August 2026 starters (Thread 2!)

[chocolatecoveredpretzels]

Hi everyone and thanks for the bestowed honour of starting the new thread, Puzzled!

It’s so lovely to have all of you along for the ride on here. Thanks for keeping me company! I love reading how things are going for you and being able to ask questions or share things.

Yesterday, I tried on a fleece top I bought last year. It fit me so snugly last year, I looked like a burst sausage in its casing. Now it’s actually loose. My rings are starting to feel a bit loose too- I wear my mum’s engagement and eternity rings and on the cold mornings, they’re starting to slip down my fingers.

I’m down 1.9kg this week and, although I’m still feeling hungry, it’s not an all-consuming hunger that leads to binging. I’ve actually needed to add more food as what I’ve eaten today and yesterday ended up being 1300 calories and 1100 calories. Given that my watch is still estimating approx 3000 calories burned on a typical day at school, I know I need at least 1600 to have enough oomph. Is anyone else finding the same?

I’ll link this thread in the old one so everyone can find their way here.

I know what you mean, @MiaN . The whoosh the first couple of weeks was lovely, and you can lull yourself into thinking that can or should continue. I have settled down into an average of a pound a week, and extrapolating forwards that means I will reach the unimaginable heights (depths) of 12 stone by Christmas, and should be a size 14.

just trust the process and keep taking the actions, day after day. And if some days don’t work out as planned (I ended up cancelling my gym session this morning) that’s OK, you just go back to taking the actions right after.

What you do every day matters more than what you do occasionally.

I've had a terrible day with side effects today. I'm still on the 2.5 mg dose which is week 7 for me on this dose so it's really taking me by surprise. Last night for dinner I had itsu dumplings, the at home pack, and I had then probably half a pot, maybe 3/4 of hummus and some le vie plant based ham (super clean in terms of ingredients ) and I thought that's a fairly small dinner in terms of volume.

I was up then from 11:00 p.m. last night all overnight. Feeling incredibly sick, nauseous and really bad burping and gas. Just absolutely horrendous! I got less than 3 hours sleep and then today that's continued pretty much all day. So today I've had a small bowl of yoghurt and half a banana. Then for dinner I've just said some plain mashed sweet potato in the hope that it will settle my stomach. But it's been awful and completely unexpected and really put me off going up to the 5 mg!!

I do take omeprazole and have a hiatus hernia so I wonder if my gastric mobility is already a bit slow and then the MJ compounds it.

Poor you @Mamatriesmounjaro are you sure it's not a normal stomach bug or even food poisoning? It seems late in the process to be getting side effects suddenly, though I know you probably have more drugs in your system now. I hope last night was better and you can have a really hot bath and a quiet day today.

Ooof, that sounds miserable. I hope it's better today - or like Wombat says, maybe it's a bug?

Thank you both, so much better today. I think I just can't eat anything high fat near bed time! It was awful! I think I'll go up slowly to 3, then 3.75 because the suppression is wearing off by the end of the week etc.

Hi everyone, just checking in. I’m having a really shit week at school and feeling tired and cold. I’ve been having too many sweet treats after 13 hour days at work.

The scales have slowed a bit, but I’m still down another kilo this week. When I wake up and get out of bed, I’ve been burping! Like it all sits there until I’m vertical then travels up. But they’re not sulphurous, just wind. I do have a glass of diet fizzy after dinner though, so it could be that.

Hope everyone else is okay. To my fellow teachers/ school leaders, how are you doing??

@Mamatriesmounjaro have you had a better day?

@MiaN you always come across so clear headed and realistic. Keep your chin up!

Hi all, just checking in again as I slipped off from the last thread!

i’ve got my appointment and I’m wondering whether to increase to 5mg tomorrow. I also lost a stone this week according to the scales! But I’ve been craving sweet things this week - totm but also I have this terrible lurgy!

I’ve hit a stone lost overall as well this week @getawayfromme

Really happy but, like someone else said, slightly horrified that I can lose a stone and still look mostly the same! I need to be really careful this next week with my eating and fuelling as I have the great south run (10 miles) next weekend and I don’t think I’m eating enough to do that with any good amount of energy at the moment!

@Mamatriesmounjaro 3.75 has been going well for me so I’d definitely recommend if you’re worried about 5 (from a purely personal perspective). Hopefully what you have was a one off!

