The Reality Of Being On Weight-Loss Drug Mountjaro

The pros and cons …

I started taking Mounjaro last April. Since then I have lost around 17kg, or around two and a half stone.

I thought about it for months and did my research before I asked my GP for the drug. Like most overweight people I hate going to the doctor because, whatever the reason I am there, there is always a point during the consultation when she gently suggests it is time to lose some weight. As I have both mirror and scales I know this, have known it for years, and yet have failed over and over again to do anything about it.

I have been trying to lose weight all my adult life. Looking back, I wasn’t even fat to begin with, perhaps a size 12 compared to my pals’ size 10. (Perhaps I’d still be a size 12 if I had never tried to lose weight? Had never done keto, cabbage soup, Scarsdale, Beverly Hills etc.)

I blame my mother, who spoke about weight and diets and clothes sizes all the time and rarely took pleasure in food. From a very young age she would tell me to suck my stomach in as I walked so that the pudge would rub off against my ribs. For her, cooking was a chore to get through with as little smell and mess as possible. Fair enough, perhaps, as she did it all, and got little help, despite her having a full-time job. For her, eating was functional, the ingesting of nutrition.

Because there were seldom any treats at home, I took to stealing money from my mother’s purse to buy them. Except that instead of one rum and raisin chocolate bar, I’d buy six and eat them on the bus to school in the morning, cramming them in. Does that qualify as an eating disorder? Probably.

It was, I suppose, an act of rebellion to become interested in food. When I left home I taught myself to cook and became more accomplished than friends who had grown up in houses where homemade apple pies and nourishing soups were the order of the day. (In our house, it was Findus Crispy Pancakes and a three-day rotation of lamb chops, pork chops and steak, all served with Smash and frozen peas.)

I learned to cook from cookbooks and television shows. I threw dinner parties and lunches and brunches for my friends and there would always be Too Much Food. I was known for it. That and A Lot Of Wine.

In learning how to cook, I became knowledgeable about provenance and good at sourcing. I was obsessed with buying the best of everything. I never cared about the price, just the quality.

I cooked from scratch every day, travelling significant distances to secure the freshest organic vegetables, the wildest fish, the most regeneratively farmed rare-breed pork and beef, the lamb reared on the best pasture in the land. We ate the first strawberries and wild salmon of the year, the finest jamon, the best sourdough, the smallest batch raw milk cheese from the purest of producers.

I went to Weight Watchers and counted points and to Motivation and ate meal replacements and bars and went on exclusion diets. For long stretches I didn’t eat wheat or dairy or carbs. I did juice fasts. And I’d lose a few pounds, sometimes a stone, and then I’d put it all back on. I was the very definition of a yoyo dieter.

A few years ago I adopted a different approach. I went to reformer pilates several times a week and became more disciplined about 10,000 steps a day. I lost a little weight without trying too hard and it stayed off.

When my doctor friends told me that all their colleagues who wanted to lose weight were on Mounjaro I read up on the new wonder drug. My GP was enthusiastic. I started on the lowest dose (2.5mg) and the effect was immediate. At my favourite restaurant – and I love restaurants, especially this one – even though I enjoyed the first few mouthfuls, I had to stop eating before my plate was half-cleared.

Even though I’ve never been much of a breakfast eater, I now found I could skip lunch and go all the way through to dinner without wanting to eat, not even thinking about it. Coming up with something to make for dinner when it was my turn was a chore because I just couldn’t think of a single thing I wanted. On holiday, it was salads and grilled fish. We – by this stage my husband had gone on the pen too – left bottles of wine unfinished.

I have gone off cheese in a way I would never have thought possible. It’s not that it turns my stomach, just that it doesn’t call to me in the way it used to. I have lost my taste for eggs – they make me feel queasy – which is a pain as they are the quickest, easiest protein fix there is. I carry packs of M&S Marmite Cheese Clouds with me at all times, because they deliver 7g of instant protein in what I find to be a palatable form.

