my food noise come back gradually..

Hi @Rainboat - Please don't rely on stragers' input on the internet for healthcare-related topics. I know weightloss jabs are a sensitive topic, I don't mean to cause an uproar here, but go to a healthcare specialist and your GP with questions around it. Other than immediate possible side-effects, there are instances of people's long-term health being impacted, in terms of certain organs being damaged. But again - don't listen to me, or anyone here, talk to a specialist of all the implications, please.