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!

Thanks, I'll take a look at those!

This is such an important point, and one a lot of people don’t understand.

every single one of us on the meds know full well you can push through and eat should you chose, unless you deliberately are on a too high dose to prevent it or are overly sensitive to the meds.

if weight gain was purely greed and laziness, the medication would not work for the overwhelming majority of people. We would just push through, every over weight person has continued to eat when no longer hungry at some point.

i don’t know if it’s leptin or ghrelin for everyone, for me, it was clearly a poor insulin response and a lack of blood sugar control. I understand some of us a biologically programmed to turn glucose to fat, where as others burn it off, there are clearly key metabolic issues at play for most people who have obesity issues.

i lost 6 and a half stone on the meds, im now maintaining on it, and at any point in the last 2 years or so, id be able to push through and eat what i wished, be it cake, biscuits, ice cream, chocolate or crisps. The fact I didn’t shows this is not just about greed or willpower or laziness, it showed that once my nody was behaving optimally I was mentally fully in control.

the fact the drugs are so popular, shows that in the main people do not wish to be fat. It is not a simple choice we make as some seem to think. It’s an overwhelming physical need for certain foods to feed our bodies due to biological processes.

righting those pathways, resolves the issue completely , the physical cravings go.

for some yes it is a mental health issue, and often for those, the drugs won’t work, as it is mentally complex, but for the vast majority of people the one thing the drugs have proven is this is not and never was simply greed and laziness.

I lost 2 stone in 3 months on MJ and have maintained for another 9 months. My dose varies between 1.25 and 5 depending on circumstances - I only tend to take the higher dose immediately before and after holidays.

I view GLP1 like my statins and BP drugs, just something I’ll need to be on for life. When I retired recently, I budgeted for that expense when sorting out my pension drawdown.

The big plan though is to move to Orforglipron when that’s approved in the UK, so then I’ll just take three tablets before bed.

Have a read up on the Orforglipron research to see if it’ll work for you - one suggestion is that its main role may be maintaining rather than initial loss, which would be perfect for me. The daily tablets may even be slightly cheaper than a weekly jab.

Brilliant post. You worded it perfectly.

Whatever happens I can't put the weight back on, Ive thrown all of my fat clothes away. Id be left wearing only my dressing gown.

It’s taken me two years to pluck up the courage to get rid of some of my big clothes.

Bin the lot or they will tempt you!!!! 😮

I’m 18 months in, have lost just over 8 stone. My weight sits comfortably around 9 stone now and I’ve been maintaining for six months or so. I was a comfort eater: I ate when I was happy, sad, upset - whatever the emotion! I went into this knowing that it was likely to be lifelong. After a brief flirt with Wegovy in the middle of my journey I’m back on Mounjaro and using it to support maintenance. I’m under no illusions that this is forever.

I feel that it’s important to remember that weight regain happens with all forms of weight loss. Even the contestants that went through hell on The Biggest Loser mostly regained the weight they had lost. And people have bariatric surgery and can still regain weight. So maybe it’s better to reframe the situation: With GLP1 medications you can stay on a low dose or microdose for life in order to keep the weight off.

The problem with these approaches at the moment is that the clinical trials haven’t been done so the manufacturers can’t provide a microdose version of the medications. But I’m sure those trials are happening, especially as people are taking GLP1 medications off-label to treat inflammatory conditions. The recent study that showed such a reduction in breast cancer risk completely changes the equation of whether you would consider staying on a GLP1 medication for life, especially for women with a family history of breast cancer.