When you stay on a low dose so you can eat more...

[CanILeaveMyJobPlease]

I've read a couple of threads where people have made comments such as "gone back down to 5mg as couldn't cope with not being able to eat enough on 7.5mg" or "I don't want to move up from 2.5mg because I won't be able to eat enough".

As someone who (probably unhealthily) is finding themself addicted to the feeling of full suppression and absolutely loves not wanting to eat, I'm really curious about this.

Why do you want to eat? (now I've just written that, I feel a bit stupid for writing this question!! But I'll leave it as maybe the answers are more varied than I think!) And what do you mean by "I couldn't cope with not being able to eat enough"?

(Just trying to make sense of my own unhealthy relationship with food and hunger. I'm at maintenance now so towards the end of my mj journey. But scared to start coming down the doses and I cannot understand how it feels to want to eat more and not chase suppression)

For me, it was the fact that I didn’t want to lose weight too quickly and end up with muscle loss and/or loose skin. I also wanted to be able to come off MJ without having to go from full suppression to starving!
I never went higher than 7.5mg and came off MJ in November after getting to a BMI of 23. I’ve managed to stay at that weight ever since so it was an approach that worked for me.

For me it was because I hated not having any interest in food, all day, every day. I would push my evening meal around my plate before admitting that I physically "couldn't" eat. I was also having other side effects, so was an easy decision to reduce dose.

I am on week 9. Still on 2.5mg. I want to have just enough suppression so I can make healthy choices, teach myself to eat smaller meals, teach myself that feeling a little hunger is not only ok, it is normal. I will move up the doses when needed, but for now 2.5 is working how I want it to.

I don't want to feel so off my food that life becomes miserable.
I don't want to lose weight so fast my skin and hair suffers (I am 54 and fear rapid weight loss would age me dreadfully)

I want to eat the way a 'normal' person eats. Smaller, healthy meals enjoyed with friends and family, stopping when I feel satisfied.

If I suppress appetite to the point I don't want to eat at all then I will have swapped 'eating till I explode and feeling dreadful' for 'hardly eating anything and feeling dreadful'. Neither are healthy options for me.

Edited to add - I do 16:8 fasting and I do love the feeling of not eating during my fast period, so I think I understand where you are coming from.

I need to have energy to exercise and function. I really struggled with exhaustion when I started . I amnot going above 5. I am week 11 and have lost 9 kg

This is me! I have no interest in food. But I love it. (It's so refreshing. Previously I could have eaten all my meal, plus seconds, plus bits from the childrens plates, and then wanted a desert!! Not because I like food, but simply due to hunger. I actually am not fussed about food and never have been. But I always used to just be sooo ravenous!) Now I am happy with a few bites of a sandwich! I guess it would be more healthy to hate only being happy with a few peas. I wonder why some love it and some hate it.

This is how I envisioned my journey.

I didn't want to go higher than 2.5mg or 5mg because I didn't want to have to come down from a high dose. But I love the feeling of suppression so much I'm on 12.5mg even though I'm in maintenance. I think it's the fear of losing control. If I have a day when I'm hungry, I eat and eat so I inject myself as soon as I realise what's happening, so I can get the suppression back. It's like I just cannot moderate my hunger/eating without mj. I literally can't stop eating when I don't have mj inside me.

(Twenty or more years ago I was bulimic. Given how out of control I feel without mj, I'm understanding my past bulimia a bit more now. I just don't think I've ever been able to just eat and stop. Maybe there is just something wrong with my satiety signals and without mj I just am always hungry! I think too, that I panic when I feel hungry and think - oh no, I'm gonna binge. I can't seem to tolerate feeling hungry. It's like it's reminding me of my whole life's relationship with food. Now I finally don't feel hungry, I am so scared of that feeling...

Thanks. This all makes sense. I can see it logically. I just can't feel it!

Yeah, I am tired a lot. So I get that. I am trying to time it so I get my hungry day on the same day as swimming club. If swim club is too close to jab day then I can't move up the pool!

