How to lose weight while taking Seroquel

2

Replies

  • Werk2Eat
    Werk2Eat Posts: 114 Member
    WeddedBliss1992 wrote: »

    it's easy to say you wouldn't take it, but after spending months and months trying to find a medication that actually works, it's not so easy to just drop it from my regime. i have heard alot of people say that i use the med as an excuse for my weight, but it was a direct cause. i was about 150 when i started it and i topped-out at 184 after only a few months on it with no change in my eating habits. i don't feel that i have an increase in hunger at all.

    I just dont see how this is possible. How many calories are in one pill?

  • qubetha
    qubetha Posts: 83 Member
    edited September 2015
    WeddedBliss1992 wrote: »

    it's easy to say you wouldn't take it, but after spending months and months trying to find a medication that actually works, it's not so easy to just drop it from my regime. i have heard alot of people say that i use the med as an excuse for my weight, but it was a direct cause. i was about 150 when i started it and i topped-out at 184 after only a few months on it with no change in my eating habits. i don't feel that i have an increase in hunger at all.

    Once you find mental stability you would be amazed at how much easier it becomes to deal with the weight you just put on. Yes the gain hurts and yes it's hard to undo. But until you deal with your mind you are in no position to deal with your body. It sounds like you are on the right track and this stage in your treatment will turn out to be a hiccup.....just "keep on truckin" and make little changes for the better. (Friend me if you want to talk more outside this thread!)

  • Shells918
    Shells918 Posts: 1,070 Member
    Seroquel makes me hungry and tired. It is also the best med for me. I go to a weight loss program at the local hospital who has helped me make changes in my eating habits so I'm slowly losing the lbs I've gained. Low carb, no refined sugar. They call it a Mediterranean diet. I make it my own. I work out 4x a week at least. I'm losing.
    I take 300mg at night and 100mg in the am. 5'4 started at 140ish, seroquel brought me to the 180s, now in the 170s in 2 months. It's working slowly. As long as it works. Hard for a former WW Leader but things change. Best to everyone who struggles with seroquel and what it treats. It's not easy.
  • boswainpup
    boswainpup Posts: 1 Member
    Hi everyone, I have had a really positive experience with quetiapine. Admittedly I am on a low dose (75mg) and I have only been on it for two months.
    I have recently been diagnosed bipolar and last year had a very very long period of bad depression. I was put on lamotrigine and two anti depressants duloxetine and mirtazapine. During the depression I put on about 56 lbs due to comfort eating and sitting on the sofa for four months! I had been a keen runner and have done several marathons and half marathons. This went out of the window.
    Anyway, the medication I was on wasn't helping so two months ago my consultant added the quetiapine. I have come off the mirtazapine and duloxetine. I am still on the lamotrigine. The quetiapine has made a massive difference to my mood and has switched off my binge eating (two family sized bars of chocolate, two packs of cookies, tub of ice cream several times per week). I think this is probably because I am no longer depressed and my motivation has increased. I actually found that the mirtazapine made me feel hungry all the time, the quetiapine seems to be better. I have lost about 14lbs in the last couple of months and I hope to start running again soon.
    As someone said earlier the studies on this drug show that only 23% of patients gain weight, that means 77% don't. I realise it is different for everyone, but it has helped me a lot. I was scared of trying it because of the weight gain issue in particular, but I am glad I gave it a try.
  • bellaa_x0
    bellaa_x0 Posts: 1,062 Member
    edited June 2016
    the medicine itself is not the sole cause of weight gain... if you're feeling hungrier as a side effect and then subsequently eat more, of course you're going to gain weight.

    i take lexapro and klonopin and have no issues as a direct result of the meds. weight issues are usually not directly related to taking medication. its the overeating and lack of exercise that brings on the pounds.
  • ObsidianMist
    ObsidianMist Posts: 519 Member
    Christine_72 wrote: »
    My husbands doctor prescribed him Seroquel 25mg purely as a sleeping tablet, no mental issues. I'll have one every now and then, and it knocks me out to the point I don't even remember going to bed, and I also wake up ravenous the next day.

