Weight loss jabs: What happens when you stop taking them

2025-12-2119:5851121www.bbc.com

You may have lost the weight you wanted to lose - but now you've stopped the jabs, how easy is it to keep it off?

BBC Two women are smiling at the camera, the one on the left, Ellen, has long blonde hair. The one on the right, Tanya, has long red hairBBC

Ellen and Tanya have both lost weight using GLP-1s but have had very different experiences when it comes to stopping the medication

Ruth Clegg,Health and wellbeing reporterand

"It's like a switch that goes on and you're instantly starving."

Tanya Hall has tried to stop taking weight loss medication multiple times. But every time she stops the injections, the food noise comes back. Loudly.

Weight loss jabs, or GLP-1s, have done for many what diets could never do. That constant background hum, telling them to eat even when they are full, has been turned off.

The drugs have given those who never thought they could lose weight a new body shape, a new outlook and in many cases, a completely different life.

But you can't continue taking them forever, can you? Or can you? Well, that's one of the issues, no-one quite knows.

They are new drugs - which mimic GLP-1, a natural hormone that regulates hunger - and the potential side effects from using them in the long term are only just beginning to emerge.

And with an estimated 1.5 million people in the UK paying for the injections privately, staying on them for a long time is not a cheap endeavour.

So what happens when you try to stop? Two women, with two very different stories but the same goal - to lose weight and keep it off - tell us what it's been like for them.

Tanya Hall Three pictures of Tanya at different stages in her weight loss. In the first pic on the left she is wearing a grey top, in the middle pic she is at the gym, and in the third pic she has lost weight and is wearing a white corset top and smiling at the cameraTanya Hall

Tanya says her hair "came out in clumps" when she first started taking the medication

"It was like something opened up in my mind and said: 'Eat everything, go on, you deserve it because you haven't eaten anything for so long'."

Tanya, a sales manager for a large fitness company, first started taking Wegovy to prove a point. She was overweight, felt like an "imposter" and thought her opinion was not valued by her industry because of her size.

Would she be taken more seriously if she were slimmer?

Ultimately, she says her suspicions were proved right. After she started using the jabs, people would come up to her and congratulate her on her weight loss. She felt she was treated with more respect.

However, during the first few months of the treatment, Tanya struggled to sleep, felt sick all the time, had headaches and even started to lose her hair, which might not be directly due to the drug but is a potential side effect of rapid weight loss.

"My hair was falling out in clumps," she recalls. But in terms of weight, she was getting the results she'd hoped for. "I'd lost about three and a half stone."

Now, more than 18 months down the line, what started as a bit of an experiment has turned into a complete life change. She's lost six stone (38kg) and she's tried to come off Wegovy several times.

But each time, within just a few days, she says she eats so much food she's left "completely horrified".

Should she stay on the medication, and live with all the side effects that come with it, or jump into the unknown?

Wegovy's manufacturer, Novo Nordisk, said that treatment decisions should be made together with a healthcare provider and that "side effects should be taken into account as part of this".

Stopping weight loss drugs can feel like "jumping off a cliff", observes lifestyle GP Dr Hussain Al-Zubaidi.

"I often see patients who will come off it when they're on the highest dose because they've reached their target and then they stop."

According to Dr Al-Zubaidi, that can be like being hit by an "avalanche or a tsunami". The food noise comes back as quickly as the next day.

He says the evidence so far suggests that, between one and three years after stopping the medication, people will see a "significant proportion of weight" go back on.

"Somewhere in the region of 60 to 80% of the weight that you lost will return."

Ellen Ogley is determined not to let that happen. She decided to start taking weight-loss medication because she had reached a "key turning point" in her life. She was so overweight she had to sign a waiver to say she might not make it through a vital operation.

Starting on Mounjaro was her "final shot to get it right", she says.

"I was an emotional binge eater," she says.

"If I was happy, I would binge. If I was sad, I was binging. It didn't really matter, I had no filter whatsoever."

But when she started using the jabs, "all that switched off".

Ellen, a woman with long blonde hair, is sat on a sofa smiling at the camera

Ellen says she changed her whole relationship with food while she was on weight-loss drugs

Life without food noise gave Ellen the space to redesign her relationship with eating. She started to read up on nutrition and create a healthy diet that helped fuel her body.

