Losing weight can be difficult for anyone, regardless of who you are. And being overweight or obese is hardly uncommon nowadays, with over 2 billion people (30% of the global population) being overweight or obese.
Clinically, the definition for being overweight is having a BMI of greater than 25, while the definition for obesity is having a BMI of over 30. It is well recognized that there are many issues with the BMI scale, but it still has some use for clinicians.
If you feel like you are a healthy weight, proportional, and fall into some of the groups that the BMI struggles with (people of color, or women), then you may be healthy even if your BMI is a bit above the clinical definition of a healthy weight.
In this case, there is no reason for you to try to lose weight. However, if your BMI is greatly elevated, or you have a high body fat percentage, or are at risk of chronic health conditions associated with obesity, you may decide losing weight is right for you.
How to get Mounjaro for weight loss
If you have started searching “How to get Mounjaro” on the internet, you are likely wanting to know how to get your hands on some tirzepatide yourself, whether for control of blood sugar, or for weight loss. You will need to do this through consultation with a doctor in order to be prescribed the medication.
Tirzepatide is most often prescribed for patients with obesity (a BMI of over 30), or patients who are overweight (BMI greater than 25) with at least one comorbidity of obesity like hypertension, or type two diabetes.
You will also likely have to prove that you have tried other weight loss methods like the traditional diet and exercise, and these will often be prescribed to you in addition to using a weight loss medication like trizepatide.
These discussions around weight can be really fraught, especially in people who feel self-conscious about their weight or have poor body image. Whatever your size, you are worthy of respect and trust from your doctor, so it is important that you are able to be honest and have respectful discussions about what is and isn’t working for you.
This can be a bit of a struggle for some people, particularly those who are not comfortable standing up and advocating for themselves if they feel like their doctor is not taking their weight loss efforts seriously.
It is so, so, so, important that you are able to tell your doctor if you know that their weight loss plan will not work for you. Maybe they tell you to join a gym, or maybe they tell you to walk around the block a few times a night.
For some people, either financial stress, lack of gyms nearby, self-consciousness about working out in public, or an inability to have the time to go to the gym for reasons like caregiving, or odd working hours, means that these suggestions are essentially pointless.
If you aren’t able to tell your doctor this at the appointment, then they have no ability to change your exercise and meal plan, or your weight loss treatment plan in order to compensate.
Thus, choosing the right doctor for your weight loss journey is probably one of the biggest and most overlooked parts of setting yourself on the right course to achieve your goals. Regardless of whether you use Mounjaro for weight loss, or another option, working with a professional that cares about your well-being and success makes all the difference.
Editor’s Choice: Mounjaro®️ on Third Avenue
We recommend choosing Third Avenue as your healthcare provider for your weight loss journey. For starters, they have Mounjaro available as a prescription treatment, so if you have gotten through this article and know that is the medication you want to talk about, they will be able to offer it to you if it ends up being suitable for you.
However, Third Avenue also offers a few benefits over the traditional doctor experience which are related to how they are set up as a practice and how their doctors approach the weight loss journey with their clients.
Third Avenue is a patient management platform, which means that they are able to provide healthcare through a virtual appointment.
This has some benefits, like not having to leave your home to access care. This can be a great option, particularly for people who are stuck at home caring for children, or who have long commutes to the local office and thus it isn’t feasible to pop in around working hours.
Access to doctors all across the country is also possible with telehealth care, meaning that you can have access to doctors who specialize in the healthcare issue you are specifically interested in.
In this case, that would be weight loss. Third Avenue is a great choice of practice, as they have many doctors who specialize in weight loss, including board-certified physicians who have gotten extra qualifications specifically around helping their patients with weight loss.
Third Avenue also has other benefits over other telehealth companies, like having those expert board-certified practitioners. Because the practice has a special focus on weight loss, they have a different consultation practice than most doctors when looking into making a weight loss treatment plan.
With an ordinary doctor, it is likely that you would walk in, the doctor would come up with a weight loss plan for you, and then you would walk out and do your best to stick with it. What often happens in this scenario is that you find it difficult or impossible to stick to the weight loss plan, throw it away, and continue living with your chronic weight management issue.
