r/Zepbound_Maintenance

68M - been taking Zep for 18 mo, lost 40 lbs, after losing 150lbs 13 years ago from gastric sleeve. Been sort of on maintenance at 7.5mg for last 6-8months, weight has been stable to slightly down over most of this period. Food noise and craving has been great until 3 weeks ago. I took a shot and strangely didnt even feel the shot - I almost questioned if it was an empty shot. But from that time on food noise, cravings and overeating, and ability to over eat returned in full! Very sad about this. So 2 weeks ago I increased to 10 mg. Still havent noticed any relief. I have gained 8 lbs over the last 2 weeks. Has anybody had any experience like this? Any thoughts on what is going on? Further, ever since starting Zep my aches and pains have been much better, except now that my Zep seems to be on vacation, my whole body aches terribly.... Please help - id really like to know what is going on and appreciate advice on how to get back on track? Thanks

I’m a low responder but hoping to meet my goal in a couple months, then maintain for a couple months then thinking I should do a month of each lower dose until not using - but maybe that’s too careful? I know some people just stop.

I'm heading toward maintenance and hoping to get some opinions and "what worked for me" feedback on my tentative plan. I'm thinking of titrating down very incrementally when I'm a couple of pounds above the top end of my goal weight range, and then week by week, seeing if I need to cut my dose down further. As a 5 foot tall woman in my 70s, my goal range is 128 to 120 pounds. For clarity, I'm one of those (maybe unintentionally annoying?) people who responded so strongly to 2.5 mg that after three shots, with my doctor's guidance, we cut my dose down to 1.25 mg via kwikpen. I've since titrated up over several months to roughly 1.67 mg (40 clicks on my 2.5 mg kwikpen). I don't do well at all with spacing shots farther apart but I'm very responsive to incremental dose changes.

Tentative plan: once I weigh 130 pounds, start reducing my dose by two clicks per shot (ie, first change takes me down to around 1.58 mg). If I lose more than one pound a week on that dose, keep decreasing the dose by another two clicks per shot until the weight loss slows to less than a half pound per week. Around then, see if adding more calories puts me at maintenance. I'm already weight lifting two or three times a week, and hiking a couple of times a week, so I've been adding muscle while losing fat. I plan to continue that, and my doctor will continue to monitor with Dexa scans.

I totally get that people's responses can be wildly different, but I'm wondering: Have others tried anything similar to this? Do you see potential pitfalls? Ideas for improvement?

I’ve been in maintenance since about February, with my weight in the range of about 125-130. But my PCP keeps lowering my dose because she’s worried that my a1c is getting too low. I’m not diabetic, and my a1c has always been ok. It went from 5.1 three months ago to 4.4 at my visit yesterday so my PCP is making me drop down to 5 mg. She also commented that my weight is still dropping, but it literally went from 134 to 132 in three months! How is that dropping? That’s just different clothes, different shoes, and maybe a big BM!

The bigger issue is that the lower my dose goes, the louder the food noise gets. I have really enjoyed silencing it, it’s been SUCH a relief to have all that head space cleared out. I can actually eat intuitively for the first time in my life, and it’s amazing. I’m really scared that it’s going to start up again and I’m going to be miserable trying to battle it again. I cannot live a life counting every calorie, weighing all my food, obsessing over what I can and can’t eat and when. I can’t go back to that.

Has anyone had this experience before? How can I push back if the food noise gets to be too much? When I tried to tell her about that, she kind of talked over me and made a comment about it being more of a mental health issue if it’s that bad. But if being on this medication has taught me anything, it’s that this isn’t just in my head, and I know that no amount of therapy can change my genes.

I honestly didn’t think I would hit maintenance after years of inflammation and health issues due to insulin resistance/ metabolic, immune deficiency diagnosis and lung disease ( early stages due to weak lungs from being sick all the time from an incomplete immune system) . I will be 58 next week! So I think I’m in shock.

I am currently on 15mg and my doc is wanting to start maintenance and reducing. I asked to remain on 15mg and increase my calories for now. I have labs and see her beginning of September so just two months more on 15mg. Suppression has been strong, side effects have been manageable the past 20 months on Zep. I have lost 91 lbs and at 159 and feel good. The main goal was health for me.

I know this will be independent for each of us. I’m just scared of the inflammation rising again. On a super positive note due to the large reduction in visceral fat, exercise at a solid moderate pace 4x a week, my lung function tests have improved to only 20% loss which has my immune and lung doctors ecstatic if doc’s can be 🤨

I am really just interested in hearing your stories and learning, ultimately just put the shot as another med I take in my daily arsenal and not a daily emphasis of life. That part I’m excited about!

For context, I was very thin and fit pre-kids, but it took every ounce of my energy to restrict what I ate. 3 kids led to 70lb weight gain. Couldn’t lose it on my own so started zep and it was the best thing I ever did. The food noise I battled my whole life was gone. My brain felt calmer, body felt better, and it was wonderful to be free of thinking of food all day long and never feeling satisfied. And I know there’s a genetic component to it because my dad is exactly the same and has also responded to the medicine incredibly well. Neither of us had side effects.

I lost 65lbs and was at goal weight. The max I was ever on was 10mg. I started to titrate down and was fine until week 5 back at 5mg. Food noise is back with a vengeance, craving carbs like crazy, craving sugar, etc. I figured I would stay on something like 2.5 because it makes me feel better but now I’m thinking that isn’t going to be enough and I might need to be on 7.5mg long term.

Anyone here stay on a dose higher than 5 even after you lost the weight? I truly think I might need 7.5 even to stay in maintenance. I desperately want the mental bandwidth back that I had when I didn’t have to think about food.

