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.

I really love it if you are right. Do you know a site I can find to read all this because I'd print it & show him. I was very happy on Mounjaro & doing fine at a rate that suits me. I stayed on the 2.5 & lost 3 stone then went up to the 5mg pen & that's when my hiatus hernia went into flare, that led to me have a gastrology camera test which showed (in the gastrologist words) Multiple stomach polyps found & severe gastritis. My GP said the Mounjaro cause Gastritis & long term 15mg Lansoprazole (since 2017) has caused the polyps. He also said I need the Lansoprazole to treat the Gastritis but need to eventually stop the Lansoprazole & hopefully the Polyps might shrink 🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️. Then difference my weight loss gas made to my knees is fab & I wanted to carry on. Now I'm getting the loudest gurgling from high in my stomach around just under breastfeeding in middle & it burns when I eat or drink. 😢 the GP says its the gastritis but I have no faith in GP now.

@Col28 I found my omeprazole didn’t help much with my gastritis once it had started. I tried gaviscon liquid (well, Sainsbury’s own brand actually) and that was really very good. Persistent gastritis causes soreness and inflammation down your throat so you need to take that fluid for a few days to allow it to settle down.
I don’t know your mj dose or if you’ve changed doses. However, my gastritis flared up badly when I increased dose. It did settle down after a few weeks though. I only occasionally reach for the gaviscon liquid now, but it’s important to catch it as soon as it starts.

@Col28 here’s a starter -
https://www.cancerhealth.com/article/glp1-weightloss-meds-linked-improved-colon-cancer-survival

This is really useful advice thank you.
My stomach is so loud after eating my sister heard it on a WhatsApp voice note & that's never happened before. My GP gave me a bottle of Peptac which turns out to be the same as Gaviscon. He never told me to take it regularly though. I assumed I couldn't take Peptac & Lansoprazole in the same day. I take 15mg Lansoprazole first thing but maybe u should rake the Peptac after eating. Honestly, I get more help on this site than from GP. Thank God for you all. xxx

Goodness me. Lansoprazole is a drug called a PPI. These are absorbed into your bloodstream and work by inhibiting the production of acid in your stomach. If the acid is already there, then you can take lansoprazole until the cows come home, it can't do anything, it's too late. That's when you need something like Peptac which neutralises the acid and also forms a barrier preventing the acid rising. It isn't absorbed into your bloodstream, it works locally, unlike lansoprazole.
The two are perfectly safe to use together. Typically take Peptac after meals and bedtime, but it's pretty benign stuff. Completely fine to take at the same time.

Couple more links for you on the benefits of GLP-1 medication beyond diabetes/weight loss, for your interest:
Can one drug do it all? Reviewing the expanding clinical universe of GLP-1 agonists
The expanding benefits of GLP-1 medicines - ScienceDirect

Some of these comments are a bit mad. A gp who thinks the drug is relatively new, and hasn’t been taken in these high doses, thst has to be the most ill informed gp of all time.

and these is so erroneous I can’t even being to answer it. It actually made me laugh it is so willfully ignorant.😂

So far the research suggests most people fail to make changes and pot the weight back on. In the meantime, unless you’ve done a lot of weights, you’ll have lost muscle mass. You may however have gastroparesis - a permanent deadening of your gut’s ability to digest and move food through efficiently

I’m on the lowest dose. I went up to 5mg for 2 weeks but couldn’t cope with feeling nauseous most of the time so I’ve been on the lowest dose for 6 months bar the 2 weeks. I have taken short breaks and not had a problem. I “only” needed to lose 2.5 stone to get to a “normal” BMI and I’ve only half a stone to go. If I don’t lose anymore I won’t be disappointed but I do expect to put on a little when I come off but I’m determined not to go back to my starting weight so will check my BMI regularly, once I finish.

I can only speak anecdotally to my own experience.

I lost 5.5 stone on MJ and came off in March. I’ve maintained since then, I actually lost a further half stone when I came off and have now stabilised at 22BMI, with variance of a couple of pounds either way.

My appetite came back slightly but nowhere near what it had been pre-MJ. I eat more than I did on MJ but that’s also because I don’t need to be in deficit. My body feels like it got used to eating smaller portions and amounts and has adjusted accordingly. I no longer eat just because. Food isn’t my first port of call when I am at a loose end.

I exercise a lot though. I enjoy food and like eating nice stuff, so the trade off is that I exercise 5-6 days a week, cardio and weights. This takes my maintenance calories up to around 2300 most days, which is generous enough to accommodate the hot chocolates and cakes I really enjoy! I don’t calorie count, I just weigh regularly to check things aren’t creeping up.

I recently turned 40 and I’m the fittest and healthiest I have ever been.

I do think that experiences are very individual in this regard however.

If your weight loss has slowed right down, have you considered trying 3.75mg rather than jumping to 5mg?

The research is limited to controlled trials where people have been allocated to groups and prescribed medication, then had that removed or not. Obviously the criteria are set and strict. A proportion of people in such studies put weight back on, but not all of them.

I have seen no scientific research on people who are paying for private presciptions; how they advanced up the doses; how they titrated off; or the various regimes that people are adopting to maintain their weight loss.

Also, on most weight loss diets there is some muscle loss. Have you seen how many threads on here (especially longer running cohorts) are all about lifting weights and eating protein?

Aye, right!

WLI's are hormone supplements - the hormone in this instance is one that helps regulate appetite and digestive transit.

WLI's simply put those of us with a GLP1 deficiency on a level playing field to those who don't - we still have to control what we eat and make the right choices but are no longer further handicapped by having a hormone deficiency too.

Taking the medication won't "fix" the reason why you don't produce it naturally - just as taking insulin or thyroxin doesn't fix why your body doesn't produce those hormones and it would be stupid to stop taking those particular medications just because you feel better, it's no different with WLI's.