MJ maintenance - thinking of reducing from 15mg to 5mg. Anyone done this?

[Megovy]

I started on MJ a year ago. I’ve lost 5 stone and 5 lbs. I’d like to lose another 7lbs. I don’t want to come off MJ completely but I’d prefer not to be forking out £200 a month forever. I know from when I used to be slim and keep my weight down I was often feeling like I was starving, and had constant food noise. I’d rather stay on MJ even with the cost.

I’m thinking of reducing my dose from 15mg to 5mg and staying on that dose. Has anyone else done this?

Well done on your weight loss and getting so close to target!

I'm not there yet, so no own experience but a couple of things I have picked up that I hope you don't mind me sharing -

Are you planning to taper down slowly - 15mg to 10mg to 5mg or step straight down? It might be worth plotting out how the levels reduce using something like the GLP1plotter or GLP1calculator websites. Dropping dose will be similar to dose increases and won't stabilise at a lower level until a few weeks. Important so you know what to expect each week when you drop.

My provider in their maintenance Q&As recommends increasing calories to maintenance calories slowly over several weeks, perhaps increasing by 50-100 calories a day each week until at maintenance level. Sometimes known as reverse dieting it lets your metabolism and hormones slowly adapt to more calories again after a long time in calorie deficit, and you can adjust calories/dose if you start to gain or struggle until you find your sweet spot.

The last nugget I've picked up (after my cravings returned over Christmas) is I will need to be careful if increasing calories includes introducing more carbs and fats they need to be healthy ones to stop the cravings/sugar spikes and crashes etc coming back. I think I will be low sugar forever. But that is an area I need to look into more before I get there.

Is there a thread on maintenance that you might get more advice from those with real experience of this stage?

Good luck!

I think you're supposed to titrate down, not just go from 15 to 5mg. I'm with juniper and am currently on 7.5mg. I'm now at a healthy bmi of 22.8 and they've said I need to start to titrate down so they've sent me one more 7.5 pen and then il get a 5mg then a 2.5mg and stay on 2.5mg for maintenance. I'm just praying the food noise doesn't come back really badly.

Who is your provider?

There is no fixed way to do it @JoanCollinsDiva it is, or should be, very much patient led with prescribers advice/support.

Patients can stay where they are, taper down at what ever speed they choose to, or even stop cold turkey.

I would be wary of any prescriber saying you "need to" for maintenance as there is no "need to" it is all prescriber/patient specific and should be a mutual agreement on how to progress.

WeAllHaveWings
Yes you're probably right - I'm worried that going back to 2.5mg won't work for me in which case il have to stay on a higher dose. I just hope if juniper don't agree with that I can swap to someone who will.

Hi, just wanted to share my experience, I decided a while ago that I was happy with my weight - I’d lost 3 stone, BMI in the normal range and decided I’d titrate down, I was on 10mg and went down to 7.5, I found that I may as well have completely stopped, the hunger came back with a vengeance and I put on 3lbs.

Ive since gone back to 10mg and will stick with it for a while, then give it a go titrating back down again. I thought I’d cracked it and that because I’d spent over 6 months with completely changed eating habits it would be straight forward.

if I have to stay on it for good I probably will to be honest, but I’d rather not.

Thanks all. Yes, I meant taper down and order 12.5mg next and so on until I’m on 5mg as that seems to be the lowest dose for maintenance. Although being on 15mg hasn’t been what I expected. I can finish a roast dinner now which just wasn’t possible when I was on lower doses. Long-term, I don’t want complete appetite suppression, I just want something to take the edge off what feels like a life long battle with keeping my weight down.

Thanks for those tips @WeAllHaveWingsI’ve not heard of those GLP1 tools so I’ll take a look. I’ve actually avoided calorie counting apart from the first couple of months. I feel like I’m in a good meal routine now and would like to stick to that when I either go on to maintenance or stop completely. My concern is that if I come off MJ completely and months later want to start it again, my BMI will be too low to start it.

@JoanCollinsDivaI’m with Bolt. I’ve spoken to them about maintenance. The advice seems quite general, choose to either stop, or go onto maintenance of 12, 10 or 5mg. If you break for (I think) 5 weeks you start at the lowest dose again (but I need to check whether you must be over 30 BMI to qualify to restart).

Can’t really complain though, I’m absolutely delighted with my results! I’m now a size 12 and feel great and actually enjoying summer more now that I don’t have to spend so long trying to find clothes that I can hide under but also keep me cool.

Following with interest- well done with your weight loss, I’m in a similar position but still 6kg to go!

My provider has me on 2.5mg now I have reached my goal.