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!

Wow! Amazing advice! If only we'd thought of that before! /sarcasm

Yeah, all right - I didn't RTFT (obviously!) but no need to be so snippy.😳

Not for the vast majority of people, no. It will be within a decade but not yet.

I don't think there is a way of coming off the injections and not gaining weight unless you significantly change something else.

I'm about halfway through my Mounjaro journey, I've lost 26lbs so far and have loved how WLI have made me feel. But I am scared of what happens when I come off them and I can't afford to be on them long term.... I'm also worried about potential long term side effects we're not fully aware of yet.

My plan at the moment is to continue intermittent fasting. I did it anyway before starting Mounjaro and it was excellent for maintaining weight.... just not great at actually losing it. Two meals a day and no snacking the vast majority of the time. I think most if not all people are going to need to use some form of maintenance tool....whether that's staying on a low dose of Mounjaro, intermittent fasting, Slimming World, calorie counting etc.

I am aware though that I need to change my habits and try and use my time on injections to retrain my brain. I have been guilty of relying on the appetite suppression to do the work and neglecting exercise and proper nutrition. That is something I need to get to grips with or I'll never succeed long term.

i think your last para is absolutely spot on

I considered Liposuction as had negative reactions to the Ozempic I tried.

Had a consultation with a private doctor and he was very honest with me. Said it wouldn’t help as I would be left with loose skin that I wouldn’t like ( for context I’m a size 16 so not huge though technically fall into the obese category). I was surprised when he said Lipo is most suitable for people who are only a bit unweight & don’t like their shape.

Like many others I found that my appetite came back with a vengeance after stopping Ozempic so that would be my fear with Mounjaro too ( as well as worrying the side effects would be bad again).

I agree it’s too simplistic to say that everyone who is overweight eats for emotional reasons.

I eat too many snacks and I readily admit it’s because they taste so delicious and my will power isn’t great. Same goes for my old Labrador, seeing as the dog analogy has been raised.

Some dog breeds are prone to overeating too and it’s nothing to do with their emotions.

The jabs are so effective that many of us do start to believe the medicated versions of ourselves are the real person - that we can easily control what we eat and maintain with healthy eating and going to the gym. I was just like that - until I stopped injecting and regained a stone (of 3.5) in just over a month. Now I’m back on, slowly peeling off the weight gained and have realised this is a forever thing. The lovely nurse I chat to via my provider initially put me back on 2.5 when I restarted, and the weight gain stopped overnight - though I need to be on a higher dose to actually lose it. I found that useful information. I am already talking to her about maintenance. She knows we aren’t all rich and the cost is a struggle so she’s willing to eg prescribe a 5mg pen and let me count clicks to do 2.5 weekly so the pen lasts two months instead of one halving the cost. Obviously I keep the pen in the fridge. Or inject every other week. There are options. And I’m hoping to switch to a generic when they (fingers crossed) become available at a lower price. About to eat an orange, fill my water bottle with protein water and head to the gym to use the weight machines. I do my bit, but my biology is against me. It’s like having high blood pressure. For many people, they can exercise, cut out salt etc and it helps, but if they stop taking their meds, their BP goes up, so they stay on them for life.

Tell me you've never been obese with disordered eating ....

Interesting… do you mean you reorder once e month like normal so you have a stockpile of pens building up?

If I did try Mounjaro after my bad experience of Ozempic I would definitely try micro dosing as I seem to be a super responder. After literally my first injection I had zero appetite.

I do think this is a complicated thing and it’s really individual - some people definitely have weight gain related to underlying medical/ hormonal imbalances , medications and often a lack of exercise too

others will regain the weight because they will go back to eating much as before when their appetite isn’t being artificially suppressed or they haven’t overcome the mental aspect of why they tend to overeat/over drink/ reach for snacks - whatever their individual weight gaining vice is.

in my case I lost quite a lot of weight ( not on WLI) and then I’m not sure why but I simply stopped weighing and started up again with the habits that caused the problem in the 1st place- not eating that much in the day but husband sized meals at night ( I like cooking) half a bottle of wine 3 times a week, cheese and ham croissant at breakfast etc - I’m not a snacker so to others my diet looked good - plenty of protein salad and veg, lots of fish, fruit , not much snacking - but on reflection lots of my evening meals would be 1100 cals on their own and apart from walking I did no excercise .

as I’m 63 and only 5ft 4 the reality is I need far less than what in theory I want - and it only takes the odd cake out once a week or a muffin or too many cappuccinos for it to tip over onto a small but constant gain

i myself have come off MJ after 6 weeks and am calorie counting , changed habits and have upped the exercise - will see how it goes - at the moment it’s still downwards in a similar pace to when I was using 2.5 MJ - but for me I don’t want/like suppression as I’ve got good willpower - I wanted to change habits and try new things and I didn’t like the fact ‘for me’ that I ended up eating an extremely limited bland diet to try and keep the heartburn and a bit of nausea and tummy ache at bay .

my own view and i know others won’t agree with me is that I feel you could have a go at maintaining your weight first without it for a few months if you reach a goal weight you are happy with, using your new changed habits and see how it goes - yes you may go up a few pounds, but then that’s little to lose by non medicated methods. I appreciate it’s got quite a few positive benefits generally but I’m not sure suppressing appetite for ever more is going to be that enjoyable a ride plus the moment an expensive ride!

