Forum menu
What dose are you on now? Only 7 weeks in and was planning on staying at 5 for a while - 7.5 is ruinously more expensive without swapping supplier every 4 weeks. I plan to see if I can sustain between .5 and 1kg loss weekly. Not really upped exercise yet, merely changing diet has been the biggest difference.
I started at the beginning of July and other than the first month on 2.5mg have stayed at 5mg, partially to keep the cost down, and partially as I didn't want to risk side effects and not be able to exercise as much. I'm down 17kg in that period but weight loss has started to slow slightly and I've also increased the amount of exercise from about 100km a week on average to over 150km.
keeping at a dose that doesn't suppress my appetite but does punish me for overeating
Eh? The whole point of these drugs is to suppress your appetite. Are you saying it just makes you feel sick if you eat a certain amount and you're using that to reduce the amount you eat? If so that sounds a bit odd to say the least.
Eh? The whole point of these drugs is to suppress your appetite. Are you saying it just makes you feel sick if you eat a certain amount and you're using that to reduce the amount you eat? If so that sounds a bit odd to say the least.
They make you feel sated sooner due to some magic it does with the communication between stomach and brain. They slow down the processing of food in the gut which can mean you feel sick if you try to eat the same amount of food as you would under your pre-injection state. It hasn't happened to me but a friend had an issue where they went out for dinner in the first month and wolfed down a 3 course meal. This caused sickness. But as long as you listen to your brain and stop when you reach your new "fullness" level, there isnt an issue.
The only other thing to mention on sickness is that nausea is a common side effect. But it isnt how the drug manages the weight loss.
keeping at a dose that doesn't suppress my appetite but does punish me for overeating
Eh? The whole point of these drugs is to suppress your appetite. Are you saying it just makes you feel sick if you eat a certain amount and you're using that to reduce the amount you eat? If so that sounds a bit odd to say the least.
That's exactly how they work for me. I'm still just as hungry as I've always been but get stomach ache if I eat too much, and that's less than a normal portion. Sugary things and strong alcohol are the same. I can't eat gels or jelly babies at all now.
That's exactly how they work for me. I'm still just as hungry as I've always been but get stomach ache if I eat too much, and that's less than a normal portion. Sugary things and strong alcohol are the same. I can't eat gels or jelly babies at all now.
That's not how they are supposed to work. I literally have no interest in food, not a thought for it. Wonder if trying a different version for you as it sounds quite unpleasant
Different strokes for different folks. I've found the appetite suppression effect wears off after time as your body adapts. You either up the dose to get it back or try to see if the overall effect works for you without the massive appetite suppression. The drug does a number of things to your system and some of them directly cause appetite suppression, some of them have other effects (e.g. lower bile production) that can have side effects such as nausea if you push it too much. I think that training your mind over time to not eat as much as it will make you not well is better in the long term than relying on a physical "block" on appetite that would disappear if an when you stop using the drug. If you're not using the drug, should you really be criticising how it works for folks?
I'm using it for treatment of diabetes, high blood pressure, and liver function issues (i.e. what it was originally intended for). The weight loss bit is a side effect of how it works for those, but is definitely a handy side effect. I'm hoping over time to reduce the dose I need to still treat those areas while not needing any appetite suppression as some of the other side effects (like the gall bladder bit talked about earlier) are not magic darts to say the least.
As this thread is supposed to be about sharing the experience of folks actually using the drug, saying what works and doesn't work for each person is exactly what this is about. Not about criticising people for not being what you expect.
I'm more or less the same shape as I was when I was 18, I'm 57. My jeans waist size hasn't changed. I've never been 16 stone, I sleep extremely well, never had arthritis. I eat carbs like a machine and I've never really eaten meat, red or otherwise.
Anecdote is not data
Yeah, but you spend far too much time reading masses of military history so your HR is probably zone 2 constantly, with barely suppressed anxiety over the state of the world.
<sorry /not> 🤣
As a wise person once said, "You can't out run a bad diet
Am I missing something here? The whole point of that phrase is the 'bad diet' bit, ie eat healthily. Not that any exercise will be undone by any food!
That's not how they are supposed to work. I literally have no interest in food, not a thought for it. Wonder if trying a different version for you as it sounds quite unpleasant
It's still having the desired effect of me losing weight and hopefully it'll make the transition easier when coming off it.
[Mod] All, a polite reminder of the purpose of this thread which is to discuss experiences. It is not to criticise what folk are doing. Thanks for your co-operation.
