You need to start eating whole foods. These bars and shakes are ultra-processed and your body doesn't know what to do with them. It's not how we're meant to get our nutrients.

I started at 300lbs. I'm now down to 170 after 13 months with no weight-loss meds. I eat a fibre and protein forward diet and I limit carbs, although I do eat a reasonable amount of fruit and all the non-starchy veg I feel like eating. It's working well.

Also, exercise. Diet is about 80% of weight loss but that other 20% is important, too. If your metabolism has slowed down, exercise helps kick it up again. Two months really isn't enough time. You need to do this every day for a prolonged period.

Well, the main thing is that I eat food. I can only imagine the depression and self-pity I would feel, on that diet! You’re allowed to eat. I would guess calorie restriction that severe (for your body weight) would shut down a metabolism pretty quickly, and make a person miserable. I’m not a doctor, but I started at about 250, and have lost 50 lbs eating about 1900 calories a day, but it’s also in real food, not shakes and protein bars. (Vegetables are your friends!)

I would recommend seeing a dietician: they can customize an eating plan specifically for you that takes into account your cooking skills (or lack thereof), your time commitments, your budget, and the stores and restaurants you have available to you. It’s much more specific help than we can provide.

And they’ll be able to give you a specific caloric and macro goals to support your individual body.

I’d say understanding nutrition has been the most beneficial thing for me. Down 18lbs in 3 months on Ozempic, and I’m not even up to the full dose yet.

Protein bars are fine in an occasional pinch, but they’re not the best fuel for your body. Fiber-rich vegetables, naturally occurring lean proteins, and nutrient-dense foods like beans are the best way to give your body what it needs.

I eat more food than I ever did before, but it’s almost entirely whole foods- my breakfast isn’t a protein bar, but a frozen fruit smoothie with a scoop of whey protein and fresh frozen berries (for fiber! And vitamins!), my snacks aren’t packaged processed ingredients, but rather pumpkin seeds, cashews, and cheddar cheese slices (protein! Fiber! Good fats). I joke that I eat like an engineer now, just swapping out the specific proteins and vegetables. I also don’t have to log my food anymore, and I don’t specifically carb count now that I know what works. Best advice: find a “no diet” Dietitian - someone who doesn’t push fads or restrictions but is willing to educate clients.

I've lost 110 lbs since my diagnosis 15 months ago. I'm still losing weight, between 5 and 8 lbs a month. I did ~60 of that with just Metformin, now just Mounjaro. I eat a mostly Mediterranean diet, but not particularly strictly. I was A1c of 9, now 4.9. I am 6' 7" 32 years old and currently 227 lbs at about 25% body fat per my watch.

How did I lose weight? I ate less and moved WAY more. I immediately started weighing allof my food to understand exactly what I was eating. I didn't eat out for 4 months because then I would have to guess. If it was hard to measure, I didn't eat it. Meal prep of vegetables and beans was a lifesaver. Once I was comfortable weighing my food, about a week, I ate 1000 kcal less than my estimated TDEE. I was big, so that meant aiming for about 2400 kcal a day. The weight fell off and soon I re-baselined down to 1900 kcal, then 1500 kcal. Around then I stopped tracking so precisely because I was so familiar with my needs at that point.

I started exercising. First, it was just waking after ever meal, 30 min for both breakfast and lunch, 1 hr for dinner, as consistently as I could. Now I'm training for an ultramarathon so its about 40 miles a week right now of running. That took a lot of time and sacrifice to get to.

My goal weight is arbitrarily 199 lbs, so I'm a little less than 30 lbs away. I'm under no delusion that I can "stop" my diet and exercise when I hit that. I'll probably have to start tracking calories again to re-learn how much I should eat. I have no plan to exercise less, but perhaps I'll prioritize strength and keep my long runs to the weekends. But there isn't any going back, this is my new normal. I'm not "losing weight" but instead I'm living and I just happen to see the numbers going in the right direction.

I don't think anyone can do this. I did, and I felt like I had to. I have a 7 month old daughter now. I can't make any excuses.

It took me over a year to get used to smaller portion sizes. I also had to find snacking options that worked for me.

