A young woman has shared how she woke up with “flu” symptoms and feeling like she had been “hit by a bus” the day after starting weight loss jabs.
Megan Houchen started taking Mounjaro last month after struggling to reign in her comfort eating, which saw her weight go up to 11st – overweight for her 5ft 1ins frame.
But the day after she took her first dose, the 25-year-old woke up with a head cold and body aches that she likened to the flu.
“I woke up feeling like absolute rubbish,” the customer service worker, from County Durham, told Need To Know.
“I felt like I’d been hit by a bus.
“My shoulders and neck were so sore and felt bruised like I’d done some sort of hardcore workout.”
Megan wondered if she was coming down with the flu, and noted her lack of appetite and soreness around her shoulders – saying it even hurt to put a bra on.
She said: “I had never heard anyone on Mounjaro talk about those symptoms so, at first, I didn’t think it was causing it.”
It was only when Megan went on TikTok that she found other people reporting similar symptoms after taking the medication.
Luckily, she began to feel better the following day – and Megan says the initial side effects were well worth the trouble, as she has gone on to drop a stone in just four weeks.
She said: “My experience [since then] has been amazing.
“I know it’s not the same for everyone but I’ve not really had any bad side effects [since the first day].
“All of the food noise has gone – I don’t really ever think about food or feel excited about food and it has suppressed my appetite a lot.
“I sometimes do miss my food a little because there’s some days when I don’t feel like eating a lot and then there’s other days that I can manage three full meals.
“All in all my Mounjaro journey so far has been life changing and the best decision I have ever made.”
Megan started on Mounjaro after struggling with self-discipline and wanting to shed a few pounds.
She said: “I was struggling to lose that stubborn weight and I was struggling to keep myself disciplined.
“I’ve always been a pretty big eater – eating is like my comfort.
“If I’m sad or stressed, I eat.
“Half of the time I was probably just eating out of boredom but I had a lot of bad habits – always snacking and always caving in and getting takeaways.
“So, I started Mounjaro to get me out of all of those bad eating habits.”
Megan says she was warned by her provider of the potential side effects, and so wasn’t alarmed when she felt poorly the next day.
And, with her symptoms quickly subsiding that same week, she has gone on to be thrilled with her results, dropping down to a healthier 10 stone.
She added: “I would definitely recommend it based on my experience.
“I recommended it to my dad and he has now started his journey and is going really well for him too!”
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