What happens when you stop?

[thearchers]

Not intended as a goady thread, I am genuinely interested in people's experiences. I am very, very tempted to go down the mounjaro route. Having read so many positive stories on here, I truly believe it could work for me, in fact I think it's the answer I have been looking for my whole adult life. I am 50 and have never managed to regulate my appetite, have felt all those feelings of self loathing, have been a yoyo dieter, etc etc. Have currently sort of given up at my heaviest ever weight.
So my question is, if I go for it, switch off the food noise, lose the weight, feel amazing etc... what happens when I stop? Is the change permanent? Or will I just revert to all my old habits. Anyone willing to share their experience I would be very grateful.

WLI is not meant to cure you, it's to treat your condition. Therefore when you stop, whatever it's treating will be left untreated. The same way there are drugs to treat diabetes or clinical depression, anxiety disorders and if you stop, you're not magically cured.

Simply put, if your issue is constant food noise and being on MJ is silencing it, then when you stop, the food noise will still be there but MJ is no longer there to silence it. You'll then have to either learn to work with it on your own if you can or use MJ to keep treating it.

That goes for other issues you may have that MJ is treating.

So for me then, and many other people I'd imagine, it would need to be a lifelong drug.

To add that if you're simply using it to lose weight (from obese to a healthy weight) and you have no food noise or secondary issues, then all you need to do when you stop is carry on with the right diet and exercise to maintain your weightloss. If you don't, then you'll naturally gain weight again.

It appears so due to the secondary issues it seems to be treating, from what people have said about their condition/illnesses.

OK, thank you for your reply, it does make me think twice about it even though I am sure it would help. I do wonder about the potential long term side effects, although I know people have taken it for diabetes for a long time.

I most definitely have the food noise, all the bloody time 🙄😂

It's understandable to think twice and consider if it is the right thing for you. We can reasonably say that it's safe for longterm which it's approved for but no, we don't know exactly what would happen in 1 or 3 or 10 years time. I suppose we have to weigh the risks vs the benefits.

Thanks so much for your considered response, very helpful

No worries. Goodluck and hope you find the solution that helps, whether MJ or something else.

Thanks so much

My personal experience (age 50). I was very slim in my 20s & 30s, put on weight from 40-50 (largely due to lifestyle change) and struggled to lose it. Started to have health issues due to weight so did a conventional diet for 6 months & lost 15lbs but it was brutally hard - no social life, counting every calorie etc. Tried Mounjaro (July 24) and lost 2 stone in 4 months despite being on a very low dose. Now in a healthy BMI & size 12 for the first time in 10 years. I stopped the medication in November and although it has been harder, I now understand how (not) many calories I need and how to moderate what I eat. I weigh weekly & am trying to keep in a 3ish lb margin. It feels like a miracle cure but once you stop then you need to remember to only eat when hungry, stay away from the cheese board and alcohol is the enemy. Best £500 I ever spent & I figure even if I put the weight back on gradually, it was worth it. I have chosen a provider with a maintenance plan for 12 months, you give weigh in data & if you are gaining too much they will prescribe you again. I’d prefer not to be on medication long term but I would not hesitate to do it again.

Thank you for sharing your story

Hi @MyPearlMentor, can I ask which provider you have chosen for maintenance? I need to think about this the closer I get to my goal. Thanks

Yes, it’s Oushk pharmacy, if you check their website they have 3 clear options set out. I would advise changing sooner rather than later (whilst you still have weight to lose) as they do say that they won’t take you in as a new customer once you are in healthy BMI. They call them FLEX, TAPER & CONTI. (Search weight maintenance on their site & you get all the info)

I should also add that I was super nervous about starting, I had the pen in the fridge for 2 weeks and read all the threads on here before I started it… even if it just gives you a chance to silence the food noise for a bit and learn other coping strategies I really would recommend it. We’re all different & only you can make your own decision but might it be worth you having a consultation with the doctor / dietician on one of the sites to explore this with them? Oushk offer this for £5 for 15 mins and I am sure there are loads of others… just a thought.

I have been taking these medications most of the time for over two years. Whenever I cut my dose or have a break I gain weight. I think I need to take them for life. There is a study out there showing the percentages of people who maintain, lose more or gain when they stop and it is not as bad as I would have expected so you might be one of the lucky ones.

Here is the graph with average weight gains that you often see - the people who switch to placebo do gain on average but not back to starting weight and the one from the study I was talking about above.

I delayed making a decision to start these meds as I knew at the back of my mind that I might have to stay on them for life. I don't want to stay on the meds long term and will try an taper down but will not hesitate to jump back on if need be. Once I get to goal I will be about 9 stones down. No way am I gaining that back this time.

I know someone who used one of the weightloss injections a while ago they were diabetic so before it was available for weightloss alone.

They found that when they stopped, their appetite increased but not to the level it had been. They regained some weight, but not all of it.

I should add their appetite was too low on the WLI, and they lost too much weight, hence coming off. They certainly experienced some kind of long-term reset though.

