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!

because these drugs do not address behaviour or psychology.... they create an articifical physical barrier to wanting to eat (plus some other bio chemical stuff) but when you are not using them they do not control what you put in your mouth and how much, all the 'temptations' and snacking and large portions and food choices are you - its always been you. Its a difficult reality. It takes enormous effort to keep weight off your body is always trying to return to a set point above where you are. I struggle with weight and although i am a perfect candidate for these drugs I dont want to take them - so its food choices, portion control and then movement and exercise. Its boring and I wish there was an easy answer for you but there isnt.

I feel guilty about the money which could be spent on other things for the benefit of the whole family

That there is where your thoughts are going wrong.
You have the absolute right to prioritise your own health and wellbeing above the wants of your family - even above the wants of your children (wants, not needs).

It is the way women are conditioned, to always put other people and "the family" first, that is the root of so many of our problems.

As disappointing as it is, there is no magic cure. What you need to do is eat consistently, over long term, in a calorie deficit and exercise being mindful of what you’re eating.

For those who insist MJ is not cheating it’s simply a tool, what’s it’s done is turn off the ‘food noise’, and that’s the key, if you have it good noise will always be there and it requires disciple to ignore. There’s no secret remedy.

I really hope you can get a handle on this, i say this with kindness as someone who had lost 5 st over 3 years with calorie counting and exercise. I’ve had a regain of a stone as I slipped back into old habits, but restricting my snacking and consuming in a deficit is working again and I’m losing. Good luck, it’s tough

I read a news article a few days ago and it said, nhs statistics proved that most patients went back to their original weight 12 months after ending weight loss injections. Honestly I'd be changing your diet and portion sizes and getting an hour's walk in each day.

There definitely needs to be more support for post WLI. I believe that if you don't dig deep and examine why you are fat (so why you are over consuming calories for your body), then you haven't solved anything really. I say this as someone who used WLI myself.

You have to understand what is driving you to put food in your mouth that you don't need or is a really poor choice. I can't believe there are going to be many people who don't know that you need to be eating decent amounts of protein and fibre and not too much carbs and fat to be eating well and not packing on the pounds. So, why do we end up eating biscuits, cakes, bags of crisps, massive plates of food etc? There in lies the tricky bit. Some of us have insulin resistance, some have thyroid issues, some have emotional drivers, some have long established bad habits, some probably have other complicated hormonal imbalances, some have genetics that err them towards easy weight gain, some it is lack of exercise and so on.

You need to get as much grip as is possible on the underlying issues that propel you to put the biscuit in your mouth as you can whilst on the WLI, otherwise you will end up in exactly the same place again. For some people that is going to be much harder than others, as they may have loads of the issues in that list (which isn't exhaustive) for others it will be easier and more straightforwards.

I'm still a work in progress and probably always will be. But the WLI gave me the chance to address some of my own over-consumption drivers - some of which I wasn't even aware of until I couldn't eat the food I wanted to. I'm maintaining so far, but I know 100% that it is going to require boring constant vigilance to do this.

Anyhow, long spiel over. Come and join the maintenance thread @Richtea67 . We are all muddling through. There's no judgement and it may be helpful.

I don't think this statement is controversial, is it? If you stop MJ all the evidence suggestions the weight will be regain (unless of course diet and exercise changes are sustained).

You say financialy it would be a struggle but it’s available on the nhs isn’t it? Excuse me if I am wrong but I have just searched online and that’s what it says.

@Lassangois absolutely right here.

you’ll need to stay on them forever if you want to avoid piling on the weight.

I read a thread here the other day about what people ate on injections. It was appalling and clearly eating disorder territory. a lack of all key nutrients, counting chips (e.g. I ate two tangtastics, 5 chips, a bag of wotsits and a yogurt)

the only way forward is learning about proper nutrition and exercise.

I think injections have a place in very obese people. They can use it to drop the weight to allow exercise to take place but in a lot of people it’s just that they don’t like the feeling of being hungry or thinking about food.

