Antidepressants and weight gain

Kimberlyanne4

Has anyone else gained weight on antidepressants? I recently increased my dose of Zoloft and have gained over 10 lbs, I feel like I am never satisfied and keep eating!!!

melaniechampanois

I gained 10 pounds from Prozac. I stopped taking it because of fear of more weight gain. It really worked for many minor mental health issues that I have. Anger, easily annoyed, OCD and social phobias. I'd rather have the issues than gain more weight. Ugh!

crisma1974

I don't know about those 2 but I am on lexapro. I noticed that before I took AD, I had very low energy therefore I had to really push myself to exercise. And when I did I was really working hard. My HRM would give me around 550 calories burned for an hour of zumba. Now, 2 weeks on lexapro, I have energy to exercise and do not feel like I am struggling during that hour of zumba and my HRM gives me around 400 calories. So, you just have to be careful on what you eat and watching how much calories you are actually burning.

tinkerbellang83

The weight gain from any kind of medication is down to one of two things:

• Water retention - usually whilst your body adjusts to the medication, not really anything you can do about this kind of weight gain, it should go away on it's own after a little while, if it doesn't worth a chat with your doctor.
• Increased appetite - resulting in eating more than maintenance - if you are logging accurately and sticking to your calorie goals this shouldn't be a long term issue, you may need to look at the foods you are eating to ensure you're better satiated or consider a smaller deficit.

The medication doesn't cause fat gain directly and to gain 10lbs of fat you would have to have eaten approximately 35,000 calories above your maintenance intake (1lb of fat is equivalent to approx 3500 calories)

Over what period of time have you gained the 10 pounds?

ap1972

I'm on Zoloft at present and if anything it has helped weight loss especially at the beginning because it caused stomach problems and I struggled to eat very much.

workinonit1956

I gained on Zoloft. My doctor told me it could happen when I asked her about it. I’m off of it now for several years.

2aycocks

Yes. I gained on Paxil and so did a good friend. But I'd rather deal with the weight than feeling like crapola from depression.

Hannahhime

I was 130 lbs last May when I got put anti-depressants. I'm now 163 lbs. I was pretty much less than 130 lbs for the past 7 years so it's very disheartening that I gained so much weight in a year once I started taking them.

neugebauer52

I have been on antidepressants for over 15 years - our dear son George Paul died shortly after he was born and after a couple of years I ended up severely depressed. I gained about 30 kg mainly due to lack of energy and no exercise / sports. I tried several "diets" but could not handle both - depression and dieting at the same time. I have stopped medication nearly 2 years ago and so far - so good. I am now starting on approx. 170 kg, about 374 pounds - have not found a scale yet I can use. Have seen the GP, done the blood tests and finding a food lifestyle I am happy with and I can live long term. I actually walked today - very slowly - for an hour. Myfitnesspal is very important to me, especially comments and good advice. Just take it day by day, meal by meal.

lois1231

I have been on various antidepressants for many years. Yes I probably have gained weight on them but I can still lose it if I follow calories in calories out.

ap1972

One advantage I have as well is that I find exercise helps with my depression because of the endorphins so I try to get more in during my low periods which helps with weight loss

nmjordan

I have been on various psychiatric meds for 18 years now. Lexapro, Paxil and Celexa all caused me to gain weight and have an insatiable appetite. I've been on Wellbutrin and I didn't have weight gain as a side effect. I'm on Pristiq now and I have not gained weight from that either.

singingflutelady

The worst for appetite is Mirtazipine. I have a disease that makes you have veey little apetite (gastroparesis) and this one made me ravenously hungry. Unfortunately I had to go off and now I have no appetite and more nauseous

sflano1271

Im on a depo once per month and the side affects are weight gain its an injection for psycocis

stpetenative

Hi there, for me it was Effexor that contributed to weight gain

sflano1271

tinkerbellang83 wrote: »

The weight gain from any kind of medication is down to one of two things:

• Water retention - usually whilst your body adjusts to the medication, not really anything you can do about this kind of weight gain, it should go away on it's own after a little while, if it doesn't worth a chat with your doctor.
• Increased appetite - resulting in eating more than maintenance - if you are logging accurately and sticking to your calorie goals this shouldn't be a long term issue, you may need to look at the foods you are eating to ensure you're better satiated or consider a smaller deficit.

The medication doesn't cause fat gain directly and to gain 10lbs of fat you would have to have eaten approximately 35,000 calories above your maintenance intake (1lb of fat is equivalent to approx 3500 calories)

Over what period of time have you gained the 10 pounds?

Hi my doctor told me I need to exercise and eat healthy for to lose the weight from the medication that I have gained unless I start drinking upto 5 litres of water everyday I might just be water retention I have most of fat on my belly and legs