@Fat-boy-fat Sorry if I came across as critical. Not sure if it was my poor use of the quotation function when answering the original comment from FuzzyWuzzy or if I was a bit preachy.
My experience has been positive on Mounjaro but due to the cost I have moved to Wegovy now. First month on that and waiting to see if I react differently.
@Fat-boy-fat Sorry if I came across as critical. Not sure if it was my poor use of the quotation function when answering the original comment from FuzzyWuzzy or if I was a bit preachy.
My experience has been positive on Mounjaro but due to the cost I have moved to Wegovy now. First month on that and waiting to see if I react differently.
im a bit confused why you needed to. I’ve never seen you as a fat fella
@weeksy, I hide it well under black clothes. It also helps that it doesn't show much on my face. 14st with a body fat % of 30 on the smart scales is where I was in Feb. I am now at 24% and 11st 10. As I am only 5ft 8 i am about right weight wise now but need to drop some more fat from around the chest and stomach along with building back some muscle loss.
Every day's a school day I guess, I knew people had differing experiences on Mounjaro but I always assumed the nausea part was either something that went away as you got used to it (I had it briefly going from 2.5 to 5mg) or you stopped it and tried one of the others. Using the nausea as the primary method to reduce food intake sounds unpleasant but fair play for sticking with it, not sure I could!
@weeksy, I hide it well under black clothes. It also helps that it doesn't show much on my face. 14st with a body fat % of 30 on the smart scales is where I was in Feb. I am now at 24% and 11st 10. As I am only 5ft 8 i am about right weight wise now but need to drop some more fat from around the chest and stomach along with building back some muscle loss.
Awesome... I need about the same loss, but i dunno, i'm not sure it's the right plan ... but... Well, i'm not sure what is 😀
As this thread popped up again I thought I add an update.
I used my last 5mg pen and was dosing at 2.5mg per week for about 6 weeks, I found week 5 and 6 that I was starting to get that old feeling of wanting to eat and drink which I'd not had at all pretty much from the very first day since starting on Mounjaro. Even though I wasn't acting on the urge (which gives me some feint hope for the future) I wondered whether it was extending the pen beyond the 30 days (I was keeping it stored in the fridge the whole time) had made it less effective or maybe after being on 2.5mg for 12-13 weeks that maybe I needed to think about upping the dose.
I used the last 5mg in one dose and it definitely helped, back to not really thinking about food and most importantly beer. The lack of interest in beer had been the biggest most notable changes for me, I'm happy having a few pints at the pub on the rare occasion I end up at one post ride (but no longer think about getting more on the way home), I'm now hardly drinking at home where before at my worst was everyday and at best was 2-3 times a week. So I've stuck with 5mg doses but having seen the price has gone up by another £50 I am at the point where I am considering switching to one of the cheaper options.
So since the end of July when I started I have now lost 27.5kg and I'm around 1.5kg from the original goal weight. Which at the current rate is another couple of weeks, but I think I'm going to push on and continue to the end of the year and see where I get to and then begin weening off it which will be when the real test starts.
Looking back through MFP, around this time last year I was 140kg! I managed to get 12kg of that off the old fashioned way before it plateaued for a few months which is when I started on the Mounjaro, I'm now at 101kg and feel really good. Sleeping better, BP is down, in fact I've reduced the Ramipril as my BP was too low at the previous dosage, but best of all my fitness on the bike is probably the best it's ever been, I ride pretty much everyday and absolutely love getting out even in this weather.
The chemist I get my dose from has just advised another price hike, £266 for a 7.5mg pen!
Every day's a school day I guess, I knew people had differing experiences on Mounjaro but I always assumed the nausea part was either something that went away as you got used to it (I had it briefly going from 2.5 to 5mg) or you stopped it and tried one of the others. Using the nausea as the primary method to reduce food intake sounds unpleasant but fair play for sticking with it, not sure I could!
Nausea isn't really the right description, it's more like a version of feeling like I've massively over eaten, but worse. The boundary between feeling like that and normal isn't much food though. I'm now used to it so it doesn't happen often. One thing to remember is that from the clinical trails is that it doesn't seem to work for some people at all.
My biggest frustration is I can no longer enjoy a single beer or whisky. I either have none or need to drink enough to mask the stomach ache.
The chemist I get my dose from has just advised another price hike, £266 for a 7.5mg pen!
https://monj.co.uk/mounjaro-price-list-non-discounted-uk/
Is a useful resource to compare prices. I've used AYP a few times and been happy with the service and they've consistent been one of the cheaper options.