    How on earth do people take 300mg during the day????? I'd be asleep on the couch all day and undoubtedly would put on weight because I would not be able to put one foot in front of the other...

    because seroquel is a weird drug in that the bigger the dose, the LESS sedating it is. when I was taking 150-250mg, I was taking it in the afternoon because it didn't make me sleepy. now that I'm down to 75mg, I take it shortly before bed and you better believe it makes me sleepy.
  • rosiecbolton
    rosiecbolton Posts: 85 Member
    I am bumping this thread as I have suffered 60 lbs weight gain on 400 mg of this stuff. I will be the first to admit it has improved my mental health, but obesity gets me down. I take the 400 at night and then I "zombie eat". This is when I get up in the night and start raiding cupboards in a half wake/half sleep state. Sometimes I have no recollection of even doing this, but I am faced with the evidence of empty food packets strewn on the floor when I wake up. The doc is now weaning me off this stuff and I am down to 200, while they are adding in Abilfy. Yes, it has made me stable.....but at what cost to my self-esteem and physical health?
  • crackpotbaby
    crackpotbaby Posts: 1,297 Member
    I have bipolar type 1 with psychotic features.

    Seroquel/quietapine was prescribed as an adjunct to my lithium to address some mild but persistent psychotic symptoms a couple of years ago.

    I gained weight rapidly in my abdominal area which is not a place I normally store fat. Like never ever; I had the same issue with abilify/aripiprazole and risperidone and olanzapine.

    I did not get cravings. I ate the same diet and amount. Despite concerted efforts to reduce intake and increase activity I could not lose any weight.

    Once I stopped taking atypical antipsychotics and went back to lithium monotherapy I dropped about 4kg of mostly belly fat almost immediately (a month or two) with no changes to diet/activity.

    Since then I was able to slowly lose weight over the last year (up and down) and recently since addressing sub clinical hypothyroidism secondary to lithium use I have been able to lose weight in a more 'normal' pattern using traditional portion control and increased exercise.

    ...............

    I will take an antipsychotic if I am becoming manic or psychotic but not as a maintenance med due to the rapid weight gain of >13% of my body weight.

    For now, I am fairly stable on lithium alone. I respect that this is not an option for many people.

  • rosiecbolton
    rosiecbolton Posts: 85 Member
    I am feeling far less hungry on 200 than I did on 400. Still zombie eating, but hoping this will get better as I get weaned off the horrible serohell
  • rosiecbolton
    rosiecbolton Posts: 85 Member
    well I am down to 150 and the zombie eating seems to be stopping. Lost nearly a stone now.
  • Rebecca0224
    Rebecca0224 Posts: 810 Member
    When I took this medication it was the direct cause of weight gain for me. It made me incredibly hungry so I would take the medicine and go to sleep. I gained 15lbs with no change in my eating habits. A few weeks after noticing the gain I had family visiting, I did my normal routine and the next day was shocked to be told I was sleep eating. About 30 minutes after I went to sleep I got up went to the kitchen and ate several plates of food, washed dishes, and went back to bed. During this time I would not respond to anything around me, wouldn't speak or make eye contact because I was sleep walking in a way. My doctor told me that this can be a side effect of the medication and we had to change it. It's ignorant to say people are using it as an excuse because people react differently to medications.
    Werk2Eat wrote: »
    I take xanax for anxiety and to sleep. Been on it for almost 20 years. It always makes me hungry so i always eat dinner late so im not hungry before bed. (I cant sleep if im hungry). Never thought of it as a cause of weight gain. I honestly would not take that medication if it "actually" causes weight gain. It seems to me people are just trying to pass the blame onto a medication that makes you hungry as the cause of their weight gain.

  • Rebecca0224
    Rebecca0224 Posts: 810 Member
    I went through the same except I would wash the dishes I used and clean up all evidence. I would never remember it
    rosiecbolton wrote: »
    I am bumping this thread as I have suffered 60 lbs weight gain on 400 mg of this stuff. I will be the first to admit it has improved my mental health, but obesity gets me down. I take the 400 at night and then I "zombie eat". This is when I get up in the night and start raiding cupboards in a half wake/half sleep state. Sometimes I have no recollection of even doing this, but I am faced with the evidence of empty food packets strewn on the floor when I wake up. The doc is now weaning me off this stuff and I am down to 200, while they are adding in Abilfy. Yes, it has made me stable.....but at what cost to my self-esteem and physical health?