She was on the medication for 16 weeks before she began to taper, cutting down over a period of six weeks. She lost 3st 7lb (22kg).

As she lost more weight, she found she could exercise more and when she was feeling "low", instead of "going to to the cupboards and filling my face", she would go for a run.

But when Ellen stopped taking Mounjaro, she began to see her weight creep up, which she says "messed my head up a little bit".

This is why the right support is crucial, Dr Al-Zubaidi says. The UK's medicine watchdog, Nice, has recommended that patients receive at least a year of ongoing advice and tailored action plans after they've stopped treatment, helping them to make practical changes to their lives so they can keep the weight off and most importantly, stay healthy.

But for those who pay for the drugs privately, like Tanya and Ellen, this kind of support is not always guaranteed.

For the past few months, Tanya's weight has stayed the same, and she feels the medication is having little impact. But she's not going to come off it, she says.

She's finally at a weight she feels comfortable with and each time she's tried to stop, the fear of putting the weight back on quickly becomes too great and she finds a reason to go back on the medication.

"For the first 38 years of my life, I was overweight - now I'm six stone (38kg) lighter," says Tanya.

"Therefore, there's part of me that feels like there's an addiction to keep it going because it makes me feel the way that I feel, it makes me feel in control."

She stops for a second. Maybe it's the other way round, she muses, maybe it's the drug that controls her.

Ellen Three pics side by side of Ellen at different stages of her weight loss. In the far left pic she is bigger, with a green dress on, in the middle pic she is at the gym and in the final pic she is slim with a pair of blue jeans and a black top onEllen

Ellen has continuned to lose weight since she stopped taking weight-loss drugs

"It's all about having an exit strategy," Dr Al-Zubaidi explains. "The question is: what are these people's experiences once they come off the injection?"

He is worried that without additional support for people making the transition, society's unhealthy relationship with food means little will change.

"The environment that people live in needs to be one that promotes health, not weight gain.

"Obesity is not a GLP-1 deficiency," he says.

In some respects, many people enter a game of weight-loss roulette when it comes to stopping their weight-loss medication. Factors like lifestyle, support, mindset and timing all play into how futures post-GLP-1s unfold.

Tanya is staying on the medication and is fully aware of the pros and cons of this decision.

Ellen feels that chapter has now closed. She's lost more than eight stone (51kg) now.

"I want people to know that life after Mounjaro can be sustainable as well," she says.

Eli Lilly, the company which makes Mounjaro, says "patient safety is Lilly's top priority", and that it "actively engages" in monitoring, evaluating and reporting information to regulators and prescribers.


Read the original article

Comments

  • By jmward01 2025-12-2120:366 reply

    Other medications become lifelong medications but without this level of scrutiny. I am 100% in favor of finding a more permanent treatment, but switching blood pressure meds, and cholesterol meds, and other daily meds for a single once a week med is a massive improvement, especially since the all source mortality data keeps rolling in showing the efficacy here is orders of magnitude better than all the other medications out there. A constant issue here is that we keep calling this a 'weight loss drug' and society views being fat as a moral failing ant that you 'just don't have the will power' to overcome. We need to stop. If this is a lifelong drug it is worth it compared to the relatively ineffective, and just as lifelong, alternatives out there.

    • By nradov 2025-12-221:09

      I doubt that willpower or lack thereof is a significant factor. It's more a matter of habits and discipline. Willpower can allow you to resist temptation for a few hours but it's not sustainable.

      I know several people who were formerly obese and have achieved sustained weight loss without drugs or surgery. The common factor seems to be that they "hit rock bottom", sort of like a drug addict, and decided to make permanent lifestyle changes in order to survive and stop letting down those who depended upon them. These lifestyle changes are often pretty drastic, and involve more than just eating less and exercising more.

      If people want to take GLP-1 drugs and understand the risks then I have no problem with that and don't see it as a moral failing. But they might want to evaluate whether this is just masking the symptoms of some deeper mental health condition.

    • By paulpauper 2025-12-2121:221 reply

      A constant issue here is that we keep calling this a 'weight loss drug' and society views being fat as a moral failing ant that you 'just don't have the will power' to overcome. We need to stop. If this is a lifelong drug it is worth it compared to the relatively ineffective, and just as lifelong, alternatives out there.

