Has anyone gone cold turkey and kept weight off?

[Springbaby2023]

Has anyone gone cold turkey when stopping and managed to keep the weight off?

I’m currently maintaining on 7.5mg and the plan was to gradually decrease dose however the pharmacy I was ordering the next dose from is being funny, I can obviously order from a different supplier but going away next Tuesday and not sure if it will arrive in time. So now I’m contemplating just using the rest of my current pen and then stopping. Is that a terrible idea? I’m still tracking calories and plan to continue this.

What was your starting weight and your current weight?

If you’ve lost at least 3 stones but not made any significant changes to your daily diet and exercise regime, then yes, it is a terrible idea and you need to work out a proper maintenance plan. Just stopping cold turkey isn’t likely to go well.

Lots of people lose weight with groups like Weight Watchers and Slimming World but very few are able to sustain the losses long term. A quick glance through some of the WLI threads on here from posters having to re-start will also confirm that if you don’t have a proper plan, you’re far less likely to be successful and will gradually slip back into old habits.

Me. I lost 52 pounds, stopped MJ completely without titration to a maintenance dose. I’ve kept the weight off, and a little bit more for around 18 months (I’m not exactly sure when I stopped).

@KrazyKatty was 14 stone 5, now 11 stone 8 (ish), I’m still in the overweight bmi category but that’s intentional as I wanted to get to a weight I felt I could maintain. Been on it since October, highest dose I got to was 7.5 which is what I’m on now but it’s just not as effective now and I don’t want to move up.

@FormerFatty well done that’s amazing! I would like to slowly titrate down but worried that if I can’t order for three weeks now then I’ll have to go back to 2.5mg anyway!

No sorry. Piled it back on and more over the course of 8 months.

Could you use the rest of the pen as one 5mg and one 2.5 dose?

I went cold turkey from the highest dose in error ( went away managed to forget pen)
Hunger pangs were ridiculous

Yeah it’s a terrible idea then, if you’re not finding it effective in 7.5 on zero you will struggle and all the cravings will come back

they day you need to maintain for two years at your new weight before it becomes the new norm.

The issue is you’re maintaining on 7.5, ideally you move up to your optimal dose, keep losing, then when you want to maintain, you slowly increase your cals by 100 odd a week till you hit maintainence, whilst moving down each month, so the increase in cals offsets the increase in hunger. But you’re already at maintenance cals

id finish pen, move to 5mg, see how you feel, then 2.5 and then come off.

I did. I went to Australia in November and haven’t taken WJ since returning.Am still the same weight give or take a KG . I lost about 20 kgs over 14 months beforehand.Max dose was 5mgs.

I went away last week and forgot my pen. I am so hungry and can’t stop eating. I put 5lb in a week.

I’m coming off having bulk bought some pens- I’m doing less than 2.5mg every 8-10 days at the moment. Could you try either spacing the doses out a bit longer and see how you feel or reduce the dose?

Yeah I would have liked to increase the dose but I had awful side effects any time I tried 10mg and so I stayed on 7.5mg and I guess over time it’s just lost its effectiveness!

Oh really that’s interesting! Was already planning on skipping a week while on holiday as didn’t want to take it away with me. But maybe I should try extra hard to get one delivered this week and take it away.

Definitely take it with you. I took mine but only injected every 9 days or so. Only put 3 lb on in 14 days. I ate and drank well but didn’t eat quite as much as normal on a holiday. So nice to not get back to square one!

@Blackbird2409 my issue is the pharmacist is being funny over prescribing it so they’ve got my money but haven’t confirmed they’ll dispatch it yet and conscious I’m running out of time now to take a delivery before we go. Might just have to suck it up and order from elsewhere tomorrow. I have one dose left in this pen to take the night before we go away, the problem is if I don’t get a pen before we go away then obviously can’t get one for at least two weeks and worry other suppliers will then question the gap - plus would be minimum 2.5 week break!

Can't say about GLP but I do know people who did WW etc, then stopped. They just write a list for meals and exercise routines and didn't go off-piste, as it were (neither had young kids), which they found boring but as they only had that food in, they stuck to it.
I know some people say GLPs do different things in terms of blood sugar/anti-inflammatory, so maybe that's not a fair comparison. But they did find just having a fixed list of foods worked, and it's stayed off for them.

I am planning on counting to log all calories, genuinely think that has been vital in helping me as much as the MJ itself as I’ve not had super strong suppression from it. Exercise I have no concerns about, do loads and if anything would like to do more so that won’t slip.