Jump to: How much do you eat on Mounjaro? | How fast do you lose weight on Mounjaro? | How much weight do people typically lose with Mounjaro? | Do you need to stay on Mounjaro forever?
A balanced diet that includes whole foods and minimises the intake of ultra-processed foods is recommended to maximise weight loss and health improvements with Mounjaro.
However, there’s no research comparing different diets alongside Mounjaro. So, it’s unclear whether a specific diet would be best to eat whilst on Mounjaro.
If you’re looking for support with healthy eating, changing your habits, and maximising your weight loss in a healthy way while taking Mounjaro, then Second Nature’s Mounjaro weight-loss programme might be relevant for you.
Here’s a list of foods we recommend you enjoy while on Mounjaro:
- High-quality protein sources: Fish, meat, eggs, tofu, tempeh, yoghurt, cheese, and seafood.
- Fat from whole foods: Meat, fish, eggs, dairy products (rich in calcium), nuts, seeds, avocado, and extra virgin olive oil.
- High-fibre complex carbohydrates: Whole grains like quinoa and brown rice, sweet potato, white potatoes, pumpkin, legumes like lentils, chickpeas, beans, and butternut squash.
- Fruits and vegetables: Take your pick, variety is vital. Low-sugar fruits like berries are a great addition to breakfast.
Here’s a list of foods we recommend limiting on Mounjaro:
- Ultra-processed foods: Most boxed cereals, supermarket bread and pastries, fast food, microwave meals, oven pizza, crisps, biscuits, fizzy drinks, and supermarket sandwiches.
- Added sugar
- Refined carbohydrates like white pasta and white rice
- Refined vegetable oils like sunflower
You can read our guide on a balanced diet for an in-depth analysis of what to eat to support weight loss and good health.
How much do you eat on Mounjaro?
There’s no set calorie target whilst taking Mounjaro, but you’ll likely be eating 1200-1800 calories per day whilst on Mounjaro due to the impact of the medication on lowering appetite.
Mounjaro interacts with the brain to lower appetite and reduce hunger, helping you eat fewer calories.
Additionally, you may find it challenging to overeat as this can cause more GI-related symptoms such as bloating, cramping, and even vomiting.
Mounjaro can lead to GI-related side effects due to its impact on the gut. It slows gastric emptying (how quickly food leaves the stomach) and causes gut distension (an enlargement of the gut).
The symptoms related to these effects on the gut can be worsened by overeating whilst on Mounjaro, leading you to lower your food intake naturally.
How fast do you lose weight on Mounjaro?
According to data from randomised controlled trials, you start losing weight almost immediately after taking Mounjaro (tirzepatide).
Patients on Mounjaro lose an average of around 4% of body weight after one month and 6% after two months. After three months, the average weight loss is around 9%.
Mounjaro reduces appetite and hunger, helping you eat fewer calories; this effect is almost immediate.
However, you might notice the effect of lower hunger wearing off after 4-5 days post-injection in the first month of taking Mounjaro.
It can take 4-5 weeks for Mounjaro to reach a level in the body we call a steady state. A steady state is when the drug’s levels in the body remain consistent rather than spiking and falling.
Interestingly, this initial weight loss is no different to other weight loss treatments or the impact of diet interventions on weight loss. The real effect of Mounjaro is seen beyond 3 months.
Mounjaro is a long-acting medication that’s started at a lower dose to reduce the number and severity of side effects as it’s built up to a higher maintenance dose.
How much weight do people typically lose with Mounjaro?
Research has shown that Mounjaro can lead to a weight loss of around 25% of your body weight, or 25 kg if you weigh 100 kg, after one year.
Most of this weight loss occurs in the first 36 weeks (9 months) and plateaus as the body adapts to the medication and patients find a sustainable way of eating.
Do you need to stay on Mounjaro forever?
How long you need to be on Mounjaro may depend on many factors, such as your genetics, current health status, and how long you’ve been living with obesity.
Some obesity researchers believe that in complex cases, Mounjaro might need to be a lifelong treatment to ensure people keep the weight off in the long term.
However, we don’t yet have data on Mounjaro beyond 68 weeks, so it’s unclear whether there would be any adverse effects of staying on the medication for this length of time.
Additionally, many may be able to use Mounjaro as a short-term intervention (6-12 months) to help them lose weight before coming off of the medication and keep the weight off with a healthier lifestyle.
At Second Nature, we want to provide an individualised experience for all our members.
Some will only want to use the medication as a tool for the short-term to kickstart their weight loss; others may want a more long-term solution.
Mounjaro isn’t a magic pill
Weight-loss injections are designed as additional tools for weight management interventions and shouldn’t be considered lifelong medications.
Instead, they should be used to help you kickstart your weight loss and healthy journey while you commit to living a healthier lifestyle.
Consider the use of antidepressants for people living with depression. They’re not designed to cure the condition. Instead, they’re designed to allow room for therapy to treat the condition’s underlying cause.
Mounjaro and other weight loss injections, like Wegovy, are similar. They can allow you to make lifestyle changes to support long-term weight loss maintenance.
Mounjaro can help silence food-related thoughts and also give you a boost of confidence with more immediate weight-loss results.
This helps to buy you the time and headspace to understand why your body may have struggled to lose weight previously, and to build new long-term healthy habits.
The core focus of our medication programmes is to calm down the feeling of food noise, lower your cravings, and allow you to build healthier habits to keep the weight off for good.
The ultimate goal is to make losing weight feel second nature.
Second Nature’s medication-supported programmes
Second Nature has two medication-supported programmes: a Wegovy weight-loss programme and a Mounjaro weight-loss programme.
If you’ve made the decision to try Wegovy or Mounjaro (assuming you’re eligible), why should you choose Second Nature over other medication providers?
For peace of mind.
Second Nature has worked with the NHS for over 6 years providing weight-loss programmes across the UK.
Whilst our Wegovy and Mounjaro weight-loss programmes are private and not currently used by the NHS, we’ve built the programmes with a focus on scientific evidence, patient safety, and data security.
We hope that our 6+ years of working with the NHS and building a track record of effective weight-loss results will give you peace of mind to give us a try.
