Reached target weight with Mounjaro and stopped, but already putting weight back on after 2 weeks

[Weightreturning]

I was on Mounjaro between July 2025 and March this year. I lost a total of 40 pounds, which took me from being on the edge of obese to having a BMI of 23.8. I reached my target weight a few weeks ago. I thought I would be able to keep the weight off without Mounjaro, but unfortunately this has proven to be impossible for me. I had my final jab on the 4th of March. The effects last for about a week. Since the 11th of March, I've already put on 5 pounds in the space of 2 weeks. Yesterday I ate a big fry-up in the morning and a curry in the evening, with a few snacks in between. Right now, I feel ravenous. I feel like I could eat for England. I feel helpless without the suppression you get from the jab.

Is this the case for most people? Has anyone been able to keep their weight off after stopping the jab? I was hoping I wouldn't need to remain on the jabs for life, especially with how expensive they are. It looks like I'll have to though, or I'll just pile all the weight straight back on.

I’m tapering off. I can now go about two weeks without needing an injection

Did you titrate down slowly and/or gradually space out your doses as pp has done? What dose were you on when you stopped?

Yes that's the case for most people. There's no foolproof way to prevent this, but early research suggests that tapering off and using it to maintain for a period of time is likely to produce better outcomes. Personally I'm maintaining now and reducing my dose weekly so I can aim to come off it without regaining but I am prepared to stay on whatever dose is the lowest I can get away with long term if I start gaining at any point.

Anecdotally, some people manage to keep the weight off by sticking to their new ways of eating and religiously going to the gym etc, and don't feel that return to ravenous hunger that you describe. And some others are going to need it for life.

I think I’m in the latter camp - I’ve titrated down to 2.5mg after 4 months at goal and whilst I haven’t put on yet, I can hear the noise in the back ground and feel hungrier. And that’s whilst still on the drug! It’s exhausting, and you have my sympathy. I guess there is hope is for a cheaper pill based version in the future to help with the financial aspect..

I lost 30lbs from March 25 to July 25 from 180lbs down to 150lbs. Within 6 weeks I had put on 10lbs and have stayed around 160lbs since.

Clothes size stayed around a size 10 though and I actually look better, maybe more muscle mass now and water weight as it definitely wasn't a 10lb fat gain.

Hunger did feel more intense at first. I think it was more to do with actually having a healthy appetite and wanting to eat after months of suppressed appetite, than feeling more hungry than before starting mounjaro.

I went from 10mg to nothing, no filtering down, I am still losing between 1-2lb a week (4st loss in total with another 2 to go).

Ii weight train 3x a week and calorie count.

Are you doing any exercise? Or logging your food intake? I guess your body needs a bit of time to adjust without the medication but start to log calories and up physical exercise

Do you have the time and finances to join the gym and start a weight training program?

What lifestyle changes did you make? You need to be sure you’re eating good amounts of fibre and protein to curb appetite. If you just suppressed and didn’t make lifestyle changes, I would recommend going back on, titrating down, and focussing on fibre, protein and building muscle mass. If you haven’t exercised and kept protein up your muscle mass is likely vastly depleted which means your TDEE will be very low. Give yourself a fighting chance.

You have to check how much you're eating and what you're eating.

You need to go back to basics. Portion control, counting calories, good food and exercise.

I haven't taken the GLP1s and this is one of the reasons why I've not, because I've read this is so common.

But that said, I suspect it's not inevitable. I don't know if this is helpful so please ignore if not and if you're doing all of this already but I've had to get quite drastic to make sure that I actually lose weight but to maintain I was doing that fine by prioritising protein and fibre particularly with lots and lots of vegetables. Reducing fat without excluding it totally and pretty much eliminating refined carbs (not all carbs, just cutting out cakes, sugar, white flour etc).

There is some evidence that when you crave foods, that has a lot to do with your gut bacteria. I found that cutting out the crap (cakes, biscuits etc) was easy after about a week. I'm not sure if that helped.

To help with the meals you ate, you may have done this already and apologies if you have so obviously ignore this if it's not helpful. But I don't think a fry up is actually too bad. It's high in protein but you can make it low fat too. I often have chicken sausages for breakfast (Lidl sells them) which are lower in calories than pork. I also sometimes have black pudding (don't judge me) as the one I buy is very low in fat (I don't remember it being like that in the 80s!) I fry that in spray oil. I then have low sugar ketchup and have spray oil fried mushrooms and raw tomatoes. If I have eggs, I poach them.

For the curry, I'm cooking one later this week and I'm going to make it with chicken and either chickpeas or lentils and I'll serve it with wholemeal basmati but also a kachumber salad Kachumber salad (Indian chopped salad recipe) - Sandhya's Kitchen that way I'm increasing the veg intake even with a curry.

I make sure that healthy snacks are available like apples. My "treat" is some dates and nuts but again while it's sugary, it's high fibre.

