Is there justification for continuing with Mounjaro no for MH reasons even when a healthy BMI?

[ThisNeedsToWork]

So my BMI is now 24, which I’m obviously overjoyed with. My eating habits are better and I’m exercising more. However, I’ve been here before; many times. One of my biggest issues is the food noise. I find it overwhelming to the extent that it actually causes depression. Over the years, I’ve tried anti depressants, none of which addressed the cause for me which was the constant obsession with food and eating. Taking Mounjaro has stopped that, dead. It’s been life changing for me. I had no idea the beneficial effects on my MH would be so profound. As an aside, my joints are so much better too. I’ve been down to this size a few times before in the last 10yrs with no real difference in my aches. So, my question is really whether it would be reasonable to stay on a low dose for the foreseeable not so much for maintenance but rather for the enormous benefits it’s had on my mental health?

I'm not criticising BTW. I've lost 50kg on MJ. I just find it interesting to see how we all come from different directions and have tried so many different was to lose the weight. I do think that once you are obese it is a medical issue and the 'eat less, move more' brigade have no idea. Although, eating less and moving more is a large part of the solution, the WLIs are the missing ingredient that brings success.

Has there been any studies/research published on maintenance yet or is it still too soon? I'm trying reducing slowly in the first instance and am doing OK with that so far.

Yeah, she might need to tell the WHO that.

Yeah I am in maintenance. It’s the same for many of us.

If you were taking prescription medication to treat high blood pressure/epilepsy/asthma/etc you wouldn’t just stop taking it when the problem was under control and then act all surprised when the issue resurfaced as a result

Plenty of meds are for life, from hiv prevention meds on, I don’t see all this worry about them, faux worry, the authorities know the Impacts of these drugs, they’ve over 40 years of data. Now over 50 million on them globally. Tens of thousands in trials over the years, like any other drug that’s approved they know whay it does. That’s why it’s approved for life. Everything tightened up after thalidomide.

A very simplistic argument, you obviously know the world has changed significantly since before the 80s. There is no longer a woman sitting at home with the time to go to affordably go to a greengrocer, fishmonger, butchers, plan and prepare meals from staple ingredients, women are working long hours, balancing raising a family, maybe care duties too. Physical jobs in manufacturing etc disappeared, people are spending long hours at desks, or commuting long distances, chronic stress. No one told them in the 80s the damage aggressively marketed convenience food, or cheaper and cheaper ingredients that were slowly introduced would do to the nations health, how biology would react to a drastically different food environment. Fat in food was blamed so it was replaced with sugar, and only relatively recently the full impact of refined sugar identified.

The UK, US didn’t just all suddenly lose willpower at the same time, many (more than you would think) people are genetically predisposed to store fat easily or to have a more reactive appetite system when exposed to engineered hyper palatable, calorie dense, sugar loaded, addictive foods. Appetite hormones don’t just reset back to normal after 20-30 years, including childhood, just because you eat less UPF.

Telling people to just eat whole foods does not recognise how difficult that is consistently in the current environment. MJ does not replace eating whole foods it makes it biologically possible for people to sustain that. Medications make it possible for people to succeed at improving their health, improving society, something surely any normal person will celebrate.

Yes - that sounds totally reasonable.

I’m not sure if I will be on long term. I have a history of yo yo dieting, as well as hashimotos, PCOS, high cholesterol and now I’m menopausal.
I’m also internally quite fat phobic and so it’s been a daily battle not to be overweight. My BMI has fluctuated between 22 and 27 but not really much above that.

With MJ it’s just not a struggle. It’s easy. I don’t need to weigh everything I eat. I don’t have food noise. It’s totally liberating and I’m cured of my orthorexia (disordered eating patterns).

I’ve taken 2.5mg throughout never felt the need to increase the dose. Yes I can maintain (for periods) with constant willpower. But it’s exhausting. And eventually I just can’t anymore and within 3-4 months I’m back to a BMI of 27.

I've got no intention of stopping using it even at a healthy bmi. My physical and mental health is so much better now (just over a stone to lose now) and I won't give that up.
It's well recognised now that this is a physiological condition that MJ is treating and that it is a medication for life. Nobody would suggest stopping my asthma meds because it's under control, the same applies to MJ.

You can do whatever you want as long as you can afford it. You don't need to justify it to anyone.
I'd look into mental health card too to get to the bottom of your problems as well whilst in a safe space.

I could have written this. I was only just into the obese category when I started just over 3 months ago and I’ve lost about one and a half stone. I feel great having lost the weight and will continue until my BMI drops a couple more points. While I fully agree obesity is an illness for many I was simply fat because I ate too much and drank too much alcohol, I don’t really struggle with food noise. I was otherwise very healthy but I am approaching 60 and really wanted to lose the excess weight.

But for me the life changing thing has been the sense of calmness it has created. On the day I inject I feel incredibly calm and in control. I am a very anxious person and I am less anxious and sleeping better. I feel such a sense of wellbeing within hours of injecting and very relaxed. I don’t want to lose this effect so when I lose the rest of the weight I’m definitely considering staying on a low dose. It’s been like a miracle. I feel like I’ve got my body and mind back, everything feels better.

@jan2310 ,5mg is my sweet spot and I would stay on it forever if I could afford it. I really hope I can stay off alcohol without it, I haven't touched a drop since the day I first injected.

