What happens when people stop the injections?

[IndigoBluey]

Just this really, when you reach your desired weight following the course of weight loss injections, do you stop taking the injections whilst sticking to a much healthier way of eating? I’m genuinely curious as to how it works in the long term. A friend of mine had stomach surgery a few years ago to shrink her stomach and very rapidly went from 18 to 9 stone, but then put a lot of weight back on gradually, to then start on WL injections. I suppose my question is when you know you are finished with needed the injections?

Errr….everyone is different?

@andforthefirsttimeinforeverBit of a juxtaposition response there. What are you marvelling at? Not very nice to call people fatty either

@Overtheatlantic that we are all different surely goes without saying? What is your point?

Look @IndigoBluey i do think you know exactly what I mean but on the off chance you don’t here it is.

A lot of people think that if you are fat, taking the ‘easy’ route out of this, whether through injections, surgery, whatever, is sort of cheating; that the only way to ‘learn’ not to be fat again is to suffer. You have to desperately want that chocolate and resist, otherwise it somehow doesn’t count.

So when someone like your ‘friend’ (and it’s quite unusual to know weight so precisely I would say; I don’t share my actual weight with anyone although I’ll say how much I’ve lost) loses nine stone then gains it again, there is often this barely concealed glee about it, because they did not suffer so of course they were doomed to gain it all again.

I am only a stone overweight now and when I do come off the injections I plan to try to maintain but if I feel I can’t manage this or if I start to put weight back on I’ll go back on them 🤷‍♀️ I sound more snappy than intended but honestly it isn’t rocket science, is it?

You will have changed your body and mind in the weight loss process, so I imagine the weight stays off.

Odd thread but I will bite anyway.

At the moment I’m choosing more healthier options despite my husbands attempts to want to eat tons of carbs all the time. If I can’t manage that off the meds I will try to get some sort of maintenance dose.

My point dearest is that because everyone is different there is no set experience of what happens. Comprende?

@andforthefirsttimeinforever I’m not sure why you are responding so antagonistically. Perhaps you have had experiences where others opine as you describe. I certainly do not think and nor have I said in my post, that people using injections for weight loss are taking an easy route out. You have jumped to that conclusion very quickly. Some friends do share personal things, including weight so it is rather bizarre that you assume my friends situation is an example. That is sad that you have experienced glee with people enjoying fat gain. But you did answer my actual question in your last paragraph, and no, I don’t consider it rocket science hence my asking on this thread.

If you read the last sentence, you will hopefully understand that it is a specific question - You - being the relevant word. If you don’t wish to answer, then don’t respond. It is really that simple.

I don’t see how it is odd to ask what people plan to do long term but thank you for answering the question. This seems like a good approach

You imagine wrongly. The science shows differently. It's not about changing mind and body.

Some people will maintain the loss, the majority will not and will need a maintenance dose or to come off and on the drugs lifelong. Diet, Drugs and Dopamine is an excellent book which discusses the science of obesity and just why it is so hard to keep weight off longterm.

I won’t be stopping. So nothing will happen as I will be maintaining the weight.

As with all weight loss methods, unfortunately, the majority of people regain the weight. Obesity is a chronic condition.

Agree, there is no quick fix and if the method works then it makes sense to continue

It's really not as simple as that. You don't recover from obesity just by losing weight. The damage done by being obese is long term and physiological not psychological. Of course you change how you eat while you're on the medication but that doesn't mean it's manageable to continue with those changes without the medication. Of course that's the goal but for many people they will need to be on it for life to maintain the weight loss, and that's ok.

If they have a ‘normal’ body and no psychological issues they may be able to keep the weight off.

I have an abnormal body that unfortunately doesn’t work well (I can only eat 1000 calories a day without putting on weight) so I will be on them forever.

The injections make it possible to stick to 1000 calories, without them I have to fight (and am hungry all the time) to stick to 1300.

I have no problem staying on them forever.

They have been transformative for me, I’m on the go all the time and have very low inflammation now so I can run and exercise all the time. I have learned to trust the injections, some days when I’m very active I will eat as much as 1500 calories, other days when I’ve just had the injection or I’m working and sitting so much less active I’m only eating 600-800.

It averages over the week at 1000 calories a day so maintaining the weight. For decades I was at war with my body and was constantly fighting to consume less than 1400 calories, I was tearful + hungry and annoyed with myself all the time.

