1+ year stall on max dose: ideas?

Pat61

Pat61

Well-known member
Hi everyone,

I'm hoping someone can give me some suggestions or just tell me it's possible to get past this. I've been taking the highest available dose (2.4mg) for well over a year now, and the scale has been stuck the whole time. It hasn't gone up, thankfully, but I'm still not where I want to be with my weight.

Has anyone else had this happen and then managed to start losing again? What did you do that seemed to make a difference? (Different spot for injections? Changing exercise? Taking a temporary break?) I'm feeling like giving up!

Thanks for any advice!

The long-stall section of the community plateau playbook is worth a look for max-dose folks
 
Assuming you're already tracking your food carefully, exercising, and drinking enough water...

Here are some things you could talk to your doctor about:

* Adding an older weight loss drug like phentermine or something similar to see if that helps start up weight loss again
* Switching to the oral version, if that's an option where you are
* Waiting for the higher-dose injectable to come out. I saw an article saying it was submitted for approval a while back https://www.prnewswire.com/news-rel...ose-of-wegovy-injection-7-2-mg-302626162.html
* Switching to another GLP-1 med
* Looking into other meds that are being developed.
 
I had 2 missed doses (busy life) and my doc told me to lower the dosage when starting up again, so I spent a couple of months on a lower dosage level, then went back to 2.4. That seemed to kind of reset things a little bit - I was able to drop another 5 pounds or so. I wasn't as hungry as I was at the beginning, but it's better now than it was before I missed the doses. I'm not sure I'd suggest doing this on purpose, but I'm glad it happened!
 
I stalled for about 2 months and found a few issues:

First, I had some vitamin/mineral deficiencies, specifically iron, magnesium, D3

Second, I needed to recalculate my TDEE. I used a few different calculators and got different results, but comparing data from my fitness tracker and food log showed that it was lower than the calculations since I was maintaining on that calorie level.

Third, I increased the "calories out" part of CICO, focusing on NEAT and aiming for 9-12k steps a day.

Fourth, I drank more water - went from just coffee and one glass of water to 2.5L water a day (not counting the coffee).

Finally, my doctor and I decided to switch from one GLP-1 med to another.

It took about 6-8 weeks to break the stall. I didn't make all these changes at once, it was gradual.
 
I only lost like 5 pounds since October, and I still want to lose another 60 to 70. I'm on a 2.0mg dose for almost 2 months. I literally switched to just lightly seasoned chicken breast, broccoli, and cauliflower rice this last week, but I’m already down another 5. I think that, plus my TDEE being lower than I thought, I was eating stuff that was causing the stall. I was eating steak and veggies cooked with lots of butter... that's tons of calories. Also, I'd been using MSG in a lot of recipes... apparently that makes you retain water... and I’d been buying rotisserie chickens with dips and veggies... and those are full of sodium.

The meds mean I don’t really want much, so a huge chicken breast and broccoli is fine, but it’s crazy if that’s what I need to do to get the scale moving when I still have so much to lose.
 
My doctor told me to add weights to my workouts, three times a week. A little heavier than I'm used to, and to start slowly to avoid hurting myself. Also, to speed up and slow down during my daily walks. I don't like the gym, so I make myself walk for 30 minutes on the treadmill, and I started walking faster for a few minutes, then slower. I alternate faster and slower.

These two things broke a five-month stall for me (after losing 70+ pounds). The scale is slowly going down again.
 
I'm on 1.7mg and having issues with hunger and sugar cravings - some food noise is back, especially at work, and I'm drinking more alcohol. My weight hasn't changed in a month despite my best efforts, and weight loss has been very slow for the last year. I average around 1300-1500 calories a day (some days more). @Pat61, what is your calorie intake? I'm wondering if I should lower my dosage in case I'm developing resistance. I don't know if that's a real thing...
 
I had a stall for a few months. I paused and then restarted a few weeks later at the lowest dose, but switched to a different medication. That helped me start losing again.
 
I had this happen - a year-long stall on 2.4mg after losing 50-60 pounds. My doctor added a second weight loss med, and that got things moving again. Then I switched to a different GLP-1 and kept losing. I’ve lost another 40-50 pounds since then. I would talk to your doctor about changing meds or adding another medication. Good luck!
 
I've been on this med for 2+ years, and I've been stalled for 4-6 months. I'm not losing weight, and the food noise is there. I can eat a bigger amount than I used to without feeling full as fast. I tried a different GLP-1, even going to the highest dosage, but it didn't do anything - didn't even suppress my appetite. My doctor had me wait a few weeks to see if it would start working, but it didn't, so I went back to the original because at least I was maintaining. Now I've tried going down from 2.4 to 1.7mg, and it hit me hard on the first shot. I felt exhausted and just wanted to sleep. It's also been making my appetite suppression great, and it's only been a week, so I haven't checked the scale yet, but I can feel a difference in my belly. I hope this helps someone. Nobody told me to do this; I just did some research, and it seems to have helped a lot of people.
 
NoSugarDaddy said:
I had 2 missed doses (busy life) and my doc told me to lower the dosage when starting up again, so I spent a couple of months on a lower dosage level, then went back to 2.4. That seemed to kind of reset things a little bit - I was able to drop another 5 pounds or so.
Click to expand...

Interesting! I've heard that repeated exposure can reduce the effectiveness. Maybe cycling off and back on helps.
 
I try to walk every day, but I don't think I'm burning as many calories as my tracker says. Maybe I need to step it up?
 
Thanks for all the responses! I'm going to talk to my doctor about some of these suggestions and try to figure something out. It's good to know I'm not alone in this!
 
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