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 maintained and I’m not tracking calories on myfp but I’m eating a very similar diet as I’ve found what suits me. Some challenges this weekend as I’m away with my DD at a sporting event so a hotel stay and takeaway. But although I ordered a large fries I only ate half of them! I bought some chicken & salad from a store for our hotel picnic & filled up on protein instead which definitely works for me. I’m another hoping to maintain between 9.7-10st

Well done @NewYear0Me. And another 10 stoner . I find myself better able to leave food too. Not sure if that's recognising I'm full or just knowing I don't need to eat it all.

Thanks @MargoLivebetter what’s really helped me is I’ve been eating gluten free for the last 2yrs and it’s forced me to plan ahead & take my own snacks or food if out of the house. So much junk takeaway is full on gluten it’s making it easier for me to stick to protein, nuts or fruit. I’ve done alright the last 48hrs eating on the go but I’m keen to get back to my preferred meal pattern on Sunday as I had to break my fasting window today to have some hotel breakfast at 7am instead of waiting until 10am. I normally fast 14-16hrs every day. That’s worked as well for me in my MJ journey.

I no longer calorie count. I am hoping that maintenance will help me embed a better relationship with food [and alcohol] so I am trying to eat a healthy and diverse diet and keep up with good habits.

I'm on the glide path toward maintenance and am really enjoying not calorie counting or dieting at all. I'm trying to undo the decades of feeling like I have to watch what I do and eat which for me is the freedom I'm looking for.

I think this is going to be the only way I can heal myself and my habits properly. I know I'm capable of tracking, counting, weighing, and obsessing about what I'm doing and then enjoying seeing the results of that effort. It becomes a little part-time job and I've been very successful at carrying that on, sometimes for years at a time - but it always at some point comes to an end and I regain the weight. This time - and it will be with the help of a maintenance dose of MJ, for sure - I want to learn to live without the extra part-time job!

Sorry I've been absent this last week.
I'm enjoying reading those of you who are starting the maintain phase.
Can I ask, if any of you have to eat at 1300 or less to lose, what your maintenance is looking like?
I'm back on 1300 cals, and finally hit new low numbers yesterday. I was 10st 4 before christmas. I haven't seen them drop below that until yesterday when they dropped to 10st 2! 5lb to target. I can feel it calling my name 🤣.
I really wish I could increase my BMR, but no matter what I do (and I do weight train 3x a week religiously since last March, and have gained visable muscle!) I just can't get it higher. I suspect I'm going to need specialist advice. I do eat high protein, drink plenty of water, but these screen shots are my BMR from the gym scale 😫. First one is the last month, second is sept/Oct. It just moves up and down the same 50 cals or so.

@ThisMustBeMyDream i am currently 9st 11 lb with a goal weight of 9st 7lb. Currently eating approximately 1200/ 1300 calories a day. My weight loss has slowed last few weeks.
i eat 120g protein a day and weight train twice a week as really worried about muscle loss with losing weight.
i listen to 3 fitness trainers on MindPumpMedia podcast and they often talk about Reverse Dieting as best strategy to increase BMR long term. Though not sure how much I would trust your gym scale as they suggest to go more by increase in strength etc re BMR.
I am hoping to get to goal then reverse diet to increase my calories and hopefully increase my energy and strength. Though know it will be a long process.
This is a booklet on it, you have to watch 10 second ads to read each page or they explain it in various YT videos.
www.scribd.com/document/730461537/Mind-Pump-Reverse-Dieting-101-ebook-finalProof

@ThisMustBeMyDream Maintenance for me is around 1700 calories. I am not always achieving that - certainly didn't yesterday! But trying to make sure I have a couple of days towards 1300 calories every week to compensate.

My Bmr is1400c on my scales, I tend to eat around 1600-1800 on average and exercise off 400c min every day.,so net 1200-1400 saw me lose 0.5-1lb a week. I’m short & in 50s but have higher than average bmr the scales said due to slightly higher muscle and bone mass. I run 3x a week and do random body weight or free weights but not more than 1-2x a week.

Can I join your thread? I started mj in April 2024 and lost 4 stone so BMI is currently 21.5.

I started titrating down to 2.5mgs (from 10). I took the 2.5 every 10 days or so but the last dose was about 2 weeks ago and I don't think I will take another.

I'm calorie counting, I eat what I burn off each day and this has worked well for me and my weight has remained within a 3lb window for the last 4 months. I'm also high protein and big on exercising since I lost the weight and have loads of energy.

The calorie counting won't be a forever thing. I'm using it as a tool to get into the grove of what my body needs each day to maintain. I'm really focused atm and hoping I can sustain this.

The calorie counting and exercising feels like a nice comfortable framework to sit within and has served me well since October. Perhaps I will need to do this for the rest of my life 🤷‍♀️

@85reasons I suspect that after decades of disordered eating (or whatever we want to call eating so much you get fat) it may well be a struggle to be completely 'natural' about our eating habits and not regain. I'm really hoping that my own form of maintenance, being a small dose of MJ, is going to show me what eating and not gaining looks like, so that hopefully I can then carry on with it by myself, so to speak. I think that for me not re-gaining is going to be a bit of part-time occupation for a while and I'm kind of resigned to that. TBH, it has to be better than the 40 years of torturous dieting, regaining, hating myself, torturous dieting, regaining, hating myself - but that is yet to be known for sure!

