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.

You don't have to stay on Mounjaro for life to keep the weight off. Yes, there are plenty of studies that show people regain the weight over a period if time if they do stop - but this is exactly the same with any diet. That's why so many of us are the typical yo-yo dieters. It's not because we stop the drug.
This is why it is so important to change our lifestyle and eating habits. Not simply changing what and how much we eat while we're losing weight, then going back to our old diets when we reach goal, but recognising that we need to eat healthily forever.
Mounjaro allows us to reach goal more successfully than trying to diet without it. But however we lose the weight, not regaining afterwards is up to us. If you want to stay on MJ long term to make that easier, then that's a perfectly acceptable personal choice, but it's not absolutely necessary.

I have lost 3.5 stone in about 13 months. I have always lost weight very slowly so no surprise there. I want to lose another half stone and then work down through the doses until I am off completely because I definitely can't afford it for life. I feel I have learned a lot, as a short arse I will have to watch my portion sizes for life, and I have learned the importance of protein. I have always previously given up on diets because I lose so slowly and had come to the conclusion that diets don't work for me, I have now discovered that they do work, I just have to be very, very patient.

Oh and I no longer buy crisps or biscuits so wont get tempted, online shopping helps me with that.

Been at goal and maintaining a few months now, on maintenance MJ. I did about half of it on 2.5 then moved up to 3.25 then 5. So was fortunate in that respect, but it's really the luck of the draw whether you respond to the lower doses or not. Given the things I now consume less of, rushes me no more than £30 per week. The plan is to continue long term.

Wegovy is of course cheaper. I was on MJ, had shifted much of the weight before the price hikes and got a couple ahead of time, so I think I only paid the new price for maybe 1 pen before I hit goal. If I were starting now I'd probably go for Wegovy instead.

I just read that Wegovy isn't as effective and has more negative side effects. So I wasn't thinking about it.

I don't know anything about side effects, but my understanding was on a population level there isn't a big effectiveness difference. That said, I've never taken it so am not speaking from a position of experience here. I may move over if and when they change the MJ pens to prevent bonus dosing, but appreciate maintenance is different.

I started on Wegovy 2 years ago, lost 17kgs, came off, gained some weight back (5kgs so still not nearly as much as I lost) and went back on Mounjaro.

I have zero side effects on MJ. (I had more burping on WG, and I was losing weight so quickly I was really cold all the time and I didn't have the energy to work out.) I'm slightly under my original target weight (usually 2-3kgs under) and tbh I am still learning how to dress for my size.

I take 5mg MJ and I take one dose every two weeks. So, half the cost, basically. But I also eat less and I eat differently too. I'm not at a point in my life I can make big lifestyle changes (long commute, full-time desk job, cooking for a family, hectic life etc etc) so I'm using this time to train myself into this new rhythm. I don't think I'll ever order steak and red wine in a restaurant again and I'm at a point in my journey where that doesn't bother me. The rest will come too.

Ive been on it for 2 years and have lost almost 6 stone. I am desperate to lose the last 4 pounds and those buggers will just not come off. Im properly stuck.

The drugs don’t melt the fat off, they simply enable you to diet,

of course you can come off and maintain, but you need to remain eating at your maintenance cals level, which is way lower than what you can eat when much bigger.

80 percent of people who lose weight through diet alone, regain it all within 5 years. It’s a relapse disease.

onky you know if you can get to goal and then be disciplined enough to maintain it,

I couldn’t, well I could have for a period, but life, temptation, cravings would have got in the way and my weight would have crept back up. So I’m on 5mg for maintenance.

one thing I’d say is surely it’s better to get to goal and try to maintain rather than not try at all, and stay fat. It’s no different to slimming world or any other diet in that regard, when you stop the drugs, your hunger comes back as it was previously, and just like if you’d reached goal with slimming world of low carb, you then need to spend the rest of your life doing the very hard work to stay at that weight,

losing weight is not the hardest bit, maintaining it is.

I have just started it and find it amazing. Within 12 hours of my first jab, I noticed my appetite had waned like never before.

@AplineDaisies thats good. Which drug did you go for? Remember to prioritise protein and fibre.

I went MJ. But I have to admit I'm nowhere near where I should be with food. I haven't eaten since 10am. Life is so ridiculously busy that I am just not eating. Which is not good.