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.

@DuchessofStaffordshire I think most people on Mounjaro wouldn't want to eat a fry up or a curry, even in smaller portions, as it can very much change the type of food you are interested in eating. Certainly that is my experience, I went right off processed carbs and fatty foods.

Plus the way the OP phrased it certainly seems like the choice yesterday was an aberration not the norm for her.

@Weightreturning presumably you didn't exist on smaller portions of a fry up and curry when on Mounjaro?

Not insulin resistance or perhaps indirectly related to it, I was reading recently about the "memory" of fat cells. That fat cell number is retained after weight loss but they also retain the "memory" of obesity. And our fat cells are only replaced at c. 10% a year. So to be really sure you've kept the weight off (irrespective of method) it will be harder potentially for up to 10 years. Or that's the theory.

I don't know if that could have an impact.

Quick google and I think this is the paper:

Adipose tissue retains an epigenetic memory of obesity after weight loss | Nature

It's interesting isn't it? Perhaps these WLIs are not targeting the right mechanisms in a way. Because everyone at some point has lost weight successfully. The problem is not regaining it.

I have read some positive correlations between cold exposure and avoiding fat regain (think Wimm Hoff) but I have to admit cold is a bit of a phobia of mine due to a traumatic experience so I've not been brave enough to try it.

Anyway, I've not tried the GLP1s but would if I were obese. Anything you are seeing as side effects please do report them via the yellow card scheme, including weight regain on stopping. It's all useful data that is still needed and may support policy change. Ultimately if people who are obese or morbidly obese lose weight with these, it's likely to be a huge benefit long term for the NHS. With falling prices it might prompt them to prescribe a bit more and for longer.

Yellow Card | Making medicines and medical devices safer

I would say don't panic, as suddenly eating a lot more makes you gain water weight and as long as you then adjust and are more careful again it will come back off. I'm about 5lbs over my lightest, 3lbs over where my weight most commonly settled, and have been as much as 8lbs over, a month off it and I came off 10mg. It is coming down again. I reduced my calories and am logging everything again on Nutracheck. I'm also trying taking Psyllium Husk capsules which seems to be somewhat helping, or else it's a placebo effect!

I've had really hungry days but have mostly felt ok. Make sure you are choosing a good balance of food and plenty of fibre and protein. I also weigh myself frequently 3+ times a week as it's useful to understand the fluctuations.

Why? There is nothing intrinsically wrong with a fry up or curry.

It's the overall diet which is important. And all fry ups and curries are not equal.

Can’t say WLI have dampened my love for curry at all…

Is a big fry up a curry and snacks indicative of your normal diet? If yes, then that is likely to be the problem. A fry up depending on what's in it can easily be 1500 cals. A curry can easily reach 800 to 1000 cals depending on type, how much rice etc. Add in whatever your few snacks were? You could have reached 3000 calories yesterday. Were the snack fruit, veg, something more calorific?
If you are eating like that regularly then yes, you will put on weight.

@DeftGoldHedgehog oh, I'm not suggesting that you can't have a fry up or a curry when losing weight. It was the suggestion that the OP was not "eating well" when on Mounjaro and that those kinds of foods were a constant and typical part of her diet when there was no suggestion of that in her OP. The implication being that she was eating unhealthy food and just less of it whilst on Mounjaro, with no evidence for that being the case.

Yup! lost it all in 9 months - put it all back PLUS some in 4 months.
If you think about WLI and the junk food industry - it's all designed for us to spend and get fat... spend and get thin... almost feels like a big trick!

I had to come off it abruptly in January after a year on it and an 8st loss, as I developed pancreatitis due to a stuck gallstone, and have put a few lbs on and I’m just starving all the bloody time. It’s really disheartening as I felt so brilliant on MJ (apart from the pancreatitis of course!) and still have some weight to lose, which I feel will be impossible now.

I didn't make any major lifestyle changes when on Mounjaro as I was already doing a lot of exercise and eating well, I was just able to eat 300/400 calories a day less more easily to get down to BMI 24/25 from 28/29, losing 1lb a week.

It has made me try things like lake swimming though as it was much easier to get into a wetsuit, so that is one lifestyle change. Also it has made exercising much easier, coming off it even more so. I was practically bouncing along on the treadmill yesterday wondering why it felt so easy, and had to go faster. Because a) I'm two stone lighter and b) I'm no longer on Mounjaro! I feel very motivated to not let the weight creep up as I feel so good at this weight.

Its like any other diet essentially, if you stop doing what you were doing, then the weight will go back on. I do have curries and small fry ups on Mounjaro though - I don't find the fat has any negative side effects for me. I do have fairly low fat curries though.