      I have noticed much less moralizing over the issue now compared to 2-3 years ago. I think more people realize these drug are safe and effective and not 'taking the easy way out', but rather a treatment for a medical problem than just blaming laziness or gluttony.

      • By thefz 2025-12-2121:261 reply

        The article explains they they are not safe nor effective

        • By sergiosgc 2025-12-228:401 reply

          No. The article explains they do not cure the underlying issue, whatever it is. We have many such drugs, widely accepted as safe and effective.

          • By thefz 2025-12-229:451 reply

            So they are not effective.

            • By array_key_first 2025-12-2219:48

              Are you not listening or...?

              I took chemotherapy for cancer treatment, and it was very effective. Chemo is not a root-cause solution. It's a shotgun solution, a hammer even. It just kills cells that look like cancer. It doesn't stop cells from being cancerous, or turn cancerous cells back into normal cells. It's also carcinogenic, meaning it actually causes cancer. I am now much more likely than the general population to develop another cancer.

              But it also saved my life. We do not measure effectiveness of medicine by if you think it's morally just. Nobody cares what you think, actually. We measure it in the real world, by if it works.

    • By xorcist 2025-12-2213:501 reply

      > society views being fat as a moral failing

      This is just as weak as a counter argument. If every argument that concludes that lifestyle changes are necessary, in most situations and for most patients, are just written off as some sort of moral high ground and not necessarily something to take seriously, then what do we have left?

      Is there seriously no functional difference between healing a broken bone and getting someone to stop smoking? The only problem is just that we haven't found the right medication for the latter? Evidence of necessary lifestyle changes as part of some moral crusade?

      The science is pretty clear on the subject and it is up there as one of the most well studied in medicine. Yes, anyone can stop smoking and anyone can gain or loose weight. Yes, lifestyle changes are the most imporant factor in a treatment being successful.

      • By array_key_first 2025-12-2219:35

        There's a common misunderstanding that medication and lifestyle changes are two separate things, and we should do one or the other, with medication being the "easy way" out.

        No. The way GLP-1 drugs work is by lifestyle changes. People on GLP-1 agonists will, on average, eat smaller portions, are more inclined to eat healthier food, and will even exercise more.

        If you take GLP-1s and don't do the lifestyle changes, they don't work. So are these drugs useless? No. They make the lifestyle changes more attainable. In your smoking example, it's similar. We have cessation drugs, I know because I've used them. No, they don't magically make you stop smoking. But they do make it easier.

        We need to rewrite how we view these drugs. They don't take away your power, your strength. No, they help you find it. You had the strength all along, but these are tools to help you exercise it.

    • By 3rodents 2025-12-2120:491 reply

      I don’t think that’s a fair assessment. I’m all for life-long drugs that help with weight loss, I don’t view it as a moral failing. That said, it is easy to see why so many people are concerned about these drugs: people taking them can look terrible (“ozempic face”). Gaunt, sick, hollowed out, look at people like Sharon Osbourne, that’s the public face of these drugs. And so when people are committing to life-long use of these drugs, it is being viewed with the very visible side effects in mind, and that is concerning to a lot of people after these drugs seemingly appeared overnight.

      • By hamandcheese 2025-12-2120:563 reply

        "Ozempic face" is actually just "unhealthy rapid weight loss face". Ozempic makes it easier to starve yourself, but that isn't how it's supposed to be used.

        • By yellow_postit 2025-12-2121:09

          Many of the fly by night digital proscribes just jack the dosage to show rapid gains. Coupled with people lying on BMI to get a script is a bad combination and why it’s so obvious.

        • By manmal 2025-12-2121:161 reply

          It’s also accelerated muscle loss, even heart tissue. I‘m not saying it’s not worth it, but this should be kept on the radar for sure.

        • By tartoran 2025-12-2121:181 reply

          Taking Ozempic also drops a lot of muscular mass and that ozempic face look totally makes sense.

          There's no free lunch or wonder drug. While it's effective at weight loss it has a lot of unwanted side effects. And when stopping the drug the weight gain comes back so not sure if it's worth it.

          • By array_key_first 2025-12-2219:38

            > Taking Ozempic also drops a lot of muscular mass and that ozempic face look totally makes sense.

            No, it doesn't, weight loss does this. I've lost weight before via starving and even as a man, all my muscle went poof. If you look at someone like Ariana Grande, who clearly is anorexic, here arms are like sticks and here face looks tautly stretched over her bones.