• Pickle spears - 0 cal, crunchy, zesty. They are my late night savior. Sometimes its 9pm and I GOTTA snack on something and these have been great for that.

• Sunflower seeds in shell. These can keep my hands busy for hours. Eat them one at a time instead of slamming 50 in at a time. Can make 100cal of them stretch a long time. Or binge a whole bag and didn’nt completely wreck my day like a bag of cheetos would have.

If you’re on a lower dose of Mounjaro, a higher dose might help move the scale.

But really, eat well (but not too much) and exercise and hopeful you’ll see results eventually.  You can try weighing your food to get a more accurate calorie count. Personally, that kind of thing makes me nuts, but it works for some.

If you’re still taking the meds that made you gain weight, you might just be stuck.

But also, it’s absolutely not true that weight loss meds won’t work on diabetics. Mounjaro and Ozempic help tons of diabetics lose weight, as do other weight loss meds. I’ve lost 40% of my body weight on Mounjaro.

ozempic gave me pancreatitis twice in 2018 and i swear it shrunk my stomach. some days i don’t eat at all. i lost 150+ pounds since i was diagnosed but my a1c is still high. diet and exercise and meds do not work for me lol

I eat a ketogenic diet, but many opt for some variation of low carb. There's no one solution that suits everyone, but many of us over on r/keto have success stories if you're interested in it. Cutting carbs, especially sugar and grains, can do wonders for your state of mind and overall health. I'm no doctor, but as soon as I got diagnosed as a Type2, I went full bore on keto and brought my A1C down within months. I've lost 150 pounds, and will never look back. My doctor has been very supportive of my keto diet and encourages his other patients to do the same.

I was at 157 kg because of antidepressants. I can’t go without them so I was that weight for five years. Even when I did 48 hour rolling fasts. Ate. Didn’t eat. Exercise. Didn’t exercise. Then I hit my 40s and am now perimenopausal.

Then I became diabetic and got approved for Mounjaro. I didn’t lose anything on 2.5 or the first month of 5mg. Then it slowly started. I lose about 2kg a month. I haven’t lost any this month. It’s not the greatest speed but it’s budging. And I’m losing more cm than the kg that my scale shows. Could you be losing inches little by little?

I do think you need to eat more real food. That’s no way to live. Too much protein is also not good for our kidneys.

Could you have hormonal issues going on ( if you’re female)?

Also maybe a higher dose? Or a different glp -1 medication?

As for the “happiness”, you might also be on an antidepressant that’s not for you.

I have probably tried every one there is till I found d the right one for me. Some can make you worse.

Sounds like you have a doctor that doesn’t listen to you. If you don’t have that you’re already losing the battle before you start.

Ha ve you tried out different kinds of exercise? I know for me running sucks and I never enjoy it (I still do it, but I'm wired wrong). However pilates actually does make me feel better.

My A1c was 9.2 and I’m not sure my care team was best equipped with how sick I was so I went strict low carb. Like 20 net carbs a day. I also took metformin. Lost 30 lbs. started taking MJ lost another 30 lbs. it was incidental eating healthy and walking.

6.2 is great, especially coming down from 13. What target did your doctor suggest? 6.2 is well below the general guidance.

in my experience, calorie counting does not work.

What worked for me was to eat Whole Foods, as another poster said. No processed food. No carby foods. protein, fat, and low carb veggies, only. I avoid fruit, except for berries, and now have added a half apple with peanut butter on occasion. fructose does not aid in weight loss.

i also did a bit of time restricted eating, maybe 4 days a week.

How many grams of carbs are you eating daily? For me, I had to drop below 70 (and often fewer) to see any shift in weight.

What kind of exercise are you doing? I mean anything you do to keep moving is great, but I've found that I need to do cardio - usually using the elliptical - to get that high.

I don't exercise like I used to, but I used to do about 30-45 on the elliptical, which seemed IMPOSSIBLE when I first started and couldn't even do 5 minutes. I found that around 8-10 minutes, it's a slog, very hard to get through, but once I did, I'd just keep telling myself, just 2 more minutes, then another 2 minutes and was eventually able to keep that going to where, after that 10 minute point, if felt so much easier. It was also kind of addicting. I'd find myself trying to figure out how to work another gym visit into my day. I really need to get back to that.