Im currently on 5mg and it feels great. I’m still drinking alcohol and enjoying it but I can easily do without it which feels like a big win! Everything feels so much brighter.

I'm pretty much at GW now, give or take a few pounds, but I'm still ordering MJ.

It's partly to maintain, but significantly, if I'm brutally honest, to deal with my ADHD. It's like being on holiday from my ADHD brain, which is bloody amazing. I'm calm, productive and present.

It helps to be completely off alcohol as well, because I love wine

MJ is bloody incredible. Wegovy, on the other hand, does absolutely nothing, as far as I can tell. Total waste of money.

I always intended to stay on, from the very first injection when I realised how great I felt, it was what I wanted,

But my husband who started about 3 months ago, so about a year or so after me, and even though I’d recommended it to him was really reticent, until one of our male friends, in that way men do, without beating around the bush, told him he should give it a try and how great it was. So he did. Citing he’d do it for 3 months and no more.

The male friend looked fab. For some reason my husband wouldn’t accept he was overweight, and even though politely I’d say maybe he could lose the tummy for health reasons, he’d look at me like I was mad and say but I’m not fat, he was, he was obese, so I think it took our male friend explaining he was on it, looking at my husband and saying you should try it, it’s fantastic, that made him realise maybe he was fat.

hes now 3 months in, got two spare pens in the fridge and ordered another and he’s now talking about staying on till Jan Feb time, as we have a holiday coming up, and he wants to manage his weight after and titrate down, he’s 2 stone down and his belly has disappeared, his bmi is now 26.5. He looks so so much better, as the belly worried me, from a health perspective, it’s such a ticking time bomb in our fifties.

hes also got some lovely new clothes, as nothing fit him anymore, and importantly his drinking is hugely reduced, he used to have two or three cans of beer or a couple of glasses of wine most nights , would never get drunk , even when socialising,but it was just a constant drip and it bothered me, now I’d say he probably has two or three drinks max twice a week. In fact last night he had a can of beer, it’s not strong stuff, the session beer, opened a second, and I found it full this morning, as he didn’t drink it and forgot he’d opened it.

so I think your attitude to staying on, changes once you’re on it as I’m genuinely very surprised at both how well he’s doing and the fact he’s continuing.

the curious thing is when I lost the weight, everyone was going on about how great I looked, where as he’s lost the weight, his bloke friends say to him, are you unwell, why are you losing weight, they just can’t perceive he is dieting, as he’s a blokes bloke, which highly amuses him. He doesn’t tell them he’s on it like me, nor does he say he’s on a diet, he just laughs and says fine and does seem genuinely amused by it.

You are embarrassingly uniformed. Of course few people in the distant past were obese. Primarily because just affording the basic amount of food to stay alive was all the masses could afford, but also because ultra processed non-foods hadn’t yet been invented with the body-altering compositions we are increasingly discovering that they have.

if you were genuinely interested in learning more you could read some of the recommended books and resources upthread, but I suspect you prefer to stay ignorant about what you clearly do not have up to date information on.

Well exactly. If people are whole foods, they wouldn't stay obese.

That would depend on how much they ate of them. I can't imagine you think it's impossible for someone to eat a whole food diet in sufficient quantity to maintain their weight?

I’m at my target weight
happy to now stay at this BMI (25)
but I’m really wrestling with coming off MJ -
the benefit to my joint health is massive - I used to be in pain, stiff and struggle to mobilise - not anymore
I used to have IBS - gone
brain fog - lifted !!

it’s a drug that has been transformative - I am literally scared to come off it

Really this is a question for your doctor. It doesn't matter what a load of randos on the internet think.

please get off this thread.

have a coffee, embrace real life instead of trying to troll people who are trying hard to change their lives.

@LizzyEm you still fat and diabetic or did you manage to get the weight off?

I don’t think anyone can come
off the jabs. Can they? This is my fear: being on them forever

The root cause of your over eating hasnt been solved

@LizzyEm

ahhh fabulous! You just solved the worlds obesity crisis. Stop over eating everyone. Why didnt we think of it before? 🙄

Oh @LizzyEm …..

all your helpful tips are really misplaced

when a person is in control of their weight and eating, your wonderful insights are a given

many of us do not have the luxury of control -
e.g. childhood obesity sets up lifelong vulnerability to obesity - once fat cells exist they work hard to maintain themselves

set point / equilibrium- the body fights hard to maintain its norm

pregnancy
physical illness
depression
anxiety (raises cortisol that increases abdominal fat)
menopause
trauma
injury

side effects of some medication
sleep deprivation.

stress / emotion regulation.

neurodiversity

all have massive impacts on a persons control of eating and weight

then you have society - since the 80’s you have huge commercial investment into processed foods / snacks / caloric drinks (Costa etc) all hugely promoted with psychologists on the marketing teams to hook people in and maintain behaviors - consuming their products

they work in the labs to create processed foods that are highly satisfying and set up crave / addiction cycles to sell more product

Obesity has exploded since the 80’s because of this

society has become more sedentary - day to day life is less physically gruelling- hence more inactivity

so @LizzyEm you are naive at best, malicious at worst, either way you are talking out of your arse - so please refrain.

Is there a reason why you'd want/need to come off it- cost? Because if you can afford it, sounds like a no brainer!