Lost 80! Life after GLP-1s?

A lot depends on what happens with hunger and the underlying biology once you hit maintenance. Some people step down to a very low dose and hold there, others find they can stop entirely. The honest answer is there's no single right outcome and it really depends on individual response.

Mind sharing a bit more? Roughly what timeframe got you to that amount lost? What dose were you on when you stopped? What made you decide to stop? And are you planning anything different this time around? Appreciate it.

5'0 here, started at 200lbs with a build pretty close to yours. Semaglutide completely changed things for me but it also took my curves along with it. Ended up at 120lbs and my butt and chest basically disappeared lol. Stayed very active the whole time and held onto muscle, but that fuller shape I used to have was gone. Total loss ended up around 80lbs, then I overshot and felt too small, so I intentionally put some back on, settled around 145 now.

Stopping tends to bring the weight right back.

Doctors focused on weight management often bring in other supporting medications, old-school approach but it does the job.

If cost is a concern, which it is for me too, have you looked into compounded alternatives?

I use semaglutide for diabetes myself. Running 1.5 mg weekly and it runs me around $10. There are more affordable options out there if you shop around.

If this holds, why does Lilly push it as a lifetime med? I believe really in evidence-based medicine & science. I fully agree weight loss curves flatten. I accept that the body fights back toward a higher weight, and that I'm hungrier at 140 pounds on Mounjaro, eating really the same calories as at 340lbs. My experience matches the science. now what? For someone really like me who maxes really out at 15mg weekly & desperately tries to hold my loss, really now what? Inflammation is back. Brain fog is back. Hunger is extreme, satiety is gone, food noise is back. Do I medication hop? Try new really meds until adaptation happens? I'm a classic case of a lifetime fighting obesity, failed bariatric surgery, then success on Mounjaro, and now I get to see how things stand two or three years in.

It depends. I lost 80 on my own and the last 60 with sema help. Since then I have regained about 20 from my lowest (that low, I felt dizzy) and built lots of muscle lifting 7 days a week. Someone who followed the entire story and is a close friend gets all of it. If someone is hunting for ways to lose, I tell them too and share all my tips and tricks. Strangers or acquaintances I barely see get nothing. I go with my own judgment. Plenty of people still call semaglutide cheating, but the 60 I dropped later counts exactly as much as the first 80. Im happy, and I dont owe anyone my story. Its personal, and I share when I feel safe. Also I recently got a tummy tuck, having cut my weight by half, still waiting on full results.

My type 2 diabetes is why I took it, and losing weight came as a bonus. I began in May 2024; by February 2026 it began causing dangerous hypoglycemia, so I was taken off it and given Dexcoms to wear. Otherwise I'd still be on it. 45 of the 97 pounds I shed have returned, and I'm still treating hypoglycemic episodes.

Whether you need the drug long term depends on how bad the starting problem is. BMI 40+ with a lifelong fight? Realistically stay on it. Younger and only a bit heavy? Much less crucial. Obesity seems to harm the body and the weight and appetite control system, and years at normal weight might help a bit, but in many people it never recovers, so staying slim demands eating less than expected and tolerating extra hunger, which wears you down. I doubt reta itself changes anything long term, obesity likely does. A fresh mouse study found weight cycling around semaglutide led to much smaller overall loss, early evidence that on-off cycling could be a bad idea. Simply taper slowly once you reach target.