Hi all - I started using Mounjaro in July of 2022 and switched to Zepbound when it came out. I lost 90 lbs. over the first 2 years and have maintained my weight loss until this year. I have slowly gained about 15 lbs. over the last few months with no changes to my diet/dose. My current dose is 7.5mg and I take it once a week. My insurance used to cover it, but stopped this year. I have 6 boxes left and then I will need to figure out another option.

Has anyone experienced this? I have considered taking two pens at a time, but that seems wasteful if its not going to make a difference. I am thinking I need to stop the injections for awhile and restart. Has anyone had success with stopping and restarting?

Hello! I’ve been on Zepbound since July and reached my first goal of 128lbs about 2 months ago. I’m now hovering near 120 and I am good with where I am. Spoke with my doctor and she said to start moving shot out to 10-14 days apart (as opposed to 7 days). I’m worried that I’ll get awful side effects (diarrhea etc) if I immediately go to 14 days between shots due to so much being out of my system by then. For those that maintain in this way (every 10-14 days) did you slowly start moving shot further apart (8 days, then 9 and finally 10, for example)? I’m 5mg. Still losing at this dose!

I delayed my shot once in April for 12 days and had horrible stomach issues thereafter (2 days after resuming). I’ve been stable and fine since. But I also don’t want to lose anymore weight.

Just looking for experiences and ideas from others maintaining in a similar way.

441 people studied over 112 weeks…
0-60 weeks at max tolerated dose (10 or 15mg)
60-112 weeks, either stayed on max dose, went down to 5mg, or stopped zepbound
84 weeks - individuals who regained 50%+ of weight was allowed to increase dose

“Among participants who regained at least 50% of lost bodyweight, observed means were 11 (8%) of 138, 35 (25%) of 142, and 60 (67%) of 90 participants received rescue therapy in the tirzepatide MTD, 5 mg tirzepatide, and placebo, respectively”

So…
-if you stayed on your highest tolerated dose after week 60… 8% regained 50%+ of body weight and had to increase dose
-If you stopped to 5mg, 25% regained 50%+ of body weight and increased dose
-If you stopped zepbound, 67% gained 50+% of body weight and had to increase dose

overall… over 112 weeks (bit over 2yrs)

-Those on max tolerated dose lost 21.9% body weight over the 112 total weeks
-Those who reduced to 5mg after 60 weeks lost 16.6% body weight over 112 total weeks
-Those who stopped zep lost a total of 9.9% body weight over 112 total weeks

Important note I see is that this shows that even staying on max dose… it generally seems that everyone does eventually hit a barrier in terms of being able to continue weight loss

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(26)00656-2/abstract

I just wanted to start by saying how inspiring I find this group. Reading everyone’s stories, advice, struggles, and successes over the last year and a half has genuinely helped me so much, and I really appreciate how open and supportive people are here. It’s made this whole journey feel a lot less lonely (I have been in r/Zepbound).

I have two questions I’d love advice on from people who are further along in maintenance.

I’ve been on Zepbound for about a year and a half, and it has honestly changed my life. I started around 198 lbs, and I’m now maintaining around 135 lbs, which feels like a really healthy and sustainable range for me. I’ve been on 10mg for the last 3–4 months.

Two things are now on my mind:

1. My insurance is dropping coverage in September. For those paying out of pocket, what has been the cheapest/smartest way you’ve continued taking Zepbound?

• Manufacturer savings card?
• Compounded tirzepatide?
• Spacing doses out longer?
• Going down in dose?
• Ordering through certain pharmacies/providers?

I’d love to hear real-world experiences and rough monthly costs if you’re comfortable sharing.

2. I want to start moving toward a maintenance dose, but I’m nervous. I finally feel good in my body, and I’m scared of messing things up after working so hard to get here.

For people who successfully transitioned into maintenance:

• How did you taper down?
• Did you go from 10mg → 7.5mg → 5mg?
• How long did you stay at each dose?
• Did hunger/noise come back immediately or gradually?
• Did anyone move to taking injections every 10–14 days instead of weekly?

I’m trying to find the balance between maintaining my results, keeping food noise manageable, and not taking more medication than I need long term.

Would really appreciate hearing what worked (or didn’t work) for you. Thank you in advance for your help!

Has anyone tried alternating doses every week? I was on 7.5 and lost almost 40 pounds. 166lbs to 127 lbs F 53 in 6 months. My doctor wants me to go down to 5 mg due to losing too much weight on 7.5 mg but I am terrified of gaining weight. What I’ve decided to do is do 5 mg one week and 7.5 mg the next, alternating thereafter. Has this work for anyone else? I know it’s all very individualized. Thank you for your time.

I’m just about at my desired weight goal after about a year. Plan to stay on my current 15 mg for at least another month or so to stabilize, but thinking ahead about tapering off. Since I’m self paying, $450/mo just isn’t sustainable indefinitely. My fear is if I stopped, then wanted to restart, I’d lose the $450 “deal” and would be stuck paying double.

Has anyone run into that challenge before? Are they very strict on that policy or are there ways to restart at the reduced rate?

Hopefully I won’t need to and I’ve successfully changed my habits to make it on my own, but I’ve invested this much so far, I would not want it to be for nothing.

Thinking of trying to taper off by stretching dosage rather than stepping down at first. $450 every 6 weeks vs every 4.

