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.)

Welcome @Hangryfastjo . Congratulations on your loss - that's fantastic. Not wanting to deflect you away from your goal of going MJ free, but should you need to order more, certainly with Pharmalous, as long as you can evidence an order with the last 12 months, they will take you on for maintenance.

Inspiring exercise schedule there! 👏

Thank you, it is reassuring to know there's a pharmacy that could help me if I need it ❤️

Might be worth ordering a pen at 11mths since last so have foot in the door

Almost at goal so excited to read all your maintenance journeys in preparation

Welcome @Paulahoust . Glad that the thread is helpful. Hopefully we'll see you here soon for the next stage! 😊

Hi all, found this thread from another MJ starters 25 thread I’m on. Have been at maintenance weight since Sept last year, having lost 20+ kg. Gradually going down in dosage, but v slowly, hoping to get right down to bare minimum in next few months .

Hello @skyscrapersinging congratulations on all that you lost and having been maintaining since last September. That's great news. What dose of MJ did you get up to and where have you got down to?

Hi Guys,

Just checking in. I haven't been able to post for ages as have been locked out but finally got my password sorted.

Hi to all the new people. I've been maintaining since around September I think. I've tapered down my doses to 2.5mg ever second week. Things are going ok. I've lost my xmas gain and briefly hit my lowest ever weight on Saturday morning before I went out for dinner twice! I'm feeling pretty happy. I'm a bit more settled. I eat fairly boringly during the week and enjoy a bit more food on special occasions/ weekends. I am experimenting with replacing exercise calories and fuelling during longer runs. I've got a half marathon on Sunday and then I'm going to start training for a twenty mile race in May and a marathon in September. I'm seeing a lot of stuff about how important fuelling is to recovery so going to work hard to try and fuel adequately.

@MargoLivebetter you suggested I should consider moving to 1.25mg every week and I think I'm going to try this after my race on Sunday... I've also started taking creatine and I swear my fledgling six pack is looking better already!!!

Hope everyone else is doing well

Hi, thanks, am thrilled! Highest dosage I got up to was only 7.5mg, and even that was a couple of months only. I have a stash of 7.5 pens currently, so have gradually worked my way down from 7.5 to 5mg with clicks. Once these are gone, I’ll continue for a month or two of a standard 5mg pen dose, then start to titrate down further to maybe 2.5 if it’s still working for me. Who knows? It’s all still a bit of a work in progress. Am now under my original goal weight and still losing (incredibly slowly, but I can’t keep that up forever!). My pharmacy suggested staying at the dose I had pens of, but spacing the jabs out more. Of course they would, as they can’t advise you to microdose, but tbh I think my approach has worked better. Having an overly high dose and then waiting another 10/12 days was awful for me- I would be unable to eat for the first few days and then starving in the last couple of days before the next jab. Which only leads to disordered eating patterns, which I am really trying to conquer. Also weekly jab and weigh in seems better and more consistent for the kind of person I am- I like that dreary regularity, just making it a part of every week. Does this resonate with anyone?

Really struggling today… had a very busy in the office and didnt think much about eating. Around 4pm i felt i could have done with a healthy snack but nothing on hands and i had to go to a meeting. I came home ravenous at 5.30pm and ate some salami. Now while dinner is cooking ive just had the rest of a packet of some delicious chocolate biscuits …. If there had been more, i would have had them too….
feeling quite disappointed i am so easily side tracked… i need to leave some healthy snacks in my car so i dont come home ravenous. 😩 it feels like the real work is now. Finding new habits that stick…
ps: i am down to 2mg every 5 days and jab day is tomorrow…

Hurrah, I have managed to lose the Christmas/January weight. Two strict weeks of eating in a deficit (and a short bout of illness, probably a bug and not MJ related) has seen me shed the 4lbs. Now back to regular maintenance, whatever that's supposed to look like.

@Placestogo it's so hard sometimes. But it was one bad day, you've learned you need to have healthy snacks on hand, and you're probably not even over calories given you'd not had anything else all day. Don't beat yourself up - none of us are perfect. Make tomorrow a better, healthier day.

@skyscrapersinging welcome to the thread. I click count and inject weekly, it's part of the routine. I understand why pharmacies can't recommend click counting from higher dose pens but it seems counter-intuitive to use a dose higher than you need. As time goes on and there is hopefully more research into custom doses, hopefully pharmacies will be able to be a bit more lenient. Various countries in the world (usually prescribed by GPs) actively encourage click counting from higher dose pens to manage the cost.

@Placestogoi feel your pain. I’ve had a week of terrible eating, just whatever is in sight, I don’t know what’s going on with me 😳I had stared spacing my doses out to 10-12 days and my last one was the bonus dose and I think more of it spilt than was injected . Have a 10mg one next which I was going to go down to 5mg with but wondering if I need to go back up to 10 for a while or do I do 7.5 every week🤷🏻‍♀️. Any ideas very welcome, I’ve been maintaining within the same 4 pounds since September and. Ie at the upper end of that.

What's the dosage of the pen you just finished? If it's a 10mg and you were taking it every 12 days that's about 5.83mg a week... so going to 5mg with your new 10mg pen won't be a huge decrease. That said, if you're really struggling, going to 7.5 will hopefully give you a boost - you could try that for 2 weeks and see how you go.

Alternatively, one bad week could just be hormones, or you're a bit ill, or there's some other stress (or you didn't get much dose last time, like you suspect). On my way up the doses I waited for 2 bad weeks before going up as a number of times I just had a crap week and got back on track the next.

