Advice on reducing clicks for maintenance

[ThisPeachFawn]

After a year on mounjaro I'm finally at a healthy BMI and starting to think about maintenance. I reckon I'll be be on it long term but want to find the lowest possible maintenance dose. So I'm thinking of coming down the doses gradually and reducing the clicks by 1-2 a week. Has anyone else done this? Did you reduce clicks weekly or monthly? Does it make a difference if you do it slower? Or does everyone have their own individual maintenance dose that works for them regardless of how slow/quick they get there? Sorry for all the questions but any advice will be gratefully received!

What’s your current dose?

Reducing clicks by 1 or 2 a week will make much more difference if you’re on 15mg compared to if you’re only on 5mg.

For example, 1mg is 12 clicks on a 5mg pen and 4 clicks on a 15mg pen.

A few things moulded my tentative approach to reducing dose, as I need my significant (>9st) weight loss to stick, I don't want Mounjaro to be my next yoyo diet attempt and I am open to be on it as long as I need to. Also, currently I don't have any financial constraints to consider.

Firstly - whenever we reduce dose, similar to when we increase, it takes 4 weeks until the level of the medication in our bodies levels off again. So I decided whatever dose drop I did I would do it for at least 4 weeks before I could start to judge the effect.

Next - for me, I had been on the same dose for over a year, but recognised that some days/weeks the effects of the medication would be variable depending on stress, sleep, what I had been eating/drinking, hormones etc etc. So I decided judging the lower dose (on both perceived effect on hunger/satiety and measurable results on scales) would take patience.

Then - because I was taking each decrease slowly, any decrease would need to be meaningful. I was fortunate to respond to Mounjaro and lose significant weight on my highest dose of 3.75mg. So dropping to 3mg, to me, was a significant 20% decrease to trial.

I also believe much of this medication/treatment and especially maintenance is also psychological and will power/treatment fatigue will come into it more and more, so you need to approach your own approach to maintenance how you feel most comfortable.

Thank you both. I'm currently taking 8.5mg from a 10mg pen (51 clicks). I've got another 10 mg pen (with the golden dose) in the fridge so I was going to reduce 1-2 clicks a weeks until I get to 7.5mg using that and then order a 7.5mg pen. I didn't know that about the 4 weeks levelling off so I think I'll aim for a month on 7.5mg and then look at reducing again.

This (picture of GLP1 plotter) would be and example of decreasing from a level 10mg to 7.5mg (it is the opposite when increasing which is why you stay on each dose for 4 weeks minimum). You can see the first couple of weeks have the biggest drops before levelling off again.

When you are reducing by much smaller amounts it would not be as pronounced week on week. I try to have a few weeks at a consistent level before reviewing how I feel on that dose.

Everyone’s just figuring this out, but fwiw I think that sounds perfectly reasonable from all the examples I’ve read.

I was on 7.5 when I reached target of BMI 24.5. Stayed on that for 3 or 4 months, carried on losing about a kilo a month. Went down to 6.25, lost another kilo, went down to 5. Have been on that since January and lost maybe half a kilo max.

Plan to stay for 5 for at least several more months, and then I might cut down a click a week to 3.75, but I don’t expect to go below that because I value the anti-Inflammatory effects so much.

I take it twice a week, 2.5mg each time to flatten the rollercoaster.

I've dropped from 15mg in sept 25 bmi 25 to 5mg now bmi 21.8, dropped just over a further stone since tapering down. I'd just done the standard doses but will probably reduce slowly now but being prediabetic previously and having insulin resistance amd IBS which is controlled by mj, I'll probably stay on a dose that manages all this.

I went down a click a week, from a 10mg pen. I was originally taking 45 clicks, 7.5mg. I went down to 20 clicks, 3.33mg. I stayed there for a month or so, but my weight was very slowly but consistently drifting upwards and I was battling constant food noise. Yesterday, I went back up to 30 clicks, 5mg, to have a break from the food noise. It definitely made a difference, but I suspect I will start to lose weight again at that dose. I’m trying to find a happy point where I can maintain and not worry about food noise. I think I might just end up adjusting slightly, week on week.