someone explain discontinuation to me like I have not read a paper in years
someone explain discontinuation to me like I have not read a paper in years, and I want the answer with the reasoning attached rather than just the conclusion.
Appetite is the proximal effect and weight is the lagging integrated outcome, which is why watching appetite gives you an earlier and more honest signal.
Withdrawal studies across this class consistently show substantial regain after discontinuation, with appetite typically returning before weight changes. That is a description of the pharmacology of a chronic condition.
With a week-long half-life, exposure declines over several weeks after the last dose rather than stopping with it. The lag is why the first fortnight is uninformative.
I will update this if the picture changes rather than quietly leaving it up.
best — the order this archive was captured in
There is very little published guidance on stopping specifically, which is exactly why board consensus here should carry less weight than usual and a clinician conversation should carry more.
Edited a comment framing regain as a moral failure. The documented outcome is not a character verdict.
Edited a comment framing regain as a moral failure.
This is the sentence that reframes the whole board. Appetite first, scale later.
Have you had the conversation with a clinician yet?
Yes — the withdrawal literature is consistent and it is a pharmacological finding, not a moral one.
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Correction: that study measured regain after discontinuation, not loss of effect during treatment. Very different findings.
interval stretching is the most commonly described approach here
decide what you are watching for before you stop
appetite comes back before the weight does
There is very little published guidance on stopping specifically, which is exactly why board consensus here should carry less weight than usual and a
Disagreeing with this bit: stretching and reducing are different things and the post treats them as one.
Small fix — you have described interval stretching and called it a taper. The exposure profiles differ.
Stretching the interval or reducing the dose?
Agreed. Appetite is the leading indicator and the scale is the lagging one. Watch the first, not the second.
Regained most of it over a year and spent that year assuming it was my fault. It was not; it is what the literature describes.
Went back on after eight months away. Nobody here made me feel bad about it, which mattered more than I expected.
That reads as advice to stop, which is not something anyone here should be offering.
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