Here’s what doctors say about mixing Mounjaro and alcohol

In case you’re reading this on your phone on the way to the pub, we’ll cut right to it. (It’s called service journalism.) Yes, you can drink on Mounjaro. Probably.

Hang on, though – while you may still be able to drink, things are going to be a little bit different. We’re not saying you have to switch to non-alcoholic beer and mocktails (what a cruel turn that would be). Rather, there are a couple of things worth knowing when it comes to how your body processes alcohol, now that you’ve added a new kind of shot to the mix.

If you’ve recently started on Mounjaro, here’s everything the experts want you to know before opening up your next bar tab.

Generally speaking, if your body tolerated alcohol before starting on Mounjaro, you should be fine with drinking while using the drug. "There's no contraindication for drinking alcohol while you're on Mounjaro, semaglutide, or any of the GLP-1s,” says Dr Meghan Garcia-Webb, a triple board-certified obesity specialist, who points out that Mounjaro and alcohol are metabolised in different ways. “Alcohol goes primarily through the liver, whereas GLP-1s are mostly excreted via the kidneys,” she says. “There’s a little that's metabolised through the liver, but not in the same way that alcohol is.”

"The short answer is yes, most people can [drink on Mounjaro],” says Dr Jessica Duncan, a board-certified obesity medicine physician and chief medical officer at Ivim Health. "There's no direct interaction between alcohol and the medication. That being said, I always have to caveat this by saying you should talk to your prescriber first. You’ll want to go through your medical conditions, your other medications, and make sure it's safe for you to drink.”

If you’re just getting started with Mounjaro and wondering if you’ll still be able to drink, it’s worth considering the possibility that you may end up not wanting to drink like you used to – or even at all. “A lot of people find that when they're on these medications, they just don't really have the desire for alcohol that they once did,” says Garcia-Webb. "Many find that they are not really interested in drinking anymore.”

For many people using GLP-1s, the desire for alcohol tends to get swept away along with food cravings. “Most of my patients end up drinking less without even trying,” says Duncan. Another explanation relates to how alcohol fits in (or rather, doesn’t) with the kinds of healthy habits that providers recommend in order to maximise the effectiveness of weight-loss drugs. “When you cut back on your drinking, that might make you feel better about exercising the next day, or eating a healthier meal,” says Duncan. “Building those healthy habits is a must around GLP-1 medications.”

While it’s generally okay to drink alcohol while on Mounjaro, you’ll still want to be careful. “What's important to know is that alcohol hits differently when you're on a GLP-1,” says Duncan. One of the things that Mounjaro does is slow down stomach emptying. This allows you to feel full for longer, but it also delays the absorption of alcohol, which mostly happens down the line in the small intestine. Depending on how much (and how recently) you’ve eaten, it could take longer than usual to feel the effects of drinking, which may increase the risk of overdoing it.

Conversely, since weight-loss drugs like Mounjaro are designed to limit appetite and ultimately reduce the amount of food you eat in a given day, alcohol could also hit you faster and harder than usual – an effect that will only become more pronounced as you progress along your weight-loss journey. “You're in a smaller body, which changes things,” says Duncan, who notes that alcohol may also cause certain side effects of GLP-1s, such as nausea, to worsen. “Ultimately, the mechanism by which [Mounjaro] changes the experience of drinking alcohol really depends on the person,” she says. “But I’d say the general rule is that your old tolerance and how you used to drink alcohol is no longer a reliable guide for you.”

So, what might drinking on Mounjaro actually look like? “Not rushing to have one drink after another is the first thing,” Duncan says. The second would be to make sure you’ve recently eaten something. “Have a protein meal before you even think about having a drink,” she says. And, crucially, stay on top of your hydration. “If I can give people one piece of advice,” Duncan says, “it would be to have one glass of water for every alcoholic beverage.”

At the end of the day, it’s easy for alcohol to get in the way of your weight-loss goals, so consider how much you want to be getting in your own way. “If you continue to drink heavily, it will interfere with the efficacy of the medication,” says Garcia-Webb. "I had a patient who was on Mounjaro and wasn't having a lot of weight loss. When we really dug into it, it was probably because he was having about three drinks a night. That’s not going to be good for your health, and certainly not from a caloric perspective. And most people aren't making the best eating choices either when they're drinking that much.”

Of course, that’s not to say that drinking has to be entirely off limits in order to make progress while using Mounjaro. "I don't think it's practical to tell most people to stop drinking entirely,” says Duncan. “It's a big part of many people's social lives and the lives that they live. Instead, what I usually say is that your old rules no longer apply – so we need to rewrite new ones.”