You've reached your goal weight - come chat about maintenance, not regaining, going cold turkey or titrating down

[MargoLivebetter]

Would people who've hit their target weight be interested in a general thread on how they are getting on? You might be titrating your WLI down, you might be going cold turkey, you might be on a maintenance programme or you might have gone back on.

I used MJ for 5 months and I've hit my goal and I'm muddling through with my own version of "maintenance". I'm doing a 1.25 dose weekly to use up what I've got left and cut down gradually, so I don't lose all the benefits of MJ immediately. I was a complete lightweight and did the whole 5 months on just 2.5, as I had savage suppression and loss of appetite. So, I'm just halving my dosage.

I'd be interested to hear how others are getting on, given it all feels a bit new and the long-term aspects of weight maintenance are not yet much talked about.

I’ve still got 10kg to lose so not at this stage yet but am following with interest as I am determined not to let the weight creep back on. I plan to titrate down and stay on a maintenance plan for awhile after I get to goal, so hearing about others’ experiences is helpful.

The hunger comes and goes for me. I posted this week about losing exercise motivation and wanting to eat more after being out of routine.

I am still pretty peckish but feeling a bit more in control. I was starving about 4pm and not eating dinner until later. Previously I would have gone for a couple of slices of toast, but I know now it would just make me want more. So I made a little pre-dinner of a bowl of fried mushrooms and kale with olives and sun-dried tomatoes to fill me up and give me strong flavours without awakening the bread beast while I am feeling greedy, it seems to have worked.

I have been off mounjaro since march after losing nearly 4 stone.. I went cold turkey due to the cost once I reached my initial target weight of 9 stone, and have fluctuated between 8 stone 9 and 9 stone 4 since then. My weight is pretty steady at home when I'm in a good routine, but I have come home from a couple of holidays half a stone heavier! I am currently 9 stone 2 after my most recent holiday and am aiming to get back to under 9 over the next couple of weeks. I would love to get down to between 8 and 8.5 stone tbh as I think that would help with the remaining lumps and bumps and suit my height and frame better, but I don't think I would be able to do that without mounjaro. I also don't think I could get a prescription now even if I wanted to unfortunately, so I'm having to maintain through sheer grit and determination!

I am a couple of weeks into maintenance now and starting to move down the doses, currently at 7.5mg after being on 10mg for months. So far so good, I gained 2.6lbs last week after being away celebrating family birthdays, but lost it quickly, my body just pinged straight back down which is encouraging. I need to get used to normal fluctuations without feeling disappointed by every tiny gain and without panicking that this is it, I’m about to regain it all. I really don’t want to lose any more because all my clothes are on the verge of being too big already, but it’s quite hard to let go of hoping for a loss every week.

This is completely new territory for me, I have never reached a goal weight before in nearly 40 years of dieting, and it’s early days, but I am doing ok so far. It will be interesting to see what happens as I reduce the dose. I’m planning to do that super slowly and if all goes well the aim is to come off MJ altogether next spring/summer. Really appreciate seasoned maintainers sharing their experiences on this thread 🙌🙌

I’m almost too scared to totally come off as bmi is 23 and many suppliers wouldn’t allow me to re start if I needed it

ousch was one that did all own? Loss the only one but that was before sept so maybe that will change

im on 10 and still losing when I don’t really want to do going to go to 7.5 which will also help with cost

Brilliant! Well done 👏👏👏Please keep posting here and keep the rest of us motivated. Its so good to hear of someone else's success

@Blondes,I’m not quite there yet, but that’s exactly what I’m concerned about too. It’s hard to know how maintenance will go until I get there, and it looks like many providers won’t let you restart if you have more than 3 months off unless you fit the initial prescribing criteria again. At the same time, after the debacle of the past few weeks I’m also going to try to avoid the stress of risking being pen less by ordering ahead if I can. Meaning that by the time I get to 3 months maintenance, it could potentially be 4-5 months since my last prescription.

Sorry thought I had replied to this @MargoLivebetter

i got the scales and 7.5 today and I’ve gone into the rabbit warren of cancelling

must have been asked 5/6 times did I went to cancel and offers of discounts and I kept ticking the yes I want to cancel box

They will review my request mon to Fri

so fingers crossed it will be approved

It's been just over 2 months since my last jab. I'm so happy and also quite relieved with how maintenance is going food wise.

