How did you keep it off?

[TeddySpaghetti]

I've just started on the WLI journey. So far, it's been a week long revelation! No food noise, slower digestion, I'm making better choices and feel really positive after years of menopause weight. However, I want a realistic long term strategy for keeping the weight off. I'd like to know, once you've reached your goal, how you are maintaining your new, healthy weight?

Has anybody managed to ditch the jabs successfully?

Thanks!

Almost everyone who stops them will regain the weight. This is a life long medication- it’s best to go into it presuming that. Most of us are perfectly capable of losing weight and have done it multiple times before (but unless you had managed to keep it off before there is no reason to think this time will be different). This is a treatment for the underlying issue more than just letting us lose weight. Just like high blood pressure isn’t cured by taking medication for six months, obesity isn’t cured by losing weight
Its much easier going into it knowing that- takes the urgency away and makes you think more about how you are going to live long term on it

There are so many threads asking this that you might find it helpful to just do a little search back in this section.

I’m going to be on the long term. I plan on setting a goal area - in my head 67-72kg and going to every 10 plus days then if I get close to 72kg back to weekly..

the lack of food noise is amazing isn’t it !!!

It's pretty much impossible to keep it off. Your appetite comes back tenfold and you lose the anti-inflammatory benefits. I've been off it twice for about 6 weeks each time and both times gained over a stone in that time. This last time, almost two stone. In 6 weeks.. and I wasn't eating that badly.

Well I looked and didn't find any myself but thanks for the comment. Feel free to scroll on by

I’ve kept it off for over a year after having to stop MJ for medical reasons. I’ve lost nearly 6 stone and initially when I stopped I put on a few pounds but my doctor told me it was probably fluid retention and it came off within the first month. You have to totally change your lifestyle, I’ve kept the same eating habits that I developed when using the jabs and kept up being more active. The hunger does come back but it’s your choice if you give in to it. I’d always thought I’d be on MJ for life but unfortunately that didn’t go to plan, I do miss the anti inflammatory benefits though because since stopping my dodgy knee has come back. I follow a few people on social media who have stopped the jabs, some are doing well others are not but there’s no guarantee that they have genuinely stopped either so I take it with a pinch of salt.

Thanks. I'm aware that's the case which is why I was asking about those who have kept weight off. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

Most people take a lower maintenance dose in order to stay healthy. I view it the same as any other medication. If I stop taking it, the problem will return, so I will be on it long term.

I was off for quite a few months without any weight gain. Hungrier for sure but not unbearably so. However, my blood sugar went back to being erratic and my minor but unpleasant stomach problems reappeared. For that reason I went back on. With the emerging research on the potential for GLP1s to slow cancer growth, and my own very noticeable improvements in health, I think I am just going to take a low dose long term.

I actually was trying to be helpful! I've found searching previous posts on here has really helped answer some of my questions. There are two such threads in the first 25 WLI posts in this section!

May I ask .. what low dose do you take and how often please?

Thanks, it's good to hear of your experience. I put on two stone over menopause and medications. I was very ill, two years ago, put on biologics and, since then, have been working on my physical fitness. Last autumn I started lifting weights 2/3 times a week and I coastal row 2/3 times a week. My weight has not moved. I am hoping to relearn portion sizes. I've fasted 36 hrs regularly and found that didn't help either (I think it might very made things worse, reading up on the impact of cortisol on the body). Anyway, I am thinking about long term and how I want to manage going forward.

I am on it, as it helps with weight gain and also helps with my kidney disease. For those reasons I see it as a long term solution and I have no intention of stopping it, even though it's expensive.

Sure. I take 2.5mg every 7 days.

I can’t imagine that I will ever be able to come off it [unhelpful] unless I’m forced to by finances or they get taken off the market. I’ve been on them now for I think 2.5 years and I am certain my health is significantly better for being on them. The only possibility would be that I could come off them after dp dies - it is likely he will predecease me - as when I’m not living with a man I keep very little food in the house, so would be one of those old ladies who eats a boiled egg and a banana a day.

Obesity is a life long disease requiring life long medication so totally normal to be on the smallest dose possible.

For me the smallest dose was also my ‘losing’ dose so I’ve stayed on that dose for over a year with completely steady weight.

I lost seven stone (without medication), kept it off for eighteen months and then put it all back on in the following four years.

To keep it off without a crutch (which would be the weight loss drugs if those are what's working to lose the weight) you'd have to remove whatever caused you to put the weight on. which is usually not that easy to do permanently.

To keep weight off I need to feel less stressed, less tired and freer in the first place. For various reasons I had that for a bit and lost it. I stress eat - it's a bit more than that, but probably too individual to be worth going into, but everyone has their messed up complex relationships with food if they become overweight - nobody genuinely puts on a lot of weight solely because they choose in a vacuum to overeat.

I do agree with this but I also think menopause causes havoc. I've also been on drugs in the past that caused weight gain. My motivation feels different now partly because my relationship to exercise has changed dramatically. I absolutely love the gym and discovered a competitiveness when I started coastal rowing racing, which is a huge motivator to slim down, after years of not being very sporty or well.

The biggest issue has been living with a man who snacks, I'd join in, and serves big meals. We're both adjusting to the idea that we're not built the same.

This is what I was also wondering. I'd there are those who microdose. Do you take the lowest dose every week?

Its very difficult when you have the resident man indulging in whatever he likes, I know!

Yes, but my lowest dose was also my losing dose (10mg). If I take less of the drug I eat more. It unfortunately only takes 1100 calories to maintain my weight, the drug helps me to stick to that.

I plan to stop when I reach my goal (5lb to go, 50lb loss) I’d love to take it forever but I can’t afford to.
I have kept a food diary since starting in December and plan to stick to what I’ve been doing for the last 6 months. I’ve heard the hunger comes back but there are people that have ignored it and maintained, I plan to be one of them.
I hadn’t exercised in years and now do 3/4 strength training classes per week.

I lost just over 50 pounds with ease. I have kept my weight down since I stopped with no effort whatsoever. In fact, I’ve lost a bit more.

I don’t know if it’s psychological, but I’ve never gone back to eating a lot. The feeling of fullness has never really left me.

it may be a factor, but prior to an exponential porking out over a 2 or 3 year period, I have always been a very slim person. So I don't have a decades long experience of being fat nor entrenched gluttony.

Im the same, how long has it been since you stopped?

I've tried coming off twice,the weight comes back with a vengeance,so I keep taking it,realise now it's for life. I didn't at the beginning, thought I'd lose the weight and come off, I think for most that's the way, although there'll be outliers of course, but I think they're in the minority.
I've also noticed that there seems to be a significant amount that it stops working for, they're paying for 15 and still have weight to lose and it's not working.
It's very individual I think,the experience and expectations of this drug.