Mounjaro - 10 Stone or more to lose - Thread 14

[TheBroonOneAndTheWhiteOne]

Wow. Thirteen threads behind us and many friendships forged.........

We've even been turned into a Group Thread.

All are very welcome.

I am not sure about doing a higher dose, would still have to speak to the nurse as I would run out before the next jab is due. I can mention it to her. The pen does stop at 1 though, so not sure about forcing it to go beyond that.

I just feel deflated I suppose, after feeling so unwell and sticking through it all because I am so desperate to shift several stone.

@mounjaroatlast it’s a long term process and there will be short term set backs and hiccups, almost inevitably. This isn’t the end of the process it’s just a wobble at the start that can be resolved.

To do a higher dose, you don’t force the pen past the 1 position. You’d do a normal dose of 5mg, and then do another injection from the pen but instead of turning to the 1 position you’d only turn it 15 clicks (or line markers) to do another injection of 1.25mg to make 6.25mg overall. How many doses out of your current 5mg pen have you done?

ah, I see I understand now, so 1 dose, then half a dose kind of thing. I am starting the next 5mg on Monday.

thanks for all the advice everyone, it just feels disheartening.

I am peri meno, but did have a period last month after a 3 month gap, but just realised it would be due around now if it were to happen, so maybe that is connected as well.

I need to stop overthinking and see what happens over the next week.

I’ve STS this week. Disappointing but I was showing a gain most of the week so I’ll take it.

I really need a boost though, I have around a stone to go and I know it’s slow at this end of the game but I just want a bit more movement than the current trend. I average 1250 calories and have just upped my goals for protein and reduced for fat. But I have completely changed everything about what I eat and how. I don’t think I can eat less, realistically. And I don’t want to.

Ah well. Time for a collagen coffee! And a scroll for protein recipes!

Morning losers, and a huge welcome to the new members, it's lovely to have you here. So fab to read about all the losses and NSV's, far too many to single out, but you are all amazing 💕

@TheBroonOneAndTheWhiteOne I hope you're feeling better soon 💐

So I've finally lost my holiday gain, and am just back into the 14's. 14st 13lb, total loss now of 7st 9lb. It's really slowed down for me now, and I'm only losing a lb or two a month, instead of the 1st a month at the start, but i'm happy with that. It's still, albeit very slowly, heading in the right direction. I'm still on 5mg, but have been jabbing every 6 days, which seems to be working well for me.

I went to a concert last night, and was up dancing for the whole thing, it was brilliant. The old me couldn't manage more than a few minutes standing, plus we had to walk miles back to the car afterwards, which again, I would not have managed this time last year, so I'm taking that as a big fat NSV 😊.

Have a great week everyone, onwards & downwards x

I've moved up to 15mg today for jab 65, I've been on 12.5mg since the middle of last October but lately it's not been doing its thing so much. This week in particular I've been hungry that bit too much, I did just realise however that I accidentally miscounted the clicks and actually took 10mg last week 🫣. No wonder I was bloody hungry 😂.

I'm on a scales detox this month so no weigh in til the end of the month for me, I feel much calmer already. Last WI was a total loss of 9st 8lb so I would like to think I'll hit 10st off by the month end WI and be well into the 15st's (last WI I was 16st 1lb!)

Happy weekend everyone!

All of May (bar a bout of illness) I hovered around 206lbs. I haven't done anything differently really in the last fortnight but randomly dropped to 200lbs! Maybe it's the cooler weather like a few have said.

I weigh the same as my husband for the first time ever (makes me sad and embarrassed that I've always been heavier than him). Another lb and I'll be in the 100s for the first time ever, and lighter than husband for the first time ever, and almost at a 100lb loss too. Such a big milestone for me and I'm soooooo desperate to reach it 😭, I'm really hoping I don't have another plateau 🤞🏼🤞🏼 🤞🏼
Wishing everyone a good week

Also I'm totally confused about clothes at the minute 😆 some of those online clothes size calculators tell me I'm a size 20/22, but I've got a few size 18 jeans that fall down as I walk. I was a 22 over 6 stone ago. Maybe it's because of my ridiculous massive boobs that are refusing to shrink 😢 my belly is shrinking slower than everything else so it's feeling like it projects more and more, argh.
Mentally confused too; in my mind I sometimes feel slimmer than I am, and sometimes I feel way bigger and picture myself as my old size. I have no idea what I look like, or what to buy if I'm ordering online! What a strange journey we're on

I found my old Slimming World book this morning and it's fascinating to look back at that journey - I did lose 10stone but it took me 3 years (with MJ I have lost a hair under 8 stone in just under a year) and it went back on so easily any time I fell off the wagon - I've taken a photo of the final page - I put on over a stone in about 6 weeks right at the end which is crazy (as well as 13lbs in 3 weeks a little while before that)! I definitely will need to stay on MJ for some time after I get to goal, I can't let that happen again. I'm mostly glad I found it because I couldn't remember what the lowest weight I had got to was, so now I know I'm about a stone away from that, which will be the lowest I've ever been since I was probably about 13 or so.