            This is just what happens when you starve your body of nutrients. Your muscles are some of the first to go because they're the least vital. Your organs and brain are much, much more important. Your body will have no issue taking your muscle away to give it to your organs. Regardless of ozempic.

    • By AaronAPU 2025-12-2121:0611 reply

      But it is factually true that it’s a matter of willpower, no amount of reframing it is going to change that.

      It’s not like others like myself, currently on a cut cycle, don’t experience hunger. The idea that we are just “lucky” ignores all the willpower and discipline we fight through to do it ourselves.

      I’ve eaten about 800 calories today and it is 4pm. Just finished 90 minutes on the indoor bike. My stomach feels hungry. I experience that and just sit with it. That is the difference.

      • By manmal 2025-12-2121:193 reply

        Congrats, your metabolism (FAO, gluconeogenesis, insulin sensitivity, …) works well. Don’t assume that’s the case for everyone, because it’s well researched that this is highly individual.

        • By paulpauper 2025-12-2121:232 reply

          The ability to tolerate discomfort is probably as genetic/inante as metabolism.

          • By nradov 2025-12-221:12

            Why would we think that? Tolerating discomfort seems to be a skill that anyone can develop with deliberate practice. Perhaps genetics imposes some upper limit, but just like in sports most people never put in the work necessary to even approach their genetic limit.

            https://eastermichael.com/book/

            It's winter in the Northern hemisphere right now. Try going for a walk tomorrow deliberately undressed to the point that you're deeply uncomfortable but not risking serious injury or death. Anyone can do this, and over time it makes tolerating other forms of discomfort easier.

          • By xorcist 2025-12-2213:34

            Metabolism also isn't immutable. Ask anyone who became vegetarian for example.

        • By thefz 2025-12-226:40

          Insulin sensitivity is made better or worse with diet alone

        • By AaronAPU 2025-12-2121:211 reply

          You know nothing about my metabolism.

          • By manmal 2025-12-2121:23

            Well one of those has to work well or you would have fainted by now.

      • By 3rodents 2025-12-2121:41

        People are different. Using your own achievements as evidence of other’s failings isn’t useful, we are all different. I can fast for 23 hours a day, 365 days a year (omad) with ease, not because I have more willpower than my fat friends, but because I’m different. My fat friends are objectively stronger and more resilient than me in almost every aspect of life, yet by your measure, because hunger doesn’t bother me, I have more willpower than them? Willpower isn’t measured on outcomes.

      • By XorNot 2025-12-2121:30

        On the one hand I'm impressed but 800 is really super low. I was losing about a kilo a week at the peak of my diet eating double that.

      • By thefz 2025-12-226:371 reply

        You can't make this point here without getting down voted to oblivion.

        I know many ultra endurance runners and they are all in very good - healthy - shape. The only thing they all have in common is that they are very, very disciplined people.

        • By array_key_first 2025-12-2219:451 reply

          > I know many ultra endurance runners and they are all in very good - healthy - shape. The only thing they all have in common is that they are very, very disciplined people.

          Right, but are you not seeing that this is orthogonal?

          Meaning, is it that running MAKES YOU disciplined, or rather that people who are already predisposed to being disciplined are more likely to be runners? This says nothing about the genetic component of it.

          And you would have to be born yesterday to truly think there is no genetic component. Even with alcoholism, we know it's hereditary. We know when it comes to compulsions there is a genetic component. This is not opinion, this is fact. We know this.

          But specifically with food habits, you truly believe this is not the case? Do you not see how incredibly bold of a claim that is? How atypical, how surprising, that would be?

          I'm not saying that some people are blessed and some are not. Everyone has the power to change their lives. But I AM saying that it's not the same for everyone. From the beginning, I have known some things come easier to some people. I thought this was common knowledge, a part of the human condition we were all aware of.

          • By thefz 2025-12-2321:301 reply

            Ultimately the decision to put food or alcohol in your mouth is yours. I am tired of hearing of external factors, let's bring it back to the individual.

            • By array_key_first 2025-12-276:04

              This view is held by many because it's incredibly simplistic and naive, while simultaneously allowing people to gain moral leverage. Meaning, if everything is in our control, then if we do good, we must be very good.