I believe Jordan Parke 'The Lip King' is offering killer deals on weight loss jabs.
As a final follow up on this for the year, I switched to 0.5mg dose of Wegovy from 5mg Mounjaro about 6 weeks ago after Mounjaro went up in price again and by that point I was pretty happy with the weight I'd lost having already hit my goal of getting under 100kg by the end of the year.
The most noticeable difference between the 2 for me is that with Wegovy I am definitely thinking more about eating, even though I'm not feeling hungry on it. So I can definitely see why people lose more with Mounjaro, but I'm ok with the Wegovy as it's less than half the price and even though I'm not riding as much at the moment due to injury/weather it's controlling my appetite enough that the weight is still very slightly coming down.
Currently I'm at 98kg and over the last couple of weeks that has been pretty steady. I have 2 weeks left with the current pen and in the new year will check with the pharmacy or GP about whether to taper off it or continue at a lower dose.
It's so far cost me £650 in medication (probably a similar amount in clothes) but I've offset a lot of that by not buying alcohol and do feel so much better so IMO it's been money very well spent.
It’s worth pointing out that the two drugs don’t work exactly the same way. Ozempic is a pure GLP1 agonist. Montjaro is really a GIP agonist that tickles GLP1. There are about 20 of these signalling incretins and we are just starting to understand their signalling roles.
Wegovy is as approved as an oral tablet yesterday. This is impressive given your GI tract does a great job of breaking down peptides. About 3% is actually absorbed. Lilly has also shown great data with the proper tablet small molecule orfoglipron. In Time this will be a game changer.
And congratulations on achieving your goal. I genuinely think that in the right hands and at the right doses, these drugs will be life changing for those at high risk of type 2 diabetes and associated morbidity.
Americans will soon be heading to Canada for theirs. In the history of admin errors, this one is slightly amusing. https://www.legal.io/articles/5691258/Novo-Nordisk-Lets-Canadian-Semaglutide-Patent-Lapse
Not me personally, I got told I was prediabetic in March and my BP was through the roof despite being on 10mg amlodipine and I was around 21st 10lbs, similar to you, 6ft3 bloke with size 12 trotters, so I'd had enough and went balls in on a low carb low sugar diet and excercise. I've lost 5.5 stone.
The Mrs not wanting to be left behind went on Mounjaro, she's lost 6 stone. But she eats virtually nothing at this point.
She will get up, go to work and not eat a thing until around 7pm when she gets in, even then she will struggle to finish a full meal. She's on 12.5mg currently. Other problems come with this though such as hair loss, muscular atrophy, vitamin deficiencies if you're already prone to them etc
She's lost more weight than me and overtook my progress sometime around September, but that being said, I've got better eating habits now and I'm fitter than I ever have been, I can maintain this indefinitely, but she is worried about coming off of Mounjaro as shes not developed the good eating habits that I have.
Horses for courses!
Seriously considering this now, are all the success stories on here from Mounjaro? I think food noise is my biggest reason for overeating so if Wegovy doesn't cut that down I don't think it'll be that effective for me, can anyone comment?
I use Mounjaro and yeah it's helped massively for my weight-loss (started @ 17st in Jan 25 and now 11.5st). That said I did try stopping the weekend before Christmas (having reduced from 15mg to 10mg before that) and a couple of weeks later I was feeling hungry a lot more and starting to put on a few pounds (obviously Christmas itself didn't help). Gave myself another week to get my act together but it got worse so gave up and started on it again on Sunday and it's already made a big difference.
I always knew it was only effective as long as you were taking it but I figured doing a lot more exercise these days (and I'd forgotten how much food noise I had) would be enough that I could wean off it. I'll try again Spring/Summer as doing a lot less cycling at the mo due to the weather (and I hate using the turbo) but I guess I might be on it for a lot longer - hopefully they'll at least improve the half-life etc. of it in the future (and reduce the cost... probably not much chance of that though).
A healthy diet is obviously key and that's my main issue, I eat a lot of processed food/ready meals for convenience. It even got to the point last year I'd have to eat calorie dense stuff to fuel cycling (as I had little appetite in general) so I never really got into the habit of preparing bulkier less calorie dense nutritious meals that were good for satiety as well. I think unless you're prepared to address that then expect using a weight loss jab to be a permanent thing...
