Before I start Mounjaro - advice pls if you have got to your goal weight

[AplineDaisies]

I have a number of friends who have lost weight with the injections and I'm thinking of starting but what is the real cost?

Do most people have to stay on them for life or do you wean yourself off, if that's possible?

I can't afford them for the rest of my life but I need to do something. Years at SW didn't help.

Hi :) best decision I made. I was 17 stone in Jan 25 and I am now 9 stone 12lbs. I intend to wean down over the summer and currently take 7.5mg.

I think I've read somewhere that after you have titrated down the doses you should expect to stay on a maintenance dose for at least as long as it took you to lose the weight in the first place. For me that will probably be 18 months - 2 years but I expect to be on quite a low dose by then (9 months in and I have lost 7 stone but am still only on 5mg, may go up to 6.25mg soon).

I used five Mounjaro pens to lose 54 lb over 7 months (I stayed at 2.5 mg for most of the journey then 3.33 or 3.75 mg before moving up to 5 mg for the final month to reach goal). However I had to order a pen every 6-8 weeks to continue to receive a 5 mg pen, which means I have a stock of unused pens in my fridge (at more expense). I'm maintaining on these pens at the moment with a plan to stop so I'm not currently ordering any pens. If I find I can't stop I can purchase more from a maintenance pharmacy.

Not everyone can stay low though and the higher doses are considerably more expensive so something to bear in mind.

People who have switched from Mounjaro to Wegovy don't seem to find Wegovy as effective, but as a new starter to a GLP1 I'd give serious consideration to trying Wegovy first. Lots of famous people have lost huge amounts of weight on it and it's much cheaper. (Google Ozempic as it's called in the US.)

Whichever you're thinking of trying look aat the price comparison websites to save money.

https://monj.co.uk/mounjaro-price-comparison-by-monj/

https://igovy.co.uk/wegovy-price-comparison-uk/

I’ve been on them nearly 2 years.

Ive lost over 5 stone and it’s been lifechanging.

as well as looking good I am also really fit and go to the gym 3/4 times a week.

I'm in remission for diabetes and high blood pressure and no longer require medication.

I’d like to lose another half stone but have been stalled for months.

I plan to take it long term and am hoping the promised cheaper pill version will come soon.

@AplineDaisies , Zoe recently did a podcast on GPL-1 agonist medication; it might answer some of your questions.
Im 5’1”, my starting weight was 190Lbs; I’m 63 years old. This morning I weighed 107 Lbs, I’ve been maintaining on 10mg (got up to 15mg) for a couple of months or so now. My average weekly weight loss was just under 1.5Lbs. I would think very carefully about starting this medication if you can’t afford to stay on it for life because all of the evidence suggests that those who stop taking it put the weight they lost back on. I plan to stay on it for life and am hoping that the price will come down significantly once it has come off exclusive licence to the manufacturer.

I’ve lost almost 14 stone on them, gone from a size 24 to a size 8 and have maintained my goal weight for almost 5 months now. I’ve gone back down through the doses and now take 5mg every 2 weeks. I am fully prepared to be on them for life, I think without them I will just regain the weight again. It’s well worth it for me, they have changed my life beyond all measure and I’m happy to keep paying for them for as long as I need to.

literally life changing. Transformative and worth every penny.

But, you need to plan.
Side effects are variable and not everyone has them.
I did and still do so take my jag on a Friday night so I feel dreadful and nauseous over the weekend with the tail end of it on Monday.

You still need to put in the work…a lot of work. meal plan and track to ensure that your nutrition is balanced. I do MyFitnessPal.
I kind of follow SW as I know that having been a member on & off for years (& weight watchers. Cambridge, fasting, vegan, vegetarian, and the rest!!)

It won’t just “drop off”, you still have to work hard.

After 9 months I am 2.5 stone down, around 1lb per week with many many weeks of zero loss. Some people loose stones upon stones in a very short period of time, I didn’t. You may not.

I adjusted my attitude to eating out, often can’t face anything at all so meet for coffee rather than meals with friends. As my social life evolved around food, this is the only way to still see people socially.

I couldn’t give a fiddlers fart about what I look like, honestly do not give a flying shit BUT I feel so SO much better, my clothes fit with comfort, I can walk at pace without being breathless, I can cross my legs comfortably… it’s lovely!

Do you not get it free on the NHS if you have diabetes? Or is it no longer free as you are in remission?

I do appreciate it's the food planning that needs to go hand in hand with it and the gym stuff. Both of which require a lot of time.
They are quite necessary aren't they?

I've been on my since late March and have so far lost 9kg - l can't see much of a difference yet but my dh has really noticed a difference although l am feeling so much more in control.

I am still on 2.5mg and hoping to stay on a low dose for as long as l can - l weight train 3 times a week and have upped my protein and water intake. Am hoping l have changed my habits but will stay on it indefinitely and hopefully at some point will come off. Have got a few friends who have lost the weight and kept it off just by changing their habits and not going back after stopping the jabs.

I’m in Scotland where the waiting lists are multiple years long.

Like ALL MEDICATIONS They only work for as long as you stay on them. For example, if you had high blood pressure and took a medication to help that stay down, once you stopped it your blood pressure will go up again. It’s not rocket science.

I have lost nine stone and I will be staying on a low-dose of Mojarro for life ( or it’s New inventions).