I could not frame it as my body being at fault when it WAS. The truth was I had MOUNTAINS of willpower, being able to ‘only’ put on 8 stone over 27 years showed that I ‘only’ overate by a couple of hundred calories every day.

No one can cheerfully eat that little without the injections, it’s unreasonably low.

I still have to ‘work’ at it. I do intermittent fasting every day, I eat very low UPF, I eat protein first, veggies next and don’t eat bread anymore. I also make sure I meet my activity goals on my Fitbit every day (move every hour) + do 3 exercise classes a week.

But the injections mean I enjoy doing the above ^^ none of it’s a chore or painful.

I'm not sure why you'd care but I'm with a supplier that is happy to prescribe a maintenance dose for as long as needed. I assume I'll be on them for life. I'm stable at a bmi of 22 at the moment and inject every 10 days rather than 7 on my prescriber's advice. At some point I may switch to Wegovy as it's cheaper than mj and my prescriber is fine with that too. We've met and agreed the dosage if I want to swap.

I wouldn’t have been antagonistic had it not been for the ‘my friend lost 9 stone and put it all on again’ anecdote.

We all know it’s easy to gain weight after losing it. That’s not a reason not to lose it in the first place.

I get it on nhs and I have wonder about it a lot. I think they will either give me a different diabetes medication or encourage me to buy a maintenance dose. Mounjaro has helped me a lot with insulin sensitivity, reduced the amount of thyroxine I take.

The weightloss is secondary benefit. That is how I see it for myself.

I see this a lot such confusion on the drugs. Often underlined with a deep desire for the weight to go back on.

the drugs don’t make you lose weight. Dieting on the drugs makes you lose weight, the blood sugar and insulin management, and slower gastric emptying makes it feasible for people who have struggled to maintain a diet before.

when you hit a healthy weight you need to decide if you stay on or titrate down and come off.

if you come off, you need to maintain your new eating habits. If you do not, you will regain the weight. Just like stopping any other diet. As the drugs didn’t make you lose weight, nor do you magically become fat again as you stopped. It is absolutely no different to any other diet when you hit goal.

if you stay on, like me, I’m on a low maintenance dose, then maintaining that healthy weight is no effort other than ensuring I eat to maintenance cals.

the bottom line is the drugs don’t make you magically lose weight and you don’t magically gain weight if you elect to stop. Nor do the drugs work when you don’t take them.

I've been on the jab for 2 months and I've already decided I'll be staying on them for life. They have quite literally transformed my life at the age of 63 and having yo yo dieted all my adult life. I dont ever want to go back to that cycle of losing the weight, struggling to keep it off then it all going back on. Its a bloody miserable way to live and as there's a way to now stop that cycle there's no way I'm living that life again.

I lost about 2.5 stone, haven’t injected in months and have tried to stay healthy. I feel better thinner, I don’t want to pile weight back on so I am making good food choices.

It depends, some have weight gain due to poor food choices and sedentary lifestyle, many obese people have inflammation, metabolic conditions, hormonal imbalances etc that may never be resolved even with weight loss so as soon as they come off the drugs, the increase in hunger hormones, lack of appetite suppression, reduced blood sugar control and increased inflammation can cause weight gain.
As a prediabetic with ibs and previous high blood pressure, I'm currently bmi 23 and I'm obviously concerned that my insulin resistance and inflammation will return, I've read and heard from many experts that maintaining on WLI for at least a year can reset a set point so I am planning on doing that. Soon GLP tablets will be available that may make it cheaper and easier to maintain. I do eat a low carb strict calorie tracked diet and starting to exercise too. In the past when I was prediabetic but hadn't had tests so was unaware, I constantly craved carbs but didn't know the reason why, now I know symptoms to look out for too and weigh regularly so hopefully have a better chance at maintaining with or without WLI.

Some people come off and maintain their lower weight. The recommendation is to stay on at your new weight for at least some months (my GP says two years) and then reduce the dose very slowly. Some people stay on indefinitely. I am staying on a reduced dose because I would regain otherwise and because the medication has several benefits for me, including reduced inflammation.

If you are being prescribed it for diabetes, then you are on it for the longterm. They won’t take you off it when you get to a healthy BMI because you are not being prescribed it to achieve a particular weight; you are being prescribed it to control your diabetes. It is a very effective diabetes medicine. Your weight loss is likely to slow once you get to a healthy point, but you’ll need to monitor that and eat well.

Discuss with diabetes nurse at next appointment to make sure you understand how this will work?