The first week I did 2.5 I was struggling to eat 600 calories a day I felt so full, I've decided on 2.5 for my second pen because I'm averaging 1000 -1300 calories and have to be conscious about eating regularly. I don't want more suppression and to eat even less, there are nutritional issues that come with essentially starving yourself. I want to be able to eat an amount that can nourish my body. I think being addicted to feeling full whilst not eating isn't a healthy mindset

I say this with absolutely no judgement because I have a history of binging, purging, and binge-eating disorder, but if you possibly can, I'd really encourage you to get some therapy to address this. What you're describing is a symptom of your eating disorder.

I’m with you. I am loving the feeling of not having to think about food at all. It’s taken me five weeks but I am now in a routine for eating four tiny meals a day (including a protein shake) even if I am not remotely hungry. I felt this was important for me as I am a yo yo dieter and didn’t want to get to the end of this process and immediately gain weight the minute I started eating again. However, I am getting to day 5 and starting to lose suppression. I don’t want to go up a dose to 7.5 just yet though so am managing this by jabbing a day early (so day 6). Luckily my provider seems to want me to order two weeks ahead so this is manageable for now.

I’m wk 10 - on 4mg and no plans to move up. I definitely still feel hungry and still get a bit of food noise. I don’t plan to move up for a few reasons:

• I don’t want to lose weight so fast my hair falls out
• i have an anorexic teen and younger kids - they all need to see me eating healthily and taking part in family meals
• i need energy to exercise
• i want to be able to maintain this loss - I need to still be experiencing hunger and some food noise so I can learn to deal with these feelings when I come off the drug.

OP I don’t mean to sound unkind but as the mum of a child with an eating disorder your post is ringing major alarm bells for me. You don’t sound well and I don’t think the mindset you have sounds safe or healthy. Are you managing to maintain your weight or are you still losing? Is there anyone you could talk to about how you are feeling?

I’ve hit goal and about to try to start maintaining. I went up to 12.5 to shift the last few pounds as they weren’t going anywhere on 10 and I’m finding it very strong.

I LIKE food. I LIKE enjoying delicious food. At the moment, I sit in front of a plate of food and just cannot be bothered with it. That’s a horrible feeling!

I also want to be able to nourish my body so I can have loads of energy to do as much exercise as I want and whizz around my daily life. I want to have glowing, healthy skin and hair (as much as I can at my age!😂) and be bright and alert. I also don’t want to lose too much weight too quickly.

These are all the reasons why I don’t like my suppression to be too high.

Maintenance is a different issue entirely and I totally get the fear of coming down doses and having to eat more whilst not getting the jubilation of seeing a loss. I think I’m just going to take it slowly and remind myself I actually don’t want to lose any more by looking in the mirror as I think if I lose any more I am on the verge of looking a bit scrawny!

This. I (history of purging anorexia) felt the same when I was on MJ. I LOVED it because it basically made eating like an anorexic easy. But it wasn't healthy for me.

I'm surprised you were prescribed mj given your history of bulimia, it sounds a bit disordered that you like the feeling of not eating given this background . As pp says I think I would also go and get some counselling around your issues with food, it doesn't sound sustainable otherwise. You say you inject when you feel hunger coming back,? Does that mean you're injecting ad hoc? because that doesn't sound right either, I mean it's meant to be injected at a weekly interval so the amount in your system is regulated.
I like having the feeling of hunger coming in on day 5 and 6 it means I have to use self control to curb it, it also means when I come off this drug it will be sustainable.

I think this explains so well why WLI aren't prescribed to people with eating disorders. It sounds like it's triggered some very disordered thinking for you and I hope you can talk to a professional. You recognise and articulate the problem so well, so please take the next step to getting some help.
I don't want suppression to the point of not being able to eat, because it would be incredibly unhealthy. I just want suppression to the point of eating like 'a normal person'. I want to eat a healthy potion size and be satisfied. I want to not be desperate for some chocolate after that meal. Mounjaro has given me a balance I didn't have by myself but it would be bad if that tipped off balance the other way. I had a brief period of struggling to eat on 5mg and it didn't feel good at all.

I am on 7.5mg and am finding the almost total suppression I am getting overwhelming and unpleasant. I like being hungry for my dinner, I enjoy eating it more when I know my body is ready for it. total suppression is not ideal, when my appetite is suppressed that much I am not eating enough to maintain good nutrition, energy and health and does not help me gain a healthy relationship with food.

