Mounjaro realisation

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I'm using mounjaro at the moment. Took a while to work for me but now I've lost 5 stone and feeling much better about myself. Decided to delay this week so I could enjoy Christmas meals... over the last 4 days I've put on 7lbs according to my scales and I'm terrified. The thought of putting weight back on is making me feel sick and I've realised I'll never be able to stop using the injections? I'll never be able to eat 'normally' or have a few bad days? I'm so disgusted at myself and just want to stop feeling hungry but this feels like madness, like a junkie?!

It will just be booze and over eating, once your back to normal eating cals it will come off again.

I know it’s scary but I think most “normal” eaters gain weight over Christmas as it’s a time of feasting.
if you go back to usual eating patterns you would gradually lose it again

But I'm saying I can't eat normally again as I'll obviously put on weight. I haven't massively indulged - one helping at dinners, a handful of chocolates, yes too many crisps and nibbles at the buffet and a lot of sugary drinks but nothing I'd think justifies that gain which makes me worry that any food above the very low calorie days I'm used to on the injections is going to just see me putting all the weight back on

It's not a real gain. You've eaten more carbs and are retaining water due to glycogen.
How long are you on munjarno and what dose? This thread would be much better placed in weight loss injections forums.

Are you working on portion control; noticing yourself feeling fuller etc at the same time? You’re supposed to, on Mounjaro - or like you’ve said, you’ll not really be able to come off it. And while right now there’s no issue with that; it could be expensive to be on it forever, there’s no saying that there will never be stock issues, and there’s no research on long term usage yet.

Don’t worry crazily; it’s Christmas and sugary drinks and buffets can have a lot more calories than you’d think, especially when piled on top of already decadent meals, but it’s a good wake up call to work on your eating habits for life after mounjaro too x

But yes if you have done extreme calorie restriction on mounjaro or any sort of very low calorie diet then of course your body will react if you suddenly have more calories

No you can't eat "normally" again because that's not normal eating. The way you used to eat which made you put on the weight.

I'm on mounjaro too. It's a tool to help you overhaul your eating habits but if you go back to how you ate before then yep 100% will put it all back on.

It's simply the change in circumstances for your body. You'll likely gain a bit until it readjusts once you have stopped.

I've gained 7lbs today alone!

5stone is incredible. Well done!

Eating ‘normally’ for us obese MJ users is what got us obese in the first place. One of the hardest realisations I’m finding is that I won’t EVER be able to go back to my former normal eating. It’s going to have to be smaller portions, healthy choices, and calorie checking for ever. I’ve been watching what my non-fat friends eat. I’ve got a slim friend who just eats one piece of the twix. She’s not depriving herself of the second piece , she just doesn’t want it.

I gained 5ibs and I’m not on mounjaro. It’ll go away as soon as you’re back to normal portions x

Agreed. I'm trying to explain to DH that a huge part of this for me is retraining myself to eat in better portions, better balance, and come off sugar as far as I can. I'm not being nutty about UPF / sugar but I'm trying to find some sort of middle ground for the longer term. I've lost 2.5stone, with at least 5.5 to go to a normal BMI... so I'm in this for the long haul.

OP, to lose 1lb requires a calorie deficit of about 3500 calories. So to truly put on 7 pounds is an excess of 24,500 calories. Even if you half that and say it's a split of actual weight gain and water retention, that's a huge excess in food and drink intake.

I've loosened the diet for 2 days, but still not to my usual excess - 6 alcoholic drinks across the days, two meals a day and no snacks compared with the usual guzzling - and I'm expecting to gain a small amount as a result.

Proportion is key.

This is all very helpful thank you! I could probably afford to be on it super long term but stupidly naively (?) thought I'd lose the weight and be fine to carry on and I'm starting to realise that's not possible. I think it's been a few months of not being hungry, having to make myself eat little bits and then one delayed jab and I'm eating like 'normal' (old, fat me) again which is super terrifying to contemplate.

I feel the same way. I’ve lost a lot and my bmi is now 21. The calories to sustain this are about 1900 which doesn’t go that far this time of year and it’s hard to track with other people cooking etc. I’ve gained about 2lb and I have made an effort not to eat tons

It needs to be part of your planning now though. It has been for me from the start.

When we stop these jabs, we need to be able to maintain the weightloss, which will still be a calorie controlled diet of sorts.

For me, that'll be around 1900 calories per day at goal weight. Tbh that's still a pretty generous food allowance - but does mean that I'll need to find the baland with things like a night in the pub.

