When to go up in dose
I’m ~6 weeks into tirzepatide at 2.5mg. 42M, pretty athletic (lift, cardio, yoga), started around 199, now hovering around 192. Only have about 15-20 lbs more I want to lose, so I’m not a typical “lots to lose” case.
Here’s my question. The drug clearly works on the thing I came for: my cravings and food noise are way down, and I have much better control at night and at restaurants. That part is great. But I’ve figured out that the drug alone basically holds me at maintenance. When I eat whatever I want, even with cravings gone, I just stay flat. To actually lose, I still have to be conscious about eating well: protein first, complex carbs over junk, not grazing. When I do that, the scale moves.
So I’m a little torn on the dose question. Part of me wonders if I’m “supposed” to be going up, but the current dose is doing its job on appetite, and I suspect a stall is really just me eating at maintenance, not the dose being too low. I don’t want to chase a higher dose to compensate for eating I could fix myself, especially since I’d rather keep this moderate and sustainable than white-knuckle it. Also, I’ve had basically no side effects. Current plan is to give it another month at 2.5 and see where I land and effort to get there.
For those who’ve been through it:
How did you tell the difference between “dose has stopped working / appetite came back” vs. “I just need to dial in my eating”?
For those of you with less to lose, did you stay on a low dose the whole way, or still titrate up?
What did the appetite “fade” actually feel like when it happened, and around what week?
Trying to be patient and judge by the monthly trend rather than reacting to the scale every few days. Appreciate any real experience.