              But it's just obviously not true. From the beginning, it is clear life is unfair. Children die from cancer. Are they losers? Should they have ate more veggies?

              When everything happens for a reason, that has some unsavory side effects. This is all philosophical, but also real.

              We are an amalgamation of what is in our control, and what is not. I could sit here and pat myself on the back for being skinny and attractive. Really, I could. But does that not seem, maybe, a bit pathetic?

              I did have something to do with it, but it was not all me. I shouldn't take all the credit, and frankly I don't need it. Maybe some people do need it, in which case they should do other things to be proud of. There's no pride in being proud of something you did not achieve.

              I think, for both you and me and for most things in life, the reality is that most things were given to us. Yes, we have achieved - off the shoulders of giants. Whether that be genetics, time, place, family.

              From there, we have a few options on how to view the world:

              - conclude that, since we've achieved nothing on our own, we must be losers, and kill ourselves.

              - denounce the notion, and live in the delusion that we did do it all on our own. Essentially, lie at a fundamental level to boost our ego. Is there a lower low a person can sink to?

              - embrace humility, and acknowledge that we are blessed and favored. Acknowledge that we do not know it all, and that our success is based off of practically infinite random things going right in our favor.

      • By seba_dos1 2025-12-224:55

        I don't think my ability to sit with hunger without fainting or experiencing massive headaches is due to my willpower. Fortunately, at least I'm not ignorant about it and don't write comments like yours.

      • By afavour 2025-12-2121:161 reply

        How can you say that with any certainty, though? How do you know that hunger hits you in the exact same way it does another person? That overcoming it requires the exact same amount of willpower in all people?

        • By AaronAPU 2025-12-2121:191 reply

          My hunger feels 8 trillion times worse than an obese person’s. Since I am making the claim, everyone else has to affirm it now.

          • By afavour 2025-12-2121:38

            But you’re disproving your own point. Other people’s experiences aren’t knowable so you can’t say it’s just a willpower issue.

      • By shadowpho 2025-12-2217:11

        >I experience that and just sit with it. That is the difference.

        Other people might have it worse and it might stay with them longer.

        Could you keep it up if you were 10x as hungry as you are now for next 5 years?

      • By DamnInteresting 2025-12-221:26

        Oh, you can't reach the items on the higher grocery shelves no matter how hard you stretch? That's just a deficit of tall-power. I also experience items on high shelves. No, you shouldn't use a stepping stool to grab those items; just stretch more, and grow taller, like me! Look how good I am at being a bit taller than you! Your failure to be slightly taller is a character flaw, feel bad.

      • By array_key_first 2025-12-2219:42

        > But it is factually true that it’s a matter of willpower, no amount of reframing it is going to change that.

        Okay... how?

        You can't just make incredibly bold claims, say "it's a fact!" and then move on. No, you have to back them up otherwise you're just a bullshitter.

        I don't know what other people, anyone else, is feeling. How do I know my hunger is their hunger?

      • By busyant 2025-12-2123:29

        What is your definition of willpower? What is it, mechanistically, that you have and others lack?

      • By toomuchtodo 2025-12-2121:56

        Willpower is just brain chemistry. Some are lucky, some are not.

    • By pupppet 2025-12-2123:54

      But what if these weight loss drugs are making you hungrier than you ever would have been had you not started in the first place?

  • By Taikonerd 2025-12-2120:394 reply

    Interesting link: a company called Fractyl Health is studying a surgical procedure they call "Revita," that they hope can keep weight off for patients after they discontinue GLP-1s.[0]

    The premise, IIUC, is that obesity is driven partly by mucosal overgrowth on the duodenum. This thicker-than-expected layer of mucus is less porous, which leads your digestive system to underestimate the number of calories you've consumed. Revita basically re-surfaces the duodenum.

    So, the idea is that you get to a lower weight with the GLP-1 drugs, and then Revita can hopefully reset your set point there.

    Their first clinical trial is still in progress, but I think it's interesting to watch.

    [0]: https://www.fractyl.com/our-platforms/revita/

    • By refibrillator 2025-12-2121:391 reply

      Fascinatingly, the body already has a mechanism for this: fasting. One of the many beneficial side effects is rapid mucosal atrophy, decreasing villus height and crypt depth.

      You can find evidence of this in the literature, but it’s absurdly understudied, because big pharma would rather sell you a subscription to life.

