Mounjaro, end of the journey

[Justkeeprollingalong]

I've had a very successful weight loss with Mounjaro - in 10 weeks I've lost 22lb. I've 6lb more to go with 2 x 7.5ml doses left in my current pen.
I'm thinking one more pen. I will probably go for the 10ml.
Has anyone come off Mounjaro?
Did you use the last pen to gradually reduce the dose or did you go 'cold turkey'?
If you reduced, how did it actually work with the pen?
Also how quickly did the appetite suppression wear off?
Thanks

Hey I'm just bumping because Im wondering about this too. I'm not miles away from goal now and have no idea what maintenance looks like?

Thanks for bumping @Yellowjacketscold but it seems like no one is interested! I just can't find any info on any of the other Mounjaro threads

I think, from reading a lot of the other threads over the past while, that there aren't many / possibly any people posting that are at that point yet. I've seen lots of chat about people worrying maintenance but no one actually at that stage.

@easterbuns1 thanks for the reply. I suspect you are right. It is early days.

Having recalculated my BMI I have a bit more to go than I thought -- 9lb not 6 to get to the top of the healthy weight range.
Although to be honest I think BMI has a lot to answer for in terms of unrealistic expectations; before I lost the 22lbs I was classed as obese. I promise you I was not 'obese'! Overweight, yes.

I read somewhere that you don’t go cold Turkey, you titrate gradually down afain

I have wondered this about these treatments. Presumably people turn to them because they've been unable to stick to diets, but surely you have to be able to stick to some kind of diet or healthy eating regime in order to maintain the weight loss? Otherwise, if you go back to eating how you did before, the weight will go back on.

Hi. I'm also heading towards cut off (?) BMI and wondering what happens. I've been eating a really healthy diet and have actually enjoyed it. I'm on a 7.5 pen too. Should I go back to a 5mg for my last month or two? Im also hoping someone comes along too with some experience!

OP, I'm about 2 weeks away from a healthy weight (started MJ 10 weeks ago). I'd quite like a maintenance thread to post on tbh.

I never got higher than 5mg cos it's worked so well. Im intending to do 4 weeks on 2.5 when I'm starting the maintenance phase.

I haven't told most of my family I'm even on MJ because I didn't want the judgemental "oh, it's a quick fix that you'll never be able to maintain" nonsense.

For me, losing weight means eating around 1200 calories per day. Maintenance is 1700 - almost 50% more than when I'm losing. It will obviously require effort to maintain without the drug, but there's more flexibility in what food I can eat there too.

Also, I've used MJ to work on my relationship with food. I can now leave food on my plate when I'm full without feeling bad. I have broken the habit of a glass of wine every day after work. I've learned a few new meals which are high in vitamins, protein and/or suitable to take to work for lunch.

Finally, the timing is pretty good for me to start maintenance. My work is just coming to the end of a busy period so I will have more time for exercise in the next few months.

@AllProperTeaIsTheft personally, I never took the drug because I couldn't stick to a diet. I took it because I didn't want to follow a diet plan - I wanted a complete reset on my relationship with food and that's always going to be easier if I'm not starving. Plus, I used nicotine patches when I quit smoking (because why make life harder than it needs to be) and I see this drug the exact same.

@JemimaTiggywinkles that sounds similar to me. I'm away to start my second 5mg pen (although doing 6.25) and I think that will be me at goal. Also haven't told anyone.

I think if I get to goal before the end of this next pen I will titrate down gradually, if not I will get one more pen to do that.

Mounjaro is so new that there may not be much experience of maintenance yet. I’m still losing but in a few months will hopefully be ready for maintenance.

I’m at BMI 26.7, I’m on 7.5mg. Started at BMI 30.6ish I think..

was on 2.5mg for 5 weeks
then on 5mg for 10 weeks
I’ve got 9 weeks left of my 7.5mg (taken one dose so far and have a second pen in the fridge)

I’ve lost 30lbs so far, in 16 weeks.

tbh I imagine I’ll have lost my remaining weight (I need to lose 29lbs to hit a BMI of 23, though honestly I don’t think I’ll take it down that far - I’m quite tall and already looking quite slim!) by the end of these 2 pens. I don’t think I’ll be able to order another pen at this point so I think the 7.5mg will see me out of my MJ journey!

Intrigued by how brave you all are. I'm too frightened of feeling permanently nauseous or getting the dreaded sulphur burps to even consider trying it, and my BMI is 39.

