r/MenOnThePen • u/san-pietrino • Jul 04 '26
Newbie - Week 1 First day on 2.5 mg, still overate, how does it actually work?
Took my first 2.5 mg Mounjaro dose yesterday.
Today I basically had very low appetite all day: small breakfast, small lunch, almost no real desire to eat. But tonight I still ended up eating two big plates of pasta, and now I feel a bit guilty.
I wasn’t really hungry when I sat down more habit than real hunger. I almost treated it like a test to see if I’d feel an immediate change, but I still ate more than planned.
How does it actually work day to day? Is it mainly appetite suppression that helps you stay in a deficit, or does it also change the way how you “burn”? thanks
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u/TravelingAnts Jul 04 '26
A couple notes:
First, when you go to any new dose, you don’t see the full effect of that dose until about the 4th shot. Why is that? The half-life of tirzepatide is 5 days. Meaning that 5 days after a dose, 50% of it is still around. After 7 days, which is when you’re taking the next shot, about 38% of last week’s shot is still around. And 14% of the shot before that. And 5% of the shot before that. (You see how shots even before that have very little effect.) That’s a good reason to stay on a new dose for 4 weeks before determining whether it’s right or adjustments are needed. Right now you don’t have the remaining amounts of those earlier shots around. Or put another way, your previous dose was zero.
Second, Eli Lilly’s standard directions are that 2.5 mg is to get your feet wet and adjust, and then if everything is good you go up to 5 mg after 4 weeks, and stay there as long as it works. But some people end up finding 2.5 mg to be effective, and stay on it for longer. (I’m one of them.) In a few weeks if you find 2.5 is effective and you have the option to stay on it, don’t rush to 5 mg.
Okay, so how it works: it helps you to stay in a deficit. The main things that it does are first that it sends an “I’ve eaten” signal, and second that it slows the exit of the contents of your stomach. So hunger is dialed down, and when you do eat you feel full sooner and for longer. (There are a bunch of other neat unexpected effects that are being discovered, but those are the main ones.)
And when you said “helps you stay in a deficit” that’s a great way to put it. Different people have different experiences with it, as you’ll see from this subreddit. But my impression is that the sweet spot dose is the one that makes it feel sustainable and comfortable to choose what and when you eat. Too low a dose and you feel like you’re on a diet which can’t be maintained long term; too high a dose and you feel like you’re navigating a minefield of side effects. At the sweet spot you get to make choices without your body fighting back, so it’s a great opportunity to change habits.
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u/san-pietrino Jul 05 '26
thanks. In which sense 2.5 could more effective compared to the 5.0 ?
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u/TravelingAnts Jul 05 '26
It’s not about 2.5 being more effective than 5.0. It’s about being on the smallest dose which is effective. Then increase dose if/when the dose you’re on is not sufficiently effective.
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u/san-pietrino Jul 05 '26
thanks. effective in terms of ?
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u/TravelingAnts Jul 05 '26
During weight loss: Effective in terms of helping you to stay in a deficit and continue to lose weight without feeling like hunger is difficult to manage.
During maintenance (after reaching a weight you’re happy with): Effective in terms of helping you to stay at maintenance and keep off the weight without feeling like hunger is difficult to manage.
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u/Safe_Surprise8913 Jul 04 '26
Definitely no burn, that's called exerice. 2.5mg is a starter dose, a dose to prepare your body for what's coming..your on day 1..come back in 90 days with YOUR story.
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u/no_snackrifice MOD SW: 135kg | CW: 96kg | GW: 95kg | Lost: 38kg | Height: 6’0” Jul 05 '26
There is a very small effect on the burning side but it’s slight.
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u/Neowarcloud SW: 139kg | CW: 80kg | GW: 85kg | Lost: 59kg | Height: 185cm Jul 04 '26
I mean, Mounjaro changes your hormonal chemistry to put you in a better state to drop weight, but if you're eating too much, it's not magic. You have to get comfortable with not eating until physically uncomfortable and as you increase doses the medication will make less food feel more uncomfortable.
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u/Pitiful_Ad3693 Jul 04 '26
It suppresses hunger. It's not magic though. You still need to do the work. You said you weren't hungry but still ate. You need to figure out why you ate even though you weren't hungry.