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!

I’m not sure exactly, but it’s well over a year.

Edit - forgot to quote post asking me when I stopped.

Hi, I've been off the injections for quite some time and not regained.

In terms of my approach, I was slow to increase my doses because my focus was on re-establishing healthy eating habits. Those habits became my new norm.

I didn't quite reach goal. I came off the injections because i felt the appetite suppression became too unhealthy.

I am trying to lose a bit more weight now. I am using the Nutracheck app and going to the gym regularly. Slow and steady.

Thanks for sharing - and well done! Can I ask what staying on a lower dose for longer looked like for you?

I’m following as have reached my target and wanting to taper off it. I’m currently taking 2.5mg every 7 days but often slip to anything up to 10 days without really noticing. I have overhauled my diet and exercise regularly (strength and Pilates).

My plan is to keep ‘levers’ available to support me as I come off so trying to up my calories a bit to find maintenance but am also eating in a way that means I can cut that extra out if I start to gain. I’m enjoying exercising and would like to add some running and swimming but am holding that as another lever. Same with daily steps- currently aiming for 8-10,000 a day with the aim to up that as I eventually come off.

so overall- plan is to build good habits but have adjustments that I can make if the weight start to creep up.

The 6 stone came off very slowly over a year and a half. Only 2 pounds a week max no matter how hard I tried mainly because I was completely immobile after orthopaedic surgery and in my 60s.
I expect Ill be on 2.5 mgs for a year or so to maintain.
Im using my mums trick to stay slim. She weighs herself every single morning and if shes put on weight she will tackle it right away and not wait until its crept up to one or two stone.
A pound is psychologically easier to get off than a stone.
If I want to binge uncontrollably Ill drink a pint or two of water. That kills the urge.

Hi
I spent 2 months at a time on the lower doses, and I think I only went up to 10mg. That's when I felt the level of appetite suppression did not support healthy eating habits.

When I reduced doses, I slowly came off 2.5mg, taking a couple of months, making the doses less frequent.

I've been off the injections for around 18 months now.

There are loads of maintenance threads. Short answer is that if you want to come off it you have to have a plan, eg
do more exercise including weights
eat more protein
avoid processed food
weigh yourself regularly etc etc

I have managed to maintain a size 10 body 6m off MJ. This is a huge achievement after being size 16-22 for the last 25yrs.

I have had to completely transform my unhealthy habits, from couch potato to strength training 5x a week and from large portions of processed foods to eating whole foods only when I'm hungry.

I have never felt better in my life. I really utilised the 18m on MJ to a factory reset on my lifestyle.

Exactly this. Wholefoods. Protein. Strength training.
only eating when hungry.

Look up https://mbk.life/; it preserves muscle while you lose weight, and it's not a protein shake, which I don't like because they're too heavy. I got mine from a pharmacy on Baker Street. The reason so many of us gain weight is because we've lost muscle and fat, resulting in a lower BMR. Weight will return unless habits (diet and exercise) are permanently altered, as well as body composition improved (more muscle). If you don't want to go to the gym, get some dumbbells and watch some YouTube videos to exercise. Look at this doctor's post about a recent clinical trial on four groups of menopausal women: https://www.instagram.com/reels/DX-KrHNSIYm/ - I asked my doctor about it, and she said it would also apply to non-peri women.

Sorry, I meant muscle preserved. My pharmacist told me it's about hanging onto muscle while we lose weight.

I spent 7 months in total on wegovy and lost 3.5 stone. The maximum dose I went up to was 1mg and I gradually went back down the doses before coming off completely. I've been off them for about 6 weeks.and have actually lost more weight. I calorie count and am fairly active (I have set goals I like to reach on my fitness watch for active calories burnt, steps, exercise). The food noise has come back but I track everything I eat. I'm in the process of upping my calories which I am doing very slowly to work out how much I can eat to maintain my weight.

thts amazing! Well done!