You can always try and keep the weight off with calories and exercise but as the success rate from this is 0.2% I would suggest that it was not the most advisable way to go.. And to be honest, if you have the iron Will to keep to a maintenance diet without any form of drugs, you probably didn’t need it to the first place.

Starting was the best decision I've made. I wish I had started sooner. I haven't had any side effects to speak of (a little but easily remedied constipation and 2 x little patches of allodyna on my forearm). No foods have made me sick or loosened my bowels (spicy, fatty, pizza, takeaway, kebab). I actually don't want the stuff that I used to crave that got me fat in the first place. This medication is transformational!

Not only has the food noise gone. A lot of the other nouse i didnt realise I was living with has gone too!

I stayed on 2.5mg as had less to lose. I really tried to use my time taking the jabs to focus on nutrition and portion sizes without the food noise distracting me. I have found this has been really helpful when maintaining as I’ve essentially kept up the same diet but just added back in a healthy breakfast. I really feel ish given me a huge reset after years of yo yo dieting. I’ve maintained since Jan, used one pen recently as I was ravelling a lot and kept regaining the same 4lb. I’ve used it to drop another 4lb off my goal to give me more wiggle room. I’m confident I can maintain again without the pens but I do have one in the fridge just incase.

I’m choosing to stay on it because the impact on my mental health has been huge. It’s been life changing to not obsess about my self discipline (or lack of) I feel like I’m living. Very dramatic, but I hadn’t realised how much headspace body image and diet took up in my head until I did this.

I have lost over five and a half stone, going from size 16 to size 8. It took me about ten months. I have been maintaining on 5mg for six months now.

I have no plans to come off the medication as it’s balancing out my hormones so I stay healthy.

I also wish I’d started sooner. I’m coming up a year in June and have lost 40kg/40% of my body weight. I feel like a phoenix rising from the ashes of my fat self! Truly life-changing.
As pp said, check Monj for prices from registered reputable pharmacies. I have a discount code for £80 off Numan if you’d like it too.

I titrated down after a year on it. I’ve been completely off it for 2months+ now and still maintaining at 63-64kg (down from 96kg) bmi of 22-23. But I plan everything I eat. It’s been a real journey and I have had to make habits that I will have to stick by. I train 6-7 days a week which means I can eat about 2000-2300 kcal a day. I love love love my new active lifestyle! My body, being interested in clothes, my appearance everything. I am a new person. My confidence has utterly soared. I would like to hope I can continue without it: time will tell but it’s just been unreal for me.

I’ve lost 5 stone in one year and my only regret was that I hesitated for so long before starting. The supplier I use is IQ Doctor which I recommend and there’s a website which publishes the discount codes every month and there’s always a discount code. I have never gone above 7.5 as I haven’t felt the need as this dose works for me. Good luck!

Are you maintaining on 7.5 or are you still shedding the weight?

I lost 4 stone in 2025, gone from squeezing into a size 18 to a comfortable 10-12. It took me 8 months never going above 5mg. Best thing I’ve done for my health and happiness in middle age.

Been maintaining for almost 5 months now, gradually reducing dose. I originally planned to stop, but after reading so many people’s experiences and feeling the benefits apart from weight, I am now gradually titrating down to see how little a microdose I can take without regain. Currently on 2mg per week.

In terms of managing the cost long term, I am very slowly using up the backlog of pens I have from before prices rose (and a couple of deals end of last year). Haven’t spent a penny since October. I made sure to place my last order with a pharmacy that allow a 12 month gap then will ‘restart’ at 2.5mg when I run out (so long as still bmi over 21 which won’t be an issue - I don’t want to lose any more) I’ll buy again for a few months then have another ‘gap’ of 11 months while I use them up. There is no point asking pharmacies to bend the rules, they are tied to the guidelines. Learn the rules and find a way to tick their boxes, whilst doing what works for you. I would never ever buy unregulated medicine but, personally, I am ok with the ‘risk’ of subdosing genuine Mounjaro and using pens for longer than 30days. Have yet to find a single example of this causing anyone issues and I have read every article and forum there is in my year of MJ obsession! I keep them refrigerated always, am meticulous with hygiene, good at basic maths, record exactly what I’ve taken and will discard a pen if it ever looks anything other than clear. That’s yet to happen.

this won’t be right for everyone, it only works if you respond well to the lower doses, but it is one way to make it very affordable for the next 5+ years until other options become available, patents expire and prices drop.

Stay on the lower doses as long as possible, only move up once you've really stopped loosing on that doseage.

By the time you've reached goal, the pill version should be out, which is meant to be cheaper.

I’m still losing very slowly. But I think it is slow because I’m nearly at my goal weight.

In hindsight I possibly rushed going up doses. I have lost 5 and a half stone over about 15 months so not quick. When I started it was a lot of ‘move up a dose a month’ in comparison to trying to stay as low as possible. I didn’t race up but also my rate of loss didn’t hugely vary if I did go up either.

7.5 was a dose that suited me very well as did 10. I went up to 12.5 briefly but didn’t benefit from it really so moved back down and am now slowly titrating back down.

I am definitely planning on staying on for life - I have diabetes risk on one side of my family (even when not that overweight) and blood pressure on the other. My blood pressure really did get too high and it’s now slap bang in the middle of normal and many other inflammation symptoms are so much better. So this is my medication instead of metformin like my dad or blood pressure tabs like my mum. Hopefully tablet form on its way and costs will reduce.