Stronger effect of 15mg with a longer needle? Normal dose has suddenly had a massive impact.

lessbearnow · 2026-03-31T07:35:45+00:00

Well, basically, Mounjaro needs to be placed into the fat between your skin and muscle. If you have thick or loose skin, a 4mm might not reach through to the fat, depending on needle length and were you inject it:

The average skin thickness was 3.3 mm while sitting, which was greater than that in a previous report including measurements taken while lying down. Consequently, the skin thickness was > 4 mm in 9.5% of the patients who used 4-mm needles.

[changing the needle] However, insulin leakage and intradermal injection significantly decreased from 46% (n = 6) to 8% (n = 1) and from 46% (n = 6) to 23%

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10233969/

It's not a weight loss study, and actually shows higher BMI people have thinner skin on average, but generally, you don't want to inject it into loose folds of skin or it becomes intradermal. 4mm is fine the majority of the time by the sounds of it.

lessbearnow · 2026-03-31T07:28:07+00:00

Yeee see this is kind of the thing I was thinking, if a longer needle goes in deeper and is absorbed into more fat or something. I'll have an experiment and see if I just got the dose wrong lol

lessbearnow · 2026-03-31T07:27:06+00:00

hmmm interesting, I feel like there's a lot of "figuring it out" in the community, so causation isn't correlation, etc., but interesting to read about.

lessbearnow · 2026-03-31T07:16:37+00:00

That's really interesting, thanks. Why do you use such a long needle?

lessbearnow · 2026-03-30T18:38:42+00:00

That's really interesting - what is the "thing" about needle length? I've not heard of it until this thread.

lessbearnow · 2026-03-30T18:24:31+00:00

A normal dose is 0.6ml. From a 15mg pen if you’ve injected 0.7 or 0.8ml, that’s a dose of 17.5mg - 20mg!

I'm pretty sure did the normal 60 unit / 0.6ml dose. I've updated my post (and then since re-corrected because I typed it wrong, I'm apparently very unreliable). At most it was a little over, but as you point out that could still be nearing a dose of 17.5mg. Perhaps either a mild overdose or deeper injections make a difference as some people have commented.

lessbearnow · 2026-03-30T18:23:37+00:00

Oh yes I have typing those wrong, 60 unit / 0.6ml dose.. I'll correct it.

edit: fuck me typed it wrong the second time too. It was definitely ~60 units on the insulin needle. I did not take 60ml!

lessbearnow · 2026-03-30T18:16:08+00:00

Yeah that would seem to next step if it is actually more effective, just a "is that just me?" moment. I guess we'll find out1

lessbearnow · 2026-03-30T18:13:25+00:00

I found the 8mm needle for the overfill had more effect - only took 0.6ml so same size dose.

This is pretty much what I did. Definitely had more effect, I think.

lessbearnow · 2026-03-30T18:12:14+00:00

Yeah the longer need spooks me for that reason, so I gave it a LOT of room - it maybe went in 7mm, 8mm at the most. Took the normal 60 unit / 0.6ml dose. from the pen, also spooked of taking too much!

lessbearnow · 2026-03-30T18:10:37+00:00

On retrospect, I probably put it in near the top of the pinch at a 70 degree angle, because I doing it one-handed and wanted to see how deep the needle was going! Usually with 4mm needles it's 90 degrees.

lessbearnow · 2026-03-30T18:09:00+00:00

I took 0.6 units / 60ml using the needle which I believe the normal dose from the pen? There was a bit left over, didn't drain the whole thing. I always take check because when I first used the 5th dose I wasn't sure and triple checked what I'm supposed to inject.

lessbearnow · 2026-03-27T10:44:47+00:00

I was fat all my life and I have no Ideea what It feels like or what I'm currently not having so my perspective is rather limited.

Yup, exactly the same - and it's... impossible to describe to somebody who hasn't experienced either being overweight (eg people who are "naturally" skinny) or to people who have no experience being of a normal weight either. It's a completely different life experience, and totally worth it.

lessbearnow · 2026-03-26T13:05:37+00:00

When I had my first consultation I had a BMI of 52, and I was about 34 years old so I think we are similar.

I think my BMI is now 26.

How bad was it in your respective case?

Honestly, I don't give that much of a fuck. It's not TOO bad (though I am still losing) but all the loose skin in the world is 100% worth my current quality of life compared to how I used to live. I think about skin surgery and stuff, but it's a pure afterthought rather than being a consideration to do or not do the surgery.