      Fortunately there are many good people in the world, especially in the field of medicine, who want to help their patients unconditionally. So there are glimmers of hope, like some of the top cardiologists in the world going against status quo and treating patients with fasting regimes instead of surgery.

    • By harvey9 2025-12-2120:52

      Surprised this is still in first trial. I can recall reading about something like it in 2017. Apparently clearing the duodenal mucosa is a preparatory step for a gastric band fitting, but they found patients were making improvements before the bands were being fitted so a study was started to see if this less invasive procedure might be enough by itself.

    • By hamandcheese 2025-12-2121:051 reply

      > Revita basically re-surfaces the duodenum.

      Does this reduce mucous production going forward? Otherwise, it seems like it would be a temporary effect.

      • By Taikonerd 2025-12-2121:171 reply

        My impression (and I'm not a scientist) is that the mucosal overgrowth comes from eating an obesogenic diet. (Some combination of too much sugar / salt / wrong types of fat?)

        If you get the procedure and don't go back to an obesogenic diet, then it should be permanent.

  • By OptionOfT 2025-12-2120:355 reply

    Being overweight is a chronic disease.

    Just like alcoholism, or any kind of other addictions.

    I've struggled with alcohol abuse, and once you come to the realization that you're abusing it, the fix FOR ME was relatively simple: I stopped (under medical supervision) drinking, or to be more precise: I stopped starting to drink. I have no problems not drinking, I have a problem that when I start I cannot stop.

    I have the same issue with food. Not eating is a lot easier than stopping to eat. But I cannot completely stop eating.

    Yet with alcohol people are like: hey, good for you.

    With my weight issues people are like: dude, just eat less, or exercise more.

    (I stopped sharing the food story with people).

    • By jchw 2025-12-2120:576 reply

      It's frustrating.

      "Just Eat Less" is roughly the way to lose weight, but the problem is not that fat people are so unbelievably stupid that they didn't know this. I am sure for some people it really is that simple. Not us.

      My weight has been a bit of a rollercoaster. I've never been terribly thin, but I've been "not technically obese" from time to time. I'm currently back on the downswing, but God, what a pain in the ass. It feels like gaining weight is incredibly easy and losing it is incredibly hard (and I do believe this is validated by the science, because you wind up with more fat cells when you first gain weight, which I guess is both relieving and terrifying.)

      No matter how many attempts it takes to fix my body, I'm obviously going to just keep trying, because obesity is horrible for you in so many ways. It saps your energy, it's carcinogenic, it increases your blood pressure and risk of heart disease, but it feels like one of those struggles that is never-ending. I've improved my diet numerous times but it never feels like it's quite enough.

      • By TheOtherHobbes 2025-12-2121:141 reply

        There's a lot of very visible and conscious messaging about losing weight.

        There's an equal and opposite level of messaging to keep eating, which is less conscious and runs under the radar.

        Snacks are literally designed to be addictive. TV ads start from birth. Most restaurants have huge portion sizes. "Family" and "Festival" events assume overeating is expected. Junk food is cheap and quality food is expensive. Overeating is framed as being "naughty" but also indulgent and nurturing.

        All of this is a huge social problem that's not acknowledged at all.

        It's very, very hard to Just Eat Less when there's a constant barrage of messaging encouraging you to do the opposite, and you're not even aware of it.

        The contradictory messaging is actually a classic crazy-making psychological double bind. So of course it's very difficult to make a dent in this, and even harder to permanently change habits so all the contradictions no longer influence you.

        • By paulpauper 2025-12-2121:171 reply

          Most restaurants have huge portion sizes.

          ppl keep blaming this, but this is contradicted by shrinkflation, yet people still are getting fatter than ever. There is nothing to stop someone from buying more food to offset smaller portions.

          • By toyg 2025-12-2121:35

            Shrinkflation is typically a retail issue, where pricing per unit is a massive psychological factor and competition is fierce and immediate (literally the next shelf). For restaurants it's much easier to just raise prices, or to bulk up plates with cheap stuff like bread.

      • By georgemcbay 2025-12-2122:11

        Entirely anecdotal, perhaps useless information (and off-topic for anyone who doesn't current consume caffeine) but I've never had an easier time losing weight than I have since I entirely quit using caffeine after decades of normal usage.

