Does Tirz end up abandoning everyone?

[Mara_aa]

For most people, it appears that raising the Tirz dose only delays the inevitable: at some point, the effects fade badly or vanish altogether.

What worries me most is upkeep:

If strong food noise or BED is already a battle, what do you do when Tirz quits working?

Let’s be honest:

we can’t simply fast forever when we can’t cope…

and I can’t leave my job just to exercise 8 hours a day (nobody is covering my bills).

So I’m asking:

• Do you change to another GLP-1?
  
• Do you stack something, such as an amylin receptor agonist?
  
• Or do you simply accept what’s coming and act like the betrayal doesn’t sting?

I really want to hear actual experiences, particularly from those who are further along.

How did you get through the “after”? How did you make it?

 

[latviantower]

Mara_aa said:

For most people, it appears that raising the Tirz dose only delays the inevitable: at some point, the effects fade badly or vanish altogether.

What worries me most is upkeep:

If strong food noise or BED is already a battle, what do you do when Tirz quits working?

Let’s be honest:

we can’t simply fast forever when we can’t cope…

and I can’t leave my job just to exercise 8 hours a day (nobody is covering my bills).

So I’m asking:

• Do you change to another GLP-1?
  
• Do you stack something, such as an amylin receptor agonist?
  
• Or do you simply accept what’s coming and act like the betrayal doesn’t sting?

I really want to hear actual experiences, particularly from those who are further along.

How did you get through the “after”? How did you make it?

I hit a wall with tirzepatide at 15 mg, still 10 pounds away from where I wanted to be. I switched to injecting every 6 days, then every 5 days. That didn't move the needle much. Then I introduced a midweek reta booster at 2.5 mg. That was the breakthrough. Now I'm maintaining on 10 mg tirzepatide alternated with 5 mg reta. My lab results have actually improved — A1C dropped from 6.8 to 5.4, and then to 5.0.

 

[DrPEPr]

Depending only on the medication carries a risk: sooner or later, the body adjusts. What makes these drugs so valuable (IMHO) is the opening they give you to change your lifestyle from the ground up. Over the long haul, those habits are the deciding factor - not a dose that keeps climbing forever.

Fasting isn't a requirement, but choosing better foods is. Should you keep eating the same things that caused the weight gain (only in smaller amounts), you're primed to bounce back as soon as the drug is gone. That's comparable to swallowing aspirin every day for a headache brought on by loud noise, rather than simply lowering the volume.

Nor do you have to exercise for 8 hours daily. 3-4 sessions weekly (about 1 hour each) is more than enough. So there's no reason to leave your job.

Between a full-time job, a family (a couple of kids) and several hobbies, I still find a way to lift 5 days a week (2-2.5 hour sessions).

 

[CallieKat]

I doubt the effect truly vanishes. I've never come across anyone who regained a lot of weight while staying consistent with it. Hitting a plateau? Sure. But tirzepatide ceasing to work and the person putting back a substantial amount of weight despite injecting weekly without fail? That seems rare.

I'm overjoyed that I achieved the weight loss I was after, yet even if it only kept me from putting weight back on, I'd keep using it.

For certain people, simply avoiding those yearly 10 pounds is a valid way to define success.

 

[deluge]

Mara_aa said:

For most people, it appears that raising the Tirz dose only delays the inevitable: at some point, the effects fade badly or vanish altogether.

What worries me most is upkeep:

If strong food noise or BED is already a battle, what do you do when Tirz quits working?

Let’s be honest:

we can’t simply fast forever when we can’t cope…

and I can’t leave my job just to exercise 8 hours a day (nobody is covering my bills).

So I’m asking:

• Do you change to another GLP-1?
  
• Do you stack something, such as an amylin receptor agonist?
  
• Or do you simply accept what’s coming and act like the betrayal doesn’t sting?

I really want to hear actual experiences, particularly from those who are further along.

How did you get through the “after”? How did you make it?

I've hit that same wall.

There was a solid explanation I came across on here, posted by someone with more experience than me. Their take was that it isn't vanishing or fading. A better way to picture it: your body and the peptides have settled into an equilibrium at the new weight.

You didn't return to your starting weight, right? This is the new weight, based on the current food intake, calorie expenditure, and peptides. Change something else, and find out where that leads.

For my next move, I'm thinking about stacking Cagrilintide or Reta.

 

[chewonmysac]

I would describe it less as a ghost and more as a shadow. Plateaus, as opposed to stalls, happen once your body has completely adjusted to the dose you are on. Typically you see neither a negative nor a positive, and we treat the scale as the ultimate measure. Society has conditioned us to raise intake right away whenever we want fast results. What we really should do is cut intake for roughly a month to set a lower baseline. After that, titrate back up. There are times when less is more.

