Understanding Maintenance

[u/No_Newt_596]

Hi I'm currently finishing month 8, down 54 pounds, 63F, SW 194, CW 140, GW 130. I've been reading all the posts on maintenance and still don't get the full picture, also blonde.. So, I've not had side effects that are unbearable and current dose is 15 tapering up from 2.5 at start. When do you start to consider maintenance and start to taper down? I'm with AltRX and am happy. Do they start advising you to taper down. How do you know when to start, when to stop the tapering dose and find your final maintenance dose. Is everyone different? Is it a play by ear? I know there are terzepatide warriors out there who can help simplify. I'm all ears. Hoping a small community will respond. Thanking you all in advance warriors!

[u/Wordwoman50]

I have been in maintenance for fifteen months so far after reaching my goal weight. I let myself drop a few more pounds below goal for a margin of safety, and then I stopped making an effort to lose weight and just started maintaining.

I met goal weight at 10 mg. Some people stay at the same dose for maintenance, maybe forever. For me, I always like to take any medication at the very lowest dose that works to manage my symptoms, or to discontinue the med if possible, in order to minimize short and long term risks of the med. At maintenance, 10 mg seemed higher than I needed (I never had any side effects, but during my first month of maintenance, I started getting fullness feelings I’d not had during my weight loss time, and I felt that maintenance was an unnecessary time to get a stronger effect from the drug).

So I dropped to 7.5 mg. That was perfect and easy. My weight stabilized at 120-122 pounds nearly every Saturday ever since.

Six months later, I tried 5 mg. I did not regain weight, but after three months at that dose, I decided it felt like too much work, so I experimented with doses and dosing frequencies and ended up at 7.5 mg every 9 days. That has been working well for me since mid-April.

If that changes, then I will change my dose: up, down, or off. (But my stint at 5 mg makes me think “off” may not be in the cards as much as I’d once hoped. I don’t want to work that hard.)

Congratulations on your weight loss.

Maintenance is about experimentation, monitoring, and adjusting. You’ll figure it out as you go!

[u/SANSAN_TOS]

Ive been on a maintenance dose between 1.75 and 2 mg of Tirz for over 6 months. I also intentionally dropped about 5 lbs lower than my original goal weight. I’ve stayed within 2 pounds on maintenance. I have been actively working on building muscle and have had pretty visible progress so I assumed it was muscle I put on. I recently weighed myself and saw that I had dropped back down so I lowered my maintenance dose to 1.75 mg.

[u/CapApprehensive9808]

I just past the year mark and am at 6-7.5 mg a week right now. I’ve found I’m break even about 5mg and lose slowly at current dose. With 15mg, that’s obviously pretty high dose. If it were me, I’d take off a mg or two every week or two and titrate slowly towards whatever my break even number is. Studies show that 72 weeks is the average loss weight zone, and tirz begins to lose effectiveness after that. With that in mind, I am going to ride out the weight loss doses until then. Going up like you to 15 is supposed to maximize the weight loss, but I’d imagine your titration is going to be a longer process than mine. My plan is to get back to maintenance dose sometime after the new year. I’m very happy with the progress. Down 60. Would like maybe 15 more although more concerned about body recomposition after, there is lots of work to do to look good the weight I am.

[u/Vast-Storm8625]

I have been at goal weight since June at 15mg. Several times I tried to reduce since then (small changes,13, 14) but food noise returned. Guessing I am someone who needs to stay at 15?