Obesity and disordered eating IS a chronic disease. This drug does not miraculously alter your brain chemistry. Most obese people will have struggled their whole lives. If they could "learn" to "just eat less/healthy portions" then no-one would be obese. The ignorant patronising comments drive me mad. It isn't a quick fix done forever drug.
DOI I am a GP with a post grad qualification in diabetes and obesity who uses this drug a lot.
DOI2 I have been obese most of my adult life. This drug has saved my life. I am 60lbs down with another 40 or so to go. And intend to stay on it in some way forever.

Humans are designed to fast and feast so that is nonsense. Our problem is the monetisation of food at the cost to health.

It seems to be a problem full stop with weight gain. No matter how people lose it they seem to pile it back on and more.

I did weight watchers years ago and went down to a 10 which I had not been since I was 20. Maintained for 2 years and piled it back on. Now a size 18

The one time I lost weight and then really piled it back on was in lockdown when I did Very Fast 800. Lost about a stone and a half in eight weeks. But then things started to open up again, busy life resumed and I also craved carbs and alcohol like an addict. Also I wasn't going to the gym then.

I think there were a particular set of life circumstances there which would not be repeated now. But what I learned on the diet side is that cutting out things or being too severe doesn't work. So I'm really trying not to do that with Mounjaro, and am taking it steady.

The positive from that experience were that I love the Fast Diet recipe books and use them frequently now. But I definitely don't try to have too low or no carbs as it just doesn't fit with my life. Plus I find protein combined with fibre, particularly complex carbs is filing, and not necessarily always fish/meat/eggs etc on their own or with veg.

The answer to how I'll keep it off long term without Mounjaro is constant vigilance. The same really as when I was slim in my late teens and 20s, I always had to watch what I eat and exercise, being slim was never a natural state.

Even at BMI 27-29 as I've mostly been in the last 15 years I was watching my weight and exercising - it stopped me getting into the obese zone, apart from once which I didn't pay attention to that for several months in a really stressful job, and helped me lose weight from being BMI 32 and keep that off. So how will I keep the weight off at BMI 22/23? By doing the same. And knowing that there is the possibility of a small dose of Mounjaro for correction if the weight starts to creep up again.

I think within the next 18 months the media is going to be full of stories of people who have regained the weight after stopping the jabs. It will be the next focus they move onto.

@Slimfornow You say:

The jabs are so effective that many of us do start to believe the medicated versions of ourselves are the real person - that we can easily control what we eat and maintain with healthy eating and going to the gym.

But why can't you? Surely once someone has lost the weight (quickly and easily with WLI) then it must be easier to control what they eat, go to the gym, walk, etc. as they will want to stick at their new weight and not pile it all (and more) back on?

This. It's pretty obvious isn't it? Stay on a maintenance dose or eat within your calorie allowance that enables you to stay at the weight you want. The former is going to be expensive and the latter is going to be more difficult.

Those are the two options, that's it.

The amount of patronising nonsense and rhetoric on this thread is staggering. Why do people think they know things with absolutely no qualification other than a few tiktok videos

Does anyone know how it works with maintenance? I’m near goal but nobody has said anything or questioned my weight. Will it get to a point where they’ll stop my doses and then I’ll need to negotiate with them to me on maintenance? I’m with Voy

"But why can't you? Surely once someone has lost the weight (quickly and easily with WLI) then it must be easier to control what they eat, go to the gym, walk, etc. as they will want to stick at their new weight and not pile it all (and more) back on?"

It's not that simple. I lost two stone with Wegovy. Tapered down and then came off them. The food noise is back, like it had never been away. I'm now thinking I need a maintenance dose.

My only suggestion would be to go cold turkey on sugar. Sugar is like a drug to the brain, so if you can avoid biscuits, it will help a bit.

I think the actual science of weight loss shows pretty much the opposite that the body desperately tried to compensate to regain lost weight after a huge weight loss. It does this by increasing appetite and decreasing energy expenditure in ways people often don't even notice, for others who have always dealt with massive cravings for food, perhaps unhealthy foods these will frequently come roaring back once they are off the GLP-1's.

God I agree, smoothies are loads of calories and don’t fill me up at all.

This is a chat and people are, you know, having a chat, which includes giving their opinion.