Intentionally ate at maintenance level for about 6 weeks and then cut my calories just slightly for the past 2 weeks.

Scale has started to slowly go down agajn. I want to lose a couple more pounds but I'm still happy where I am.

Life is good!

@blessingindisguise22 what is your diet like? I eat pretty well compared to when I was a younger woman - wide range of plants including things like pulses, legumes and seeds, protein, oily fish, fibre etc. etc. but I am still binging on junk sugar. I have two more weeks left on my high dose before I start to come down and feel if I don't crack the sugar I will put all the weight back on when I come off the jabs :(

It's pretty well balanced. It's moderately high in protein but also have decent portions of carbs and fats. Carbs give energy and fuel and fats give satiety. Wouldn't be without either, or protein for that matter.

My daily calorie intake is about 1700.

I follow a macros plan which is inclusive of my average level of exercise.

I agree, I don't think low carb or low fat would be good for me, given my age and sex.

Hi - am trying to figure out sustainabile maintenance. I am currently taking 10mg a week with a BMI of 23-24 and not losing on that so not sure how low a dose I can take without putting on weight. I need to focus a bit more on diet and exercise while I experiment with lower doses but I don’t know which suppliers will let me keep ordering for the next few months with my BMI. I am open to stopping the drug completely but I’d also like a prescriber who will let me stay on it as long as I like with my current BMI just in case I can’t do it without 2.5mg or 5mg. I also have three mid-high dose pens in my fridge.

As online ordering seems to be getting more limited as my BMI has fallen, I actually went to see my local pharmacist yesterday and have a consultation on Tuesday. Am not sure if he will be amenable to what I want to do. We chatted a bit about my starting point - obese with high cholesterol - but I didn’t tell him my current BMI. And he didn’t tell me his prices lol.

I’m not sure when to try to order again, which size pen to order or who to order from. I am really scared of being cut off it when I don’t feel ready to come off. I don’t even know what my end goal is other than not put the weight back on. But my first steps are get into the habit of logging my food in advance of eating it, up my activity levels a bit and drop to 7.5mg.

@Choux
Ive ordered with simple online pharmacy and pharmacy2u with a bmi of 22.

When I started with simple this is what the pharmacist emailed me when I asked about maintenance.

Key Points on BMI and Restarting Treatment:

• A healthy BMI is between 18.5 and 24.9. As long as your BMI is within this range, we can recommend you consider your maintenance options.
• There is no specific BMI cut-off for continuing the medication, but if your BMI falls too low, we would need to assess your health.
• You cannot restart treatment if your BMI is below 30 and it's been more than 3 months since your last dose. This 3-month period is our cut-off for restarting. If more than 3 months have passed, weight management must be done through healthy lifestyle changes unless you BMI is >30.
• If it’s been less than 3 months since your last dose, and you feel you need more time to establish a healthier routine, continuing treatment is an option at a maintenance level.

@Mounraine cutting out sugar has been a game changer for me. I have completely lost my sweet tooth. What do you consume that has a lot of sugar, and is there a time of day when you feel really driven to have sugar? Perhaps folks on here can help you think of alternatives.

The challenge is that the sugar craving drives the sugar craving (as many of us know).

The challenge is that the sugar craving drives the sugar craving (as many of us know). I know :( And in the past it's worked, but I return when life feels particularly joyless and/or I'm trying to quit Pepsi Max (my other vice).

What do you consume that has a lot of sugar, and is there a time of day when you feel really driven to have sugar? Biscuits or chocolate bars - the combination of chewy, chocolatey and crunchy. On a weekday I eat a small amount about 1pm. When the going gets tough though I can eat a full packet of biscuits in one go.

I'm currently trying to reduce to a fruit salad (no syrup, but still very sweet) and a single lunchbox chocolate bar. I just can't seem to get clean of both Pepsi Max and sugar at the same time.

Sure you'll have tried it, but what about a mix of berries and cherries? Great for fibre and not masses of calories, and cherries give it a bit of a sweet pop.