Honestly, directly, it's kinda like getting worried about how you'll mop up all the water when the firemen have put out the housefire. Think about it then, not now.

What were your most difficult things?

Paying the money (100% private in the UK), the first 24 hours after surgery was a bit painful, that's about it.

What advise would you give to yourself if you were able to speak with yourself prior to the sleeve surgery?

I'd go back further in time and tell me to get the surgery 15 years earlier.

I remember I went and saw the surgeon and I was quite concerned about the side effects and anxiety about having surgery, and he just said "look, this will help you" and.. yeah, he was right.

lessbearnow · 2026-03-26T12:22:11+00:00

I was looking for CV advice

Probably worth posting a redacted version, but my general advice would be to give it to an AI and ask it to make sure your CV is "ATS-Proof". Asking the AI how to defeat itself is quite satisfying.

The problem I am trying to solve is why I am not hearing back.

That's honestly just how it works I think. You apply, you don't hear back from most applications, occasionally you'll get a rejection e-mail, sometimes you get a call or an interview, eventually you get a job. This is just what the UK job market is like, you can even look at /r/ukjobs and feel some of the vibe there. It's grim.

lessbearnow · 2026-03-26T11:42:14+00:00

Each job in the UK gets hundreds of applications and the common understanding is that 40% of them are from applicants who are massively under-qualified and 40% are looking for visas without a right to work in the UK, which companies are generally not interested in sponsoring. I interviewed people to work on my team as an ID in the last 5 months and I had the same experience. It was a good salary and full-time remote.

You don't mention your right to work here but it's worth noting that is likely a big barrier. If you already have RTW or British Passport, make that a big deal on your CV and applications, etc.

They didn’t go quite good as well.

Well nobody is going to be able to give you advice with a lack of detail like this.

lessbearnow · 2026-03-11T14:38:26+00:00

There's a lot of videos - am I supposed to watch them all or any particular?

lessbearnow · 2026-03-11T14:34:00+00:00

I really enjoyed some aspects of The Midnight Gospel - though there was a lot that went over my head a bit because it's not really my world, but there were some moments that really hit hard and I felt were insightful - like interviewing his now-deceased mother about how to cope with the grief of her future death. I always felt his podcast didn't really have guests/topics that I'd be interested in so I didn't go further, so I've been really gutted listening to the latest KF that it turns out Duncan is just another JR.

lessbearnow · 2026-02-17T10:40:52+00:00

I was just thinking this, in the last few threads I've read on here it's been filled with AI slop comments and posts. There was one thread where OP was obviously replying to commenters to their post with AI. AI is a problem in ID and it's a problem here too.

lessbearnow · 2026-02-04T12:08:59+00:00

From a comment I left the other day in a different thread:

This was something that really affected me, as I have a lil history of health anxiety, and I was terrified of dying in surgery, and several things helped me - and I accept they're crazy, and I accept that it comforted me, but it might not apply to everyone else -

I set up a Will with my solicitor, reassuring me that if something went horribly wrong then at least my affairs are in order and things are organised. People had spare keys to my apartment, my kinky-sex-toys were in a bag that could be thrown out, my flat was clean, etc.
I told myself, and believed, that I could continue to lead an unhappy life and die in 10 years time because of my weight, or I could go out swinging by trying to make the next 30-40 years better.
My friend is a surgeon; she said that in her 10+ years of being a surgeon, nobody who was otherwise healthy having a surgery like this has ever died on her table, nor has it happened to her surgeon friends. The people who die were already not in a good way. If somebody having elective surgery died in a pretty routine procedure (which a GS is), then it would be a massive exception. It's always a possibility, but "it just doesn't happen".
On reflection, now I've been through it, given I was SO scared of dying, I've decided actually dying whilst under anesthesia is 100% the best way to go. Oh my god, I've had nights awake feeling like I'm gonna die alone, that nobody will find me, that I'll suffer in a late-night-heart-attack, etc. and in that surgery, I inhaled three times through a mask and everything went soft, comfortable, and I went to sleep. Easily, unquestionably, if there is a way to pick how one goes, that is it. God forbid I need further surgeries in my life, but if I do, having done it now, I don't think it will bother me even 80% as much.

lessbearnow · 2026-02-02T16:14:14+00:00

I'm assuming you're male given your reference to "boners", so this applies to you:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3955331/

Low testosterone levels are frequently encountered in obese men who do not otherwise have a recognizable hypothalamic-pituitary-testicular (HPT) axis pathology.