Stop being daft .! READ the peer reviewed study in the BMJ .. and also wobble your head .. if you have high BP and/or cholesterol.. you take drugs to lower them.. they lower - you stop taking them .. you get fat again . … if you were previously obese and this drug has made you thin.. stop taking it - YOU WILL GET FAT AHAIN !! Stop listening to all the nonsense about retraining your eating habits - it’s part of the anti WLI lobby .. thin people don’t want fatties to be thin .. simple as that .. you need to find your maintenance dose and stick on it . Mine is 7.5mg .. yours may be different depending on your insulin resistance

Is this sarcasm? I can't tell.

I lost 3.5 stones and stopped in March. Haven’t gained any weight.
I weight train.
I eat healthily - high protein, loads of fruit and veg, almost no alcohol / sugar
Keep counting your calories when you stop, you’ll know how many you need to eat.

This 100%.

@TeddySpaghetti , I think that poster was genuinely trying to be helpful.
In answer to your question unfortunately very few people (according to scientific research) manage to keep the weight off if they come off the medication, I believe the mean regain is 70%. I’ve lost six stone which is around 40% of my original body weight and as a previous poster said I had over the years lost and regained huge amounts of weight on numerous occasions. I do think the weight regain if we stop using the medication is not well publicised by those who are making vast profits from selling us these amazing drugs.
The benefits of being a healthy weight are unquestionable and I hope (but doubt) that in time the NHS will understand the cost effectiveness of prescribing them widely and long term. Until then I remain deeply grateful that I can absorb the expense of ongoing treatment for my lifelong disease.

Thanks for that. Yes, I understand that's the case. My PI gym instructor said it was a 50% long term success rate for those who were already regular gym goers but not sure where he's getting that from. Sounds a bit biased.

On the other poster, maybe they were trying to be helpful - I suspect not. No other discussions showed up when I searched until I posted on the same topic, then several popped up from last year. I suspect it was more of the drive-by shaming that occurs on MN and I find those types of comments really tiresome. Of course, if someone had shared a relevant thread with me, I would've been grateful.

Well done, you! Yes. I'm six months into lifting and its a revelation. It's also improved my rowing :)

I don’t want to come off them and have given up this idea that WLI are a temp fix. Im finding the slower digestion and ability to not think about food and my body all the time life changing.

It’s worth the money to me. I only had a BMI of 25 when I started, but these WLI have been transformative about how I think about myself and food. I click count a 5mg pen so it’s only about £85 a month which is worth it for me.

There are plenty of people who don't pile it all back on @TeddySpaghetti . Have a look at the maintenance thread in the WLI category. Some people can cold turkey, some titrate down to a level that keeps them stable, others microdose, some come off and then go back on for short periods. There is no one size fits all. I've kept the weight off for 18 months now cold turkeying and also microdosing - if that is of any comfort to you. Obviously, I also calorie count, as you definitely can't return to over-eating!

Good luck with your weight loss. Loads of support to be found here too, which is really reassuring.

Op. I think people seem to think there is something different about weight loss supported by the meds, there is not. When you stop the drugs your body just returns to normal, they don’t work when you stop taking them.

as such, just like any other diet to lose weight, you need to continue to eat to your new maintenance cals, or you will regain.

through normal dieting 80 percent regain all the weight again. Even with bariatric surgery, 60 percent regain it all. Obesity is a relapse disease.

so from those stats you will see a percentage of people can keep the weight off, but the majority cannot,

personally I’m staying on a maintenance dose. I’ve no desire to spend my days feeling deprived, struggling, hungry and trying to maintain, life will get in the way, and I may manage if for a period of time, but eventually diet fatigue will set in and my weight would creep up again,

in addition ghe drugs are proven to have huge health benefits, from reduced cancers to improved cardio vascular health, so for that reason alone I’d have no desire to “ditch” them

Thank you @Icanthinkformyselfthanks I genuinely was being helpful. I have seen many posts about maintaining pop up in the 4 months I've been on the WLI threads. People are genuinely very helpful on these threads so it's a shame for someone to assume the opposite.

I’ve been on MJ for 2 years and still have weight to loose, I expect to be on it for life or gain weight back, obesity is a chronic condition which I’ve struggled with my entire adult life, my appetite is ridiculous without it, it’s a constant struggle which I now realise wasn’t in my head or me being lazy or greedy, it’s biology, my levels of Leptin and Ghrelin are out of whack.