@chocolatecoveredpretzels when the hell is it half term?!?!? 🤣

I've just finished a 30 min strength workout (good old Joe Wicks again) - my set of dumbbells only goes to 2kg, but there I was doing squats holding 2kg in each hand and thinking that "me + that 4kg" is less weight than I had just in my own bodyweight two months ago. And it was such hard work! This weight loss journey is such a good idea simply for making your life easier, quite aside from the whole health angle. 💪

I find slow steady weights stuff so much more accessible than the cardio exercise. Who needs burpees anyway 😂

Welcome back, @getawayfromme - yes, that stone lost milestone is a great one, isn’t it? I also like to celebrate “to go” milestones, e.g. I now have less than a stone and a half to go to the top of the healthy BMI range. My goal is 5lb below that. Looking forward to when I can say less than a stone and a half to target, less than a stone to the top of the healthy range and so on.

@Blushingviolets Yes, it’s frustrating when what we see in the mirror doesn’t seem to reflect what the numbers say….. but at the same time, we don’t always see the reality. Someone at my choir asked me the other day whether I had lost a lot more weight recently. So obviously she’s seeing something. And when I did one of my trouser try-ons the other day - you know the ones you bought when you were losing previously that you were going to slim into before long and it didn’t happen? Well, all three of those are now wearable at a pinch. Although I am enjoying the definite looseness of the ones I’m currently wearing, so why not enjoy that a bit longer? What I need to remind myself is that previously the new ones were just too tight to comfortably wear, whereas now, if I needed to, I could.

@Anseranser I love weights too…. Some time ago I got into doing sit-to-stands from an upright chair, and sometimes replicate that in the gym on a plyo block, which is slightly lower than a standard dining chair. Months ago I tried to do them single-leg, with the initial stage doing it resting the heel of the other foot on the floor. Even with that, I could only do one side, not the other. Well, now I can do BOTH sides, and without the heel on the floor. Not many reps, to be fair - but you start where you are, and work from there. The other aspect of that is to do the lower slowly, having complete control all the way down until your bum is fully on the seat….. as against, getting most of the way and then flopping with a bump. There is still a certain amount of flopping going on, but it’s getting better. How much of that is due to increased leg strength and how much due to weight loss, I don’t know and I don’t much care either! As you say, life is getting easier.

Not too bad a week for me. Lost 0.75lbs.

I am averaging about 1,500 cals rather than 2000 or so, so that makes sense. I imagine I didn't quite lose 1lb because I slept a few hours less today - I got up.at 10am rather than my usual 1/2pm!

Lots of nausea again this week in the mornings. I injected my last 5mg dose yesterday and aim to keep at 5mg for my next pen.

Happy enough with my slow but steady loss!

SW (21/8): 15st.12.25lbs
CW: 15st.3.75lbs.
Loss to date = 8.5lbs.

Re: sleeping. I always sleep about 11hrs on a Sat - I know it's a bad habit! - so sleeping 8hrs would introduce a variation into my usual weighing conditions. I'm not scientifically-inclined, but that's how I see it!

Jab #8 done - 4mg, same as last week.

1.4lb off

Total lost to date: 1st 1.8lb, which is 8.1% of starting weight
Left until target: 1st 9.5lb

Just measured my waist - 83cm. Initial goal was to get it under half my height, which is 85cm - so - boom! AI is encouraging me to focus on visceral fat and body fat percentage rather than scale weight per se. I am quite happy to do that - though they do rather go together! Some of my 16 trousers are loose now, and it’s suggesting that another half stone or so should see me comfortably in a 14, and that when I get to goal, I would be 10 or 12 depending on the store, style, fabric etc. Unimaginable!

On body fat, it says the 4 point scanner at my gym is more accurate than the scale I have at home. On that one I come out as 37% fat. Goal range for the more mature woman is 23-33%, with the bottom end of that being your actual athlete. So it suggests an interim goal of 33%, which I should be able to reach in 2-3%, with an ultimate target range between 27-31%.

@PuzzledObserver that’s brilliant!! I love all the different metrics you’re using to track your progress.

I’ve been chatting with AI too. For me, I have the classic PMOS insulin resistance and apple shaped body. My legs are looking so much leaner and toned. My waist just doesn’t seem to be changing yet- the tape measure has only gone down an inch despite me now losing 13% from my starting weight in the last three months.

One big change though is the composition and feel of my fat. It used to be genuinely hard to bend in the middle- like if I was sitting then leaned forwards to tie my laces or paint my toes, my stomach was solid. Now I’m much softer and can fold myself up more easily.

I am 0.2kg away from leaving obesity.
I am completely not interested in that 10 weeks program that I signed up for.
I am not interested in my weights
However - I am getting them done, back to one track every morning or 2 if I skip one but they are getting done.

I think it's bit a winter blues to be honest, it's not all related to GLP. I am so happy however to be so close to better BMI and making steady progress.

This is really encouraging to me having just started on MJ after about two years of swithering due to fear of side effects and looking old before my time.