At Third Avenue, the process of making a weight loss plan is with active participation from you. This means you can tell your doctor things like your age, sex, and medical history for them to input into the weight loss plan.
You are also able to tell your doctor about your personal preferences and they will design a weight loss plan around them to make it easy for you to stick to. Maybe once a week you need a dessert after dinner, maybe you can’t make it to the gym for more than 30 minutes every few days.
Whatever the preference, your doctor will not only be happy to hear your preference, but actively seek it out during the consultation process. This means that you end up with a weight loss plan you can actually stick to.
In addition, the treatment doesn’t stop after that first consultation. Third Avenue also has ongoing care and support, with follow-up consultations to check in and see how you are going and make any adjustments as needed.
They also offer 24/7 guidance, so if you are struggling and desperately need to talk to someone that day, you have a judgment-free option available at any time. This helps to create actual change in your life.
Finally, Third Avenue has a range of weight loss medications available. One of those medications is Mounjaro, so if you are interested in trying this one out, you can certainly access it through this practice.
However, they also have other medications including brand names like Wegovy, or Ozempic, which are beneficial for weight loss.
This gives you options, so if you have severe side effects, or simply don’t like how you feel on one medication, you can ask to switch to another one at your follow-up consultation. You won’t be strong armed into just sticking with it and pushing through because there are no other options that your doctor wants to prescribe you.
The most important thing to remember when accessing Mounjaro for weight loss in particular, is that the weight loss benefits seen in clinical trials are created over many weeks, or even years. If you don’t think that you can stick with your current doctor for this length of time, then maybe consider switching to the weight loss experts at Third Avenue.
Issues with Traditional Weight Loss Strategies
Most people initially try dieting and exercise, as these help to create a caloric deficit. When looking at weight loss stripped down to the most basic elements, a caloric deficit will make you lose weight.
Eating less or eating foods that are less calorie-dense can help to reduce the number of calories you ingest each day, while exercise can help to use up the calories you do eat. This helps to create a caloric deficit for weight loss.
However, not everyone is able to create or maintain a caloric deficit over time. The reasons for this are many and varied but some include biological, socioeconomic, or psychological differences that can make weight loss hard.
Biological
Obesity and how we manage hunger cues is still a process we are researching, and there are large knowledge gaps that need to be filled. The social narrative that people who are overweight simply lack willpower completely overlooks this fact.
In reality, one of the things we know for sure has a strong impact on the ability to lose weight is the DNA methylation of a person. This is something we have only just started studying, and it has been strongly implicated in the management of weight gain.
The interesting thing about DNA methylation is that it is set when you are still developing in utero, so there is absolutely nothing you can do or change to alter your DNA methylation. This may be one reason that some people struggle more with weight loss than others.
Other biological reasons could include unseen disabilities like chronic fatigue syndrome, or any number of chronic conditions that make exercise and dieting difficult. These conditions can make it so that the usual routes for weight loss are unattainable to someone.
Socioeconomic
There are lots of socioeconomic factors that go into weight loss, and honestly, this topic could be a whole series of articles on its own. So, keep in mind that this section is just the bare bones and you never know what might be going on in someone else's life.
For starters, it has been well established that obesity is more common in groups that usually have lower socioeconomic status. The exact reasons for this are still being worked on, but there are lots of factors that may contribute.
Low socioeconomic neighborhoods tend to have low walkability, meaning that there are less pathways, parks, or close together shops that make it easy and accessible for walking around town. As a result, people are required to use cars or public transport, which decreases the average amount of exercise they get each day.
People in low socioeconomic groups may also struggle with getting exercise if they are time-poor, or if they aren’t able to afford the gym. This means they either struggle with getting the time to devote to their physical health, or they lack access to deliberate spaces and structures to help with weight loss goals.
People can also be affected by the social environment, with some cultures having different standards of beauty, where culturally you are not recognized as an unhealthy weight. This can also occur in children, where caretakers don’t accept a child’s weight may put them at risk.
In addition, access to healthy food options can be very restricted for people in lower socioeconomic groups. This can be either from not having the affluence to afford to choose pricier, healthier options at the supermarket, or from simply not having those options within accessible distance from where you live.
