Slow and steady MJ weight loss

[TheTipsyRobin]

Hi all, I just wanted to start my own little thread to see if anyone is in a similar position. I started MJ at the end of March and I have lost 9lb total in the first 4 weeks. Ideally, I have about 50kg/7 stone to lose. I am seeing lots of posts with major weight loss and just wondering if anyone has any words of wisdom for slower weight loss- I know realistically that it is fine and I did decide to take a second 2.5 pen.
Before starting, I had lost about 7kg and was intermittent fasting and eating around 1600 calories a day. This took me about 6 months and then had an absolute stall in progress. So I'm not sure if the slowness could be due to already being in a calorie deficit for so long. Thanks for taking the time to read.

9lbs in 4 weeks is great and not slow at all! I lost under 2lbs a week early on and stayed on 2.5 throughout. Granted I didn’t have as much to lose but it sounds like good healthy weight loss to me and less chance of side effects such as hair loss etc. good luck on your journey 😊

Hi @TheTipsyRobin mine was about the same, roughly 5kg in the first 4 weeks, stayed on 2.5mg and saw another 5kg off in the next month, so carried on at 2.5mg because it felt fast enough to me. I’m about to hit month 10, still on 2.5mg, I’m 27kg lighter, BMI 22.9 and at least 2 dress sizes down.
As I got lighter the loss slowed down which I expected, I’ve tracked calories throughout although I have upped from 1200 to 1500 recently so am effectively maintaining. Ideally I’d lose another 3kg but I don’t feel like it’s worth going up a dose and risking the nice balance I’ve found.
Good luck on your journey, I feel and look the best I have since my late 20s so it’s been totally worth it for me!

Thank you for your reply, you're right. I need to try to see the bigger picture too x

Thank you for taking the time to reply. That's a great weight loss! And a good point, I haven't had any adverse side effects on the 2.5 which is something I was really worried about before starting x

Nice and slow on 5mg suits me just fine!
Three stone down since August bank holiday 2025.

@TheTipsyRobin , to begin with 9Lbs in 4 weeks is not slow but you have a lot to lose and with so much to lose some people would initially lose a bit more quickly. I am at the end of my weight loss journey and am now maintaining, I did not have quite as much weight to lose as you, I lost 6 stone; my average weight loss was just under 1.5Lbs a week. Some weeks I didn’t lose, some weeks I put on weight, it felt like a real battle at times.
Many people get very frustrated because others appear to have found their golden bullet and their weight drops off while we still have to battle and plod along. I’ve read probably thousands of comments and hundreds of scientific articles (yes I became quite obsessive) over my time on this medication and this is my belief. These medications were originally designed for diabetics to lower insulin, you can be experiencing insulin resistance which leads to weight gain and difficulty losing weight for years and years before a doctor will recognise it as an issue and during this time your weight is likely to increase and be very difficult to shift. So if that is you and I believe it was me you need the medication to normalise your metabolism therefore you need to get to a dose that can achieve that. This will be different for everyone, I got all the way to 15mg and don’t seem to be able to maintain on less than 10mg. I see so many people trying to stay on 2.5mg which is not a therapeutic dose but designed to ease your body into tolerating the medication.
What about those people who the weight falls off? I believe that perhaps they put on their weight because they ate and drank in an unhealthy way, often they do manage to stay on a low dose because they don’t need the therapeutic effect of the medication but are tremendously aided by the appetite suppression. If they change their habits during their weight loss journey I believe these people can eventually come off the medication and maintain their loss. I shall be taking Mounjaro for life.

@Icanthinkformyselfthanks it’s certainly interesting the level of dose needed to affect change in different people, I was expecting it not work for me at all frankly as nothing had before! Staying low was never a plan per se (however I was always keen to keep the costs as low as possible!)
I know MJ has had an effect on my inflammation symptoms even at the lowest dose, my carpal tunnel disappeared at jab 3 and has not returned, as did other nerve/tendon related issues, so while I take the point about 2.5mg not intended to be a therapeutic dose IME it is for some things! Cannot wait for more detailed research to be published

I lost 4lb the first week and then an average of 2lb each week since. I'm now down 1stone 3 and I'm really happy with that pace. I think 1-2lb a week is the ideal even if it feels slow at the time.

Gosh I’m always surprised when people see normal weight loss as slow.

you need to aim for 1-2lbs a week loss. Faster than that you will see a lot of muscle loss and you will likely lose your hair. Slower than that, and quite frankly most get bored and it takes so long.

eat your protein, do strength training, be fit and healthy when you hit goal.