Weight gain after Mounjaro

[Liambro]

So like many, I gave in to Mounjaro after years of failed dieting and it worked! 3 stone down and changed my mindset about food. However, once I came off it the weight has piled back on! I’ve gained almost a stone in just over a month despite only having 16000 calories a day (I use an app to track calories) has anyone else had this? I’m worried that in a couple of months I’m going to have gained all the weight back! I exercise and don’t snack and I’m literally putting on 3/4 lbs a week! Any tips? I can’t afford to go back on it, has anyone else experienced this and the weight has calmed down, I’ve gone down to 1400/1200 calories now but it’s hard to maintain and I’m worried that once I go back up I’ll just put more weight on. Any advice would be appreciated.

I currently weigh 15 stone and am 5 ft 5 and my TDEE is 1600 - yours cannot possibly also be 1600 as you are shorter and lighter. That’s why you are putting on weight.

There is so much chatter around weight loss but ultimately if you are putting on weight again it’s because you are eating too many calories. That’s it. So try dropping back down to 1400 / 1300 / 1200 to find the right number for you. I can only consistently lose weight at 1200 or below.

Its so bloody hard to stay on such a low calorie diet long term.

Not really. Apart from minor newbie gains when you start lifting, energy for which comes from what's stored on your body anyway, you can't build muscle in a calorie deficit. So if you're taking tirzepatide and in a deficit, you won't gain muscle.

If you weigh 15 stone and have a TDEE of 1600 you must be incredibly inactive and have very little muscle mass. Mine was 2400 when I weighed 15 stone and it's 2000 at 11 stone.

eduted to make the point I wanted to make - there is a lot more to body composition than the number on the scales and the calories we eat. If your TDEE is that low you should be working on increasing your daily calorie burn above fat loss IMO.

Muscle mass doesn't go into bmi calculators, fat mass does but its optional. Age and height do make a big difference. At 13st 5ft 3 and in an office job my maintenance was supposedly 1800 but I gained at that so the calculators are general and don't include metabolic issues like insulin resistance, prediabetes, pcos, hypothyroidism etc which lower your tdee maintenance

It's likely Inflammation not fat you're gaining I am maintaining using mj, because as soon as I tried coming off the inflammation and water weight rapidly returned.
I'd say calculate your maintenance tdee accurately,
Stay away from carbs and alcohol, even within your cal limits they just make you retain water and inflammation
And if all else fails go back to mj, however you have to do it, that's the only thing that's working for me.

I don't agree so we'll beg to differ. 😊

I didn't mention BMI, I'm talking about TDEE which when it's as low as that points to something being sub optimal with the body composition because having greater muscle mass increases TDEE significantly. Yes I am aware that there are conditions that can lower TDEE but again that supports my point that a TDEE that low in proportion to body weight suggests something isn't functioning properly. Just accepting it isn't necessarily the right thing to do.

You might not agree but it's factual :/ how are you expecting your body to create new muscle without the energy it needs to do that? What does it create muscle from?

Why did you stop taking your medication?

Surely the body takes the energy required from the stored excess fat, and the additional protein you are eating provides the amino acids to synthesise into muscle repair, following weight lifting, creating new muscle?

Yes, small amounts, newbie gains. If you're a regular lifter and in a long term calorie deficit you almost certainly won't grow new muscle, even if you still have excess body fat. You can maintain your muscle whilst losing fat, however

Everyone is different i think. I lost nearly 5st on mounjaro, now 5'6 and 9st 12lb. I can maintain on 2000 calories a day. I only do 10000 steps a day and sometimes less

Dp put it all back on unfortunately. I think for him to have it work he needs to be on it permanently and he can’t afford it

It's not random though. Presumably you must have decent muscle mass. Increasing our resting energy expenditure is really important otherwise you end up like poor OP who apparently gains weight on 1600 calories a day.
Alternatively some people may have to accept they can't comfortably maintain the low weight they have reached. There is a reason I'm maintaining at 11 stone - because it's achievable for me. 9 stone wouldn't be.

Your "gave in" to Mounjaro?
That's very judgemental.

I didn't give in to it. I decided to use it because my BMI was over 50 and I'd have been on a trajectory to an early death if I hadn't.

Try for 1200 calories a day

Ok, this is interesting. Please help me understand this better. As a new starter on WLI, with no previous weightlifting history, muscle can be gained, to a point, but if the OP has been lifting the whole time she was using WLI and losing weight, she at some point became ‘a regular lifter in long term calorie deficit’ so she won’t gain any more muscle if she maintains a deficit. Is that right?

So what should she do now, if she is off the jabs and gaining again? Not attempt a deficit (assuming if she is currently gaining she is not actually in deficit even though she thinks she is), but lift more now, to build muscle, before trying WLI again to lose the weight she has just gained?

If you are gaining weight you are eating too much, whatever all the clever numbers say. Just reduce your portion sizes a bit and see what happens if you are still gaining reduce them a bit more.

That's pretty much how it works. If OP regularly lifts weights it's odd that her TDEE is so low, so it suggests maybe she's not lifting effectively for muscle growth, so in her place I wouldn't be reducing calories but I would pay a personal trainer if possible, or sign up to an online program if not, to work on muscle building. I would advise that to everyone who wants to lose weight TBH - work on building the muscle before fat loss.

Some nonsense on here, there is no way all that weight is inflammation and water.

op,you’re over eating. None of us can say where, but no one is a medical marvel that develops fat from fresh air and needs to be studied.

Sounds like you weren't obese to begin with OP? So you bought the jabs privately?

I've worked on tirzepatide for years and we have evidence from patients demonstrating gains - these are not patients newly initiating treatment. However, as I said, we'll agree to differ.

How miserable

I don’t understand how so many on here are eating concentration camp level daily calories merely in order not to gain weight. Have we fucked up our metabolisms with constant dieting?

If the OP is gaining large amounts of weight on just 1600 daily calories, then something is wrong and I would be seeing my GP.

Or are people underestimating their cal intake.