To get myself to lose weight I've also had to introduce a fast once a week but I think the rest would lead to maintenance for many. Annoying as it's far more strict a diet than I ever needed in my 20s or 30s but that's life I guess.

Why is it so hard for people to understand that if you have a disease (MS, Diabetes, Obesity etc ) and you take a drug to control the symptoms… why on earth would you expect that disease not to come back when you stop taking the medication. ????
If you suffer from blood clots, the doctor will prescribe blood thinners to prevent life threatening clots. Warfarin has 3x the amount of serious side effects compared to MJ but I bet none or at least a tiny percentage of you would not tell a doctor you don’t want it - or for heavens sake, take it, then stop it and be completely surprised to develop a clot ! If you do then you have a kink in your think..
People really do need to read some proper peer reviewed papers on what they are taking rather than listening to all the crap on instagram about ‘gaining new habits’ ‘re educating their brains’ GLP-1 mimics a hunger hormone. It doesn’t miraculously alter your neurological pathways and thought processes. !! If like me you had lived with obesity for many years , then you had probably tried EVERY diet under the sun, lost a few stone and then regained it all and more in a short period of time. ? If like me, you could name the amount of calories in any given food at a 1000 paces and work out in nano seconds the nutritional content of a plate of food - then you don’t need re-educating .. it’s got fuck all to do with ANYTHING other than eating too much.. because your hunger hormone is switched off by insulin resistance.
Therefore, when you stop taking the drug that regulates your blood sugar and suppresses appetite you WILL be hungry. The small amount of food that satisfied you with the GLP-1/GIP in your body will no longer satisfy you and your portions will increase.
There are of course exceptions to the rule and there are some people with the most extraordinary iron will - who may be able to maintain some of their loss but let me just give you the real life stats for the ‘eat less move more’ mantra.
A study of 275000 people in the uk and taken from primary care records and published in the BMJ in 2015 shows that only 8:1000 people are able to go from BMI 30-34 to less than >24. and of those stoic 8 , 6 will put it all back on and more within 5 years. Making the diet and exercise method of weight loss successful for only 0.02% of people trying to lose weight.
For me, I have made the decision to keep on a maintenance dose. I’m not a high earner and pay rent in the south-east, so it’s quite a commitment but I live alone and the food savings equate for at least 75% of the cost. So I’d rather think of the other 25% as an investment in my health and happiness. Not to mention the effort of selling a pile of size 22 clothes and replacing them with 8s …

You need to reduce slowly and maybe remain on low maintenance dose for a while.

Sorry @Fishingboatbobbingnight I am curious about these drugs and have in the past considered them. You seem knowledgeable.

"because your hunger hormone is switched off by insulin resistance" - do you not get some level of reversal of insulin resistance when you're on the drugs?

Apologies and I should have added. If your weight has drastically reduced, doesn't that insulin resistance improvement persist when coming off them?

I understand what you're saying but I do also think that the choice to eat a large fry-up and curry might also have an impact.

Did you actually make any lifestyle changes while you were on the jabs or did the appetite suppression just mean you ate smaller amounts of the same foods that led to the weight gain in the first place?

Maybe, sometimes, for some people. It's by no means universal, or predictable. There is a hypothesis that maintaining a healthy weight for a significant period (probably years not months) may reverse obesity damage in the longer term which is why some people who lose weight can keep it off, but it's not settled science.

I am on Wegovy. The same happened to me when I stopped. Food noise and a compulsion to eat. I put on 20lbs. I'm back on it now and I think I'll need a maintenance dose for a very long time.
If maintaining was easy none of us would have needed these drugs in the first palce.

I’m considering micro dosing for maintenance. I didn’t have a huge amount to lose so I’m sort of hoping the transition to maintenance isn’t as much of a challenge having not been obese previously, but my god is it freeing not having the constant battle in your head!

@DuchessofStaffordshire the OP was able to choose not to have a fry up and a curry when on the medication, whereas now that choice is harder to resist. Which implies that it's not just a simple choice.

@Weightreturning you were on Mounjaro for a fairly short amount of time, and it seems that you hoped that you could just stop and then maintain without any issues. Realistically, the maintenance phase is the hardest part of the entire process and the part that needs the most planning and attention to it. I had a lot more weight to lose than you, and therefore have been on Mounjaro for 20 months now with a while to go yet before getting to my final target. Once at my target weight, I will then focus on maintaining whilst seeing how much I can reduce the medication dosage. I am not intended to just stop immediately - I think a long period of tapering down doses and fully embedding lifestyle changes is necessary to avoid a rapid rebound.

For all we know, she was making similar food choices whilst on the medication.

@DuchessofStaffordshire very unlikely, if she successfully lost 40 lbs.

Her portion sizes were likely a lot lower. It's much harder to maintain, or lose, weight if you are not eating well to begin with.