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!

Well yes, but Mounjaro makes it easy/possible

I wouldn’t get too excited yet about the NHS widening the prescription criteria. Until long term effects of the drugs are known when taken specifically for weight loss (as opposed to taking it for diabetes) they won’t risk a wider rollout. I’m not just talking about people potentially developing medical problems but also eating disorders triggered by the body essentially being forced into starvation mode for months on end. There is so much anecdotal evidence already about appetites returning with a vengeance when people stop that it’s easy to see how an ED could develop afterwards.

7lb can be chipped back off if you reset your mind today. You can do this. Dont buy biscuits in. Keep a journal. This is just a minor set back not a slide back down. Show yourself how you can do this. Remember how good you’ve been feeling.😘

So OP has to start another restrictive diet to lose the weight which is probably why she ended up wanting to take MJ in the first place. Back on the yo yo treadmill in other words.

My GP said WLI are a ticking time bomb for eating disorders and I can see what she means.

OP could you restrict carbs? Try following fast 800 but allow yourself more calories.

Some of the posts do seem a bit gleeful about people gaining - perhaps don’t mean to come across that way.

Metabolic issues😄. MJ takes away feelings of hunger so it's easy to stick to a diet. As OP said she's hungrier without which makes her increase portion sizes plus feeling tempted by biscuits. MJ doesn't fix metabolic issues anymore than amphetamine.

Apart from the cost, putting weight back on is the biggest downside of these injections.

I was piled on for saying that a couple of months ago but it’s true.

On any diet, when you go back to eating your normal way, you are bound to put weight on, especially after being so restrictive.

The injections massively reduce your food cravings and so when you stop them, all of a sudden those hunger pangs come back and your brain goes into overdrive and the food noise is 10x as bad as it was and it would be very easy to put the weight back on.
You still have the fat cells in your body, they have just shrunk.
So maintaining your weight is just as hard as dieting.

I think these injections are a breakthrough for so many people but they’re not a magic wand and I think it would be cost effective for the government to offer therapy or nutrition services alongside it, to help people when they come off them.

Some posters say they’re planning to stay on the injections forever or keep going back on them which just isn’t sustainable and a bit short sighted.

The good news is that you are still slimmer than what you were before and so now it’s a case of maintaining your current weight and perhaps slowly dropping those extra pounds you’ve put on.

Your body/brain is really hungry and so you’re going to want those big portion sizes but just make sure that most of your plate is veg.

I lost weight by having half of my plate full of veg and filling up on that.
I prioritise protein and then have loads of veg. Then have everything else in moderation.
If I’m really hungry I will eat more protein or veg before anything else.
Protein is very filling and good for weight loss.
Veg is low calorie and good for weight loss.

My snacks are mainly things like sugar free jelly, ice poles, low calorie popcorn because I can graze on them without too many calories.

Your goal is to eat as much food as you can but within a calorie limit.
That way your body isn’t thinking it’s starving and the food noise isn’t so loud.

I would also exercise like walking and weight lifting which will build muscle and burn calories, making maintaining your weight so much easier.

Sorry to have given you a scare!

I have just checked and it looks like we won't see Mounjaro generic options until 2039, but Wegovy/Ozempic generic options could be 2031/2032. I know Mounjaro is more effective, but hopefully the Wegovy generics might be sufficient for maintenance. It's still a fair few years off though.

I heard they are working on a pill version too which might potentially be cheaper/a better option for maintenance (the one month time limit is a bit annoying with the pens if you want to microdose or spread the injections), but again it's all on the horizon. It still seems to me that there aren't any options other than trying traditional dieting/willpower/lifestyle changes and if that doesn't work try to find a way to pay for the pens.

But it's so much easier to stick to a diet plan when you don't feel any hunger..

Years ago I was 16 stone, went down to 12 stone. Struggled to maintain and went up to 18 stone.

I felt so powerless. Maybe OP will be ok but they need to have a chat with a maintenance friendly pharmacy now.

Mounjaro doesn't 'force the body into starvation mode' why do you think that?

Do you understand how weight loss works? Of course she has to restrict calories. That's how we lose weight.

@Richtea67 I know how depressing it is to regain weight after you've lost it, especially when you think "this is it!"

It's only 7lbs, if you went back on you know that would come off easily.

I think if k were you I'd source a pen to have it there and experiment with doses. It just takes the pressure off you and takes away the panic of feeling out of control and regaining before your eyes despite your best efforts.
Depending on how much you end up taking maintenance may well cost less than the £140pm.

You can always try again to titrate down and have a gap, knowing you have that safety net.

@Cucy
Some posters say they’re planning to stay on the injections forever or keep going back on them which just isn’t sustainable and a bit short sighted

why?

Of course it does. MJ suppresses appetite so the user ends up with a huge calorie deficit. The body, however, needs a certain amount of baseline calories just to function, so when it dips significantly below for months at a time it’s in the starvation cycle of the feast and famine cycle. Come off the drug and your body is ready to feast! It’s basic biology.

But there is restricting calories and there is the massive deficits that MJ appears to put the body into - loads of users are reporting on this board how they barely eat on it.

Where did you get the idea that users have a 'huge' calorie deficit? Why do you think it causes people to eat below their baseline calorie needs?

Again, what 'massive' deficits?
Are you taking Mounjaro? Have you ever taken Mounjaro? Are you a prescriber?

I'm eating on it fine. I'm losing 1-2 lb a week which is completely normal.

I have PCOS with insulin resistance. Mounjaro is treating that. No amount of good vibes or willpower will ever cure my metabolic disorder and that's why I turned to medicine.

I could try other medicine like Metformin for maintenance but I'd want to do that with a maintenance friendly provider in case it doesn't work.

These boards. Medical news reports. The media. Anecdotal evidence of severe calorie restriction on WLI exists and it’s disingenuous to say it doesn’t.

So you're not a Mounjaro user or prescriber?

Some people have very strong reactions to the drug and can't eat enough. However those people are rare. The vast vast majority of people are eating with small to medium calorie deficits and losing 0.5-2lbs a week at the most. The drug is not designed to create massive calorie deficits and does not do so in the vast majority of people.

No, I desperately wanted to. I am at least three stone overweight with a BMI of 31. But I have a history of bulimia so when I went to beg my GP she said no chance and opened my eyes to the potential ticking time bomb of what coming off these drugs might do to people. I know users hate any sign of dissent on these boards but I’m not going to apologise for sharing info about the cons. I have suffered so much for decades with my ED and I would hate any woman to suffer the same as the result of these drugs.

There's a lot of 'rare' people on these boards then, saying the can barely manage 800 calories.

A friend IRL just started taking them and struggled to eat a rice cake for breakfast.

I'm sorry you've got that to deal with and I'm sorry that precludes you from going on Mounjaro. I would say that GPs don't know any more about Mounjaro than the average layperson and their opinions are as varied as yours and mine are. GPs don't prescribe Mounjaro, on the NHS is comes under specialist clinics and otherwise it's private prescribers. Your GP advice is probably correct for you but that doesn't mean it applies across the board. It's coloured by your GP's life experience, biases and assumptions just like everyone else whether they are a Mj user or not.
Of course we who are on the drug don't want to consider drawbacks - but sensible people are doing regardless. I know that I'd gain weight if I came off it now. I'm hopeful that if I maintain a healthy weight for a couple of years using maintenance I might be able to taper to nothing but if not so be it. I'm not in a massive calorie deficit and never have been. I do have to work hard to eat enough protein because I'm vegan and it's an effort. But I don't count calories.

Read up on The Ancel Keys experiment, Those men were on 1,600 calories a day.