One thing that being on a weight loss journey for the last 11 months has shown me is that if you are my age (64) then the 2000 cals a day that is often spouted is for me a def way to gain weight -I’ve experimented and I maintain at around 1400- 1600 cals, lose at 1000 to 1300 , gain at over 1600 - the biggie is alcohol and salty food - if I drink a couple of decent glasses of wine both Friday and Saturday night , I simply don’t lose, even if I only ate 1000 cals and did some exercise or a long walk . I didn’t much like MJ but have decent willpower so can lose albeit steadily and slowly if I am very conscious of cals for months on end . I suspect that many come off and go straight back to eating maybe 1800 cals a day which doesn’t actually seem a lot , but is enough for many smaller or/and older women to gain weight

Essentially you made a choice to eat badly and the effect is showing. You can make the choice not to. I don’t want to sound flippant and I do know how hard it is; I need MJ to help me eat properly, that’s my choice not to eat badly:

Yup. I'm off at the moment for medical reasons, and am resigned to having to take it at a low dose for the rest of my life if I want to avoid gaining weight again.

Essentially, once you're off you're just going to have to diet again. If you're someone who's used it to lose weight that you gained for a specific reason, but you're generally pretty good at maintaining a healthy weight via calorie counting and watching what you eat, you'll probably be fine. If you're someone who's been overweight their whole life, has a history of losing weight through severe restriction and then putting it all back on again, binge eats and can't resist junk food... you're probably going to need some level of medication forever.

It's not only that I'm hungry - I can handle hunger ok actually, although it's boring and distracting when I'm trying to work. What I can't handle is the cravings for unhealthy food. They're constant and I feel powerless against them.

Yes, me too. Eating variable calories seems to help also, so inevitably sometimes there will be days when you socalise and eat out, so I try and have some lighter days around that to balance things out, or try not to eat very much if I know I'm eating out later. More 2:5 than 5:2, with the 2 being slightly larger calorie days and five smaller ones!

As I used to do when I was younger and controlled my weight very well. Now at menopause and post mounjaro I'm doing that by tracking my food too as my appetite is an extremely unreliable narrator about what I need to stay slim(mer).

As well as exercise, maintaining muscle tone and all that.

I haven’t tried injections yet but this is what happened to me many moons ago with weight loss tablets. Once I stopped them my appetite seemed to have increased 10x.

Lifelong I presume on the injection.

I’m 16 stone. Down from 17 stone. Took me 5 months.

Lifelong dieter, so no doubt a terrible metabolism.

I have a huge appetite. Anyway, I cannot go below 2000 calories. Well, I could do, but the result is I’m starving. Even after eating a diet which consists of protein, fibre, healthy fats.

I am not a stupid woman. I know exactly what to eat. I know how a defecit works. I just refuse to go below 2000 as the result is, I’m just fucking starving all day, which is unpleasant. It also results in me not being able to perform highly in life.

Anyway for the past 5 months I’ve upped my activity hugely. HIIT sessions, walking, cycling, 10k run etc. If I do a big session I need to eat 2500 to feel human and functional.

So, currently still fat. Weight coming down about one pound a month. Painfully slow but I absolutely cannot diet. I cannot.

Nevertheless, blood pressure is within perfect range. As is cholesterol. My blood sugars are normal etc. Resting heart rate is healthy etc.

I haven’t tried the jabs as that’s a big decision. There’s literally no point in taking them for a year or two. It’s a lifelong commitment.

Good luck.

Have you changed your life style? Switched to high fibre hi-GI foods? Cut out sugar? Increased your intake of veggies and water?

Have you started regular vigorous exercise?

If you are eating big fry-ups, curries and snacks, probably not. If you don't change your life style, you will simply gain the weight again.

Try switching to porridge and fruit for breakfast, and salmon tail, minted potatoes and three veg for supper. Eat fruit and yoghurt for snacks.

There's a dedicated WLI chat board, OP, where you will find lots of us with direct experience and no judgement. If you report your thread to MNHQ they will move it for you.

I'm maintaining a ten-stone loss and am off the jabs. I have hungry days and I have to plan my eating quite carefully to prioritise fibre and protein for satiety but that's no different to most people, whether or not they have a history of obesity. Two really important questions - what was the highest dose you reached, and did you titrate down or stop suddenly?

Yes the variable pattern works for me too - some days 1200, some days 1400 - and at weekends I only eat around 1100 and allow 500 a day for wine . So far I’ve yet to kick the wine ! One thing I find that does help is really cutting carbs - so I’ve just eaten a ton of sardines in herb oil and a small tangerine, whereas previously I would have a sandwich or a toastie and a banana and maybe a bag of crisps. For breakfast good Greek yoghurt, blueberries and a very small amount of Dorset cereal stirred in -I didn’t eat badly before dieting and I cook well , but if I’m honest my portions on an evening were too big and I ate too many carbs- too much pasta , noodles and rice in particular and I was easily hitting 1800 to 2000 daily and maybe 2400 at weekends allowing for a drink or two - it just ‘crept on’ .