I think @VelociraptorsVelociRapping is right, this sounds like a symptom of your eating disorder

I’m on a higher dose than most here at 10mg, but I’ve been there for 2 months or more now and no plans to move up. To begin with the 10mg dose made me feel really unwell, I was barely eating and having low blood sugar episodes with anxiety and tingling lips and nausea. I split the dose in two and jabbed twice a week and that helped. Now I jab once a week. I do get hungry, I do eat, but much smaller meals less frequently. I can stop when I’m full. I feel physically well and have energy to exercise.

“Full suppression” as it’s often referred to on here not only made me feel ill, but also struck me as a furthering of my disordered approach for food and dieting. There was a part of me that wanted to feel no hunger and lose weight as fast as possible and was viewing that as a good thing. It isn’t. I’ve been on MJ for 8 months and I’ve lost 3 stone. I’ve another 3 to go and suspect it’ll take me at least another 8 months if not longer, and that’s as it should be.

I wanted to be able to put things in place so that I could maintain. So MJ was doing the heavy lifting for me but I could carry it on after reaching my goal.

I want to eat because it’s normal to do so. It’s that simple. I take 2.5mg and have done for 7 months. It’s helped me lose over 5 stone whilst also being able to eat a normal healthy diet. Right at the start it suppressed my appetite and I struggled to eat. I hated that, it’s normal to eat, it’s normal to have an appetite and it’s normal to feel hungry sometimes.

I am on 5mg and loosing weight steadily 1-3lb a week. I am hoping to stay on 5mg as long as possible. As I worry about under eating and not getting enough Nutrition to stay healthy. Take a multi vitamin, plus i try to eat protein to maintain muscle mass.
On 5 mg I find I am able to exercise self control, smaller portions, but still enjoy food.

As others have said I want to eat and experience hunger as that is a normal appetite. It's just not healthy to chase high suppression constantly.

I want to eat three sensible and healthy meals a day and incorporate WLI as part of my life which involves eating out, going on holiday etc.

I'm still trying to judge portion size and am serving up salad and protein that is still too large for my reduced appetite and need to really get to grips with this. Smaller plate etc. But I want to embed good habits, continue not snacking, stopping eating when I am full etc. I want these habits to last now going forward into the future when I'm on a small maintenance dose after I've lost the weight.

Your post is worrying that you are chasing this suppression which really is not a healthy relationship with food and you have previously suffered with EDs.
I'm not knocking you, but do urge you to seek help over this going forward.

Another one here who has a close relative with an eating disorder and who absolutely recognises what you have posted as being the same as that relative.

You have an Eating Disorder. The main characteristic of EDs is the control element, the love, the NEED of the feeling of control. It is so, so addictive, and I hate to point it out, but it becomes more important than staying alive. You love that feeling of control more than you love yourself or your body or your family or anything.

You already put up with your poor, sick, starved body being tired all the time - because the control feels better, right? A perfectly normal feeling of hunger has you terrified of losing that control and you immediately drug it away.

Well, I hope that you can recognise all this and get help, but like all of us with any experience of this sort of Eating Disorder, I strongly suspect that you won't. You just won't want to.

OP I feel the same, chasing suppression because I was prediabetic and hungry all the time due to unstable sugars and on mounjaro, the doses wore off very quickly for me, 2.5mg lasted 2 weeks only, 5mg lasted 5 weeks, 7.5mg lasted 7 weeks, 10mg lasted 5 weeks, I had 2 x 7.5 and 2 x 10mg and did the rest of weeks on will power and hated it as I was ravenous and my blood sugars didn't start stabilising until 10mg. I was scared of being hungry because of eating and craving carbs with insulin resistance and would end up gaining weight again. My satiety would go along with my suppression.

I'm currently on 12.5mg 2nd pen and strictly track my calories as my deficit is only 1142 being 5ft 3" 43 years old 10st 6lbs and an office worker, so any gain would show easily on me. I did go upto 15mg with bonus dose but the dopamine disruption was horrendous, I've had it bad all through my journey but it gets worse with higher doses and I'm left low, exhausted and not wanting to do anything, so went back down to 12.5mg. Since last week I started on L-tyrosine which converts to dopamine and its like a fog has been lifted and I'm a different person, smiling first time in months literally!

This reads like you still have an eating disorder and really need to get some help.