Most of these factors are completely independent of the individual and are down to the societal structures we have in place. It can be exceptionally challenging to get ahead in any way, much less in terms of weight loss, when put into a system that makes things more challenging for you due to where you live, or how much money you have.
Psychological
There are also several factors associated with psychological dependance on food, and this can range from people who use food as emotional regulation, to those who had food be restricted or transient in their childhood who now need to hoard it for their peace of mind.
We are often unaware of these psychological biases, so when trying to lose weight through diet and exercise, and without guidance from professionals, it can be extremely challenging to get results. This often leads to a feedback loop, where the more you try, the more difficult it becomes.
There are also several conditions associated with weight gain, like depression, which are psychological in nature. These conditions are still being studied and treatment can be touch and go or difficult to access, making weight loss even more difficult to achieve.
All of these factors can be reasons why some people struggle to lose weight through the usual methods of diet and exercise and may need to try losing weight with medications.
What is Mounjaro
Mounjaro is the brand name of a weight loss medication called tirzepatide. This is a form of medication known as a dual agonist, which works on two separate pathways. We will cover these pathways in more detail in the “How does Mounjaro work” section.
Tirzepatide is an injectable medication, available in a weekly dose. You inject yourself with the medication under the skin, so it is known as a subcutaneous injection. This does not require going to the doctor to have it administered to you.
Tirzepatide also comes in a variety of different doses. These doses can be escalated so you get the full benefit of the medication without having severe side effects. The medication can have some side effects, but these are usually gastrointestinal like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.
How does Mounjaro work?
We mentioned before that tirzepatide is a dual agonist. This means that it is able to work on and activate two separate receptors called the gastric inhibitory polypeptide (GIP) receptor, and the glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor.
It works by acting as a chemical mimic for the natural stimulant of these receptors, which then activates them and influences the cell to carry out the function of that pathway. For instance, native (naturally produced) GLP-1 can activate the GLP-1 receptor, and this has a host of effects.
The GLP-1 pathway naturally turns on insulin production in the liver, and also has an effect on inhibiting the production of glucagon. These two hormones are responsible for helping to manage blood sugar levels.
Insulin is able to manage blood sugar levels by telling cells in the muscle, fat, and liver to uptake glucose from the blood, and either use or store it. This looks like turning the glucose into energy or turning it into an unusable form called glycogen.
Insulin is released naturally by the body after food is eaten, in response to native GLP-1. However, this native GLP-1 is only around for a handful of minutes, so shortly after eating insulin production ceases.
When this occurs, the body naturally starts producing glucagon. This tells the liver that it is time to turn that unusable glycogen back into glucose and release it into the bloodstream. This can lead to high blood sugar and is implicated in a host of chronic conditions like diabetes.
However, when a GLP-1 receptor agonist like tirzepatide is present, the natural effect of GLP-1 can be continued much longer. This helps to keep insulin concentrations high, promoting the removal of glucose from the blood, lowering blood sugar levels.
GLP-1 also naturally works on the brain and is responsible for activating the hindbrain and hypothalamus. These regions can have an influence over which foods activate reward centers in the brain and help you to decide which food you are going to eat.
Keeping GLP-1 active through the use of weight loss medications like GLP-1 receptor agonists can help you to make healthier choices, removing the reward of eating unhealthy food. This makes it easier to make food choices that work for the goal of losing weight.
Tirzepatide also has another function in activating gastric inhibitory polypeptide (GIP) pathway. GIP is also able to help to increase the amount of insulin secreted after eating and has also been implicated in activating the brain regions associated with satiation after eating.
Being able to activate both of these pathways means that tirzepatide has the ability to control insulin secretion and activation of satiation after eating in more than one way, making it more effective than activating one or the other pathways.
Tirzepatide has one final mechanism of action, where it is able to increase the levels of adiponectin in the blood circulation. This is another naturally expressed hormone that comes from adipose tissue (fat tissue).
Adiponectin has a range of functions and has been implicated in pathways around regulating energy metabolism, controlling your sensitivity to insulin (ability for cells to sense it is present), as well as pathways associated with disease progression like inflammation, and atherosclerosis.
Of particular interest to us from a weight loss perspective is the ability of adiponectin to stimulate the sensitivity of cells to insulin. Multiple studies have shown that high levels of adiponectin can protect against insulin insensitivity.