(Note for anyone who hasn't done SW, the first weight is the weight that week, then the loss/gain, then total loss/gain since the start).

@TheBroonOneAndTheWhiteOne Sorry you are not well. Hope you are feeling better soon 💐

@MummyInTheNecropolis That sounds really stressful. I thought I'd be hitting target soon (I won't be - its slowed down SO much) so am really interested at the moment in everyone's maintenance stories or advice for cutting down. I truly know I will need to be on it long term to control binge eating/inflammation etc

@EnterSandfan Can so relate to this. Belly being disporportionate and all! I know @SilenceInside has often said that that will come but at the end...!
I really relate to having no idea of my size conceptually in my head. Sometimes I am just "wow" because compared to me at morbid obese I am tiny. Sometimes around slimmer friends I am more aware that I am overweight, and my stomach in particular... its like my sense of scale has gone completely. A friend of mine is only a stone overweight (like me!) but becuase its more recent and more sensibly distrubeted youd never tell - whereas my belly is huge!

@TragicMuse We're in similar places! Although I've had a "STS" kind of month with it going down then up. I'm around 12stone. 11stone is 25bmi for me and I'd like to be a bit less.

The weight loss has definitely definitely slowed down. I have upped my dose by 0.5 so now taking 9.3mg but I think it is likely just the stage I'm at going by other people's experiences.

I read somewhere recently about maintenance being hard as you don't get the dopamine hits that seeing weight loss gives and i'm finding that this last month.... It feels so close with a stone to go... and yet... so far...!!

Oh I meant to ask. I'm with Pharmulous (they are fab, order every 6 weeks, very happy!)

Just wondering if anyone else is with them and if they've had "new" pens in size 10/12.5 or 15 yet... would rather get my monies worth while I can even though I'm taking a smaller amount...

F

I’m with Pharmulous but buying 5mg pens. Haven’t had a new style one yet and I think many pharmacies do have them now for 5mg from looking at the Reddit table. Hopefully they are a bit behind on getting the new ones!

Just catching up.
Well ordering with the Family Chemist was easy as a first time order (they were cheapest in monj).
I have been on 10mg but using extra clicks to take me to 11mg so decided time to order 12.5mg.
Ordered Thursday night and Royal Mail delivery sat morning. Very impressed except…. ITS A NEW STYLE PEN 😩

Gutted! My most expensive pen yet (Numan gave me great discount for a long time) and feel short changed having used the golden dose for a long time now.

Anyone on 12.5mg recently got old style pen? Have some people stock piled old pens?

@Reginaphalangeeeee oh that’s a bummer. I got a 10mg this week which was old style, from SwiftDoctor. I am not looking forward to when the stock changes to the new pens. I was looking back through my spreadsheet and looking at the old prices. I was paying £135 for a 10mg back before the price hike, so for 5 doses that was £27 a dose. Now it’s about £110 more, so about £48 a dose. When it shrinks to 4 doses that will be £61 a dose. Which is a crazy increase in cost.

I have 2 old style 10mg pens unopened as well as the current one I’m using, I may switch to 12.5mg pens but do 10mg doses from it if that’s more cost effective on 4 doses per pen.

Yes I plan to do 11mg doses from 12.5mg pen but have 2 older pens I can use up first.

This feels sad, like when price hike sept came. It prices people out and this is just about profit margins.
I feel so pi$$ed off that I have spent my adult life obease and struggling, now there is a solution and it’s working well
for me, and has done for many -hooray a healthier society. Oh no, only the few that can withstand the 2nd price point push. It’s so sad , I feel like a controlled society sheep getting herded by pharma.
When will cheaper orals eventually come out I wonder.
Anyone know where older version stock remains?

Yes it’s really saddening, people pushed to switch to Wegovy just down to cost rather than medical effectiveness, or priced out altogether if Wegovy doesn’t work for them.

I wish that Lilly had been able to find a way to stand up to the Trump administration’s demands and just sell the medication in the US at the UK price, rather than increasing the UK prices to avoid selling it lower priced in the US.

