Anyone interested in a post-MJ thread? For people coming off completely?

[RightImDoingThis]

I wondered if anyone is coming off Mounjaro completely and looking to maintain or continue losing weight?

I'm half way through my last pen and coming off earlier than planned due to the price rise and fatigue with the whole process.

Thanks , it’s often hard to read these studies then say what you read, but this one seemed logical.

it feels logical as we obviously produce these glp’s for a reason, and the fact our natural production slows over time, will logically have a resulting effect on our bodies. the less we have the less they can do.

Lots of things reduce how much we produce, age, obesity, lack of sleep, stress, poor diet etc, so again, looking at logical explanations, then topping it back up to optimal levels, if we are not producing enough on our own any more, would then naturally boost the important biological functions these peptides carry out in our bodies.

so from what I understand that’s what’s happening, we are simply topping up what we produce naturally and if on the right dose, to optimal levels, meaning the peptides are able to do their job fully.

What’s your thoughts on this research and coming off the jabs @Wildfairy ?

As I understand it, the levels of these peptides provided by GLP1 meds are way, way higher than ‘normal’ levels in non-obese people. So they do go further than merely topping up to normal. That’s according to Dr Louis Aronne anyway, who ought to know.

but thinking their metabolism slowed down, as they aged, but in reality it is likely they produce less of these peptides as they aged and then gained weight.

I was thinking a bit more about this, and whether peptides are an aspect of metabolism. Off to google…

Yes I would be curious to know too :-)!

@Wildfairy thank you for that more detailed explanation, that really is so interesting and explains a lot. It's honestly been gaslighting in some ways (sorry to use that term flippantly) where I've eaten in a deficit and still gained weight but reading around this gives a bit of understanding. The down side for me is thinking about potentially being on the drug long-term. I have read other bits here and there about titrating down over time before stopping which then has more long lasting efficacy which is probably what l try and do with wegovy if it works for me.

@gimmemounjaro annoyingly I can't find the actual talk, but I've found a short YT video in which another doctor answers a question which is very similar in the first part of the vid, I will try and link it for you.

@RightImDoingThis that word "cheating" is very divisive isn't it? In some ways I'd agree with people who say that but then when I think about why I started using MJ in the first place, my issue was never that I couldn't stick to anything or over ate, or was that I was doing all the right things and nothing happening! So actually fuck off with talking about cheating.

Sounds like lots of us have things to consider long term and great to be able to chat it through here 🙂

Is that not dose dependent really, and also very individual, I think it’s hard to say a blanket it’s always way higher , and of course who do you put in the bracket of non obese, someone who never has been or someone who isn’t now. Someone who is 20 or someone who is 60, and what about lifestyle. What is not obese, is it over weight or a healthy weight..and where on the healthy weight scale.

From what I’ve read, it’s not simply obesity causes a reduction in glp production, but lack of sleep, age, stress, poor diet etc and is someone taking 5mg always higher than someone who is a healthy weight, but say 50 years old, and suffering from insomnia? I’m not sure that seems logical to me.

i can see it being logical if you say compare two 50 year olds.one not obese but at the upper end of healthy bmi and one on mounjaro, as the non obese 50 year olds would have decreased with age, stress, diet etc, and theirs isn’t being boosted up, so logically if you give them some more, they’d be in a better position and higher, I guess that’s why they’ve been now reviewing for so many things, arthritis, dementia, cardo vascular etc.

Op, on long term, I don’t know, I’m no expert, but I’m staying on a 5mg dose as I know with the best of intentions at some point it will come back on, but that’s me. What about you?

Logically though if these peptides are critical to us, and we produce less as we age or for other factors ie stress lack of sleep etc, then wouldn’t we always end up back where we were without them? Is that really why so many regain the weight after diets or coming off, as simply we don’t produce enough of these peptides naturally, so that low production means our blood sugar, insulin management will revert to poor, and the inflammation will come back, it’s not really about lack of willpower, but fighting poor biology?

@Wildfairy
As I understand it, even the lowest doses deliver far higher levels than found in a ‘normal’ person. This is according to an expert ofc, not just me. Obesity is currently defined by BMI (for all its faults), so > 30 is obese and there are various subdivisions within that classification.

Ok, I googled that doctor and I’m not sure that’s what she said. She has said if you’re on the drugs you will have a higher glp production than someone not on them, but she’s not given a baseline for that, as she is clearly not saying it is always higher than someone who has never taken them. She’s explaining how they work, and is a huge advocate. I think you’ve extrapolated something she didn’t intend, as clearly she’d be saying so we tested x amount of people at x age range with x weight, with x lifestyle, and she’s not, she’s basically just said, if you take it you’ve more than someone who doesn’t ie you, it is a huge nuance

Thank you for your thoughts, it really is interesting stuff as these medications come out.

Op, on long term, I don’t know, I’m no expert, but I’m staying on a 5mg dose as I know with the best of intentions at some point it will come back on, but that’s me. What about you?

Well, I can't stay on it and that's kind of why I started the thread. The other "maintaining" thread is fab and full of good conversation, but it's a bit challenging to read about people's success whilst they stay on the MJ and I need to manage without!

Hmm well Dr Aronne is a man, so I’m guessing you might have googled the wrong person.