Thanos @OneThirdLess, it’s the first really bad week I’ve had! I’m on 7.5mg. Wondering whether to do 7.5 weekly for the next few weeks and see how it goes. Anyone know how many clicks I need from a 10mg pen please? Thanks again really appreciate it, so disappointed in myself!

@26inprogress don't beat yourself up. Really, really don't. We've all spent years doing that and it isn't good for us. It is just one bad week and you are already taking steps to make sure next week is better. We have to be kind to ourselves, accept that life and hormones and stress and a million other things will get in the way. Don't let perfection be the enemy of good. Think of all the weeks you have succeeded and use that knowledge to get you back in a good place. You can do it!!!!! You too @Placestogo .

@Incognitoburrito88 the half dose weekly seems to work really well for me. Dampens down the food noise but doesn't prevent me from enjoying my meals. Good luck on Sunday with the half marathon. I think that is amazing. Let us know how it goes.

@skyscrapersinging I tried extending the duration between doses but it didn't work for me. I think it does for some people. I found a smaller dose but weekly better. I like the consistency of it too.

Hormones and their impact!!!!! I started HRT this week, having been fully menopausal. Instant 2lb weight gain! So that just goes to show how much impact hormones have. I know it isn't fat, but given I've been pretty stable now since Christmas, I thought that was quite amazing.

Don't be disappointed - it's hard, but we've got to accept we're not going to be living perfect, virtuous lives. To get 7.5mg from a 10mg pen is 45 clicks. Or it would be 30 clicks if you wanted 5mg.

To put it into perspective, if you were previously using a 7.5mg pen every 12 days, you had the equivalent of 4.38mg a week. Or every 10 days was 5.25mg. So moving to 7.5mg a week isn't a worrying step up. Keeping a weekly schedule does avoid big peaks & troughs in the medication levels and hopefully staying on a more even level will help keep the hunger demons at bay.

@MargoLivebetter that's interesting about the HRT weight gain. I'm starting HRT in a couple of weeks time so it's good to be aware. I've never really suffered from premenstrual weight gain though so it might not make a difference. I'm still getting periods, but hoping it will help me get more sleep - I'm in the classic 'wake at 2am, stay awake for hours' pattern now, and it's killing me. Not helped by constant advice that getting a good night's sleep is essential for weight management, overall health and preventing Alzheimer's (I'm already high risk for that). I'm trying to sleep well, my body/brain won't let me!

@OneThirdLess I hope the HRT works for you. I haven't had a period for about 3 years now and to be honest was quite enjoying menopause. But I was suffering from what I can only describe as "shriveling" pelvic organs. In the last six months I was in increasing discomfort from everything in my pelvic region tightening, shrinking and drying out. The shriveling was giving me significant bladder irritation, meaning that I had to get up to wee several times a night. I was using the Gina pessaries, which helped a bit but clearly not enough. Even 4 days in, the improvement has been really noticeable.

@MargoLivebetter I hope you have been given vaginal estrogen as part of your HRT as it’s really helpful with badder control, UTIs etc, I have switched to the cream after a couple of years using the pills and I prefer the cream I personally think it works better.

@Itscoldouthere thank you. Yes, I'm using GINA vaginally in addition to the systemic gel and tablet.

Thanks everyone, I’m
going to check my spreadsheet to see exactly what I’ve been doing, I think it’s been sporadic and I need to get back to regular doses. I’m going to try 5mg weekly and see how that goes rather than jumping up to 7.5 I think. Thanks all so much! It’s been a stressful few weeks with one thing and another so I def think that’s a trigger but need to get it back under control!

@MargoLivebetter if you can get it changed to a cream I would as you can also rub onto outside skin as well as internal insertion, which really helps if you’ve had irritation and dryness. The pill form can only work on the inside.
I believe that most post meno woman should take vaginal estrogen even if they don’t take other HRT, it’s so helpful for stopping all those horrible dryness, UTI issues, unfortunately most doctors don’t tell you, having a dry vagina is really uncomfortable and can have a really negative impact on how you feel.

@MargoLivebetter sorry for the gain. Sure hormones will sort out next week and be off again

Just did 2mg today (every 5 days) down from my maximum dose of 2.5mg every 4 days. Planning to stay on that dose for at least 3 months. Then maybe stop for spring summer and if needed in october go back on 1mg or 2mg.. lets see!!
the initial panic of “omg im hungry again!” Seems more manageable.
i need to work out a way to eat a proper lunch at work so i dont end up starving at 5pm. Also when i am hungry, i try to think “nutrition not diet”. It helps (but doesnt work everytime YET)
i would like to lose 3-4kg still to be comfortable lets see if i can make it happen on 2mg.

1 year on
down from a size 14-16 to a 10-12
from c80kgs to a low of 57, albeit currently 65.

so I had gone from obese BMI to healthy but am not classified as overweight

so. I restarted MJ at 2.5 this week. Having stopped in early December.

hoping to stay on this dose and see where I end up and then I plan to spend another year on MJ maintaining before I come off it again ….. Fingers crossed!!

well done warriors!!!

Hallelujah, finally got some more Mounjaro after a while back on Wegovy which gave me nasty side effects and wasn't very effective. Then nothing while trying to jump through the hoops and find a reasonably priced provider. It's just kicked in. Overjoyed to get a break from cravings. 🤗