Lost 4 stone and then plateaued, anyone else experienced this?

[captivate]

I don’t really have anyone to talk to about this so thought I would post here and see if any one has thoughts on my experience with Mounjaro so far, or has experienced similar.

I started Mounjaro on 2.5mg. I did 1 pen at 2.5mg. 2 pens at 5mg, 3 pens at 10mg, 3 pens at 12.5mg and then 2 pens at 15mg.

I was on it for 16 months. In the first 8 months I lost 4 stone 5lbs. At that stage I was on 12.5mg. The jump from 10mg to 12.5mg was really tough.

Then, I just stopped losing weight. For the second 8 months I would gain and lose the same 3lbs, so just water weight I think.

I was still sticking to my calorie deficit which I had updated to my new weight so I reduced my daily target. I track through Nutracheck.

I then read that sometimes eating higher calories then reducing down again can work on a plateau so I tried that. Still no change.

I was drinking water, eating 100g protein a day, staying in the deficit, and no more losses. I even went up to 15mg and I just got the side effects but no weight change.

At that point, 8 months of plateau, with the side effects and the cost I just couldn't keep going. I started to feel nauseous before the injection time every week too.

I stopped. Anout 3 weeks later I briefly weighed 7lbs more but I do think that was mostly because I was just at the end of my period when I weighed. I then started back on 2.5mg after 3 weeks and in terms of my overall weight I am now back to 3lbs above my lowest weight.

The food noise did come back, and 2.5mg is making that somewhat quieter.

I have started therapy to deal with my food based anxiety and to work on the emotional triggers I have around food and exercise. Because I know that Mounjaro can't be the whole story. I was in such a bad place before I ever started Mounjaro.

I know I should have been exercising this whole time but I have issues to work through on that and my hope is that soon I will be able to do add exercise in.

I have honestly about another 8 stone to lose to get to a healthy BMI but my goal is to lose another 4 stone.

Has anyone else found that after a certain point the weightloss just....stopped?

If you are maintaining the same weight for such a long time it implies you are eating at maintenance calories and not a deficit.

If you are consistently eating at a good deficit and not losing that is a medical issue to speak to your GP or provider about. Do you suffer from lipodema or similar that could be affecting weight loss?

If you have a decent provider they should also have support in place to guide you if you are not losing. It is worth contacting them.

I think I have mild lipodema on my legs. The bloating in my lower legs was one of the first things that improved when I first started Mounjaro. Its around my knees and on my thighs where I think I have it more, but its not super noticeable really.

I have a large apron belly, its out of proportion to the rest of me. I don’t know if that is a factor.

All the online TDEE calculators put my maintenance calories around 2400 and I have Nutracheck set to 1800 currently but a few months ago it was at 1600 and I was consistently at that target. I was weighing and tracking everything really honestly for about 5 months and there was no change on the scales.

Nutracheck itself was trying to put me at 2100 but I overrode it.

Recently I have been more relaxed on tracking. And the weight gain I was expecting hasn't happened either.

That sounds incredibly frustrating, especially after making so much progress in the first eight months. Weight-loss plateaus do seem to be something many people experience, but eight months is a long time to see no change despite your efforts. It sounds positive that you are also working with a therapist on your relationship with food and exercise. Since you stopped and restarted Mounjaro and have had significant side effects, I would also discuss the plateau and dosing with your prescriber rather than making further dose changes on your own.

I feel you, I've hit a plateau for six months after losing 4.5 stone on mounjaro. I am only 5 foot 1 so my TDE from nutracheck is 1200. Any more and I gain, so I have to be careful to stick to it.

I joined slimming world a few weeks ago and have started eating a lot more as a result. I go over my calories but it's good food, lots of fruit and veg, and I've lost a pound every week so far. So things are moving again.

If you have truly been eating in a calorie deficit for 8 months and lost no weight you need a GP appointment. The mounjaro won’t melt fat, so it’s irrelevant in terms of your dose here. You are rather not in a calorie deficit or you have a medical issue.