Piling the weight back on when stopping MJ

[Richtea67]

Hi all....I'm so disappointed. I lost 3 and a half stone, have been off injections for a month and regained nearly 7lbs 😩. I was a slow loser (1-2lb per week) and focused on changing habits and reducing portion size rather than diets/calorie counting (this has led to binging previously). I have kept up with a lot of the habits (smoothie for breakfast, cutting out alcohol and healthy high protein snacks). But portion sizes have definitely gone up as I'm hungrier! And I've been more tempted by the biscuits at work and the kids treats! Any advice?? I'm considering re starting if I put too much weight on, but financially this would be a struggle, which is part of the reason I came off them. My starting weight was 14.5 stones, weight when stopping injections 11 stones and at present nearly half a stone back on!! Help!

I’m baffled that anyone thinks there is a solution except staying on MJ.

If you come off it, on a population level, you will regain weight. Yes - There will be outliers, always. And we know people who use support groups (like the maintenance threads) do better. Daily weighers do better. Daily exercisers do better. But to pretend that maintaining on no GLP is the norm is simply not fair.

There is almost no anecdotal ‘evidence’ for anyone maintaining on no GLP for more that 2yrs. And anecdotes aren’t data.

But ultimately the clinical evidence is there to read.

@Richtea67
Sorry can’t offer much advice as I have never been able to maintain but it’s really good that you have recognised there is an issue rather than letting it roll on.
Ideally jump back on MJ but I understand that could be an issue due to financials.
If it were me I would be counting calories & prioritising fibre & protein to feel as full as possible.
Also weighing regularly to keep track.
Try and incorporate some exercise / up daily movement but don’t go overboard it needs to be enjoyable & sustainable.

What did you do?

Thank you for replies and insights all...I will have a more thorough read over the next couple of days. I'll have to think about a maintenance dose and maybe investigate with some of the providers....it will require some budgetting but I'll be gutted if I pile it all on.

In the meantime will have to be more mindful with what I'm eating, up the proteins. I think the thing with being on MJ is i had a blissful 8 months of not having to think about what I'm eating....I ate what wanted, but the key was that I didn't want it! I need to recognise that that all changes post jabs.

I think I've been quite naive really, not to have thought about this more carefully. I also stopped cold turkey, which may not have helped. It has scared me how quickly half a stone has gone back on...hopefully a wake up call as regaining all that weight is not an option.

I really am grateful for all replies, thank you x

My plan - when I eventually get to target - is to join Slimming World. In my experience, it’s not the best diet for weight loss as you still get plenty to eat. So it’s perfect for maintenance. These days, I’d be far more mindful of protein though. Years ago when following it, I’d be eating massive bowls of pasta.

@Richtea67 perhaps the best advice would be to see if you can budget for another few pens and try and taper down maybe to a dose that’s perhaps affordable. Or reduce time between doses. Speak to a pharmacy who offer naintenance.

loads of people out there truly believe they’ve cracked it and they’ll be just fine going forward so the great thing is you’ve now realised this may not be the case and you’ve realised it before a huge weight rebound.

@Redlightbulba reduction in the price of MJ would be a huge help. I can afford it but it is a slight juggle and it’s £140 a month that I’d rather not have to spend tbh

@Richtea67 , for those of us who gained weight because of glucose and insulin intolerance issues (sub clinical and undiagnosed) a life without MJ isn’t going to be slim and healthy in my opinion. So sorry. I’m very, very fortunate and I can afford to be on this for life and that is my intention.
I really hope that the government wakes up and understands the magnificent tool that exists here against so many causes of ill health and prescribes this drug for people on the NHS long term but sadly I don’t hold out any immediate hope.
If you can’t afford to stay on long term your only avenues to explore that I’m aware of are a diet designed to inhibit glucose spikes (look up the glucose goddess) and potentially Berberine. Good luck!

@FoxChops do you mind sharing what doses you have been doing since reaching your target weight, also are you exercising and calorie counting?
Thank you

i know some people do maintenance with one month on the Mounjaro and then one or more months off it - that approach might be worth trying if the cost of the pens is an issue.