Hello fellow Zeppers! I’m a 6 foot 2 inch male that went from 300 lbs to ~185 lbs in 1.5 years. I’ve been at 7.5 mg for the last 16 weeks. The goal weight range my obesity specialist doctor gave me is between 175-185 lbs. She has modified this number along the way as we have prioritized metrics like body fat percentage, versus BMI or body weight.

I have been fluctuating between 185-188 lbs for the last few months, so basically I’ve achieved my end goal and will be switching my focus to maintenance in a few months.

However, I’ve noticed that I’m relying on willpower more and more to do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to not over consuming calories. For example for a high volume dinner I can consume a factor75 meal (500-650 calories), 2 cups of frozen veggies (35-90 calories), and 3 cups of salad (30 calories) plus some type of low calorie dressing (45-80 calories). Even after consuming a larger dinner like that, I could still continue to eat. I don’t really feel full. The only reason I don’t continue eating is that I know on paper a 850 calorie dinner should be enough to feel full. Sometimes an hour later my stomach is still growling or i have to distract myself to prevent eating additional food. For additional context by this point in the evening I’ve consumed 3 large meals that total ~2300 calories.

My doc and I have discussed moving up to 10mg next month. However our goal is to stay at the lowest mg possible so that we still have e the ability to move up years from now if required. I am very familiar with the temporary nature of hunger reduction when bumping up the mg.

(finally the question)
For those of you that have reached the 10mg level, how has your satiety been at that level? Have your long term satiety levels remained pretty stable, or did you find that it also dipped after time at 10mg.

again to be clear … I am not chasing hunger suppression with medication as I know those effects are temporary. This is about finding that long term, sustainable sweet spot.

Thank you for any and all advice and observations!

I’ve been in every GLP sub on Reddit for a while now. If there’s one subject that stands out to me as the most controversial, it’s the question of our ability to maintain a weight loss without the drug.

This is tough on many levels, especially affordability. But let’s be honest in our definition of maintenance. Is it 6 months past goal or 6 years before we can claim that success?

The link below is an interesting post from Dr Michelle Gordon, a certified obesity medicine doc who talks about the actual biology that affects this more than just the lifestyle changes most of us are also making. Does it matter how much overweight I was and for how long? (Spoiler alert: she says yes.)

If you can’t play this summary FB reel (sorry if not allowed) then just search her name on YouTube where you’ll find even more.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1Lha8i1mGA/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Im off meds for now. Cant afford it. All I think about is food. Im making a meal and thinking about my next. I know im not hungry but have this internal urge to eat. Everyone around me, including my dr, says food noise isn't real. Just eat healthy. You'll be fine. Im scared. I know all the right things to do but this urge is real. Just want to vent and see how other ppl cope.

I've been at goal for about 5 months -- 65 pounds down. I went all the way up to 15 for about 4 months and I've been on 7.5 since the beginning of the year. My doctor wants me to see how low I can go (I know, I know...). I'm on vials so I've been tiptoeing down my dose. 7.0, 6.5, 6.0 all ok. Last week I went to about 5.2 and OVERNIGHT - returned hunger at weird times, achiness in my ankle, spending WAY TOO MUCH energy trying to plan how to keep on my food plan. Back up to 6.5 and again, OVERNIGHT, I feel great again! Am I making this up, or can you have this quick of a reaction??? And if I switch to a Kwikpen, it will need to be a 7.5 dose, right?

I’ve been in maintenance for almost two years and last year I started getting really nauseous when taking my shot. I’d been on 7.5mg every two weeks and never had any side effects. I never went past 7.5mg. So my dr had me go back to 5mg weekly. It kind of worked but even that started making me nauseous and my appetite and cravings came back despite feeling sick. So I started the vials about 6 months ago, dosed down to 3mg weekly and again I’m starting to feel nauseous again. I eat and make sure I’m eating protein, etc. my dr did blood work, etc and everything looks good, she can’t quite figure it out. I’ve gained weight back recently because I’m only taking around 3mg and I dread shot days. Has anyone else experienced this now that people have been on the meds for quite some time?

I am at a point where I need to recognize that my weight is creeping back up. lost 60lbs over six months and have been in maintenance for almost a year. At one point I was actually down to 129 when my goal was 135-140. Today the scale said 138 so I'm still "at goal" but it's been ticking up and if I'm honest, I would love to get back down to 130. I have some food noise back and definitely too much unhealthy snacking at work. I feel like my body is developing a tolerance. I was briefly down to 2.5 every 12 days, but have mostly been at 2.5 every 10 days. I'm trying to go back to every 8 days or even seven days, but I'm concerned I might need to titrate up to maintain. I'd rather not titrate up because I had an itchy dermal response at 5 and I guess I worry that over time I'll have to titrate all the way up and eventually would have too.much tolerance to use Zep at all. Has anyone else dealt with this and how did you manage?

Hi,

So I’ve been in maintenance for 8 months. I had to stop taking Zep for a month and then when I went back on I went straight to maintenance. It’s never felt as effective as it did before I took the month off. I’m taking 10mg every 7 days.

I went up a quick 5 lbs when I started maintenance but have been maintaining that over the last 8 months. I’m definitely not eating near as clean as I was and my sugar cravings have been back full swing the last few months. But I keep going up and down the same 2 lbs so I’ve been happy.

The last month or two my clothes have been getting consistently tighter, I feel like I’ve gained in places like my chest and my back…but the scale says no. Anyone experience this? I’m having the opposite of a non scale victory and I don’t like it :)

Getting back to eating cleaner but just curious if anyone has dealt with this. Like am I about to get on the scale and all of a sudden it catches up with me?