        After eliminating caffeine its like a switch entirely flipped in my brain turning off all the usual cravings I'd have for carbs/sugars/etc.

        The quitting caffeine part was pretty horrible though. Not just because of the headaches (which weren't actually super bad for me) but I went through a couple of weeks of what I assume was for-reals depression/anhedonia as my brain figured out how to operate with non-blocked adenosine suddenly suppressing my dopamine levels.

      • By filoleg 2025-12-2121:131 reply

        > It feels like gaining weight is incredibly easy and losing it is incredibly hard

        I feel like there is more to it.

        Obviously, I sympathize with you, and I noticed that when I switch from a bulking cycle to a cutting cycle, it is a bit difficult to adjust for the first couple of weeks as well.

        But by god, I truly am struggling to switch the other way around, and it takes me months to adjust to the bulking cycle, even with the help of stuff like weed. And when I don’t work out aggresively and don’t keep track of my cycle, it feels just natural for me to default to eating way less, as opposed to the other way around.

        To be clear, this isn’t meant to be a dig at your take. All I mean is that, I feel like the whole issue is a bit more complex.

        • By paulpauper 2025-12-2121:192 reply

          But by god, I truly am struggling to switch the other way around, and it takes me months to adjust to the bulking cycle, even with the help of stuff like weed

          You could just have good genetics in which your body is resistant to weight gain or you have a low appetite to begin with. As shown by the worldwide obesity epidemic, this is apparently quite an uncommon problem. 75% of country overweight or obese.

          • By pandaman 2025-12-221:39

            If normal resistance to weight gain or appetite lead to 35+ BMI then we would not have had the obesity epidemic, it would be just normal state for humans to be 200+ lbs weight just like it's normal to be under 7' height.

          • By toyg 2025-12-2121:391 reply

            > good genetics

            This moral judgement whereby losing weight is "good" in absolute, is such bullshit. For most of history, humans have fought starvation literally every day, and often had to make do with minimal caloric intake for weeks or months - in that context, genetics that kept you thin were definitely very bad.

            • By paulpauper 2025-12-2121:49

              Having a smaller appetite could have been advantageous by allowing food to last longer

      • By pton_xd 2025-12-2123:271 reply

        > "Just Eat Less" is roughly the way to lose weight

        Maybe the messaging should be "eat healthier"? How many obese people cook for themselves and eat exclusively from the outer aisles of the grocery (fruits, vegetables, seafood, meat, eggs, dairy)?

        I could be wrong but I have to imagine the average obese person has a terrible diet. Portion control won't work at that point, you're already doomed to fail.

        To be fair, most people have a terrible diet, it's just that some lucky individuals have the metabolism to overcome it. It seems like those people are increasingly the exception and a bad benchmark for how humans should eat.

        • By nradov 2025-12-221:28

          Differences in metabolism are very seldom the real reason. The people who claim they have a "slow" or "fast" metabolism can't back that up with actual RMR test results. They're just bad at estimating many calories they actually consume. This can go both ways.

      • By jeffbee 2025-12-2121:002 reply

        > the problem is not that fat people are so unbelievably stupid that they didn't know this

        I don't suggest this applies to you, but even a small amount of searching around and reading stuff on the web will reveal a substantial subgroup of outright thermodynamics deniers.

        • By wwweston 2025-12-2121:13

          Can you provide an example of someone who outright denies thermodynamics?

          I’m familiar with people who believe that there are details of how a body metabolizes fuel , expends energy, and generally operates that escape analysis focused on fuel volume and physical activity. I am familiar with people who characterize this as denial of the laws of thermodynamics, but I am not familiar with anyone who seems to believe that there are situations in which the laws of thermodynamics are outright suspended.

        • By randallsquared 2025-12-2121:161 reply

          > outright thermodynamics deniers

          I've heard people say this before, but when reading those arguments it mostly turns out to be people who think there's something more complicated going on with digestion, excretion, or metabolism such that eaten calories are more efficiently used for some, and burned off or passed through without full processing to some degree for people who self-reportedly "can't gain weight".

          • By paulpauper 2025-12-2121:261 reply

            Right, the body can choose to either convert surplus calories to fat or waste heat. The latter could explain how some individuals are much more resistant to weight gain than others. This is also supported by overfeeding studies, in which controlling for relevant factors, some people gain much more fat on a deliberate calorie surplus than others.