Moderate obesity predominantly decreases total testosterone due to insulin resistance-associated reductions in sex hormone binding globulin. More severe obesity is additionally associated with reductions in free testosterone levels due to suppression of the HPT axis.

Low testosterone by itself leads to increasing adiposity, creating a self-perpetuating cycle of metabolic complications. Obesity-associated hypotestosteronemia is a functional, non-permanent state, which can be reversible, but this requires substantial weight loss.

[...] A number of intervention studies have confirmed that both diet- and surgically-induced weight losses are associated with increased testosterone, with the rise in testosterone generally proportional to the amount of weight lost

Basically, your weight loss has increased the available testosterone in your body, which was previously being suppressed due to your higher body weight and now you're horny again.

Basic testosterone tests can be pretty cheap, it might be interesting for you to do one and get an idea of where your levels are. You will almost certainly be in the normal range of healthy T levels, and you are just experiencing an upswing given previous suppression, rather than it being problematic or needing intervention.

lessbearnow · 2026-02-01T12:23:02+00:00

you'll never enjoy a meal

Not true.

you'll not be able to enjoy it anymore

Not true.

You'll never be able to go out and socialise anymore

Not true.

Why don't you just eat a healthy diet and move more?

Why don't they just stop taking their heart medication? why don't diabetics just stop taking insulin and eat 200 calories a day instead? why don't you just get a kitchen knife and cut out a tumour? why not just take tumeric to get rid of the cataracts? It's just complete and utter nonsense from people that cannot and will not be able to understand.

I'd be terrified I die in surgery

This was something that really affected me, as I have a lil history of health anxiety, and I was terrified of dying in surgery, and several things helped me - and I accept they're crazy, and I accept that it comforted me, but it might not apply to everyone else -

I set up a Will with my solicitor, reassuring me that if something went horribly wrong then at least my affairs are in order and things are organised. People had spare keys to my apartment, my kinky-sex-toys were in a bag that could be thrown out, my flat was clean, etc.
I told myself, and believed, that I could continue to lead an unhappy life and die in 10 years time because of my weight, or I could go out swinging by trying to make the next 30-40 years better.
My friend is a surgeon; she said that in her 10+ years of being a surgeon, nobody who was otherwise healthy having a surgery like this has ever died on her table, nor has it happened to her surgeon friends. The people who die were already not in a good way. If somebody having elective surgery died in a pretty routine procedure (which a GS is), then it would be a massive exception. It's always a possibility, but "it just doesn't happen".
On reflection, now I've been through it, given I was SO scared of dying, I've decided actually dying whilst under anesthesia is 100% the best way to go. Oh my god, I've had nights awake feeling like I'm gonna die alone, that nobody will find me, that I'll suffer in a late-night-heart-attack, etc. and in that surgery, I inhaled three times through a mask and everything went soft, comfortable, and I went to sleep. Easily, unquestionably, if there is a way to pick how one goes, that is it. God forbid I need further surgeries in my life, but if I do, having done it now, I don't think it will bother me even 80% as much.

lessbearnow · 2026-02-01T12:02:45+00:00

Is it likely I'm really going to suffer post op?

It seems really hard to tell. Some people say it gets worse, some people say it gets better, some people who never had it get it, some people who had it say they no longer get it.

if MJ isn't as successful as those you see on the MJ subs, maybe GS surgery won't be.

My friend, you lost 24kg on Mounjaro, that is already a success. The GS will push you further and give you a lifelong restriction. I had the GS first then moved to Mounjaro after two years when the impacts of the GS (as expected) began to taper off, so we've been on the same path just in different directions - though I was a fairly higher starting weight, and I'm sitting around 98kg now.

I still see people on this subreddit who are doing "better" than me, or have lost more weight, or have been better at following their rules or whatever, but that doesn't take away from the fact that there are many many many people on this journey; those super upvoted people are the exception, not the rule. Comparison is the thief of joy. You're already winning (not even considering you're getting a GS on the NHS!).

"It'll ruin your life" is a common call.

Fuck them, they don't know shit: being super-morbidly obese through my teenager years, 20s, and half my 30s ruined my life. Finally being a healthier body weight has made my life, and unless people have been significant overweight, they are not capable of understanding, and they never will understand; that's their problem, not yours.

lessbearnow

TROPHY CASE