@ThisMustBeMyDream well done for shifting those stubborn 2lb. I'm trying my best not to calorie count too rigorously, but I'm on roughly 1300-1500 per day and go a bit over that on Friday and Saturday.

I'm going to have a look at the Mind Pump Reverse stuff, that looks interesting. Thank you @Bluenose1966 .

Welcome @Nothanksiwillwalk that is fantastic maintenance over the last 4 months! Inspiring. I think that's what we all hope we can achieve.

As for me, it is weigh in day and I have STAYED THE SAME again! Feel convinced my scales must have broken, but also really happy too. I've managed nearly a month now without too much of a struggle. 🎉

Well done @MargoLivebetter

I weight every day, but Monday is official and ever since stopping I've remained the same. I bounce up a lb down a lb in the week but I'm still lower than when I stopped MJ so happy with that.

Though I do bloody miss not feeling hungry. I'm coping with it fine and digging deep with willpower but I enjoyed not thinking about food!

Somehow my scales think I lost 4lbs overnight?! I don’t think that is “real” but I did a long bike ride yesterday and trail run this morning so i suspect 3lbs is fluid. Still I’m amazed as I’ve had a few carby snacks creeping in but I justified it as my exercise needs fuelling but it’s hard to break the mindset of arrrh don’t want to spiral down a carb / sugar hole which in the past was my downfall.

Well done @MargoLivebetter on staying the same I do feel like I need to carry on weighing daily as my App logs it and helps me manage the emotional side of weight in that it’s just part of my morning routine now. If o stopped I’d be obsessing more I think.

@SnacklessWonder its the food noise I’m most worried about and the main reason I have a spare emergency pen in the fridge that expires in Nov so if I really can’t hack it I’ll do a low dose to reset.

You have to do what works for you @NewYear0Me . I'm impressed by your levels of activity. Are you quite young still?

FWIW, food noise gives me 'the fear'. Even though I know now that it isn't really food noise, it is me desperately trying to distract myself from or shove down my own emotions, the thought of it returning at full volume again is very concerning.

The cravings are harder to deal with. I was trying to be good but I've caved and had a giant caesar salad for dinner which sounds healthy but it REALLY isn't.

I miss the indifference to food!

I surpassed my original goal a while ago. It still had me overweight but I didn't even think that was possible. I'm now 9st 10lb and my BMI is 26 so I'm starting to think about the next stage. Obviously ideally I would lose another half a stone but I like how I look and as someone approaching 50 who thought I'd be fat forever, I'd just be happy with maintaining now.

I'm so scared of going it alone, going back to the hunger and sugar lows. I've just ordered another pen as this one ends and I'm not ready to just stop, but I need a plan...

@MargoLivebetter im in my 50s not sure that constitutes young? Got two teenagers and been through horrid peri-menopause over the last ten years but exercise has always helped me mentally as much as physically. Yet I’ve spent my entire life until now overweight then I was obese the last 5years, it feels great to have my outer me match my inner me at last. Just seen the increase in rules around getting this drug coming in which is good but I wonder if it will make getting a maintenance dose harder.

This is just it. Why is it sooo acceptable for people to take medication for every bodily issue, except weight?!

@daffodilandtulip I agree, it is scary. Just shows what a massive impact these WLI have on us. I am confident that the world of weight management is going to be transformed by them and we will see tablets or patches or something similar for ongoing management coming out. There is so much money to be made from it, I'd be astonished if this didn't happen.

@NewYear0Me clearly young at heart or something like that. I'm mid-50s and consider a long walk and Pilates fairly full on! 😂Very impressed by what you can still do.

because sadly, obesity is STILL not generally accepted/considered a "bodily issue", it's a YOU issue. A willpower issue. A laziness issue. I think the world is juuuuust now waking up to the fact it is an ailment like many others, it is a chronic condition that needs active management and people who suffer from it need the right medication and support just like any other condition.
You don't tell someone with diabetes to tough it out or that injecting insulin is cheating and taking the "easy way out".

I'm 4 days into cold Turkey from 7.5. I'm at goal and don't want to take it anymore.

Lost lots of my hair due to the weightloss so it's time to let it regrow.

Food thoughts are back and annoying but I do want to keep the weight off and am trying to make good choices.

Any tips from those who have cold Turkeyed for longer? Thank you

Welcome @wite . Too chicken to cold turkey here, but some of the other posters have done so and it is all going well so far. Have you checked your iron levels recently. I've had hideous hair loss issues over the years from a lack of iron.

I haven't but I've just started taking an iron supplement as I read that might be the issue.

I'm cold turkey now for nearly a month, but I tapered down to 2.5 before stopping. Stopping from 7.5 might be a bit of a shock to the body but totally understand not wanting to take it any more. I had upper abdominal pains which have now gone away. I have had a couple of days where cravings have got quite bad, but with calorie counting, walking and Pilates so far I have even lost a bit more weight. BMI 23. V nervous about putting it all back on which is a bit wearing on a daily basis, but so far it's not happening. I do miss not thinking much about food.