Maintenance Experiment (a cautionary tale)...
A little over a month ago, I left for an extended break in a warmer, sunny place than the UK. At that point, I had been on Mounjaro for just over 5 months and the day we left I weighed in at 134.5--my goal weight!!!
I was going to be gone for a month, with no access to a scale, and decided to use this time to experiment with trying to maintain this weight by eating intuitively and trying to add a modest amount of calories in each day. I took my 10mg pen and took a dose each week.
I had access to a blender so continued to make a morning protein smoothie each day, had a light lunch (cottage cheese and fruit for ex) and a 'normal' dinner of protein, vegetables, salad small serving of potatoes or other carb. I used olive oil liberally in my cooking, ate the full fat Greek yoghurt, had the occasional gelato, buttered my potatoes, and never felt deprived of anything I wanted to eat.
I continued to do my Pilates routines with weights, did a fair amount of walking, and generally felt I was doing really well.
We got home 5 days ago and I was excited to weigh myself and see how my maintenance experiment had gone. Imagine my surprise to step on the scale and discover that.....I had lost 5.7lbs 😳😳
Clearly, maintenance is going to be more challenging than I thought. Overshooting my goal still leaves me in the healthy BMI range (22), and I have been this weight before ---but not since I was in my 20s. I turned 71 while I was away, and boy, does that weight look different on me now😢
I'm planning to titrate down to 7.5 and then to 5 in the next couple of months, and maybe experiment some more with adding calories, possibly spacing shots (much more challenging with the 4 dose pen). I definitely don't want to lose any more weight.
I welcome any and all tips and advice from those of you who have been in maintenance for a while and have figured out how to find the right balance of meds and diet.
In reference to the photos: In packing for this trip, I threw in some of the summery clothes I had bought for two previous trips to warmer climates that I took in the year before I started Mounjaro. I don't know exactly how much I weighed at these junctures, but I would guess somewhere between 170-180. I started Mounjaro at 168 on June 1st this year.
The shorts still look presentable from the front but are pretty laughably baggy in the rear lol. I carried most of my excess weight in my hips and thighs, so the skirts still fit, as they have elastic waists. It's pretty surprising to see the difference in these side by sides of the exact same outfits.
As is obvious from some of the shots, I have a fair bit of loose skin on my arms (and also on my thighs), which I don't love, but it's the price I have to pay for carrying around 40 extra pounds for the past several decades.