Common sense surely?! It's like any cheats way to lose weight, as soon as you go "back to normal" it piles back on. Without addressing the underlying reason you are overweight (I am, btw) it'll never change.

Same. I am on mounjaro, I'm not interested in chocolate and crisps so it IS changing my palate, but curry and fry ups are absolutely still of interest.

And can be enjoyed as part of a maintenance diet if you prepare them yourself (and grill don't fry).

The OP needs to give more information in the changes she made to her diet on the drug and her expectations about what maintenance should look like, before trying to be helpful. As others have said, I am fibre and protein-maxxing, doing strength training twice a week, flexibility training once a week and 150 mins of cardio in an attempt to stand me in good stead the other side of my journey with WLI. I am also prepared for the fact that I may have to diet for 2 weeks a month, in order to maintain. Or stay on mounjaro for life. Without understanding her expectations, it's hard to know how to help.

Yes. That is EXACTLY what they do. The first generation of these drugs - Ozempic/Wegovy) are GLP-1 (short for glucagon-like peptide-1) it is a natural hormone your body makes in the gut after you eat. It plays a key role in controlling blood sugar, appetite, and digestion.

• Signals fullness → tells your brain you’ve eaten enough
• Slows stomach emptying → food stays in your stomach longer
• Regulates blood sugar → helps insulin work better after meals
• Reduces appetite/cravings → especially for high-calorie foods

Mounjaro contains GLP-1 AND GIP

• Signals your pancreas to release insulin
• Works only when glucose is present (so it doesn’t cause low blood sugar easily)

Works with GLP-1 on appetite

• Supports feelings of fullness
• Helps regulate how your brain responds to food
• May reduce overeating when combined with GLP-1

. Influences fat metabolism

• Helps control how your body stores and uses fat
• In normal biology, it can promote fat storage
• But when mimicked in drugs (like tirzepatide), it seems to enhance weight loss effects

Brain effects (important)

• Acts on the brain to help regulate:
• Appetite
• Food reward
• Energy

Apologies for getting cgpt to help write part of this - it’s just so much faster but just as accurate.

ultimately if you take a drug that does this - when you stop it - it will stop doing all this .

The ‘underlying reason’ is almost always insulin resistance from years of dieting. By the time you reach obesity type 1 BMI 30-34.9 your looking at a 0.2% chance of dieting and exercising your way to healthy BMI. This IS NOT about ‘retraining your mind and ways of eating’ people need to stop peddling this bollocks. It’s just another stick to beat obese and formally obese people with. ‘See - confirmation that you are fat and stupid, lost loads of weight but put it all on again because you FAILED to retrain your brain into healthy ways while on WLI” When in fact it was the drug that trained your brain because the GLP-1 + GIP stopped the food noise .

I truly believe there is a hard core group of naturally thin people out there - absolutely furious that is fatties have got thin - and are now peddling this nonsense that we should now be able to ‘manage’ without the drug . The answer is that no you can’t unless you have the most extraordinary will power or are imprisoned with someone else controlling your food intake.

I accept will be in it for life (or its subsequent incarnations) . It’s like being an alcoholic on the wagon. I am still someone who suffers from obesity despite being size 8. I just take the drugs to prevent it happening again .. just like I did with blood pressure medication. (Which I no longer need)

I suspect this is key - it will, to some extent, depend on why you gained weight in the first place, which is just luck. (Well, it's probably genetics or something - but it's out of your control).

If you don't need many calories for your daily life (for whatever reason) and particularly if you also don't do much exercise, you can gain a lot of weight by very slightly over eating every day for 5-10 years and having a bit of a sluggish metabolism.

For people in that position, they probably have to eat a very low calorie diet to lose significant amounts of weight over a long period of time. (I can do 1000-1200 calories for about a month, then I give up because it's miserable and I'm starving constantly.) MJ helps to maintain that very low calorie intake for longer, and (possibly) helps with insulin resistance and may improve metabolism long-term. If you use the help from MJ to lose weight, reset portion sizes, get used to focusing on protein for feeling full /fuelling rather than carbs/sugar, and increase exercise (potentially improving your metabolism), then it is probably easier to eat at a maintenance level when you stop taking it.

If you have awful food noise, insulin resistance, cravings for 'unhealthy' food, no 'off switch' or feeling of fullness and if you've pretty much always been like that and have always been overweight, then MJ supports your weight loss by turning off the food noise, suppressing your appetite (either overall, or for unhealthy foods) and controlling insulin spikes. You can do everything right in terms of portions, macros, exercise, etc. but it's the MJ stopping the food noise, etc. so when you come off it that is all likely to come back and it will once again become very (perhaps overwhelmingly) difficult to fight your own appetite, food noise, cravings, etc.