I’ve been off the MJ in December after losing 3 and 3-4 stone and reaching my goal . I’ve enjoyed all the booze and Christmas food in December but not gone crazy. I’m shocked today to see that I have put on 7.5 lb . It’s made me realise that firstly I need to go back on it for another month to re- lose the weight.

Then I need to re- commit to a diet .

The thing is that is has been part of my planning from the beginning too. I was only on a small dose. It’s frightening to see how easy it is for old habits to re- form.

I think the lesson for today is that weighing myself daily is really important to maintain focus.

The problem is you're still considering your old eating habits "normal" and mounjaro as forcing you to deprive yourself.

Your old habits weren't normal as they made you obese. Mounjaro eating IS normal eating (with a deficit for weightloss). That's what you're going to have to accept. You're going to have to stay on the injections as long as you believe your old normal is still normal, and what you're eating now is somehow "abnormal". It isn't. It's how slim people eat.

Pretty much everyone puts on weight over Xmas, even slim people. But they go back to mounjaro-normal eating in january and it comes off again.

It’s physically impossible to gain 7lbs fat in a few days. It’s additional carbs and water weight. Get back on it and give it 7 days and come and let us know! However you def do need to be planning how you will maintain after you reach your target weight and come off mounjaro

I haven't massively indulged - one helping at dinners, a handful of chocolates, yes too many crisps and nibbles at the buffet and a lot of sugary drinks but nothing I'd think justifies that gain

You really have indulged though. If you want to try to maintain a loss after Mounjaro you have to eat as you do whilst on Mounjaro.

I know what you mean.

Nothing worked for me until mounjaro and I'm now at a healthy weight and taking 5mg a week and my weightloss has plateaued.

I've discovered I can only eat about 1000 calories a day or I gain weight. Without Mounjaro 1000 calories a day was miserable and I was starving and it was unsustainable so I could never lose weight for longer than a couple of months. I remember thinking I barely eat anything how do I keep getting bigger!

1000 calories on mounjaro is absolutely achievable - I go about my day, I eat two or three small meals a day because I have to, no snacks because they don't interest me, no alcohol because it now tastes like vinegar, and I now look like me again.

That's not what most people would view as eating 'normally' though.

I'm quite short so the difference between a BMI of over 30 and a BMI of under 25 was only about 1 and half stone.

I don't totally disagree OP but remember that Xmas is especially tempting because you have all the nice foods around. In 'normal' times the food you stock in the house can and may be far less tempting.

It will definitely be water retention.

I only had 1000 calories on Xmas day, just kept feeling full quickly and have been put off sugar since the start of MJ, feel quite sickened at eating chocolate. My suppression was low after 7 weeks on 5mg and one on 6mg, I should have gone up but waiting until after xmas, was sheer will power. I didn't eat much for breakfast and lunch total of 330 calories, so rest was for small portion of roast dinner and a homemade low fat cheesecake. No sugary drinks or party food or snacks as my stomach was full up having a big ish dinner. Glad to have not been ill today and not put on any weight, actually had a small loss. Worth drinking more water if people have gained to rebalance water retention.

There seems to me to be a lot going on in here, even though I agree that there will be water retention and the like.

But it was the ‘hungry’ comment that really struck. You are definitely not feeling hunger.
You are feeling something else and confusing it with hunger: boredom; sadness; or just an old habit of doing ‘something’ whilst in that situation. The injections are supposed to help reset your eating habits. It seems it would help you to take more time to understand and address why you developed those eating habits in the first place.

The other thing that struck was your sense of helplessness. It seems you feel there are zero actions you can take, so you couldn’t choose to decide not to eat for the next four hours because you had just had a big dinner; nor to go for a walk, nor to be in a different room. A few bad days are still in your control, but if you think of them as ‘obesogenic days’ then it becomes clear that they have to get a higher focus from you on how to handle them. You’re using the word ‘normally’ but what you are describing as normal is not normal, it’s obesogenic.

This is not meant meanly, but you are spending a lot of money on the injections and presumably enjoying the health benefits, so it seems madness to put the financial effort it, but run away from the psychological part.

Yes, I will be on it forever. It's a struggle to come to terms with.

It's not a weight loss medication (weight loss is a side effect). It regulates my hormones, without my hormones being in balance I would eat more sweet stuff and I would put on weight.

On MJ I ate 4 squares of chocolate yesterday and didn't want anymore. Without MJ I would have eaten the bar.

It's nothing to do with willpower, it's simply that on MJ I can eat 800 calories and be satisfied. Without MJ I would eat a 1000 calories and I would put on weight.