I don’t feel permanently nauseas and haven’t had any sulphur burps but to be honest even if I did, it would be worth it to me to not be at risk of all the health issues associated with being obese.
OP I’m not as close as you to maintenance but I’m not far off. I’m not as worried as some people are for a couple of reasons. Firstly I have overhauled my diet and exercise regime while being on MJ. I am eating much ‘cleaner’ (more protein, more veg etc) and I don’t see why I’d need to change that, and I’m also doing a lot of strength training which I plan to continue. Secondly, as a PP has pointed out, maintenance calories are higher than weight loss calories, so it’s not the case that we’d have to eat as little as we are on MJ forever more. I’m confident that I can keep a handle on it.

I've had no side effects whatsoever. I've lost over 3 stone.

I had the feeling of being cold
Feeling down in the first two weeks and two weeks of not sleeping well

It def does work wonders

So don't dwell on side effects too much

I am afraid of the serious side effects. Also I want to see how this mounjaro business pans out. Can people keep weight down and is there any effects that will come into the light some time after stopping it.

What do you mean by this? If you were in the obese category then you were obese. You can't have been obese per BMI but also promise you weren't obese. Do you mean you didn't consider yourself unhealthily overweight? I think our own perceptions of what's healthy are skewed. I am not huge but I'm still 7lbs into the obese category. I'm perfectly mobile, quite well muscled and don't have aches and pains most of the time but I'm still obese because it's an objective category.

I haven't had any side effects.

there seem to be two schools of thoughts on this. Optimists who think they can apply what they have learned and maintain weight loss. Realists who think MJ corrected an imbalance and once you stop the weight comes back. All the evidence from clinical trials suggests 80-90% will regain weight. Lots and lots of people lose weight by eating clean and exercising and 95% of them regain all they lost and then some. (I did). If you had hypothyroid and gained weight and then took thyroxine and ate better and lost weight you would not expect the weight to stay off if you stopped thyroxine. Hoping that we are all in the 5-10% who can keep the weight off without MJ.

Hi OP, I'm also taking MJ but a loooooong way to go before maintenace! Congtats on getting there!

It's worth remembering that despite the newness of MJ to the UK, it's been available in the US for a while now.

From what I've seen on US Reddit threads there has been a fair number of people whose insurance have agreed to fund an ongoing "maintenance" dose - basically happy for them to stay on the medicine indefinitely.

The dosages I've heard about are either taking 2.5 every fortnight or taking 5mg each month.

It's easy for them to do that though since they have single vials - we have the multi-dose pens which are only good for 30 days (although tbf I've fudged this "expiry date" already with a few of my pens!) so it's harder for us to achieve this kind of dosage.

Must mention @ObsidianTree who is the OP of our long-running main MJ thread and has gathered this info, which is very reassuring to me:

"Worried about your supply being cut off when you get to a healthy BMI? Below is some info on some places maintenance plans.
The Family chemist: Would consult you as approached healthy BMI to discuss maintenance under close supervision(if you started with family chemist)
Curate: up to 2 years
Cloud: up to 2 years
Boots: Cut off at BMI 23
Asda: Cut off at a healthy BMI
Pharmacy2u: Will supply for maintenance
Bolt:Individual assessment once BMI 22 and does offer maintenance
Zava:Once healthy BMI will stop prescribing this treatment
Med Express: BMI 25 and cut off."

Hopefully you can speak to your provider and get some idea from them of what their position is? Best of luck!

I'm on Wegovy, not MJ, and am looking at this now. I've just bought what will hopefully be my last 3 month supply. Evidence suggests that titrating down is the best way to get your body used to the tapering effects, so currently I'm planning to use one 2.4 dose every 10 days (instead of weekly) for four doses, then one 2.4 dose every 2 weeks for four doses, then use my last pen to titrate down in three doses of 1.7mg, three of 1mg, two of 0.5mg and two of 0.25mg. I'm just doing a bit of research about shelf life to check this is possible, but I'm optimistic!

Optimists who think they can apply what they have learned and maintain weight loss. Realists who think MJ corrected an imbalance and once you stop the weight comes back.

This is so judgemental, even though it pretends to be neutral. The second you reduce incredibly complex science to "optimist vs realist" you're betraying your own lack of understanding. There are a million complex reasons a person might put weight back on after losing it. There's no evidence that using MJ (or any other drug) causes this more than "traditional" diet plans.

@JemimaTiggywinkles but it's because it's incredibly complex that the weight will not (for a lot of us) stay off once the mounjaro stops because it addresses many of these incredibly complex causes that CICO and lifestyle changes won't. I'm definitely in the realist camp. I ate reasonably well, high protein, lifted weights all through my forties. Then it stopped working for me despite not changing anything. I don't know what else I can do bar reduce my calories significantly if I am to come off this.