Coming off the Jabs - please tell me what happened?

[coconuttyz]

I’ve been off Mounjaro for 2 months now. I got down to my target and started to worry about the injections so decided to stop - I’ve gained 5lbs in that time.
Currently trying to maintain by counting calories (1350 a day) 10,000 daily steps plus running 5K x3 times a week.
Was anyone able to maintain following a similar pattern?
I’m sure the 5lbs gained has gone straight to my stomach and hips, but otherwise I still feel quite lean.

Any advice and tips welcome!

TIA

I have been on maintenance for 6 months. My fear about coming off is not solely related to weight gain. MJ also completely cured my menopause symptoms and decreased my alcohol intake markedly.

I asked whether it could help me lose a similar amount of weight to what people typically achieve on the injections. It did a comparison based on my weight and the average results from the main jabs. It’s said it will take a bit longer based on what’s realistic for me feel full enough but not significantly and I’m loosing about 1. - 2 lb a week at the moment.

I’ve just been checking in with it - telling it when I’m hungry, what I’ve eaten, and how I’m feeling - and it’s helped me work out what to eat and when (I do a coffee, two meals and a small snack). I use it like I’m talking to a person.

I really hate weighing everything, so I don’t. I mostly estimate calories with its help and only weigh certain things, like cheese. It must be fairly accurate. It is a bit agreeable though so if I say I want another coffee for example it sometimes tells me that’s totally understandable because I’m tried/need something warming and we’ll work on it tomorrow so it’s not perfect but the most helpful thing I’ve tried in a while.

The problem with very low calorie diets is you will lose muscle as well. The less muscle you have, the less calories your body needs. You need to increase your muscle mass by lifting weights.
remember a few lbs gain can be water weight too from eating more carbs.

It’s definitely not smoking! It’s eating too much unhealthy ultra processed food and not moving enough. It’s also the normalisation of obesity in some societies.

Do you take HRT for your menopause symptoms?

Not all WLI users are having very low calorie diets.

Smoking is one of multiple factors, that's true, but you're not going to be able to isolate them that specifically. The UK unfortunately only started measuring smoking rates in the 70s, and the earliest obesity stats I could find were for 1980. Obviously we all know which direction both have gone in since then.

But I mention smoking for two reasons. One is that the UK is one of the first societies that was able to feed basically the whole population, but the first few decades of this period coincided with possibly a majority of the adult population taking a regular appetite suppressant (nicotine). That means we don't actually have any data for a fully fed, pre-junk, not appetite suppressant drugged population.

And also because Japan has a high smoking rate, which is now dropping.

Nicotine is an appetite suppressant, and at peak probably over half the UK adult population were doing it. How do you know this definitely doesn't affect obesity rates? As I mentioned to a pp, we don't have any data for a fully fed society without either processed crap or widespread appetite suppressant use.

I lost 2 stone and came off in October. Still maintaining - but my ‘target’ weight was much higher than most people. Went from 94 to 80 kg then came off, rather than going down to 60kg… so reduced bmi from 36 to 31 and now back to the weight I have been for most of my adult life ( minus 2 stone of lock down lard). I only ever went up to 5mg and weaned myself off slowly until I was on 2.5 every 10 days for the last month.

I think all the obese smokers would evidence it’s not smoking.

I was a smoker, I can assure you the appetite suppressant maybe when you first start but past that it’s fairly non existent, and certainly not even a thousandth of what it is like on the injections. Having done both I can confirm that, it’s not smoking,

@BinusI’m only basing my comment on personal experience among family and friends. None of them have ever smoked and those with the most healthy lifestyle (no UPF, regular exercise) are all SO much healthier and leaner than those that eat junk food and have a sedentary lifestyle.

But a study from 2018 found a positive correlation between smoking and obesity:
“A study by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) provides new evidence that increased weight and obesity may result in increased smoking. The Cancer Research UK (CRUK)-funded study, involving University of Bristol researchers and published today in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), found that increased body mass index (BMI), body fat percentage, and waist circumference were associated both with a higher risk of being a smoker and with greater smoking intensity, measured by the number of cigarettes smoked per day. These results were consistent in both men and women”

Making your own experiences of a drug central to your reasoning is pointless, because surely you know you aren't the default? WLIs don't even work on some people at all. And in order for obese smokers to be evidence smoking has nothing to do with it, you'd need to know what they would weigh if they didn't smoke.

