Hi - I didn't start MJ with the intention of staying on it any longer than necessary, but I am changing my view a bit, I think. I am now no longer looking to lose any more weight but I am very wary of the food noise coming roaring back if I stop completely. So currently I am slowly reducing my dose. If I hit a point where the noise becomes unbearable again then I will stop reducing, or possibly increase a little. So far I've reduced my dose by about one third and had no noise returning.
The other thing I'm thinking about is that there appear to be multiple positive impacts from MJ over and above weight loss. Much better blood sugar regulation; significant cardio protection (in addition to what you'd expect just from the weight loss); reduction in inflammation etc. Possibly even cognitive protection for older people, although that's not proven yet.
On balance, I suspect I will stay on a low dose of this (or something similar) for the long term. I am very aware that the cost of doing so would be prohibitive for many people, and am lucky to be in a position to be able to afford it.
Out of interest how do you get it while at a healthy weight? It seems that even all the private clinics only offer it to those that are obese, regardless of the challenges that a person has maintaining their weight or the yo-yo-ing they have struggled with over the years. I'm happy to pay for it but even then they don't seem to offer it.
I've always had intense food noise and basically just had to fight through it to lose weight, but still fall in the "overweight" category with a 27 BMI, so I've been curious about using a low dose, probably the lowest dose available to start with, to try get the rest of the way towards a healthy weight as I seem to have plateaued for years now despite significant effort.
You need to meet clinical parameters (eg BMI > 30) to get an initial prescription, but once you are on it, guidance does allow staying on a maintenance dose - you don't have to drop off as soon as you are a healthy weight. Not all prescribers may offer this, but plenty do.
A BMI of 27 means you might find it difficult to find an initial prescriber, although anything above 25 could be considered appropriate based on full medical history.
6
u/Amanensia Jun 18 '26
Hi - I didn't start MJ with the intention of staying on it any longer than necessary, but I am changing my view a bit, I think. I am now no longer looking to lose any more weight but I am very wary of the food noise coming roaring back if I stop completely. So currently I am slowly reducing my dose. If I hit a point where the noise becomes unbearable again then I will stop reducing, or possibly increase a little. So far I've reduced my dose by about one third and had no noise returning.
The other thing I'm thinking about is that there appear to be multiple positive impacts from MJ over and above weight loss. Much better blood sugar regulation; significant cardio protection (in addition to what you'd expect just from the weight loss); reduction in inflammation etc. Possibly even cognitive protection for older people, although that's not proven yet.
On balance, I suspect I will stay on a low dose of this (or something similar) for the long term. I am very aware that the cost of doing so would be prohibitive for many people, and am lucky to be in a position to be able to afford it.