            • By array_key_first 2025-12-2219:53

              It should also just be obvious to people. The body, of course, has a choice in how it spends it's energy.

              There have been studies on ababolics, synthetic testosterone, that demonstrate this. Taking steroids and doing absolutely nothing leads to more fat loss and more muscle gain than not taking steroids and working out. Which... yeah duh.

              But people will still deny this, because of the implications. We all have different baselines, and nobody likes to hear that they got lucky in some ways. Everyone wants to believe the world and human condition is perfectly fair, so they feel that they deserve what they have.

      • By paulpauper 2025-12-2121:13

        (and I do believe this is validated by the science, because you wind up with more fat cells when you first gain weight, which I guess is both relieving and terrifying.)

        the data is pretty clear . the vast majority of dieters fail, even when the bar for success is set really low, like a 2-5% long-term weight loss of starting body weight for an obese person is considered a success.

    • By true2octave 2025-12-2120:392 reply

      What works for me is to eat highly nutritious low-glycemic food until I feel full (eggs, avocado, quinoa, etc)

      Otherwise I over eat crap and gain weight easily

      • By paulpauper 2025-12-2121:281 reply

        the problem is, obese or formerly obese people clan eat a lot of anything before the full feeling sets in, no matter what. Eggs, chicken..does not matter.

        • By true2octave 2025-12-220:191 reply

          It takes time and discipline to make the stomach smaller

          I was pre-diabetic at 100kg and went down to 70kg over a year of low carb diet and intermittent fasting

          It’s a daily struggle trying to NOT eat until literally feeling pain in the belly, and even then, I know if I wait 30 minutes more I can keep eating

          • By array_key_first 2025-12-2219:56

            > It’s a daily struggle trying to NOT eat until literally feeling pain in the belly, and even then, I know if I wait 30 minutes more I can keep eating

            Yes, but this is sort of the point. If we can make it not a daily struggle, probably a lot more people would be successful.

            Generally, I think the solution of "just suffer" is a bad one. If people's solution requires a certain amount of pain, it's probably just a suboptimal solution, and we can do better.

      • By skrebbel 2025-12-2120:531 reply

        How many years have you been able to keep that diet up?

    • By metalman 2025-12-2121:051 reply

      since I also share the ability to cold turkey on most anything, what you can completly stop eating is processed food, or anything that requires an advanced chemical engineering degree to decipher, ditch most of the carbs, ALL of the sugar. Meat, veggies,fruit,grains,nuts,the most complex packaged foods I buy are yogurt, and bread from an outfit that contracts farmers to grow wheat, pickles, stuff from wierd and wonderfull ethnic groceries where they openly miss there country and insist on having you try the good stuff!, wild food, tucked away farm markets, but most of all, I put my body in charge, which requires listening, but once you realy clean up, perhaps you will find as I have, that certain off the record indulgences have very significant negative phisiological repercusions, on a one to one basis. but this practice is not for dilly dalyiers, so

      • By ThrowawayTestr 2025-12-2121:081 reply

        I really, really, really like mayonnaise though

        • By metalman 2025-12-2312:16

          then, get some real farm fresh eggs, and an incubator or whatever, close the old not working chapter,and if you are feeling nostalgic, you can pause for a moment to warm your hands on your burning bridges. we live in a vast sea of excess everything but thinking about it, realy quitting sugar will have profound effects on your sense of taste, and things formerly acceptable can become quite disgusting, and others that were marginaly edible become wonders of taste and delecacy. It is shocking how fantastic varios fruits and vegatables can taste, beyond taste!, when eaten in the field, but only if white crystaline substances are eliminated and purged from your diet. keep in mind, that white crystaline substances, are absolute.There is NO further concentration or enhancement possible,and nature has never saw fit to create such things organicaly, and almost every other white crystaline thing is totaly inert or highly regulated and/or illegal to possess.

    • By throw93994orj 2025-12-2121:19

      Other countries do not have obese people, but have many drinkers!

      It is issue of food and ingrediences. Too many sugars, fructose syrups from corn... If fat american moves to asian country, he loses fat, without changing a diet.

    • By paulpauper 2025-12-2121:11

      I have observed that being addicted drugs gets way more sympathy than being addicted to food even though the neural pathways and other factors are the same.

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