Tips for starting MJ

[Gustavo1]

After another failed attempt at slimming world, I am leaning into the weight loss injections. I want to start mounjaro but I’m nervous.
I want to try to stick to a diet plan again but take the MJ to stop the food carvings. I spend all day every day on any diet obsessed with what and when I can eat next and hope the jab will help that.

Any experienced users have any tips for starting or that can share their experiences of the first few weeks?
I’m keen to start but I’m delaying. I worry it will affect weekend plans (non food based) or make me less able to parent solo whilst my DH works away.

thanks in advance

I've been taking Mounjaro for 20 months now. I would just get on and start tbh, why waste time if you have decided that it's right for you.

Are you worried about severe gastric side effects? Most people don't get side effects, or if they do, they are mild and manageable.

Mostly what @SilenceInside said but a few tips.

If you're worried about how you might feel on the weekend, do your first jab on a Monday. I did that, accidentally in that it was just the day I got my first pen, and it's worked out well.

You may well not get any side effects but if you want to be prepped, get some pepto bismol and immodium. Avoid greasy fatty foods. Drink loads of water.

Protein powder and psyllium husk powder (blitzed with greek yoghurt and frozen berries in my case) helped me keep up my intake of fibre and protein on some early days when suppression was very high.

I've been on MJ since late last March and lost 6st, give or take 1lb. Life changing.

If you’re losing weight then you don’t need to increase your dose every month. Eat ‘clean’ and drink plenty of water to reduce side effects. No fizzy drinks or spicy food. If you have and gastric side effects take appropriate medication eg rennies and immodium.

Understand that it’s a life long drug or at least taking a GPL in some format - tablets have been approved in the US and are going through approval in the UK and these are expected to be much cheaper.

Understand how and why it works and work with it. Mounjaro works by increasing your production of insulin in response to excess sugars, increasing your bodies sensitivity to insulin, reducing the amount of glucose your liver produces and slowing your digestion.

So

• be mindful of your carb intake, don’t cut them out completely but make good choices and don’t live on crisps and biscuits.
• losing lots of weight can mean losing muscle so ensure you eat plenty of healthy fats and proten
• Yhe chemical process to break down fat uses water so make sure you get plenty of it.
• Being ABLE to eat barely anything doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. You might not feel hungry but your body does actually still NEED fuel. If you go too low calorie you will be tired, probably nauseous and generally a bit shit.
• your digestion is slower so expect too poo less but you do still need to watch out for constipation so make sure you have fibre and more water.

I ate loads of spicy food and wasn’t affected by that. The only foods that should be avoided are those that cause discomfort in the individual. Alcohol is a big one apparently (I don’t drink)

but spicy food and fizzy drinks? Made 0 difference to me

@GoldenCupsatHarvestTime I lean more towards spicy foods too, MJ really reduced my desire for sweet foods now I enjoy really really savoury and big strong spicy foods. Bloody love a good spicy over pickle-y pickled onion as a quick snack now.

Yeah, spicy stuff and fizzy drinks have all been fine for me. Caramelised onions for some reason...not so much 😫. It's very individual.

Massively reduced my desire and ability to drink and things didn't end well the one time I overdid it. But, again, that appears to be an individual thing and some people seem able to carry on trucking as normal, booze-wise.

Thank you all. Yes the gastro side effects are what are putting me off. I worry about feeling poorly when I’ve got things going on. I think it’s best just to get cracking and try though. I mean, there’s no contract to sticking to it if it makes me feel rotten!

EXACTLY, you can always stop. The vast majority of the people I know on it have no side effects or very mild, myself included.

It will definitely help you stick to a food plan like SW if that's what you want to do (my best friend does SW on mj) but otherwise the lack of food noise will hopefully just help you to eat less overall. It switched off the constant desire for snacking for me from day one.

I’ve bitten the bullet and done the first dose today! Thanks again for the advice :)

Have some ginger biscuits / tea with you as you don't know how your tummy will react. I took a dose before bed one night and woke up in the night uncomfortably full and unable to go back to sleep. I always take it in the morning now.

First full week done. I’d say I had appetite suppression for the first 5 days but the weekend was a hungry one! I lost 2.5lb which is a good enough start. To be honest, I didn’t try my best to eat healthily when I did eat. I was more interested in how much I could or couldn’t manage.
So week 2 here we go!

Just coming back to keep myself going really. It’s all good so far. No side effects other than one evening when I ate something far too greasy and had heartburn. 9lb down and keeping on ;)

Good start, well done!

Obviously you can keep updating here but if you wanted to find people at the same point in their journey as you, you might find the March 26 starters thread helpful and supportive as well. And depending on how much you have to lose there are ongoing threads for people with target losses of more than 5 stone, and more than 10stone.

This is great to read, thank you. I've just taken my first dose and feeling really anxious about....everything!

Thanks for this little thread, been considering for ages, think today is the day to start. What happens if you go abroad? Do you just miss a week?

@Hepzibar you can take it with you, or you can delay your injection by a day or two if you’d rather not take it. No need to miss a week.

Honestly, you are setting yourself up to fail of you don’t eat a healthy diet whilst using MJ. Your body needs fuel. Being hungry is ok; chasing high suppression and still eating badly is like pissing your money up the wall.

I would take mine with me as I do view it as a permanent life change.

You’re absolutely right and for the second and now third week I have been following an eating plan based around protein and fibre. I have also had an electrolyte drink each day to help with hydration.
I think it was just the novelty of not feeling hungry the first week. I’ve never felt like that in my life!!

Thanks for this, I'm starting Easter Monday - or rather I'm aiming to, dependent on pen delivery. Pharmica won't have issued the pen until at least Wednesday, going by their information, as it takes up to 2 days to okay the pics, etc, and I've only done that today. I don't want to start right before a 4-day bank holiday weekend in case of issues, hence not starting as soon as it comes.

Does anyone have a particular recommendation for their chemist/prescriber? I went with the one that was cheapest at the time, but I've not seen anyone particularly loyal to one in particular because of the extra support from my googling.

I started process this morning, was very straightforward, uploaded photos and in about an hour it was all agreed, ordered and I’ve just picked it up from Asda.
now I’m procrastinating- was going to inject straightaway but think I’ll leave it until tomorrow evening.

I honestly think you should just get cracking. It took a while for my first dose to kick in. Maybe 24 hours. Worth just getting started.

How are you getting on OP? I’m planning on starting soon-after my cruise though!

Still going well. Up to 5mg this week and have some acid reflux but nothing too uncomfortable. 16lb down in 5 weeks. Feels life changing to be honest!