The insensitivity to insulin is how type two diabetics lose control of their ability to regulate their blood glucose level and leads to the development and pathophysiology of diabetes. Having high adiponectin levels in the blood is thus protective against the development of type two diabetes.
Is Mounjaro safe and effective?
Mounjaro is a prescription medication that was approved by the FDA for management of type two diabetes in 2022. This means we can be absolutely sure that it has been proven to be safe for the general public. The additional need to see a doctor for a prescription helps to make sure that if you have any conditions or reasons not to use tirzepatide, your doctor will be able to counsel you to another weight loss medication.
The safety of tirzepatide has been established through the requirements that the FDA has before it will approve any new medication. This includes numerous trials in cells, animals, and in humans with an intense focus on the side effects of the medication.
Before any new medication is approved by the FDA, it has to have empirically proven that it has more benefits than risk. For example, tirzepatide has some side effects, which can include gastrointestinal distress. However, this is balanced by the superiority of it as a control of blood sugar levels to existing medications, meaning that the FDA decided the benefits were worth the risk of getting diarrhea.
The efficacy of tirzepatide has also been established through the use of clinical trials. These are research trials that are meticulously designed in order to make sure that any benefits seen (in this case reduction in body weight and reduction in concentration of biomarkers of diabetes like HbA1c) are from the medication.
Tirzepatide clinical trial
Tirzepatide was tested in several doses of low (5mg), medium (10mg), and high (15mg) against a placebo dose (0mg). This was done in over 2500 patients, where neither the patients or the researchers administering the tirzepatide knew whether the patients were on the placebo or the medication.
These patients were all given their medication in the form of subcutaneous injection once weekly for 72 weeks. This also included a 20 week period at the start of the trial where the dose was slowly increased until the maximum was reached in order to reduce the side effects.
The lowest dose of tirzepatide was able to give a mean body weight change of -15%, with 85% of patients on this dose being able to lose at least 5% of their total body weight. This was significantly better than the placebo.
The medium dose of tirzepatide gave a mean body weight loss of 19.5%, with 89% of patients achieving at least 5% weight loss. The highest dosage was able to give a mean body weight loss of 20.9%, with 91% of participants experiencing at least 5% weight loss.
These results are extraordinary, with the placebo dose only getting a weight loss reduction of -3.1% overall. The placebo was able to give a 5% reduction in body weight to only 3% of participants.
From this data, we can tell that tirzepatide was extremely effective. It was able to give significantly more weight loss to patients who were given the medication than patients who were given the placebo, and the most common side effects were only moderate to mild gastrointestinal distress, most common in the dose escalation period.
The important thing to note here is that the trial went for 72 weeks, so using tirzepatide as an instant weight loss pill is not likely to be very effective. Using any weight loss medication for a long period of time will give you better results.
Medical Disclaimer:
The content provided in this blog is for informational purposes only and should not be considered as medical advice. It is not intended to replace consultation with a qualified healthcare professional. You should always consult with your doctor or a licensed healthcare provider before taking any medication or making decisions regarding your health.
Prescription Medication:
Medications discussed herein are prescription medications, and it should only be used under the guidance and supervision of a qualified healthcare professional. You should not use prescription medications without a valid prescription from a licensed healthcare provider.
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Accuracy and References:
We strive to provide accurate and up-to-date information in our content. However, medical knowledge and guidelines may evolve over time. The information provided here is based on credible sources and reputable medical references. Please consult the latest medical literature and consult with a healthcare professional for the most current information and guidance.
Individual Results May Vary:
Please be aware that individual experiences with medications like these may vary. The effectiveness and safety of Viagra depend on various factors, including an individual's health, medical history, and adherence to prescribed dosages. Consult with a healthcare provider for personalized advice and recommendations.
Mounjaro:
Tirzepatide is the base molecule found in the trademarked Mounjaro, a product owned by Eli Lilly. Medications sold on affiliate sites include products that are not genuine Mounjaro, but are compounded using Tirzepatide in accordance with FDA guidelines. When Mounjaro is referenced, it is referring to the genuine Mounjaro product, and it is noted that this trademark belongs to Eli Lilly.