I recommend the interview he gave to the Zoe podcast last year, explains a little of the incredible complexity of the multiple interacting systems and loops that control weight and metabolism. And describes how GLP1 medications are so much more potent and longer lasting than the naturally occurring version, that they suspect the medications are working in areas of the brain that ‘normal’ GLP1 cannot reach.

I’d recommend that interview to anyone interested in the science of obesity and its treatment actually, I will find a link.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/zoe-science-nutrition/id1611216298?i=1000660424275

This is the one. There are other interviews with him also, and many research papers including the SURMOUNT studies. He is the OG of this stuff really I think.

That sounds really interesting I might try and find that.

@RightImDoingThis I hope these posts haven't made you feel disheartened, it sounds like you've been doing so well off of the medication so far anyway. I think the trouble is, it's so idiosyncratic that until you try coming off and seeing it's just impossible to know how your body will respond

@gimmemounjaro thanks for posting! Cant quite work out how to save the link from my phone and post on here regarding the vid I was talking about....but the channel is: weight medicine with Dr Meghan MD

I've found that following a strict keto diet together with intermittent fasting is working for me without moujaro.

Thank you @Loopylou7219. I'm in two minds! I love learning more about how MJ works, but it would also be helpful to have a space, as I mention in the OP, for folks coming off Mounjaro completely and looking to maintain or perhaps to even continue losing weight..?

Shotsy tells me I have an estimated level of 0.94 of the drug left in my body. Hoping to get lose my mini-break pounds over the next couple of weeks, but mindful that the weight-lifting will be leading to a bit of water retention.

When I first started out on Mounjaro 10 months ago, I watched lots of videos by Dr Tyna Moore. She was a big fan of micro-dosing. She believed that people like herself had compromised health for various reasons (age, diet, other issues) and GLP1s helped keep their weight and inflammation lower. She was more focused on the health benefits rather than weight loss. She believed most people did not need the larger recommended doses of GLP1s, though some did eg. slow responders.

She believed it was helpful for all kinds of inflammation diseases, obesity being just one of them I assume. However I have ME/CFS, a classic disease of pain and inflammation, and Mounjaro has had no positive effect on that.

However I do think the general poor functioning metabolism theory due to eg, age, health, etc - and how peptides help with that - could definitely have some validity.

I’m a stone away from goal weight and as I said above I’m running down my 3 x 15 mg stock of pens at lower doses, and will consider my options when they have gone. Currently on 10 mg, but titrating down and maintaining on lower doses will take around 6 + months.

I don’t feel like it’s helped my health in other ways (some people do!) and in fact I wonder if it has negative effects eg lower energy / mood.

It’s a difficult decision when the issues - positives and negatives - are so unclear for some of us. But this has been a worthwhile thread to clarify my plans - for the next 6 months at least. I honestly don’t know after that.

I think the trouble is, it's so idiosyncratic that until you try coming off and seeing it's just impossible to know how your body will respond

^. I think that’s it in a nutshell, @Loopylou7219

I think the interesting question is why does anyone think their bodies will behave any differently off the drugs,than they did before they went on them. That for me is key, I feel my body, will behave as it did before, the drugs don’t work when you don’t take them, my weight gain was not physiological , so why would it be different.

ive been slim before, but it was impossible to maintain, thats why i became fat. Why would it be different this time?

I just finished reading Diet Drugs and Dopamine by David Kessler, ex-head of the FDA. MN won't let me link it.

A really interesting read with all the science and the citations. He's not overwhelmingly positive about coming off the drugs although it does work for some people. I highly recommend it.

I've just done a month on mounjaro after ozempic has stopped being effective for me for weightloss. I've been on ozempic for 3 years. On mounjaro I gained a kilo in two weeks and then lost it but my weight is remaining at the same set point. I'm planning to remain on ozempic longterm but might start titrating my dose down.

What I never understand about threads like this is why it always attract people who want to continue on the jab. They come in droves with all their ‘studies’ and ‘research’ . Like really, do you think anyone can’t Google what they want to learn more about. As the thread title says
Anyone interested in a post-MJ thread? For people coming off completely?
can the thread be just that? there are lots of places to discuss MJ and all it’s benefits so discuss your experiences and studies there. Going on maintenance without the jab is not taking away from your experience so I don’t know why you just want to make sure nobody does.
For cost, side effects, medication contraindications etc reasons, so many people will have to maintain without the jab so coming here to tell them they can’t do it is not helpful is it?
Anyway op, just as with any weight loss method, the only key to maintain the loss is not to revert to the way things were. How you do it and how far you can depends only on you.
Maintenance is a personal journey and that’s what I’ve found and fingers crossed that you’ll find the best method to maintain your weight loss.

God love ya @Tohaveandtohold !

Amen. Totally agree. Would be good to have somewhere for those of us who have chosen the path to come off completely for whatever reason.

That's fair enough, for me I was undecided and still respect other people's journeys coming off the job completely. @Tohaveandtohold no need to be snippy about "research and studies" and I'm not sure anyone has alluded wanting "to make sure nobody does." Think what I've heard again and again is how different everyone is. Good luck ladies with your journeys on or off!

*jab