I also wish the NHS had found a way to offer it a bit more widely and sooner. I was already well into my weight loss process when the NHS announced their plan to prescribe Mounjaro. By the time it came in I was no longer morbidly obese, and wouldn’t have qualified anyway as despite starting with a BMI of 50 I only had 1 of the related conditions. It seems like an odd decision to not consider a BMI over 50, or 60 or even higher as enough to prescribe if you’ve been fortunate enough not to have developed any other conditions as a result.

I watched half that disturbing Black Mirror epiosde (loved the concept but found the episode too disturbing to watch!) where the wife was dependent on an ever increasing costs to stay alive.

I was paying £99 a month last year - and truly expected the costs to go down long term! It is a huge leap for us to double. I had so hoped to be closer to maintenance - but even then I do know there's not guarantee maintenance will actually be much lower eeek

This is truly life changing and life saving for most of us isn't it... yet i got given hrt with just a quick chat at the GPs...

I was invited to the weight management clinic at my GP - now at 33 BMI, not when my BMI was 50 🙄. I went along to see what was on offer, basically just some group sessions telling you what to eat and how to exercise for a few weeks with some weekly accountability. The nurse said they were inviting everyone over BMI 30!

It’s so ineffectual, how many people does that actually help in the medium term and how much does it cost? They could just fund a few more people on WLI instead, that would do more good.

I was referred to a weight loss clinic over a year ago. I’ve heard nothing. I’ve been on WLI six months and lost six stone, I think I’ve got another six months to go. By the time the referral goes through I’ll no doubt be a healthy BMI! I feel really sorry for the people who can’t afford WLI. It’s very short sighted of the NHS not to make funding more widely available. At my worst (pre MJ, I lost some weight beforehand) my BMI was 57 and I still wouldn’t have qualified.

The thing is, for the NHS to prescribe it isn't just about the cost of the drugs. They wouldn't be able to run it like the private clinics and pharmacies do, with minimal oversight, they would need proper clinics, staff who are trained to advise on exercise/diet/doseages, and there just isn't the infrastructure in place for that for the numbers that would need it. That's why they are rolling it out slowly, so they can build up all of that experience and resource over time while focussing on the people most in immediate need. There is a multi-year rollout schedule to allow the system to get ready for the influx of new patients that will be coming.

Yes it’s a 12 year roll out, although many areas aren’t even managing to offer it to the first tranche. It’s meant to be prescribed by GPs though, so I don’t think they are waiting to set up additional clinics and hire additional staff. I generally have zero expectations of the NHS and then that way I am pleasantly surprised if I able to access any useful care. I never thought I’d actually be able to access these medications from my GP.

I also have very low expectations of the level of support that would be offered. I get basically nothing to “support” me with my high BP medication. My youngest has an autism diagnosis which was a massive exercise in HCPs telling me what I already knew, and then when he was diagnosed they gave us some leaflets and that was that. Very useful.

Re NHS care - The NHS criteria to get MJ changed in April this year (in my area at least). Last year the GP refused me, but this year at my annual check up the nurse offered it to me. She had consulted with my GP and the inhouse pharmacist before I got there.

I am T2 diabetic, and was recently diagnosed with high BP and been put on Ramipril and a statin, around the same time. My BMI is over 50.

The nurse gave me a box of 100 needles, a sharps bin, and showed me how to use the pen (prime it, twist to dosage etc), fix a needle on and how to inject. She started me on 2.5 and it goes up in 2.5 increases.

She rings me each month before prescribing the next pen to see how I am getting on. After 4 weeks on 2.5 I asked to go up to 5 as I felt it wasn't as effective as it had been. (Now feeling the same about the 5 as per my earlier post but trying stay positive as overall I am still a stone down, I was just hoping the loss would continue not reverse ).

@mounjaroatlast are you prescribed Mounjaro for your T2 diabetes to control your blood sugar or solely for weight loss? If you have T2 diabetes Mounjaro can be offered if other medications aren’t controlling blood sugar. If it’s solely for weight loss and you don’t have T2 diabetes, you’d still need to have high BP, obstructive sleep apnoea, high cholesterol and heart disease to meet the criteria. That’s going to change very soon (this month I think) to just needing three out of the five, and a BMI over 40.

I started a thread this morning after reading on here about no invite to WL management while BMI was high - I would be so interested to hear other people's views on there. I get the feeling my GP was a bit embarrassed to talk about weight.

It's here if anyone wants to comment.
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/weight-loss-injections/5539476-have-medical-professionals-ever-commented-on-your-weight-or-offered-treatment?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share