  • TheLittleFangs
    TheLittleFangs Posts: 205 Member
    I'm on this too and I have been now for over 18 months, plus mirtazipine (actually used as an appetite activater I found out this year from an anorexic friend prescribed it for that reason), diazepam, zopiclone, pregabalin all say gaining can be a s/e. I'll be the first to hold up my hand and say I had significant gains. However over time I've got a handle on what is medication hunger and what is real... that being said the gains I had echos a previous poster it went straight to my abdomen. I've lost 28lbs in the last year, my psychiatrist persuaded me to persevere as I'd been gravely ill and I'm happy to report just this last week the fog is lifting. I can relate to the sleep eating as olanzipine... it's not easy and listening or applying common sense (I just ate 600 cals I can not be experiencing hunger) have helped but honestly my graph is so up and down but the overall trend is down. I'd not trade my sanity for aesthetics but when it impacted my health I got really stressed... but frankly it's kept me alive.

    So onward with the battles we have. Soft hugs to you all...it's really frustrating that there's so little belief out there this is real. But antipsychotics alter the liver and metabolic changes.. it's not just 'feeling hungry' our primary serotonin production happens in our gut which these types and a/depressants stimulate ... it's an uphill fight with the weight ... but worth it
  • elphie754
    elphie754 Posts: 7,574 Member
    belledechesser27 wrote: »
    hi everyone.
    i'm 17, 5'6 , currently 180 with about 30% body fat. since october i have been on 25mg seroquel 2x a day, 100mg seroquel 1x a day, after being on 20mg of abilify for 6 months (previously a schizoaffective diagnosis, now a bipolar diagnosis). when being put on said abilify i was 5'6 ,155, with maybe 18-20% body fat. i was not told to expect weight gain from the abilify, and within three months could no longer fit into my size 4/6 pants. looking back i can tell that my appetite skyrocketed. i took myself off of said abilify, and then was prescribed geodon, where i quickly went from my 170, to around 155 again. i then was hospitalized and put on the current seroquel regime. i now where a size 12 pant, the largest ever in my life. i was always a very active kid/teenager. soccer, competitive swimming and water polo. for the last year i have been juggling school and work, with a little dancing in my small amounts of free time. i know my appetite is huge, as i have never ever been one to eat much food, and now i want to eat everything in sight. we don't have much junk food in my house, so as long as i dont bring any home, i wont have it. i suffered with anorexia from 13-15 and now i feel as if i have bounced to overeating, with help im sure of the seroquel. i meal plan my lunches and dinners for nights i work, i eat all my food groups (when i binge i do go for carbs, unfortunately). i have bad knees and hips, so i running for cardio isnt a good option. i cannot get this weight to leave. i am moving within the next few months, and would really like to be in better shape when i do so. does anyone have an suggestions? ive searched and searched and everything says to simply get off the seroquel, but that is in no way an option for me. i do not have time to do cross fit 6x a week, nor the joints to run 6x a week. anything helps (even just perspective) tia!

    Speak to your treatment team or parents. This site is designed for those 18+.
  • crackpotbaby
    crackpotbaby Posts: 1,297 Member
    For interest sake, this is a snap shot of my weight increase when adding atypical antipsychotics to my medication regime.

    It did spike about 2kg higher than shown.

    akx849xo91bp.jpg
  • aprildawn17
    aprildawn17 Posts: 3 Member
    Cathycat123 wrote: »
    I have to comment on the Seroquel XR. Prescribed to me to help with depression / anxiety etc - along with lots of other pills. I wasn't warned I could gain weight, it just started coming on and before I knew it I was 40 pounds up. I'm not convinced that the food people are putting into their mouths is the problem. I had gastric bypass about 10 years ago and kept myself just where I wanted to be for more than 5 years. Started taking the Seroquel and maybe it's the slowing of metabolism - I can't say but I know it is not what I am eating. I do not eat pasta / rice / bread. I always eat my protein before eating anything else and next my veggies. If I really want to try something I'm ok with taking a bite and deciding it isn't worth the fat so I stop there. I've been seeing a nutritionist etc and following closely what I have been told to eat. Never more than 1200 calories a day. minimal sugar / carbs/fat. I bought a fit bit and I've been exercising but the weight will not budge. So my question to anyone out there is this. What if I were to get off of the Seroquel? Would the weight start to come off? If anyone knows please help me out here.

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