I think they are a ticking time bomb to bigger problems overall.

i can highly recommend the work of dr robert lustig - his books are brilliant, full of accurate facts and data and written from a really compassionate point of view. I actually cried when I read his book 'fat chance' because he really explained what was going on in the body and how hard it was for an individual to control weight. Lots of good advice on what dietary changes can be made, so practical as well. Its not rocket science - I also watch Dr Now videos to keep motivated

NRTFT but have you tried adding Chia seeds to your diet. You can sprinkle them on your food or add as a topping to yoghurts or make up in water and cordial to drink.
Doing this has the effect of prolonging the satiety of your food so that you don't feel hungry. DH and I have done this recently as he is wrangling with diabetes and I just need to stop snacking. The result is a slow weight loss which we are both happy with and snacks for both of us has fell off a cliff!!

strict criteria and not available to everyone, even those obese and diabetic

I was on 5mg but it was making me really really down, didn’t want to even leave the house so I thought fuck this I’m stopping, and just stopped.

This is essentially what I'm now doing too. I've lost 42lbs on MJ and now a size 8/10. For the last 3 months I've been maintaining well on 7.5mg (and have actually lost another 2lbs, despite going on holiday).

I've started increasing the time between jabs, so now go 9 days between, and hoping to eventually stretch that out to 12 days. I've also started doing the hard twist to get the bonus dose from the pen too.

But, ultimately I'm prepared to stay on this maintenance dose for the long term. Fortunately, I can afford it, but I also want to benefit from the protection it provides against cancer, heart disease, dementia, strokes and kidney disease. Plus, obviously the numerous health benefits gained from not being overweight.

You cannot ever eat like you did, it's coming to terms with that which is quite a realisation.

This.
Imagine learning that you had to become vegetarian or even vegan, when you didn't want to.
No more bacon, chicken, roasts, ham slices, sausages, cheese, butter, milk, pizzas, quiches, puddings, etc. etc. All your favourites, all your convenient and familiar meals, all your default snacks - gone forever.

Imagine your whole life, family, job, everything, suddenly being transported to Bulgaria (or wherever), and from now on you can only speak Bulgarian, and everyone around you speaks only Bulgarian, but you don't know the language and have no choice but to learn and get on with it.

Most people never accept or come to terms with the change needed, a change that goes right back to earliest emotional conditioning, and right down into the deepest roots of their food habits.
They imagine going back to their "normal" foods after losing the weight, just being a 'bit more careful', watching portion sizes, etc.
That doesn't work.

@Richtea67 - my strong recommendation would be to join WeightWatchers and go to their weekly meetings. It will be a cost but significantly less than Mounjaro.

WW is not just about losing weight but about the (arguably more difficult) lifelong step of 'maintenance'. What I personally like about WW is 1) how it digs into behaviours and addressing them, and 2) that it's not about calorie counting as such and how their 'points' systems nudges you into healthy/healthier eating.

What I find sobering though is how the Gold members who attend - ie those who've reached their target weight - still struggle...

@drasticdonkey I disagree. If you trawl through the many, many WLI threads you will find that in the main people are striving to make healthy eating choices and are very far from disordered eating territory. For many people on WLI it is the first time in a long time that there eating is actually well 'ordered' and their choices are healthy. Of course, there are exceptions but in the main from the threads that I researched before starting WLI and the thread that I was on for 6+ months that most definitely was not the case.

If the only answer was to learn about proper nutrition and exercise - why are people obese? We've been told about proper nutrition and exercise for over 40 years now and yet the obesity problem only gets worse. Surely if the solution was so incredibly simple, everyone would be a healthy weight?

It is really difficult OP as while their are stories of people keeping the weight off over the the longer term the actual research shows clearly that most people are regaining around 2/3 of the weight they lost after stopping. I suppose there will be more of a push for maintenance drug use as all the people using it now and losing lots of weight start to regain after a while.

I imagine that the ability to continue using a GLP-1 will be based various factors, side effects, long term issues people might develop, costs and other risk vs benefit analysis. The medications are quite expensive if you are paying for them privately so I think most people are using them temporarily to lose weight and then hoping they can keep the weight off themselves in future but as you have seen its not that simple.