Interesting. I’ve been maintaining since March on a low dose of MJ (2.5mg or less). I stopped injecting 4 weeks ago (long holiday in foreign place that was going to be difficult to manage with injections.

in the last 2 weeks my hand pain (associated with thyroid issue) has returned.

I’m maintaining ok and am below my target weight despite eating what i want but the hand pain makes me worry that the benefits I perceived at the start of MJ weren’t placebo or coincidence as people suggested and it is positively impacting with my thyroid condition. I had to have a Levothyroxine dose reduction soon after starting on MJ as tests showed me over medicated.

I’m thinking of taking a small dose (1.25 or so) this week to see if it has an effect.

@Mounraine as an emotional eater, I understand the craving for sweet things, I really do. The thing is it is a con. There is nothing joy bringing about a chocolate bar. You don't really feel any better about life or your situation because you have eaten it. The only thing that has changed is that you have fired up some receptors in your brain that are addicted to sweet things. Other than that you life is exactly as it was before, only you have just added somewhere between 100-500 calories that you don't actually need.

Anyhow, that is the logic that we all know. That's the easy bit, the hard bit is stopping doing that. I had therapy, long before I started WLI and that helped me address the binging that I used to do (so the entire packet of biscuits or my go to which was a tray of 5 chocolate eclairs from M&S). The therapy wasn't for anything to do with food, but it obviously had food benefits.

Then the WLI made me so repelled by food that I couldn't comfort eat. When I was feeling hopeless, bored, angry, stressed, unhappy etc etc etc, I'd toddle off to the kitchen to try and make everything better with sweet food, but I couldn't because food disgusted me. So I had to deal with feeling hopeless, bored, angry, stressed and unhappy. If I go back to the posts that I put on the August 2024 starters threads, I often talk about how constantly angry I felt!!!!!

You have to feel the feelings, not try to eat them away. It's not fun and for those of us who have spent a lifetime forcing them down with food, it is scary and very challenging at times. But you have to feel them. I've had a difficult time recently and I swear to god in addition to all the difficulties, food is shrieking at me during my waking hours and I'm 2lbs up because bloody apple crumble and cream (on several occasions) got the better of me. But the difficulties will pass and the food noise will subside again, and this time instead of being half a stone heavier and filled with self-sabotaging "fuck the diet" feelings, it is just 2lb which I will lose again fairly easily this week and next.

Long post, I hope some of it resonates or is helpful.

It very much resonates… treating myself with good allowed me to show an easy-going and generous face to the world… working out how not to revert to this is going to be a challenge when I start lowering the dose in the next couple of weeks.

I work in a creative-adjacent job which relies on quirky, eye-catching ideas and Mounjaro seems to have dampened/really reduced my ability to do that. It would be great (especially for my bank balance) if that improves post-Mounjaro… but without food coming back as an internal reward!

Kinda the same but not 😂

was on 10 but in losing and don’t want to. BMI 23

so going to 7.5

if you aren’t losing on 10 track your calories

how many are you having and what’s your tdee @Choux

@HesDeadBenYouCanStopNow I am really interested in your conclusions, my TSH, T3 and T4 were all in a great place since mj. T3 previously has been too low and I have often had reduced thyroxine despite T3 being low because my TSH was too low. I do feel joint pain and brain fog has been reduced whilst taking mj and to some extent I feel less tired. I have put these down to mj. I'm currently on 2.5 and deciding whether to stay, move to wegovy (I've struggled to research whether it's the glp1 or the GIP which is helpful for my thyroid/autoimmune issue). I definitely don't want the thyroid issues back but also don't want the extra expense if I don't need it...

Can’t rem if this thread or another. But managed to cancel juniper easily I filled out form sat and they emailed today this

so it can be done easily as know some worried. Including myself

Good to hear @Blondeshavemorefun . I'm watching all the pricing stuff with interest. Not sure I will trust myself to get through Christmas without some help. Going to see how it all goes. Good to know that Juniper seem reputable.

Yes they are. Know some haven’t had great exp with them but equally sure everyone can say that about every supplier but they seemed quick

so for me it’s a waiting game as well. To who has the lowest price 😂