 

[Jfrick11]

DrPEPr said:

Depending only on the medication carries a risk: sooner or later, the body adjusts. What makes these drugs so valuable (IMHO) is the opening they give you to change your lifestyle from the ground up. Over the long haul, those habits are the deciding factor - not a dose that keeps climbing forever.

Fasting isn't a requirement, but choosing better foods is. Should you keep eating the same things that caused the weight gain (only in smaller amounts), you're primed to bounce back as soon as the drug is gone. That's comparable to swallowing aspirin every day for a headache brought on by loud noise, rather than simply lowering the volume.

Nor do you have to exercise for 8 hours daily. 3-4 sessions weekly (about 1 hour each) is more than enough. So there's no reason to leave your job.

Between a full-time job, a family (a couple of kids) and several hobbies, I still find a way to lift 5 days a week (2-2.5 hour sessions).

T.H.I.S.

 

[Sasquatch]

Every Thursday I take 15mg, then on Saturday another 4.5mg. The reason is mostly that my syringes hold .5ml. It does the job, but overriding my own signals has never been a problem for me, simply because around here we live in a buffet culture. Pretty much everyone is carrying serious extra weight. We simply don't care. Physicians, bless them, do their best to extend how long you live and how well you live. Credit where it's due, that has worked quite effectively. Still, nobody gets out of this world alive. Something will take you out. I never touched cigarettes. My guess is it'll probably be cancer, though thanks to the weight loss, a stroke becomes less likely.

 

[Mara_aa]

chewonmysac said:

I would describe it less as a ghost and more as a shadow. Plateaus, as opposed to stalls, happen once your body has completely adjusted to the dose you are on. Typically you see neither a negative nor a positive, and we treat the scale as the ultimate measure. Society has conditioned us to raise intake right away whenever we want fast results. What we really should do is cut intake for roughly a month to set a lower baseline. After that, titrate back up. There are times when less is more.

The “shadow vs ghost” comparison is a genuinely intriguing angle, and I find it appealing.

Reducing intake to re-establish a baseline before stepping the dose back up — that logic really holds together. It’s a way of thinking about it that hadn’t crossed my mind.

I’m grateful you put this out there; the viewpoint is much appreciated!

 

[latviantower]

Mara_aa said:

chewonmysac said:

I would describe it less as a ghost and more as a shadow. Plateaus, as opposed to stalls, happen once your body has completely adjusted to the dose you are on. Typically you see neither a negative nor a positive, and we treat the scale as the ultimate measure. Society has conditioned us to raise intake right away whenever we want fast results. What we really should do is cut intake for roughly a month to set a lower baseline. After that, titrate back up. There are times when less is more.

The “shadow vs ghost” comparison is a genuinely intriguing angle, and I find it appealing.

Reducing intake to re-establish a baseline before stepping the dose back up — that logic really holds together. It’s a way of thinking about it that hadn’t crossed my mind.

I’m grateful you put this out there; the viewpoint is much appreciated!

Spending 10-12 hours a day at the office?? You've got to be in Milano - during my 5 years working in Roma, I never came across a single person with that kind of schedule - everyone seemed to be either government employees or academics, and they were forever at lunch.

 

[Mara_aa]

latviantower said:

Mara_aa said:

For most people, it appears that raising the Tirz dose only delays the inevitable: at some point, the effects fade badly or vanish altogether.

What worries me most is upkeep:

If strong food noise or BED is already a battle, what do you do when Tirz quits working?

Let’s be honest:

we can’t simply fast forever when we can’t cope…

and I can’t leave my job just to exercise 8 hours a day (nobody is covering my bills).

So I’m asking:

• Do you change to another GLP-1?
  
• Do you stack something, such as an amylin receptor agonist?
  
• Or do you simply accept what’s coming and act like the betrayal doesn’t sting?

I really want to hear actual experiences, particularly from those who are further along.

How did you get through the “after”? How did you make it?

I hit a wall with tirzepatide at 15 mg, still 10 pounds away from where I wanted to be. I switched to injecting every 6 days, then every 5 days. That didn't move the needle much. Then I introduced a midweek reta booster at 2.5 mg. That was the breakthrough. Now I'm maintaining on 10 mg tirzepatide alternated with 5 mg reta. My lab results have actually improved — A1C dropped from 6.8 to 5.4, and then to 5.0.

That's great news! Well done, particularly with your A1C — that's a massive gain.

Appreciate you telling us your story

It's genuinely fascinating to learn how introducing reta assisted in overcoming the plateau and moving into maintenance.