I began in August and feel very very well on it. I intend to stay on it for at least a year and hopefully two because there are significant health benefits in maintaining weight loss. See Zoe podcast with Dr Aronne.
As for what happens when you stop it's hard to answer. Hopefully you'd use the time on Mounjaro to address your diet and habits. We know for example that processed food is designed to be addictive. There are a number of posters on here who have stopped very successfully. Remember that medication is not without risks so you are right to think it through. Perhaps discuss with your doc. In any case it would be good to have baseline tests before you start. I wonder for those on it long term as eg other addictions stop with it whether there are actual personality changes- changes in brain.

This is all really interesting, thanks so much for sharing your stories. I guess like most things, it will be different for everyone as we are all individuals and will react differently. I have learnt a lot over the years about eat healthily, I mostly cook from scratch and have plenty of fruit and veg and protein in my diet. I just have a huge appetite, eat too big portions and snack inbetween meals, I find it almost impossible to cut back without feeling deprived and self sabotaging. I'm so tired of feeling this way.

I plan on staying on this medication long-term, but certainly at least a year from goal weight. I am now 9st 10lbs and I'm on 7.5mg for maintenance. I plan to go down to 5mg after the next pen so I can eat a bit more food as I can only manage deficit at the moment, which is fine as my goal is about 9st, but I'd also be happy if I stayed where I am. I know how to eat healthy foods, and exercise etc, but unfortunately my neuro-diverse brain wants to self-sabotage, has lots of food noise and it's a constant daily exhausting battle when I'm not on this medication. I'm with Oushk at the moment on their Conti plan.

I considered, but avoided, the injection route for over a year. I thought what’s the point of losing weight, and then putting it all back on again? I probably read a couple of articles in the daily mail about this as well and I just thought to myself this is another waste of time! Another promise re diet but just never works. And I have tried everything from intermittent fasting to Noom to calorie controlled to low carb; you name it. If I ate under 1000 cal a day I could probably lose a stone but it is incredibly hard to maintain that level of calorie control. I just think my metabolism doesn’t work normally anymore - hence I am hungry beyond my calorie needs.

In the past year I’ve put on another stone, which made me reconsider injections as a possible solution. I think my metabolism is just totally messed up. I have a couple of chronic health issues that contribute to this I believe. And my weight is making these issues worse, in a kind of chicken and egg scenario.And there is also my age (63) which makes it more difficult to lose weight.

My plan is to lose a good couple of stone over this year, and then review the situation. The fact that you can take Mounjaro long-term, even for life, is a major positive factor, though of course I don’t know if I would do that. I have chosen a provider that will do maintenance doses if necessary.

I have only been on the injections for a month, and haven’t lost that much weight actually yet, just a few pounds! But I feel so much more positive. I have even embraced doing some exercise, which I am sure will really help me feel stronger and more energetic.

I also wish you success in whatever you decide to do.

ps. I also eat carefully for the most part, cook from scratch regularly and don’t have any specific eating issues. Even at seriously reduced calories, my body seemed to really want to hold onto the weight, so all I can think of is that my metabolism is really poor as a result of my health issues. My weight climbed and I just got stuck near 14 stone, unable to shift it without feeling like I was starving myself or living on salads and fruit only with no deviance from that. I just didn’t want to focus on weight anymore. I wanted to eat well and healthy andfeel lighter and more energetic and be able to exercise more easily, and fit into my clothes.

I've made peace with being a lifer. This was very much a condition of going on them in the first place. I've struggled with my weight my whole life. I've had periods of being slim but that was due to disordered eating. I feel I've been on a constant diet all my life. I gave up on 'dieting' once I hit my late forties but continued to lift weights and tracked calories (actually this is dieting!) and despite keeping my calories below 2000 (I'm very active) tipped over into the obese category.

Being on Mounjaro has meant freedom from having to beat myself up every Sunday night ready for 'fresh start Monday.' I don't think about food any more for the first time in my life. I never ever want to go back to calorie counting, arguing with myself about what not to eat....all of that. I know coming off it would mean a return to diet culture and I'm pretty certain my 51 menopausal body with a history of obesity, would be straight back where it was a year ago. I finally feel free. So they will have to prise it from my cold dead hands.

I think it's different for younger people or people who don't have a history of obesity.

Hi OP
I only have limited experience but i came on mumsnet tonight to see if i could find any threads talking about stopping MJ. I have alot to lose (easily 8 stone if not more) and have been taking MJ since Sept. I lost 22lbs and then haven’t taken it in Dec as i had alot of nights out and christmas etc i just left it, and the food noise hasn’t fully come back nor has the hunger but i find i’m back into eating for the sake of it which before when i was on MJ i wasn’t. So i do think that when you come off MJ we will need to find some sort of “coping mechanism” for not going back to old ways. I can say however that its night and day how i felt on MJ to now. I felt so much more energised and my brain felt clear and crisp, now after a few weeks off i feel sluggish and i’m moping around but thats probably due to all the crap I’ve eaten.