Also if you do start on it then stop increasing the dosage once you feel the food noise is enough under control. Back when I started the cost didn't change and the general advice seemed to be just keep increasing by 2.5mg each month unless you have side effects. I didn't so ended up on 15mg. Reducing back to 10mg I did get a bit more appetite back but was more I wanted 2-2.5 meals a day and didn't snack (vs on 15mg I only really felt like 1-1.5 meals a day). That said I'm not sure if there's any need to keep increasing the dosage to counter your body becoming accustomed to it?
For anyone interested in the jabs, the latest BBC Sliced Bread podcast is about weight loss drugs. I’ve not listened myself yet but my wife has and said it explained about them quite well.
I did 5 months from July last year on Mounjaro and lost ~20kg but didn't go over 5mg. I tapered off at the start of December so I could eat/drink normally over Christmas. By November it was noticeable that the effects weren't as pronounced and I decided to stop rather than up the dose. I put on 3kg over Christmas but managed to keep my diet reasonable and exercise level high, but I've started again this week on a 2.5mg and it's had a dramatic effect on my appetite/food noise again. My weight had started to go down again beforehand though and Mounjaro seems to lower water weight quickly. I'm planning to do the same sort of period again, go as high as 5mg and then come off once it becomes noticeably less effective. I'm expecting to do the same until I hit a healthy weight and will then see how well I can maintain it. I expect I'll end up using low doses every few months.
@gribs this is interesting to read. I came off in November after losing 2.5st and immediately saw that move to 2.1 in the space of a week. With Christmas coming up I decided i had timed it wrong so went back on it for 2 months at 7.5mg (I was on 10mg when I stopped) I have to say that the impact of it is minimal compared to what I was seeing at 10mg. I think if I went down to 5 or 2.5 it would be pointless. I suppose like all things weightloss, everyone is different. That said, the little impact the 7.5mg has had means I am now back to 2.5st loss. As a plan going forward I have started using the Team RH app in conjunction with Mounjaro as I use up my last few weeks. Hopefully this will soften the transition to a no jab life and help me continue the weightloss I am enjoying.
Seriously considering this now, are all the success stories on here from Mounjaro? I think food noise is my biggest reason for overeating so if Wegovy doesn't cut that down I don't think it'll be that effective for me, can anyone comment?
@doomanic, Very positive results for me, down from 14st to 11.5. I haven't seen an 11 on the scales since I was in my early 30's. 3 things to keep in mind though. 1. Yes, it will work, but you must work with it. Continue to overeat while on the jab and you will feel quite unwell. A friend went out for dinner and beig daft they ordered a normal meal and tried to finish it. Had to cut the meal short, drove home and threw up all night. 2. There are side effects, some just unpleasant like nausea and runny bum but I know 2 people who had a stint in A&E due to pancreatitis(sp) I am not scare mongering, it is genuine, and I am only pointing it out as it happened to people I know despite it being classed as a very low risk. 3. Unless you plan on staying on weightloss medication for life, you need a plan when you come off otherwise the weight will go straight back on. Use the injecting time to reset your relationship with food, don't just be lazy (like I was) and let the drug do all the work. Oh, and 4. I said there were 3, hangovers are ****ing awful, and happen at a much lower volume of drink than it would take before. All of the above came courtesy of Mounjaro. I moved to Wegovy for a month when the price hike happened and I didn't get on with it at all. Side effects were worse and the effectiveness lower (for me) But it may work OK for you, give it a try for 4 weeks, if it will work for you it is immediate so you don't have to stick it out for months to find out
There seems to be very little official research/advice on coming off it or maintaining at low doses. Most other medications that gradually increase in dose do the reverse when coming off them though. From my last 5mg I halved the last two doses to spread them over 4 weeks in the hope of not having as an abrupt a change in hunger/food noise. I think it did work to a certain degree and I could drink alcohol again without stomach ache whilst still on the lower dose. The month off it does seem to have reset the effectiveness to a large extent.
Been on Mounjaro since September, losing 3-4kg per month. Changed diet significantly cutting out most sugar and sweet foods. Did a bit more exercise but need to increase that in time for tapering off, which I expect to start in 3-4 months when I'm at fighting weight. Have done 4 weeks at 7.5mg and for me it's too much so considering going back to 5mg and staying there until tapering. 7.5 just feels like it's too easy to avoid meals regularly and infil with stupid snacking. In terms of side effects, hangovers are brutal on smaller amounts of booze which is no bad thing. Got the runs once when moving up to 5mg. More issues with constipation for me.