No suppression on MJ pen after 30 days?

[BigLooser]

Hi all, would be grateful to hear about experiences of those who finish their MJ pen after 30 days.

I have reached my target weight and now working out the best maintenance schedule. For the past month, I have been on 2.5mg every 10 days (so 30 days) and then got a bonus dose on what would be day 40.

Over the 30 days, I kept losing a bit and the medicine was working as before. Have been on the bonus dose for 6 days and on today's weigh-in (I do it weekly) I had gained a pound! For the past week I have been eating maybe slightly more than before (I do 2 meals a day, just not hungry in the morning, so certainly not as much as to start gaining) and felt the food noise again. Granted, I had a lot of salty food yesterday and on Monday (was craving pickles!).

Could the gain and food noise be due the MJ pen past 30 days? Or just a coincidence?

I’ve been on around 24 weeks and those periodic plateaus started happening about week 12

I think what scares me most (and I am not exaggerating, I am genuinely feeling fear) is that these past 6 days I am not feeling full after eating and getting that notorious food noise which would cause me to overeat in the past. I had felt none of it on MJ before and that was the best feeling. I knew that if I have a good meal it will satiate me, and it has. I knew that if I fancied a mince pie I can have it, it will not "ruin" my diet and will not keep eating more and more. For the first time in a very long time I felt in control of food.

Now I am having this gnawing sensation in the stomach that keeps asking for something even though I know that I had dinner.

I am not due on any time soon so cannot blame it on the increased appetite due to hormonal fluctuations.

I don't want this gnawing sensation to return 😧

I know what you’re saying
the medication is great but it isn’t nice feeling so dependent on it and the fear of the old mindset returning.

im a bit different in that I have had “breakthrough” food noise and still have over eaten or mindlessly snacked on occasion - particularly on day 5-7 after injecting when its wearing off. I have deliberately stayed on lowest possible effective dose and despite those times I am still losing overall as I’m not bingeing like I used to.

Don’t Be afraid of feeling hunger or food desire. Just notice it and eat something healthy. I find that even when I get those feelings on the meds they are much less persistent and soon pass.

I don’t really understand your logic, why did you stay in just 2.5, it’s not even a dose, it’s the initiate treatment step. And now you’re doing it every week and a half, of course you’re getting hungry, you’re just playing at taking it.

Because I have been losing on it, steadily, about 3-4 pounds a week in the beginning, then about 1-2 pounds every week without fail or a plateau. There were no side effects either at all. I have reached my target weight on it. I saw no reason to switch up while the 2.5mg dose has been working, and it has been working until last week.

Maybe it is still working and other factors are at play this particular week (as suggested by PPs).

I have been taking it every 10 days for the past month and was having the same suppression as before (and a loss every week).

The reason I have started to spread it a bit is because I am at the stage when I can maintain. So was trying what works for me: such as increasing the intervals.

@BigLooser you’ve done really well to reach goal weight on the lowest possible dose, some people never achieve full suppression whatever the dose and still manage to lose weight. Ultimately, feeling hungry is a normal human state so it’s how you decide to tackle this in the long term, are you aiming to wean off at some point or stay on it? Perhaps it’s a good opportunity, whilst you are still with a provider , to experiment and practise managing these feelings. Just because over eating has been the norm in your past, it’s not a given that you will fall back into those exact same patterns….you may overeat one day but then get back into habit the next , or find you have a pattern of 1 week being more tricky to manage but the next jab starts to help again. Different providers have different policies and attitudes to maintenance but the option is often there to discuss increasing dose with your provider… but managing your weight long term with the lowest possible dose is a better position to be in. There is something to be said though for avoiding completely the type of ultra processed foods ,or alcohol, that seem to have greater addictive qualities….so having healthier snack alternatives easily available may help.

@BigLooser
As you're now trying to maintain, you're in the same boat as many others on here. We've lost considerable weight, many over much longer than you, and now comes the hard part - we need to find a balance between the optimal dose and the optimal calories. There's no rules or very much empirical evidence of how best to do this. You might find you need a higher dose for maintenance as you've stayed on a non-therapeutic dose up to now or you may need to shorten the time between doses, for example. It's all a bit 'suck it and see' I'm afraid. But a 2.5mg dose at 10 day intervals may just be too little and therefore, you're experiencing the same as many of us did when we decided to titrate up doses - just cause it worked for a few weeks doesn't mean it will carry on working in the same way in the future.

You see, I am very OK with feeling hunger - as long as it is an actual hunger. And I do feel hunger on MJ, rumblings in the stomach and slight weakness if I haven't eaten for a while.

What I don't want is this annoying feeling like you just want to put something in your mouth (and this want is on your mind, like in your throat) even though you know that you have eaten enough and that you cannot be physically hungry. And that it is not actual hunger.

This psychological hunger is something which I have never been able to cope with in the past and I always give up. Or I force myself to, say, go to bed early to stop myself from eating but then I feel it again the next evening.

Indeed, I may need to revert to the normal intervals, not 10 days.

I would not ideally want to stay on MJ indefinitely but to be honest, I may be prepared to, if stopping it means continuously battling with myself the same way as I have done for decades with lots of aggro and very fleeting success.

I know it’s against all the recommendations but I am loosing on 2.5mg so have stayed at that dose. I get 10 doses from a 5mg pen. No problems with using it over the 30 days. Basically half the price of buying 2.5mg pens
I do keep it in the fridge though.