 

[Mara_aa]

latviantower said:

Mara_aa said:

chewonmysac said:

I would describe it less as a ghost and more as a shadow. Plateaus, as opposed to stalls, happen once your body has completely adjusted to the dose you are on. Typically you see neither a negative nor a positive, and we treat the scale as the ultimate measure. Society has conditioned us to raise intake right away whenever we want fast results. What we really should do is cut intake for roughly a month to set a lower baseline. After that, titrate back up. There are times when less is more.

The “shadow vs ghost” comparison is a genuinely intriguing angle, and I find it appealing.

Reducing intake to re-establish a baseline before stepping the dose back up — that logic really holds together. It’s a way of thinking about it that hadn’t crossed my mind.

I’m grateful you put this out there; the viewpoint is much appreciated!

Spending 10-12 hours a day at the office?? You've got to be in Milano - during my 5 years working in Roma, I never came across a single person with that kind of schedule - everyone seemed to be either government employees or academics, and they were forever at lunch.

I'm from the area around Turin, and honestly, I take you at your word completely. It's obvious I should have been born in Southern Italy and, more than anything, ended up working in the public administration.

 

[Mara_aa]

CallieKat said:

I doubt the effect truly vanishes. I've never come across anyone who regained a lot of weight while staying consistent with it. Hitting a plateau? Sure. But tirzepatide ceasing to work and the person putting back a substantial amount of weight despite injecting weekly without fail? That seems rare.

I'm overjoyed that I achieved the weight loss I was after, yet even if it only kept me from putting weight back on, I'd keep using it.

For certain people, simply avoiding those yearly 10 pounds is a valid way to define success.

Sure, I’m with you that lasting routines matter most over time, and these drugs can open up that opportunity.

That said, for certain individuals—particularly anyone facing intense food noise or BED—it may go beyond simple routines, which is exactly why I want to gather various stories.

Thanks so much for offering your take!

 

[Mara_aa]

DrPEPr said:

Depending only on the medication carries a risk: sooner or later, the body adjusts. What makes these drugs so valuable (IMHO) is the opening they give you to change your lifestyle from the ground up. Over the long haul, those habits are the deciding factor - not a dose that keeps climbing forever.

Fasting isn't a requirement, but choosing better foods is. Should you keep eating the same things that caused the weight gain (only in smaller amounts), you're primed to bounce back as soon as the drug is gone. That's comparable to swallowing aspirin every day for a headache brought on by loud noise, rather than simply lowering the volume.

Nor do you have to exercise for 8 hours daily. 3-4 sessions weekly (about 1 hour each) is more than enough. So there's no reason to leave your job.

Between a full-time job, a family (a couple of kids) and several hobbies, I still find a way to lift 5 days a week (2-2.5 hour sessions).

Maybe I made my first post too long-winded, since your answer, though completely fair, comes across as somewhat… self-evident and doesn’t actually speak to the point I was raising.

The situation you describe mainly fits those whose weight gain came from eating past fullness due to boredom or routine, combined with little activity. That isn’t the picture I had in mind.

What I was getting at is long-term maintenance for people who live with intense food noise or BED — situations where the drive to eat persists even after years of therapy and doesn’t simply vanish. That’s a completely different set of circumstances, and lifestyle adjustments by themselves don’t always “solve” it.

On a lighter note, though… consider me genuinely impressed

5 days a week, 2–2.5 hour lifting sessions? Do you even sleep?

Because my own reality looks rather different: I hold down a full-time (more like 10–12 hour) office job as a finance manager, lose ~2 hours a day to commuting, aim for at least 6–7 hours of sleep, prepare most of my own meals (processed food isn’t really part of my diet), and take care of the usual everyday demands.

So… there isn’t exactly a surplus of time left over for hobbies plus marathon gym sessions. Perhaps life just runs more efficiently in the US

 

[Mara_aa]

deluge said:

Mara_aa said:

For most people, it appears that raising the Tirz dose only delays the inevitable: at some point, the effects fade badly or vanish altogether.

What worries me most is upkeep:

If strong food noise or BED is already a battle, what do you do when Tirz quits working?

Let’s be honest:

we can’t simply fast forever when we can’t cope…

and I can’t leave my job just to exercise 8 hours a day (nobody is covering my bills).

So I’m asking:

• Do you change to another GLP-1?
  
• Do you stack something, such as an amylin receptor agonist?
  
• Or do you simply accept what’s coming and act like the betrayal doesn’t sting?

I really want to hear actual experiences, particularly from those who are further along.

How did you get through the “after”? How did you make it?

I've hit that same wall.

There was a solid explanation I came across on here, posted by someone with more experience than me. Their take was that it isn't vanishing or fading. A better way to picture it: your body and the peptides have settled into an equilibrium at the new weight.

