I Didn't Start With a Target Weight

My personal experience of Mounjaro, weight loss, appetite, side effects and discovering that knowing why I eat doesn’t necessarily make it easy to stop.

Note: This is a personal account of my experience with Mounjaro (tirzepatide). It isn’t medical advice, and my experience won’t necessarily be the same as anyone else’s.

I didn’t start with a target weight

I started Mounjaro at around 16 st 10 lb (106 kg).

People often talk about weight loss as though there is a magic number at the end of the journey.

Get to 80 kg.

Get your BMI below 25.

Lose another ten pounds.

I haven’t set myself a target weight.

What I actually want is much simpler.

I want to wake up in the morning and walk downstairs without feeling out of breath.

I want to walk up the six flights of stairs at work without arriving at the top soaked in sweat and wondering whether I should have brought a second shirt.

I want to be able to do ordinary things without my weight turning them into an endurance event.

That’s the goal.

I don’t know what number on the scales corresponds to that.

Maybe there isn’t one.

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What I actually want

I want ordinary physical activities to feel ordinary.

I want to be able to move around without constantly being reminded that I’m carrying more weight than my body really wants to carry.

I’ve noticed it most on stairs. Not just the breathlessness. Going up and down used to put a real dig into my knees, both ways — climbing and coming back down. That’s eased off too, and I only really registered it once it stopped.

If that happens at a particular weight, great.

If it happens at a different weight, that’s fine too.

The number is a measurement. It isn’t the destination.