Oh come all ye injectors, slimmer and maintaining, oh come ye, oh come ye to Thread Number Three! For all those who've hit goal, maintaining in whatever way they can / want to / aim to etc

[MargoLivebetter]

Welcome fellow maintainers to our third thread! Tis the season to be joyful and we do have reasons to be joyful, as we are still here. Not always the perfect journey and full of treats and temptations, but we'd have nothing to talk about otherwise. So hop on the Magical Maintenance Sleigh of Wonder and lets go! (Apologies to all those reading this for the first time in March! I got a bit carried away my festive season puns.)

I had Salmon, quinoa, peas and broccoli with a citrus spice for my work lunches last week and of course the side dish of boiled egg.
So tasty 😋

Im heading towards where I would like to maintain. Can anyone point me in the right direction of the best company to do this with?
Ideally someone who will eventually let me order when i need to. I have changed supplier each time so I haven’t built up relationships with companies. Ty in advance.

welcome @Bluehels quite a few will let you order 2.5mg within 12 months of your last order. Monj has a good list. On here pharmulous, swift and oushk are quite popular. I use oushk and I have a maintenance plan with them and that gets me £25 off my pens.

Swift will let you have a 8 week gap to stay at the same dose which is useful if counting clicks.

@MeridaBrave that’s good to know!

On a completely different note, I tried some new cottage cheese today, company called “all things” that make dairy products. I tried the mango flavour and it was really nice. Not the same “clotted cream” deliciousness of longley farm but less cloying.

@This makes me happy. 4s lost in 1st pic and 7s in 2nd

I don't eat breakfast - as a shortie, it means the rest of my meals can be more relaxed. I love a brunch on a Sunday, and some of these recipes all sound delicious.

I do tend to have a glass of kefir with biomel fibre added (keeps me regular) my collagen in a squash and then eat lunch around 1 or 2. Works for me and makes it super easy to average 1500-1600 across the week then.

Am away skiing at the moment - following similar food patterns. But with more alcohol, and less focus on healthier food options. Will be interesting to see if I've gained tomorrow. Hope not!!

Thank you - does anyone know what gap Medexpress will allow?

I’m currently ordering every six weeks, but it’s too close together really, so I’m gradually building a stockpile!

I’m only using a 5mg pen so I’m laid back having a gap at some point and having to go back to 2.5mg.

I’m really, really hoping I can taper down to 2.5 really, really slowly so I can then not have to worry about orders and keeping up with gaps. I’m happy not to come off, but I can’t keep paying £260 every 6 weeks. That feels like something I can battle with to come down.

I’m paying £165 every 8 weeks but building up a stash. i’ll take a gap at some point but then I’ll need to do at least one 2.5mg pen

This is me, but I'm failing to maintain despite tapering down really slowly (0.25mg every month). So annoying. I think I'll have to go back up, get back to where I was then try again. I do wonder if there's just a natural set point each dose will hold you at, which is lower with increasing doses.

I am sure this is true unless you change the make up of your diet. Ie on a lower carb higher protein wholefoods diet with both strength training and some cardio can manage to maintain on a lower dose.

I think it's your body and brains weight setvpoint which is the issue.
If you try to avoid food that will spike insulin levels you can reset your weight set point. That's what I'm trying. I am cooking from scratch so 99% off my diet is not UPF

My diet is pretty good - focus on protein and fibre, very little UPF. To be honest my diet before MJ was fairly good, issues were with the treats on top and portion size. I eat a lot less carbs now and obviously smaller portions.

I got injured before Christmas and couldn't walk much - thankfully am better now but had 6 weeks of very little exercise. I'm back to walking/running so good on the cardio side, but I've never been good at incorporating resistance training and that's the one area I need to improve on this year. I am a total beginner and really want to find some beginner YouTube videos or classes, but everything seems geared towards people who know what they're doing.

I am a home cook too so hardly any UPF here either. I'm just hungrier on a lower dose and eating more. Trying not to, but that's basically like being on a regular denial diet and doesn't feel sustainable long term.

It's not the end of the world, I was just hoping to titrate down to 2.5. I think that will still be my goal, it just may take longer than I wanted.

I've been on 5mg for 2 months and still losing but I am going to try 2.5mg going forward. I need to get used to listening to my body again and knowing when it's not real hunger.
I am also going to jab every 10 days to eek my pens out.
I am really worried about coming off altogether but I am trying to eat as clean as possible to help my body work as it should.

Maintenance is going to be much harder than the losing.

i hear a lot about set point theory; hasn’t it been disproved? I’m always in two minds about it and wonder if it’s our urges, habits and potential poor coping mechanisms that often take us back up.

Im also pretty sure that lack of exercise and muscle mass is what will throw me off maintenance.

I read Dr Andrew Jenkinson books. He talks a lot about how you can reset your set point. Your weight set point ends up too high everytime you diet as your body worries about famine happening again and all the UPF food confuses your body. If you stop insulin spikes (eat less sugar) you can reset your weight set point within weeks and months.

I'm hoping it's that easy! 🫣

@FurForksSake I thought it was more that set point theory hasn't been proved, not that it was disproved (if that makes any sense)?

I've read the Andrew Jenkinson books, and listened to Ania Jastreboff (researcher at Yale) who espouses similar. It feels like there's something in the set point theory - but it's probably not the whole story.

It does feel that, for me, dose level equates to weight amount. I hit a point last year when I got to a natural plateau and the only way I could shift that last 1/2 stone was increasing dose. Now I'm trying to titrate down again it feels as if my body is looking to up the weight in response. But my subjective sample size of 1 can't really count as evidence.

For me I couldnt cope on 2.5 - odd 2w and was waking up 3/4am hungry and eating all bad stuff

literally they would say to me. Blondes. Eat me !!

and I was on the top of my ballpark

I’ve said before i didn’t think I had food noise. Well I bloody well do on 2.5

i went back to 5 on fri and don’t had breakie till think 11 today

I haven’t eaten chocolate or biscuits or Belgium seashells since Thur

I still have crisps but that’s my thing.

5 is obv my sweet spot an I am going to have to try and figure out how I can stay on it

Yes that’s what I was getting at. I’m doing a lot of resistance training, and am very strong so I hope that helps. I suspect to stay under 60kg I’ll have to take longer term. He recommends keeping carbs under around 100g which I guess reduces blood sugar spikes.

I’d love to find out more about set point - any good books / articles?

Dr Andrew Jenkinson both books.
The low down is every diet you go on puts your weightvset point up as your body panics in case there is another famine. Also the chemicals in UPF disrupts our hormones and gives incorrect signals. Eat healthy and eat as little sugar and as little UPF as you can. Then your body resets and all your hormones work correctly and you can listen to your bodies signals. Then your brain will reset your weight point to a healthy level.
Basically go back to human instincts eat when hungry stop when full!