You didn't return to your starting weight, right? This is the new weight, based on the current food intake, calorie expenditure, and peptides. Change something else, and find out where that leads.

For my next move, I'm thinking about stacking Cagrilintide or Reta.

Framing it as a fresh equilibrium instead of a “failure” is genuinely useful — that perspective clicks for me.

Also, fair point: staying at a lower weight is itself a major change from our starting point.

If you do give stacking a go, I’d be interested in how it turns out for you — an update would be nice. Thanks!

 

[CallieKat]

latviantower said:

Mara_aa said:

For most people, it appears that raising the Tirz dose only delays the inevitable: at some point, the effects fade badly or vanish altogether.

What worries me most is upkeep:

If strong food noise or BED is already a battle, what do you do when Tirz quits working?

Let’s be honest:

we can’t simply fast forever when we can’t cope…

and I can’t leave my job just to exercise 8 hours a day (nobody is covering my bills).

So I’m asking:

• Do you change to another GLP-1?
  
• Do you stack something, such as an amylin receptor agonist?
  
• Or do you simply accept what’s coming and act like the betrayal doesn’t sting?

I really want to hear actual experiences, particularly from those who are further along.

How did you get through the “after”? How did you make it?

I hit a wall with tirzepatide at 15 mg, still 10 pounds away from where I wanted to be. I switched to injecting every 6 days, then every 5 days. That didn't move the needle much. Then I introduced a midweek reta booster at 2.5 mg. That was the breakthrough. Now I'm maintaining on 10 mg tirzepatide alternated with 5 mg reta. My lab results have actually improved — A1C dropped from 6.8 to 5.4, and then to 5.0.

Yeah, I hear you — I was skimming too fast. If you haven't given every option a shot, then sure… give them all a try. Stack them. Push them to the max. You can't claim something doesn't work when you haven't tested everything.

Personally, I prefer picking one foundation med you're willing to max out if needed, like tirz or Reta. Along the way, I like pairing microdoses of sema or cagri while you gradually push that base upward. Tirz plus micro reta is pretty neat as well. I'm sure some people run Reta with micro tirz.

That said, there's no correct or incorrect approach in my opinion. Strictly speaking, all of it is the incorrect approach, since nothing we're doing here is "recommended". Anyone insisting there's a right or wrong way is typically just trying to profit from handing out advice….

Best of luck!

 

[Airborne Daddy]

Sasquatch said:

Every Thursday I take 15mg, then on Saturday another 4.5mg. The reason is mostly that my syringes hold .5ml. It does the job, but overriding my own signals has never been a problem for me, simply because around here we live in a buffet culture. Pretty much everyone is carrying serious extra weight. We simply don't care. Physicians, bless them, do their best to extend how long you live and how well you live. Credit where it's due, that has worked quite effectively. Still, nobody gets out of this world alive. Something will take you out. I never touched cigarettes. My guess is it'll probably be cancer, though thanks to the weight loss, a stroke becomes less likely.

Up 2lbs this week, and I've been stuck at 232 for 6 weeks despite adding cardio and reducing sugar further. Every 6 days: 10mg reta plus 2mg sema. Feels like my body declared after 15 months, "we're not buying your nonsense anymore." Glucose sitting above 100... I'm revolted. My stash is solid—my wife dropped 11lbs in her first month on an absurdly tiny dose. Sqwatch, I'm a crap responder, nice to meet you.

 

[YoYoFat]

From what I recall, the SURMOUNT trial indicated that weight reduction with Tirz tends to plateau somewhere between 1 year and 72 weeks.

 

[Mara_aa]

Sasquatch said:

Every Thursday I take 15mg, then on Saturday another 4.5mg. The reason is mostly that my syringes hold .5ml. It does the job, but overriding my own signals has never been a problem for me, simply because around here we live in a buffet culture. Pretty much everyone is carrying serious extra weight. We simply don't care. Physicians, bless them, do their best to extend how long you live and how well you live. Credit where it's due, that has worked quite effectively. Still, nobody gets out of this world alive. Something will take you out. I never touched cigarettes. My guess is it'll probably be cancer, though thanks to the weight loss, a stroke becomes less likely.

It sounds like you've landed on a routine that suits you, and honestly that's the key thing.

I hear you on being able to push past the signals — that side of things can be hard no matter what medication you're on.

And yeah… nobody makes it out of this alive but making life better while we're here is still a pretty big win.

 

[Mara_aa]

YoYoFat said:

From what I recall, the SURMOUNT trial indicated that weight reduction with Tirz tends to plateau somewhere between 1 year and 72 weeks.

That's quite a fascinating point. I've come across comparable accounts where the pounds stop coming off or level out near that point in time, and in some cases it happens while the person is still short of their target… definitely worth pondering.