July 4th weekend here in the US. I just hit goal weight (52 pounds lost!) last week and want to start maintenance but I have been suffering pretty bad nausea 3-4 days after shot day the whole journey. I'm at 10 mg. For my first maintenance do I just push it back a day (instead of Thursday, do it Friday?) and see how it works? I'm scared I will be a little sicker on the extended shot day since I won't have as much drug in my system by waiting , if that makes sense? I could go down in dose. I have some 7.5 mg left over from when I titrated up and could ask my doctor to change from script from 10 to 7.5mg?

I also always got hypoglycemia if I did not eat every 3-4 hours before I started Zepbound (it's what prevented me from losing weight before) and when I get near shot day , I can feel that creeping back in. so I'm a bit nervous changing anything, as I have gotten used to the nausea (or used to being "sick" for 3 days) which is not ideal but doable. I have been on a plateau at my goal weight +1-2 lbs. Not really losing much anymore.

I'm not a great person with change , so possibly over worrying for nothing but wish I had at least a concrete plan. Id love to stop the nausea and be able to enjoy my weekends and start more vigorous exercise plan , so maybe going down in dose would be a better answer. and if the hypoglycemia shaking/dizzy spells return , I can hope fully go back up ? any suggestions?

I love the weight I lost. I thought I did things right with exercise and protein while losing but OMG, I have the saggiest boobs and all of the wrinkles seem to have gathered in my front - belly, chest, etc. I hate taking my clothes off or even seeing my body when I am naked. Of course this is having an effect on my relationship with my husband.

So, barring an unexpected windfall that would permit me to do some body contouring, what do I do? I am done losing weight, now how do I fix my brain?

Does anyone know if the new Medicare GLP1 bridge program starting July 1 will cover people in maintenance?

For context:

5'8" 22F GW: 200, then 180

Feb 19: 239, no pill/SW

May 02: 231.8, first 1.5 mg

June 17: 220.7, first 4 mg

June 29: 220.9

All side effects have been super manageable, I was a fast responder first month and felt reduction in food noise/cravings and better recognition of fullness cues.

Started to feel a plateau after my first month of 1.5mg, I left my job June 9th to get ready to go to graduate school, so my habits changed from taking it early in the morning to later afternoon (still fasting) and not meeting my protein goals as consistently.

Now, even after upping my dose mid-second month of 1.5mg, I'm no longer loosing. Does anyone have any advice/anecdotes about how they were able to start loosing again? I definitely need to add in exercise and fix my protein intake (protein is suddenly pretty unappealing; I've been really loving fresh fruit and carbs lately). Still eating 1/4 of what I was eating before the pill, just not seeing the results on the scale :((

I have been on zepbound for about a year and have reached my goal I went from 250 to 145. What do you do to maintain the weight loss. Do you keep taking zepbound or is there something else?

Hi. I've been in maintenance for about 6 months now on 5 mg but I'm recently experiencing food noise and some weight gain. I have a stash of several weeks' worth of 5 mg vials and would like to try to titrate up to 7.5 by using a 5mg and half of another vial to see how it goes before I change my prescription. If seen several posts saying they do this. How does one keep the opened vial sterile for a week?

Considering going off completely to maintain because of cost. Has anyone had success doing that?

I am wondering if others have had a similar experience to mine I lost 80 pounds, was at my goal weight and considered myself in maintenance. I slowly spread out the doses from 7 to 10 days in 1 day steps over 6 months or so and remained stable However, I recently have begun to gain weight, not a huge amount, but not a random wobble. I have started to reverse the timing, now at 9 days, soon at 8, and perhaps to 7. If that stops the increase, I have no problem, but I am concerned. I am thinking about upping my dosage from 7.5 to 10. Has anyone had a similar "bounce-back" problem and, if so, how did you deal with it?

Logically I know others people opinions mean nothing. But my god it’s so frustrating when the people who used to comment on how big you were now need to make comments about you need to stop losing weight.

Context - starting weight: 280. Started maintenance at 140. Maintained between 140-144 for a few months. Went through fun little breakup and dropped down to 135 and have stayed there. And according to my height I just hit “healthy” BMI now. (Yes I know BMI means nothing).

Now to a conversation with my mother from this week:

Me - best part of the breakup was getting down to 135
Mom - yeah so and so said the other day you’re too skinny now. Your face is looking pretty skeletal.
Me - my face is not any thinner than yours
Mom - yeah but we have different frames
Me - bitch we have the same frame you’re just used to seeing a lot more on it.

From too fat to too skinny. Can just never win. It’s to the point that I prefer talking to people who didn’t know me before weight loss because they’re the only people who don’t mention it.

And for the record.. my face isn’t skeletal. I’ve always had high cheekbones. They’re just not covered by extra weight anymore!

Hi! I was supposed to receive my zepbound RX from Lilly direct today. It was sent out of Ohio yesterday the 25th. I just received an update from UPS that it’s now going to be delivered on Monday 6/29 due to delays. I’m
In NY and the package is sitting in Farmingdale about 20 minutes from my house. So frustrating! Question is- will the medicine still be good by the time it arrives? I know they pack it in the ice but that will be 5 days en route. This happened to me last month with it as well, but they sent it back to Lilly and then resent it to me. It caused over a week delay in me receiving my meds. Thanks all!

Greetings All, I have just received my first Kwikpen from Lilly Direct. Only used vials before. The package they sent included the pen, along with several attachable needle tips.

I immediately got on an international trip from US to Australia for a month. I have the Kwikpen, but neglected to bring the needle tips.

Can anyone offer advice on how to make this work this month? I know I can get syringes form local Australian pharmacy. Unfortunately, no real knowledge of how this kwikpen works?