I second this. It’s really helped me change the way I see food.

Download my fitness pal and calorie count! It is honestly the only way. The whole point of WLI’s is also to make lifestyle changes and not continue eating what you want but just less of it. I’m over half way through my journey and have about 21lbs left to loose. I will then go onto a maintenance dose and carry on calorie counting as I’m think it is the only way to keep the weight off. Doing this you can see where your calories are going as you are to be blunt clearly over eating as to put on 1lb you need to have over eaten by around 3500 calories. I also use the mantra ‘a moment on the lips a lifetime on the hips!’

It's worse than just regaining the weight. The studies are showing lost muscle mass over time so they'll weight regain is replacing muscle with fat, so you end up "fatter" than you started

3 key points to keeping weight off long term with WLI:

Stay on the drug
Exercise
Protein intake

It's incredible that even in this thread people blame the OP and say 'oh you clearly didn't learn how to eat healthily! it's on you!'. And I also saw someone say 'it reduces hunger and does some biochemical stuff'.

For some people, the 'biochemical stuff' is of the essence. They know full well how to eat healthily and work out. But even when they do, they will still maintain or gain their weight.

I've been dieting from the age of 14. Meticulously logging my food intake, working out daily, etc.Tried fasting, no UPF, starvation, shakes, keto, slimming world, weight watchers, and so on. I literally have about 10 years of food tracking history in MyFitnessPal, and used other tools before that. I was constantly the one turning down high-calorie foods and drinks. Could never fully enjoy a meal out, as I'd be having a small starter and a salad when everyone else was having what they wanted. With great effort I would maybe lose 1-2 kg. One bigger meal, and I would regain it all, and then some. Sometimes I'd be so dishearted that I would eat some high-calorie foods for a while, and gain 8-9 kg back in a fortnight. I know, and always knew, full wel how to 'eat healthily and work out regularly'. Yet still some of you will think 'well she clearly didn't track everything she ate, and probably cheated, otherwise she would have been skinny'.

Mounjaro fixed whatever was wrong, and I will gladly take it for life. I go longer between doses (reaching the 40 day limit). The cost for me is about £110/month. That's worth it, and I'm hopeful that cheaper alternatives will be brought to market soon.

In addition, I live an active life, rarely drink alcohol, focus on protein and fibre, and reduce UPF intake to 10% or less. But I'd have done that anyway. I still get hungry and can enjoy food, but this time when I go to a restaurant, I can join in normally.

If you can afford it, my advice would be to go back on MJ on a low maintenance dose, and take it from there. The problem is not you or your lack of willpower, it's your body's 'biochemical stuff'.

I've also found (not sure if anyone else agrees?) that the drugs are way less effective with time. After stoping and restarting the same drug I've noticed far far less effective on my appetite this time round. It's working again but much much slower than the first time, and I really have to watch my diet. First time round I found I genuinely couldn't over eat if I tried. This time round, I can so I have to be much more mindful. This time feels like just being on a normal diet with a bit of reduction in food noise. First time round felt like being a completely different person!

I knew within 3 days of starting mounjaro that I'd need to stay on it in some shape or form for the rest of my life. I'm just praying and hoping that an easier and more affordable way of doing that will soon be available.

i said biochemical stuff as a shorthand acknowledgement as there had already been pages and pages of people explaining in detail how the drugs work, there is no need for me to repeat that - my point, which you appear to have glossed over, is that these drugs do not address underlying behaviour. In this case OP says she did not change her diet at all while on the drugs and is now surprised she is putting on weight once the artificial barrier has been removed.

And if you took the time to look at my other posts, you will see that i reference the same point as you - that the body is very hard to control and it is not our fault BUT we are the only ones to try and help it even if we have underlying endocrinology issues (as well as behaviour challenges). Sometimes we do make poor choices, we eat badly and we are surprised that we are fucking up our bodies. Its complex and I am sorry its been such a rough ride for you.

Why are you wondering when this thread has comprehensively answered that already?