Stopped MJ for a month and gained 10 pounds

[BigLooser]

Extremely pissed off would be the right word.
Reached my goal weight in the early February, even went a little under. Was getting unhealthily gaunt on 2.5mg so couldn't dose down but had to find a way to maintain.
Read here on MN that some do month on / month off. Well, this didn't work out, did it . Now back on 2.5mg and hoping it will work as well as as it did before.
I think my way of maintaining would be moving to 1.25mg - it just would work out more expensive because of the pen expiry period.
Wish me luck...

Ah no that's not what you want at all! What about doing half doses every 2nd week? So wk 1 2.5mg wk2 1.25mg wk3 2.5mg wk4 1.25mg and so on...

You were consuming too much for your body, if you gained that much weight in such a short time.

What have you done to change your eating habits from obesity aside from MJ?

eg monitoring calories and macros and exercising?

Were you drinking enough water?

Your comment about looking unhealthily gaunt is interesting. What was your BMI when you stopped? Have you ever weighed your body composition? Looking gaunt can be linked to a lack of muscle mass as opposed to lack of fat.

May try that, thanks!
Have to lose those extras first.
The thing is, I did overeat and did have increased cravings for sugar - so I am not kidding myself that I was eating healthily over the month. But I was not bingeing like crazy, I didn't drink alcohol and I was walking a lot (was away for 2 weeks to sort out some business). My FitBit was very happy with me all this time.
Basically I ate much more bread at meal times for 2 weeks than before, that's the only discernible difference I can think of.
I honestly don't think it would have brought me a 10-pound gain in pre-MJ times.

You know I have not really to change much, just stopped eating junk food and was not even craving it much. So cannot say that I was being very healthy on MJ compared to my previous eating habits.

It was quite easy for me to lose on MJ, was happening naturally.

I am very sporty so still had muscle definition. But my face was looking underfed and due to my body shape (pear) my top half of the body was looking very thin (and boobs were disappearing) and I didn't want to get even thinner.

My BMI was 20 when I stopped.

Eating a lot of bread would easily do it even if you were walking. Almost 90 cals in just one slice of Hovis...

Don't forget that's loads of extra bread on top of meals you're also eating, too. And if you're having mad sugar cravings I'm guessing you had some extra sugar too. It had to be food calories as the weight doesn't come from nowhere.

Especially if your body was in a bit of starvation mode and desperate for more calories (you did say you were gaunt). You've probably lost a load of muscle which means you're metabolism is now really slow and it's much easier for you to store the fat. You need to eat more protein and do more weights, get some muscle back.

That makes sense

If you’re sporty that’s really good. What sports do you do? Are there any activities that you find fun and could do on a regular basis?

Basically exercising will give you two benefits:

• on days when you exercise, the ability to eat more food as you will burn calories when exercising
• as you gain muscle, you can eat more when not exercising and maintain your weight, as muscle requires more calories so will increase your resting calories

So if you can incorporate your sport more, you’ll naturally give yourself a bit of a buffer with diet.

Also I came off MJ for about 5 weeks (I went cold turkey from 12.5mg). I gained 2kg. I probably still had MJ in my system which likely prevented me from gaining more.

I noticed that the increased appetite and food cravings happen very gradually; it just sneaks up on you? So I made the decision to go back on MJ and titrate down; as I wasn’t in the right headspace to overhaul my diet and properly monitor what I eat. I liked the easy nature of MJ. I have started exercising more and going to the gym though to set better habits in place for when I do stop in a few months.

Hello @BigLooser

I would like to send you a DM but it is not possible at the moment? Could you please try to DM me? I would like some advice as my situation is similar to yours.

If you were eating bread you are probably also holding water. If I eat a lot of carbs I tend to hang on to loads of water

The good news is that if this is the case you should loose it pretty quickly.

It's unlikely to be 10lbs of fat in a month unless you were eating half a loaf at a time.

Hi gracijela1, have sent you a message! 😊

Thanks for your advice! I like Body Pump and weights. Have started doing squats at home too.

That's the thing, I honestly wasn't staffing my face for 30 days straight!
Off the top of my head, I would have between 1 and 3 slices at lunch and dinner over 10 days (hard to explain, was visiting relatives so was not eating my usual foods). It is a lot of bread, granted, but I wouldn't have thought it is 5kg worth of weight.
Third day on MJ No 2, feeling suppression and 2 pounds down (hoorray) so some of it was definitely water retention. Keeping positive

With food noise, for coming back, and with myself, for still being unable to control it

I agree that it is unlikely to be 10lb of fat in a month. Likely to be a lot of water retention.

Good luck getting it back off. You have done it once so you know it’s doable.

Same here! I went too low so was happy to gain some back, but the speed it came back is terrifying! Trying to lose a few lbs and then maintain but with the mj this time! Keeping around 1500 calories but I feel bloated and look it! Food noise and cravings are ridiculous!

If your BMI was 20 when you stopped and you've gained 10 lbs since, then how have you been prescribed again? You must still be well within the healthy BMI range, even if you're very petite at 5ft a 10lb gain would put you at a BMI of 22.

Were you tracking your calorie intake during the off period?

Bread is high calorie, one slice can be 100 kcal. That's before you put anything on it. 1-3 slices at lunch and dinner is 200 - 600 calories per day. If you spread it with butter, that might be 400 - 1200 additional calories per day. Bread is the enemy!

I can still get MJ for maintaining which is what I have been trying to do (not successfully) by skipping a month

Not butter, but home-made jam 😭Not a lot, but the thing is, I had not been eating this kind of food for a long time. So a big sugar and carb overload

Best of luck!!! It worked before so will work again

What's with all the deleted posts? The ones which I managed to read did not seem to have anything wrong about them...