The fact is that nicotine is a recognised appetite suppressant. There is no argument here. This still leaves room for it not to work on some individuals within a population, just like WLIs.

as factually 6o percent of smokers are obese, just slightly below that of the general population it would show your reasoning to be off, and mine accurate, an appetite suppressant yes, but it’s the extent of it, it is very small impact. You can chose to believe otherwise, I’m good with that.

Yep, there's a correlation now because of class issues. It's poorer people who smoke. That didn't used to be the case, so it doesn't tell us about what impact lower use of appetite suppressants (nicotine in this case) would've had before the mass junk era.

As previously pointed out, in order for this to back up your claim you would need to know what those obese people would weigh if they weren't smoking. This is conspicuously absent from your analysis. You'd also need to control for social class, because in the period before mass processed food, smoking wasn't disproportionately found amongst the poorest. I'll wait.

Agreed, I’m obese and have been a chain smoker for thirty years (first cigarettes then vapes). I roll my eyes whenever someone on here states that smoking keeps populations thin. I bloody wish but it’s certainly never had that effect on me, or on any other smoker I know.

I think the myth comes from the fact that when people quit smoking they often put on weight - that’s not because previously the nicotine was stopping their appetite, but because when you first quit you seek something to replace the act of smoking so you pick food instead.

Im on MJ now so I know what appetite suppression feels like - can tell you cigarettes never gave me that even once.

Well, went on the Jab in October 2024, bought 4 pens, didn’t go above 5mg and lost over 3 stone in the 4 months. BMI went from 33 to 24.8.
Last Jab was in Feb 2025. Been off the jab for over 11 months and BMI yesterday was 23.1.
After coming off, I initially gained around 4lbs in the first 2 months but I’ve gone on to lose that and lose more. I’ve been through Easter, on an all inclusive holiday and Xmas, etc and even though I gain around 2 to 3lbs during these periods, I lose them within 2 weeks of being back to normal.
I strength train 5 days a week, my body is well balanced, the additional weight lost seems to have come off my belly and I have a good routine now.
I couldn’t afford to be on it indefinitely and I couldn’t afford to gain back the weight so I had no choice but to find what works for me. The early days of being off was scary but almost a year on, I’m doing just fine.

Again though, it's not a myth that nicotine is an appetite suppressant on a population level, even if you don't happen to experience it as such. There is a lot of evidence of this. In the same way that WLIs suppress appetite even though they don't work on everyone.

This also doesn't mean there aren't other, more effective appetite suppressants available. Having also smoked for a time, I too find WLIs to be the more effective option, even though I weighed less at that time than I do now.

I’m a bit upset today as my mum has just said she’s stopping wegovy despite it (without being too dramatic) changing her life and allowing her to have surgery. She won’t listen to me about putting back on the weight, says it’s all ‘daily mail and social media scaremongering’.

@JoyousLemur- that’s interesting about the monthly injections - please could you tell me more?

I’m getting a great benefit from 2.5mg, in terms of weight loss, and have been thinking of spacing out injections further apart. How do you store the pens? And which prescriber do you use? Thanks

If she eats less but more healthily and exercises then she should be fine. It’s probably hard at the beginning but as others have said, definitely doable.

But most people on WLI can’t do that, hence the need for them in the first place.

Nothing really! I put 5lbs back on in a year, then I lost it again plus another 5lbs. Since MJ I’m really never very hungry and when I get bored with food I stop eating it.

Hi @ChilledProsecco i am currently using up a prior stash and haven’t reordered since August as I got to roughly where I thought I wanted to be. . I know it is ‘off- label’ and not advised by manufacturer … my own choice re risk etc. the pens are within date and I am scrupulous about needle hygiene and keeping in the fridge. Initially thought I would stretch to fortnightly but daily weighing and monthly has been fine. My diet is fairly consistent and enjoying it ( only rule is to keep of UPF and sugary things) and as I become more confident may start taking on an ad hoc basis. Happily everything is feeling a new normal at the moment …just hope this lasts !

No, but even a lower calorie diet without intentional
weight lifting will likely result in muscle loss.