How did you decide when to stop/taper down?

[TripleRocks]

I’m flip flopping and could do with some help from others in similar boat.

Started MJ last March, had worked up to 7.5 dosage by last Summer but then ended up tapering down with the price changes / scarcity of certain doses at the time. Currently using up remainder of 5/2.5 dose pens and probably need to reorder.

I’ve lost nearly 4 stone but still ‘overweight’ on BMI.

I guess I’d like to get to healthy weight, which would mean losing another stone. On the other hand I feel pretty good at my current weight too and feel losing another stone is probably going to make me look gaunt.

How did you decide when to stop/maintain?

Honestly, I didn’t realise how hard it would be to stop and how much the hunger comes back. Cost obviously now more of a factor than it was initially because of the price rises. I really can’t justify the cost for the long term, or to be more truthful I’d prefer not to have to justify the cost.

Any advice gratefully received.

I want to be in the healthy weight range by a decent margin to account for future variations, so for me I won't be thinking about stopping or tapering down until I hit that goal. I am also about a stone away from that, but weight loss is now slower than it was due to being near to target. My TDEE is now a lot lower than it was at the start so creating a 500 cal deficit is harder work.

I also want to spend a fair while on some kind of maintenance dose once I am at my target. I want to try to stay at/around my target weight for a lengthy period of time before stopping Mounjaro, just to try to persuade my body that this is a permanent change!

I’ve also been flip-flopping with this decision, I too still have about a stone left to lose but am feeling good at the weight I’m currently at but also want a reasonable safety blanket. I’ve finished finished a 15mg pen a couple of weeks ago, started a new 15 mg pen but used a 12.5mg dose, felt ok for the week so my last jab I used 10mg (but taking every 6 days), I’m going to stick with this and and see how it goes, if I’m not still losing then I’ll go back to 12.5mg. My hope is that over the next year I can reduce to 5mg, so I’ll be doing this slow and steady. I’m also hoping that the new tablet form will be suitable for maintenance.

I would say take it as it comes and stop when you feel ready. Also a stop might just be a pause and you can maintain there and come back to it in a few months if you later decide you want to be lower.

I originally set myself the target of hitting an "overweight" BMI (started morbidly obese so it was a stretching target!). Once I got there (took 10-11 months) I found I was enjoying the way I was eating so just kept doing what I was doing and over the next 5-6 months recently hit a normal BMI. For me I am happy at the top end of a normal BMI as I am older and have a few pounds of loose skin to account for too.

I have invested too much time and money to go back to how I was again, so I am taking a very careful approach and plan to maintain on as low a dose as possible for 6-12 months before attempting to come off.

Whatever goal weight you choose, how you decide to maintain is probably more important. The hardest part of this for all of us will be maintaining. Whether you decide to taper down, stick with a low dose for a few months or try to come off now, they are all are worth a trial to see how it goes, but make sure you keep the door open to get prescribed again if needed.

None of us want to spending so much of our hard earned cash on this medication, but for some of us it will unfortunately be necessary to maintain.

It’s hugely unlikely anyone would look gaunt as they just enter a healthy weight, that’s just your perspective, to people who don’t know how they will think you look at the top end of a healthy weight.

decide your weight goal, then decide if you want to stay on. I’d recommended an extra month when at goal at current dose, whilst upping your cals by 100 or so each week, then moving to next dose down, and doing the same with cals till you hit maintenance and then either stopping or staying on a maintenance dose.

for me, I stopped when I hit goal of bmi 20 and felt I looked and felt the best, then I did the above, been maintaining on 5mg for several months now and my weight is stable.

Thanks everyone. When I say gaunt, I think I mean the turkey neck situation.

I’m going to focus for a bit longer, get down to healthy bmi and stop faffing.

I’m just sticking with my monthly 15mg, it’s the only thing that’s remotely helped my insulin resistant PCOS and controlled my weight redressing the hormonal/chemical imbalances. Unfortunately I just don’t trust that my pancreas as regenerated itself so I’m carrying on and don’t plan on stopping ever -if they decide at some point that they won’t let me take it anymore I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. My weight has been pretty much exactly the same for about 4 months now, give or take the 1/2lb fluctuation around my period, goes up one week before and then comes back down the next.
I’m in it for the long haul.

I'm just beginning to taper down now. My last dose was nearly 2 weeks ago. Once I get to bang on 2 weeks I am going to see how I feel, and whether I will dose again and start stretching doses to every 2 or 3 weeks.

I am more hungry, but not unbearably so....yet.

I do need to lose another stone also, but for me the flatness of mood is making me want to leave the drug behind sooner.

ah ok, gaunt means lean and haggard. No one looks that at the cusp of overweight.

turkey neck is possible at whatever weight, I had a slight one, completely gone now, it tightens up,

id really not chose your ideal weight based on if you will get a loose neck for a short period or not,

I moved up to 15mg mid july-august when I was around 10st bmi 25, it was far too strong but I used the whole pen and even the GD 🙈 I was a zombie, lost 6lbs without even trying that month due to barely being able to eat. I quickly dropped down the doses to 7.5mg in the next 2 months as they were all too strong after this. Switched to wegovy end nov and got to 9st on Dec 19th bmi 22.7 now I've upped calories and exercising with body toning and weights. Lost almost a stone since then took me 5 months probs cos of the tapering down but just shows its possible.
Maybe think how far you are from your goal and how regular you are at losing weight, for me it was weekly 1lb a week, then estimate starting tapering down when you are a few lbs away as you are at a low dose. If you were higher would be different story.