Titrating down, weak MJ responder and placebo effects?
In the last two years I've lost 80kg (yes, I used to be very fat, I still am but not as much) (M38/186cm) I went from 181kg to 155kg in the first year (26kg) and from 155 to 101kg in the second year (54kg) - I've been on mounjaro for the last year (since 155kg when I hit a bit of a long plateau and decided to try it) and my 1 year mounjanniversary is next week, I've also been getting >8k steps/day, resistance training, rowing (erg) machine and religiously calorie tracking (avg. ~800-1200 kcal deficit/day but always aiming for consuming 1800 kcal minimum with plenty of protein and fibre and mostly whole foods) - with the two exceptions of christmas day and my sister's wedding, I don't think a single calorie has passed my lips that hasn't been added to my tracking app in 18 months and I always round up when I'm not certain about the calories. I know this is slightly neurotic.
I've always felt food noise and hunger on MJ, even at 15mg, I'm not really sure if I'm a poor responder, but I am extremely motivated and have been losing weight consistently so I kept buying it, and I wonder if part of the effect is just it's so damn expensive that you police your eating a bit more to avoid wasting the money? Or just a placebo effect of knowing the drugs helps people lose weight also has an effect?
Now that my eating habits are much healthier, and I could do with saving the almost £300 a month for other things, I'm going to stretch my final pen-and-a-half out and titrate down weekly quite quickly until it's finished and call it a day. I'm worried that there is no placebo effect, and that my food noise is actually reduced and I'm just not realising it and that I've just forgotten what it was like before MJ. I have had precicesly zero negative side-effects, but I am hungry all the time, I have just learned to manage it and maybe that's the MJ but from friends who are also on it they describe it as no longer thinking about food all the time and not struggling to ignore it. When I'm hungry in the evening, I just look at my calorie tracking app and ask myself if I really really want to eat more than I want to preserve the deficit I've managed so far today, and usually I want to maintain the deficit more than I want to eat. I keep telling myself that when I reach maintainence weight I'll have an extra 800 kcal to play with provided I can get there by not giving in now.
So, I guess my question for everyone is - has anyone else felt like despite making great progress, you just feel like the MJ isn't doing that much? I suppose I'll find out over the coming weeks. I'll update you. I just wanted to write a little about my anxieties. I am aiming for 85 kg, so I have another 17kg to go still, I'm hoping that when I titrate off it won't be a cliff edge. Has anyone else stuck with MJ despite not really feeling like you're responding to it very strongly?