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.)

Hi everyone, ive lost 3.5 stones since last may.
can i ask how long you have been maintaining on a small dose?
MJ worked really well for me so ive been doing 2.5mg every 4 days (so essentially 5mg in 8 days). Im hoping to gradually reduce as much as i can but i worry my body will get used to it and ask for more….
@MeridaBraveim also trying to do a lot of strength training,, hoping this will help my body reset to a lower body weight (and eat less carbs)…

Or go back to earlier ancestors: eat whatever veg and fruit you find above ground. Some nuts. A few safe roots. Sometimes run and hunt a rabbit or a deer for a big protein hit (then work out ways to smoke / salt and store it). Maybe once a year you are lucky and find a honeycomb.

I think that's kind of proportions I'd like to have. Loads of leafy green veg, beans, broccoli, peas, asparagus, cabbage. Some berries. A few carbier carrots, parsnips etc. Nuts and seeds. Some lean fish or animal protein. Sugar (in whatever form) once or twice a year.

It's stressful enough doing my shopping online. Having to hunt sounds way too stressful. Nettle soup everyday! 🤣

I was ill last week and off for Christmas for most of the previous three weeks. I went to the gym tonight. I'm dead.

I struggle a bit with 'set point'. Too much of what I have read has little empirical eveidence or biochemical and physiological truth. It also brings up for me a 'helplessness' that I don't like. My head says: "It's not my fault that I've regained some weight, it's my body fighting against me to get back to its natural set point." Which in turn leads me into a spiral of thinking that there's no point in me trying to fight against my own body, so I might as well give up."

Well on this journey I am NOT giving up. I have reached a healthy weight, and with a combination of a low dose of MJ (every other month) and good attention to every part of my eating, I have maintained since July. It better serves my mental health not to belive in set point theory.

I think that’s what I don’t like about set point, that it makes everything feel pointless and hard.

Ive been reading some theories about resetting the set point with various lengths of time of maintenance giving better outcomes, from six months to ten years!

It makes me very reluctant to come off mj, at least for the next few years. The idea of one month on and one month off really appeals financially.

My brain also tells me that if I can build that all important muscle then my body composition will very much have changed and then that could change things with metabolism and set points.

It's all so confusing!

Omg yes. I went on Friday and thought I’d go again today but can still barely move my arms

Sorry been poorly @daffodilandtulip 💐

Def not sure if I have a set point but the fact I’ve maintained since June - well lost another stone while not trying

and in that time went on holiday and have Xmas and both times didn’t gain is amazing

usually I would gain 7/11lbs a holiday and then prob about 7lbs at Xmas

an repeat times many years and then 7stone overweight

That’s amazing! Are you in a maintenance dose?

Welcome @Placestogo and congratulations on all those lost pounds. I maintained for 5 months on zero and only put on 3lb. The food noise got to me though, so I went back on. I'm only doing a half dose once a week and that suppresses the food noise enough for me and I've been maintaining without any problems this way.

However, we are all doing it a bit differently. Until you come off, you won't really know.

Morning! Jab day today.

I was reading something last night about fibre and whole foods and how they impact weight. It was saying that fibre feeds your microbiome and that breaks down some of the energy in food which is then excreted instead of being bioavailable so you then absorb less calories. The idea being that upf and highly processed foods don’t nourish your biome and are very easily absorbed calories so you take in more calories from the food you eat.

it was really encouraging fibre, foods that boost microbiome and whole foods. It would make a lot of sense to me that that would have an impact.

Fibre is so important and I’m sure we don’t even understand all the ways that it is. I take psyllium husk and need to think about my soluble / insoluble balance.

Interesting
It is all so confusing as fruit is a really good source of fibre but we are told not to eat too much because of the sugar and then someone else says it's fine because it's natural.
I am just trying to snack on natural food but still eating through Christmas chocolate one celebration, quality street etc. a day! 🤣
I am trying to be mindful with my eating.
Yesterday I was home alone watching the football and I would have eaten biscuits and chocolate before, this time I ate an easy peeler, a pear and some cherries.
I just hope I can continue this mindset once off the medication.

Re: fruit - I really cut back in a weight loss phase as I have found it does slow down weight loss. I also don’t think very high sugar fruit is a great idea unless small amounts eg grapes dates mangoes pineapple etc.

In maintainance I think can be more laid back about fruit, but still think it’s not something that can be considered “unlimited”.

So not confusing - it’s full of nutrients and fibre but also some fruit is high in sugar so caution needed.

Are we going to ban bananas? 🤣

but seriously, yes, it’s about the balance isn’t it?

Yes. Was on 15. And dropped each month/6w - . Been on 5 last 2mths. Tried 2.5 for 2w in Jan but struggled and hungry so went back to 5 last week

No, don’t ban bananas, but accept that eating several a day may affect ability to maintain weight.