Each time I go up a dose (from 2.5 to 5mg, from 5 to 7.5mg, from 7.5 to 10mg and now from 10 to 12.5mg) the same things happen. There is a little nausea for a day, sometimes a slightly upset stomach with diarrhoea, and a noticeable decrease in appetite. For the first week on a new dose I want to eat very little and I lose a couple of kilos. As the weeks go by, my appetite increases and the weight loss plateaus.

At one point, there was no supply of the dose I was due to move up to and I lost nothing for nearly two months, which I found disheartening. Now it has fallen into a month of weight loss, a month of plateau, then up a dose and repeat.

I’m very aware of the need to eat protein to maintain muscle and bone. Getting enough protein is a challenge, when you’re also trying to make sure you get enough fibre, fruit and vegetables to ensure you don’t get constipated. As a result, I find I eat very few carbs.

I feel the need to plan my meals better. Baked beans – the posh ones from Bold Beans which are utterly delicious – are my salvation; I have them for lunch at least twice a week. I have almost stopped eating bread, even good bread. I try to eat Greek yoghurt, berries, fish, chicken, meat and lots of fruit and vegetables. I crave Sprout salads; I could not eat a fry.

I still like going to restaurants, which is just as well because I have to eat out often for work and it’s my favourite way to see friends. But even though I am interested in trying new dishes, invariably I am full after a few mouthfuls. It is as if I still have the interest I had in food, but it’s objective, more academic. I can appreciate it without having to eat everything in front of me. Small tastes are enough to satisfy my curiosity. I end up bringing doggy bags home.

Foods I would not previously have been able to keep in the house – Torres crisps, Reese’s peanut butter cups – are safe. I screenshot recipes in the same way I used to, but rarely make them.

Words I thought I would never say: I go to the gym. I’ve joined a women-only gym where I strength-train in a small group. Having been intimidated for years, I have finally found a friendly place where I am learning to lift. I like it. I go a few times a week and enjoy the weights getting heavier. (All the research shows that it’s essential to lift weights to avoid losing muscle while on these drugs.).

As I get smaller, my wardrobe gets bigger. I am wearing clothes I haven’t been able to get into for years. I am down a couple of sizes, now hovering around a 16, down from a 20. I don’t want to buy many clothes (and certainly not expensive ones) because I know they will become too big over the next few months so I make do mostly with what I have already, although my trousers are quite baggy and I should buy some new ones.

I reckon it will be another year before I am the weight I want to be so it is not a quick fix. And then there is the question not of coming off the drug but gradually weaning myself off, although given the reported health benefits – new ones reported each week, for brain and heart and just about everything else – I think it likely I will be at least microdosing for life. I’m interested in what the next generation of these drugs will bring and look forward to when they come in oral form rather than a syringe, though I do not find the injections painful.

What are the disadvantages? It’s expensive. My loyalty points at the pharmacy are off the charts. My current dose costs nearly €600 per month and it’s not covered on the DPS. Yes, I spend less on food, but not that much less.

I have experienced some hair loss. I have thick hair and I don’t think it is noticeable but if my hair had been thin to begin with this might be more of an issue.

Each time I increase the dose, I get sulphur burps or mouth farts. I carry chewing gum at all times and worry about bad breath.

As with any weight loss, there is loose skin. Will I want to have surgery to get rid of this at some point? That is a question for another day. For now, lots of Creme de Corps.

I have more energy, fewer aches and pains. The knee that used to give me gyp doesn’t anymore; my hips have stopped aching in the night. My blood pressure has dropped, the snoring has – I’m told – stopped. I feel better, lighter in myself. I jump on the scales each morning and like watching the numbers go down.

Most of all though, I am having to learn to live in a different way, as a person whose every waking thought is not about food, about the next meal, or the one after that. It takes a bit of getting used to. I need a new hobby.

SEE MORE: Tips For A Cleaner Life Inside And Out