As a PP said if you want to do maintenance you have to sort it now as if it has been longer than 12 weeks since your last pen nobody is allowed to prescribe until you hit BMI 30.

Fingers crossed the rumours of increased NHS prescribing become true or the price comes down in the near future. I think I read that the patents are due to expire in a few years. So the hopefully the cost will be a short-term problem and it's just a question of treading water for a while, but I wouldn't recommend going into debt of course. Personally, I was spending so much more on food before Mounjaro so I think I'll roughly break even (I am still on the lowest dose though which is cheaper than higher doses).

I am not trying to have a go but I am not sure what answers you expect SilenceInside?

If the evidence shows that only a few outliers are able to maintain weight loss without further medication, then there isn't really a solution for the vast majority of people other than more pens. The medicine is expensive so unfortunately not everybody is going to be able to afford it long-term, but sugarcoating the truth and offering false hope won't help anyone.

Correct me if I’m wrong but wouldn’t she need to do exactly this - reduce calories and exercise- even on the Mounjaro? The drug itself doesn’t take weight off does it?

That happens with weight loss without taking mounjaro too.

What do you mean - ‘patients are due to expire?’
are you saying they will die soon so Mounjaro won’t be a long term cost to the NHS? Surely not?

Read it again.

The smoothie in the morning is setting you up to fail..you'd be better off fasting until lunch or eating protein (eggs would be ideal)

She didn’t say patients she said patents. Basically meaning after a good few years other manufactures will be able to make a generic version of mounjaro using the active ingredient Tirzepatide then when there’s more than one manufacturer hopefully the prices will reduce…..

Have a look at the maintenance threads and see what people are doing on there.

I'm going to take it for a year and see how I go- have already lost more than half of the weight I needed to lose and have less than a stone to go to goal, then I might go half a stone less also. Once I'm at a weight I'm happy at I'll start to reduce the dose down, but essentially going out how I started. I also do a lot of exercise and find it easier being lighter.

Patients due to expire 🤣

Sorry, that's tickled me. Some days it bloody feels like it!

Use my fitness pal to track calories, measure portions and don't buy biscuits in etc. if it's not there you can't eat it. Not sure what to suggest re biscuits in work but if you're tracking on my fitness pal that will force you to make choices ( and if you only have x calories left you won't choose empty calories often at the expense of proper food).If you are still hungry is it because you need more of something (fat/ carbs/ protein?). It sounds tough though op. Must be very disappointing.

Haha I’m so relieved. I really thought she was casually saying that all of us on Mounjaro will be dying pretty quickly so the NHS won’t worry too much about any ongoing costs.

I’ve been up since 4 and not feeling great so I blame that for my poor reading.

Said with kindness, you’d do well to avoid swimming world. They teach bad habits & their ‘sins’ approach encourages disordered eating.
You’re more likely to have long term success if you understand calories, TDEE, and Macro’s.
So many healthy foods in SW are marked as sins, and so many foods which should be consumed in moderation are marked as free foods.

For OP, as others have said, cold turkey is rarely going to yield a positive outcome. You have to move to a maintenance dose. At the very least have a decent taper. If you’ve been on this for 8 months I’m not sure how you’ve phased up, used the drug, and tapered down again.

Well the options are to stay on a maintenance dose or to work really hard to restrict calories and live with being hungry a lot of the time. I know I would struggle to stay on the portion sizes I'm currently eating without Mj and would struggle to avoid snacks. But that would be my only option if I had to come up Mj.

Did you take any clinical advice on this? It’s known koi can’t just stop.

I think - and I'm not criticising you in the least by saying this - that people who lose weight using Mj by just continuing to eat what they ate before but less of it are at greater risk of gaining again. This is exactly what I did for the first 6 months when I used ozempic and again for the first 6 months of Mj but over time I started to pay more attention to protein and since then the meals I choose have changed. I'm not counting calories but I'm counting protein and that pushes me to make different choices about my meals which became automatically lower carb. I think over the past few months I've learnt more about protein and nutrition and while I don't kid myself that I would keep this up without Mj I definitely have changed my attitude to food in general.