So interesting. This is what my AI friend says: There is a clear association between higher total fibre intake and greater weight loss, but this has not been rigorously quantified as “grams of fibre per kg body weight per day,” and there is no widely accepted per‑kg dose–response curve for weight loss.[pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih +3]
What is known about fibre and weight loss
• Prospective and intervention studies consistently show that higher fibre diets are associated with greater weight loss or less weight gain over time, independent of total calories and macronutrient mix.[pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih +3]
• In a calorie‑restricted RCT of adults with overweight/obesity, each average increase of about 3.7 g/day of fibre was associated with roughly 1.4 kg greater weight loss over 6 months, after adjustment for other dietary factors.[pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih]
• A classic review estimated that adding about 14 g/day of fibre was associated with ~10% lower energy intake and about 1.9 kg weight loss over 3.8 months, with larger effects in people with obesity than in lean individuals.[pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih]
Evidence on dose ranges (not per kg)
• Reviews and trials suggest that diets delivering ≥30 g/day of fibre (typically from whole grains, fruit, vegetables, legumes and nuts) tend to produce more weight loss than similar diets with ~15 g/day.[medcraveonline]
• A systematic review and meta‑analysis of prolonged soluble fibre supplementation in people with overweight/obesity found a modest additional weight reduction of about 1.25 kg versus control, alongside improvements in BMI, waist circumference and insulin resistance.[pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih]
• Some individual trials using mixed soluble fibres (roughly 12 g/day on top of background diet) showed modest additional weight loss, but not always statistically greater than placebo when energy restriction was applied in all groups.[cambridge]
Why “g/kg/day” is not established
• Most epidemiological and clinical trials report fibre in absolute grams per day or grams per 1000 kcal, not normalized to body weight, so formal per‑kg dose–response relationships are not available.[medcraveonline +2]
• Current public health guidelines (e.g., UK 30 g/day target for adults) are set per person rather than per kg, even though body size varies, because fibre’s main effect is through energy density, satiety, and glycaemic response rather than a direct weight‑proportional pharmacologic effect.[bhf +1]
Practical interpretation for a per‑kg framing
• If one informally scales common guidance to body size, a 60–80 kg adult hitting 25–35 g/day of fibre would be in the ballpark of ~0.3–0.6 g/kg/day, a range within which higher intake is repeatedly associated with better weight outcomes compared with typical intakes (~15–17 g/day in many Western populations).[pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih +2]
• Within realistic ranges, more dietary fibre (especially from whole foods) appears linearly beneficial for weight control up to at least ~30–35 g/day, provided GI tolerance is acceptable; beyond this, data on additional weight‑loss benefit are limited.[medcraveonline +1]
Key nuance
• The “correlation” with weight loss reflects fibre’s impact on energy intake, satiety, food volume, and metabolic parameters, and is confounded by overall dietary pattern quality; fibre per kg body weight is therefore best seen as a proxy for diet quality rather than a precise dosing metric.[pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih +2]
• For an individual, titrating fibre upward toward or modestly above guideline levels (while maintaining protein and overall energy targets) is more evidence‑aligned than targeting a specific g/kg figure for weight loss.[pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih +2]

@Fluffypiece
Wowzers so much information. Thank you

I ate a whole tin of peaches last night

Fruit has been a major part of my maintenance diet - i have 1 meal a day (brunch as i don't eat breakfast per se) comprising a selection of about 4 fruits...banana, grapes, blueberries, raspberries, kiwi, melon, persimmion, basically whatever i spot on special offer...with Keffir or full fat Greek yoghurt and honey and a handful of nuts. Given that I've always struggled to stop losing, the calories have been helpful and my guts have never been better.

I aim to do 30plus different plants per week and avoid upfs and the challenge has absolutely revolutionarised our household diet. Friends who don't necessarily need to lose weight have joined in too, we swap weekly totals and share recipes with weird ingredients 😅

So I have PCOS and borderline insulin resistance, that’s not something I could do regularly without gaining weight.

I can't eat too much sweet anything, without it triggering cravings and that includes fruit. I tend to stick to berries, with an occasional apple, pear or satsuma.

I find bananas useful for a post workout pick me up and I know they're full of potassium and other useful minerals. Again, I'll have one every now and then, rather than regularly.

As for fibre, I have IBS, so I can't tolerate too much! I remember doing Audrey Eaton's High Fibre diet back in the early 90s and it was a nightmare. I was like a giant bag of constant wind and diarrhea!!!! I still can't believe I used to eat All Bran, which is literally the stuff that cows won't eat. Forcing down bowls of grey mush - bleugh!!!!. Do they still sell it? Another joy of MJ is that it slows down my gut and I suffer much less from all of my IBS symptoms.

Weekly weigh in - weight remains the same. I've decided that unless I am more than 2lb over or 2lb under my target weight, I'm going to report it as unchanged.

Love that. I wish I had friends like that. My work colleagues just think I'm weird. Im not going to the January Christmas meal as they've chosen a Asian fusion restaurant and I've checked the menu and nothing healthy everything in oil.