I'm quite surprised anyone's doctor is interested. Mine has nothing to say about MJ and no advice to give. I feel like I'm flying blind. No medical monitoring or input which I find scary. Unless you've had it prescribed?

Maybe it is different here. My GP is very on top of the treatments and has many patients using either Mounjaro or Weg. Yes she prescribes it to me and I see her every time I need a new prescription. We do pay full price for the drug here - no subsidies for anyone. Oz is subsidised for T1 diabetes - that’s it. My GP is pretty supportive however.

I know what you mean about the fat changing texture, it’s one of the early things I noticed at the start of my journey in 2024, my fat went squishy. I guess it’s because each fat cell is like a balloon which used to be stretched tight, but now there’s a bit more room, so the envelope has more give in it.

Re shape - it can be frustrating, for sure. We each have our own basic shape, dictated by our genetics, and that’s not going to change. I am definitely a pear not an apple when big. I think, based on the one and only time I was in the healthy range, that my basic frame underneath is not particularly curvy, so I tend to be muscular, with broad shoulders and not particularly wide hips. If I do get rid of all the excess, and being now firmly post menopausal, I may well end up with that fairly straight older woman figure….. except with a flabby bum, arms and tummy thanks to my history. My bum has gone a lot flatter, despite all the squats I do. Ah well - it’s not as though I ever have to look at it!

But it is what it is. It’s my body, and it’s the only one I’ve got. So I’m going to cherish it and make it as healthy as I can.

@MiaN I admire your commitment. It’s not easy to keep on grinding out the exercise sessions when you just don’t feel like it, so well done. This too shall pass - spring will come. Have you considered a UV light?

Where are you getting it from, @Chaostheory12 ? Are you in the UK?

If so, you will also be getting it prescribed, as there’s no other legal way of getting it. But probably not by your GP or a doctor you see face to face.

I’m getting mine from an online pharmacy, like most in the UK. It is perfectly legal, and there was an assessment process at the outset. But it involved answering questions and sending photos, not speaking to a person. Before getting the second pen, I was asked to report how I was getting on and my weight. Based on that, they said the treatment was safe and effective for me, so I got my second pen. But no review was requested before I got the third. I imagine they will now review every x number of months, and it’s based on your BMI and how close you are to goal.

They do say they are always available of you have questions or advice. I haven’t taken advantage of that, bit it’s there of I want it.

I have type 2 diabetes and my next review is in January. I will be telling the practice nurse I;m on it and make sure it’s all on my NHS record. I will ask if the practice will take over prescribing, but I don’t expect them to agree, or to have any more monitoring if they did. It would just save me paying for it.

I agree with comments about fat being softer and wobbly not solid, I can see more of my thighs when I sit down. My blood pressure is suddenly quite low after 20 years of hypertension, even with treatment. Standing up after sitting i can feel a bit dizzy, I think I might now be over medicated. I'm halfway to goal now, loving the suppression on 5mg but suddenly understanding why I am need to start meals with protein. I'm also at two alcoholic drinks a month now, rather than 2 drinks a night. I never thought I could actually change my health in a few months. I've been reluctant to post in case people think I'm exaggerating but remember I started at a very high weight. I'm averaging 1400 calories so not starving myself.
SW: 20 stone 6
CW 15 stone 2lbs
GW 10 stone-ish

Have most people moved onto 5mg now? How are you finding the suppression/side effects? I just ordered my first 5mg pen.

I still have 2 x 2.5mg doses left but having little suppression and considering taking both doses today to get things moving and starting on my 5mg pen next week.

Anyone done similar?

@WombatCowgirl that is an incredible loss. Was your starting weight from the start of August? You are probably due a medication review for your blood pressure.

@CatMonj I took my 6th dose of 5mg this morning. The side effects of more gassiness have settled. No nausea. Good suppression but with good appetite for meals. I need to talk to my nurse to decide whether to move to 7.5 for my 4th pen or stick with 5.

I can’t imagine there would be an issue with you doing two injections of 2.5. Maybe in two different jab sites to avoid bruising?

@WombatCowgirl they say 10% weight loss can be enough to substantially affect blood pressure, so definitely get your medication reviewed.

@CatMonj I have my 2nd 5mg pen but have not taken the full doses, so still some left in the first one. So far I have taken 3, 3.75, 4, 4. Suppression is fine for me and I’m happy with the rate of weight loss, so I will continue with 4mg for a while longer. I bought a box of extra needles and wipes to facilitate taking more doses from each pen. I might shift the date of my next pen back a week so I’m not continuing to build up a stock.

No problem with taking two doses from the pen, but to absolutely safe I would put a fresh needle on, having wiped the end of the pen again, and use a different site.