What happens when you stop taking Mounjaro?

[pistachio89]

One thing I am finding is that it's really helping to reduce my compulsions to eat certain foods. I wonder if there is something about the drug that enables new synapses to form in the brain, new pathways, where the more you mentally decline and ignore these compulsions, the easier it's going to be when I come off the drug?

Also does your stomach shrink so longer term you feel fuller quicker?

I am finding having some discipline around eating windows really helpful. Fasting is relatively easy on this drug. I know it will be harder when I am off it but hoping as long as I can stick to the windows I will be ok.

Cut out sugar, artifical sweeteners and alcohol.

Eat a healthy Mediterranean diet.

Exercise.

That's it.

It’s the same as anything. You need to make permanent lifestyle changes. MJ makes doing that easier. And you could form new better habits. But on an individual level, you don’t know until you come off.

I think it’s inevitable some people will need to be on it permanently. And some people won’t.

I don’t think it can harm to use it to practice healthy habits around food. But I also think you can’t know until you get to that point and try.

I'm 4 months in and 2.5 stone down. It's pretty much stopped working for me now despite moving up doses as recommended. The food noise is back but I am able to make better choices most days so maintaining and I'm still doing gym regularly. I am going to do another month or two as the thought of the money I'm spending is helping me stay strong and it may kick back in and shift the last stone I need to lose, and I am very happy with what I've spent v's what I've lost. Hoping these habits stay with me.

I think we have to realise that unless we were to stay on it for life, it is just a tool to help us shift the initial weight and learn new habits, but we will still have to do the hard work to keep the weight off (sadly) xx

I've always been able to make good choices with foods. I don't eat much either. It's the snacking noise that i constantly had to fight and it left me exhausted everyday teying to ignore it; then the slow metabolism and insulin resistance that's been messing me up with whatever i did eat even when healthy because it stores as fat and doesn't break down (easily).

For that reason, I know if I come off MJ, I'd go right back to where I was. So I'm happy to continue MJ forever if necessary just like my other meds that help whatever is happening chemically in my brain and body to function better.

Same, I don’t intend on coming off it

I do not understand why anyone would be prepared to stay on these injections forever. It is a pharmaceutical, and like all pharmaceuticals it has side effects. Plus the long term effects and potential complications are unknown.

Why do this instead of implementing some healthy lifestyle changes? Eating a largely plant based diet, with enough protein and healthy fats to provide both nutrition and satiety. Limiting sugar, UPF and alcohol. Walking as much as possible and exercising a few times a week.

All drugs are pharmaceutical. People take many other medicines for life, if they have essential high blood pressure for example. The effects of long-term obesity are known, and for some, it may well be that the benefits of maintaining a healthy weight are worth the possible risk of as-yet-unknown long-term issues.

You do know people often don’t go onto these meds until they’ve exhausted all other options? You can’t think you’re the only person on the planet who has thought about things like healthy eating and exercise?

I am on other medications for life long conditions. Do you say the same to people who are on statins, diabetes meds, uric acid lowering meds, etc?

Just as well you don’t need to understand my own private medical decisions. I just hope the price comes down at some point!

Yes, crazy right?

Why don't alcoholics just not buy wine?
Why don't depressives just think happy thoughts?
Why don't people with anxiety just chill out?
Why don't gamblers just delete their Betfair app?

Honestly, just think a little outside your own experience/ brain chemistry.

Anecdotally, some people seem able to reduce or even stop altogether other treatments for weight-related conditions when they are taking Mounjaro. So diabetics needing less metformin, high blood pressure reducing so treatment for that can be reduced or stopped. Less issues with joint pain, so fewer pain killers or other treatments for joint issues, and so on and so on. Probably others that I can't think of, so the overall amount of medical intervention may well actually be reduced for those people.

Why do this instead of implementing some healthy lifestyle changes? Eating a largely plant based diet, with enough protein and healthy fats to provide both nutrition and satiety. Limiting sugar, UPF and alcohol. Walking as much as possible and exercising a few times a week.

Some of those people already do all these things and found that this isn't their problem. Some things can only be fixed by medication.

I do not understand why anyone would be prepared to stay on these injections forever. It is a pharmaceutical,

So is every other lifelong and OTC medicine we take.

and like all pharmaceuticals it has side effects.

So does every other temporary and lifelong medicine we take.

Exactly. Then when that is the case, why would these people not prefer to keep taking MJ as a lifelong medication if it means the need for some of their other lifelong medication would be reduced?!

Hey @PaminaMozart - talk about hijacking a thread!

My point is about how this drug can potentially get individuals into healthy habits and create new neural pathways for when they eventually wean themselves off MJ.

I think that Mounjaro may well give you the chance to develop new habits that then become reinforced over time and hopefully become more likely to be maintained when or if you stop taking it. Certainly I think you have more chance of maintaining them if you've been on Mounjaro for several months, a year or more as it essentially becomes your new normal.

I am only 3-4 months into MJ, I expect to be on it a year, and I have no idea what happens after, I guess it might be similar to any other diet I have tried without support from MJ.

I might keep the new habits and maintain without further support.

I might fall back into old habits and it will go back on.

I might need to look at MJ maintenance plans to support me longer term.

I am watching online how others are managing their weight after MJ, and filing ideas in my head for later. I plan to maintain, if that is with or without a MJ maintenance plan I'll decide closer to the time, may try both and be happy with either.

I like the idea of one of the Oushk maintenance plans where you pay £20/month to stay on their books and are allowed to reorder while a healthy BMI if you feel you need it to keep on track while still working on maintaining without it.

I stopped it recently, after 2 days the food noise was back with a vengeance , I tried my best to eat healthy and keep my habits but it was like a switch was flicked.
i had to go back on it, I put on weight in a week.
I am worried at the striking difference in how I felt and the food noise was so strong

I think I'm prepared to stay on it for the long haul but I saw this study recently that showed that after a year off the drug, approx 44% of people had regained some or all the weight but the rest had either stayed the same or lost more. So it's not totally mad to want to come off it at some point, I think.

I stopped for three months earlier this year due to finances and I gained a stone, well ten pounds 😭 I was ravenous and eating everything in site. The hunger pains were like nothing I ever experienced previously, really loud stomach rumblings v embarrassing! I have lost 4 stone and have the same to go again to get to a healthy weight and size I intend to stay in for life

Thinsplaining. Excellent

What dose are you on? 7.5 and 10mg did nothing for me. 12.5 mg is crazy. You have to try to remember to even drink.

I've been on it for months now and only got up to 7.5mg as the side effect were too much (sulphur burps and diarrhoea) and I haven't lost a thing. It does cut out the hunger and I have been eating less (mainly coz it gave me a bad stomach) but nope, not lost a thing. Not bothering anymore

Holy shit, you've cracked it! None of us fatties had ever considered eating nutritious food and walking! Wow, what can us lard arses of the world do to repay you for your incredible wisdom and genius?

Well, I've clearly touched a nerve... 😱

I have no issue with severely overweight people using Mounjaro to reduce their weight to a normal range. However, at that point it seems sensible to adopt other, more natural measures, rather than to rely on a pharmaceutical whose long term effects have yet to be established for the rest of one's life.

That looks like some decent evidence proving there is hope that not everyone needs to take it forever

My sadness is that at the moment only rich people who can pay privately can have these drugs so it is being rationed on ability to pay rather than on the basis of need and as long as all the supplies are going to private courses and maintenance that will continue be the position.
Plus NICE has so far only recommended two years so if anyone ever can get it on the NHS they will not have the maintenance option.

It was obvious from your first post you don’t understand and aren’t on it and don’t plan to be so why answer this thread? 😂