5'4 / 38F
SW 217
CW 202.8
GW 140

Wanted to post an update / details on my journey so far having just taken my third 2.5mg dose.

I've lost just over one stone in this period. For those of you who feel like the loss was rapid at first and then stalled, this graph clearly shows just how much water weight can go at the very beginning. I started at 217 pounds and went down to 205.6 pounds (-11.4) during this first week. I imagine seven pounds were water weight. In the second week I lost 2.8 pounds which feels about right based on how much less I am eating. Haven't changed my activity much - average walking around 7,000 steps a day.

No prior diagnosed conditions. Suspect I have had issues with insulin sensitivity and/or low blood sugar but never treated or really investigated. Wondering now if the 'sweet tooth' was part of this. Can remember eating spoonfuls or sugar and sugar cubes on their own as far back as age 5 and would lose my shit if I wasn't allowed extra sweets/dessert. Once passed out as a teenager at basketball tryouts, presumably due to low blood sugar, and was just advised to keep a snack on me at all times. Also dealt with the 'hangry' thing if I wasn't able to eat when I needed to and looking back it was absolutely symptoms of low blood sugar - anxiety, sweating, unable to make decisions, super hungry but can't decide what to eat, etc. Started smoking cannabis in my late teens and the uncontrollable munchies (alongside symptoms of depression and anxiety) are primarily what led to me becoming overweight and eventually obese. Still take edibles but much less these days.

When previously counting calories my goal was to eat under 1600 calories a day and I would struggle to do so, so this change on Mounjaro is a brand new experience for me. In 2022 - 2023 I went from around 220 to 170 with just diet and exercise but slowly put it back on over the last 18 months (divorce, navigating dating, starting to drink far more alcohol than I had in the past).

In the 48 hours after my first injection I had quite extreme fatigue and swollen lymph nodes both in my throat and under my arms/side of breasts. Appetite suppression was immediate. I went from consuming probably around 3000-3500 calories a day (including at least a bottle of wine or a handful of cocktails a day) to struggling to eat and managing around 1100-1200 calories a day from my first dose. I've remained around 1200 since though have had a day or two at 1400. 

Eating smaller meals as feeling too full just feels too uncomfortable. Have had some burping but not the sulfer burps I've read about, seems more like maybe acid reflux and a side effects of the delayed gastric emptying. Trying to be mindful of protein intake but not obsessively so, and try to get enough fibre (will take some psyllium if I feel like I haven't had enough in a day). Take magnesium glycinate in the evenings to help with sleep and this may also help keep things moving. Have always drunk a lot of water and probably get 3-4 litres a day. Drink one or two black coffees a day just as I did before with no issues. If I feel to physically full I will have a protein or meal replacement drink.

Other symptoms I have are increased sense of smell, dry mouth, and jaw clenching. Have dealt with jaw clenching anyway for awhile but this has made it worse. Skin is drier but this may also be from eating less.

I haven't had any issues with vomitting (a couple of tiny episodes but they came on with brushing my tongue and was just a case of the food not moving through my system as quickly as before), and only minor issues with loose stools or constipation but I think this is more just the change in diet and reduction in calories. 

My severe cravings for alcohol have completely disappeared. A few days before I started, I had two bottles of red wine over the course of the day/evening coming back from a holiday and wasn't really feeling any sort of hangover the following morning. Ridiculous tolerance. I've had one glass of prosecco in the last two weeks, and this was only because I somehow ended up going backstage at a charity event in London and met one of my favourite actresses and there was free alcohol. Once in a lifetime experience sort of thing, actually celebrating. But after half a glass I knew I should have just not had it. I eventually finished the glass but it just made me feel hot and uncomfortable. I imagine I will drink alcohol on occasion, but not to the daily extremes I did prior to starting. Hearing about how the drug may help with alcohol addition and addiction in general is the main reason I decided to start on it.

I will not discount the positive impact of no longer drinking alcohol here, but despite the fatigue and getting used to eating less and needing to not too eat much at one time, I feel better than I ever have. Physically, yes, but mentaIIy I feel like I completely different person. I imagine my diet and low blood sugar issues were impacting my mentaI health more than I would have ever guessed. I feel like my anxiety is down at least 75%, maybe even 90%, and even when feeling fatigue, I feel mentaIly sharp and just ready to face anything which is not how I was feeling before. If I had known this would be the case, I would have started this treatment much sooner. I'd been considering it for about a year, and more seriously for about six. When I could tell I wasn't going to be able to stop drinking without some sort of intervention I decided to finally go for it.

I am planning to take the fifth dose from the 2.5mg pen and will order a 5mg pen next, but will stick to 2.5mg if I am still feeling the same effects and losing more than a pound a week. Then plan to move to 3.75mg if this is the case prior to moving to 5mg.

I won't update every two weeks as this was really just to show the difference between the first and second weeks, but will try to update once a month or so.

(Why does this subreddit ban the word "mentaI" when it can be used in the context of mentaI health?)

Two weeks in