Problem losing weight I gained from depression meds

Psychgrrl

aguilar_k3 wrote: »

tinkerbellang83 wrote: »

Regardless if medication cause your calories out to come down, it is still CI<CO it just means that your calorie allowance will need to be lower than the estimate given, something which can be determined by logging accurately and honestly for 4-6 weeks. If you're not averaging the expected weight loss you just adjust as necessary as you said yourself it may have been significantly lower calories but by lowering them, you lost weight.

I've never seen anyone pretending that nothing impacts Calories Out, in fact it's quite normal in these threads for people to point out that medications can cause fatigue which in turn leads to a lower NEAT.

My weight loss was something like 20% of the expected rate. I did think of doing what you're suggesting--adjusting my intake to account for the difference-but it would have put me at a very unhealthy calorie level in terms of nutrients. And that doesn't even account for absurd weight gain I witnessed when I fell off the wagon and ate pizza one evening or whatever.

When people insist that the problem *really* that you're just eating a lot more than you think, it does imply that the issue is always in the first part of the equation. But there's only so much you can cut before it becomes unhealthy/unreasonable! It's not a very helpful response.

There are so many folks here who swear they’re doing everything right but not losing weight. I was one of them. Medications don’t have calories, but they can affect our habits which in turn affect our weight. Usually they stimulate appetite and/or make us less active. And we may not realize either one. For me, I wasn’t working out as intensely or for as long, and I wasn’t my usual super-fidgety self. But I swore up and down I was doing everything “right.”

Another way medications can affect us is water retention. Which is likely the result you experienced with the overnight weight gain from your pizza. The sodium made you retain water. I often see the scale go up a few pounds after pizza or a night of Chinese food.

If you’re not using a weight trending program, like Happy Scale for iPhone or Libra for Android, it can be really eye-opening. My weight fluctuates 1-5 pounds in a day, after lots of sodium or because of hormones due to water retention. My weight trend graph looks like a ekg each month at a certain point in my cycle.

I don’t think you should cut calories, and it didn’t seem like anyone was suggesting that. I’d double check your logging and make sure you’re weighing all solid foods on a food scale (including packaged foods like slices of bread, pieces of cheese, eggs, frozen food, yogurt, etc.). And double check the entires you’re using. Even ones you know were correct once can change over time if the manufacturer changes the portion or ingredients. The other thing is to try and increase your activity. A little more walking, and if you don’t wear a fitness tracker, try taking your pulse during workouts or using the heart rate handles on cardio machines to help you gauge intensity.

Mostly, it takes patience. And this is coming from someone who is hypothyroid, which means my metabolism may actually be a tiny bit slower than normal (but I take medication to help with that). I lost over 100 pounds with the usual ups, downs, and plateaus. It took a couple of years.

Just keep going, you’ll get there—with your meds.

whitpauly

RelCanonical wrote: »

whitpauly wrote: »

aguilar_k3 wrote: »

I have to disagree with other people here--the medication can make you gain weight. I'm sick of people shouting "It's calories in vs. calories out!!!" while pretending that ABSOLUTELY NOTHING can impact the second part of that equation (even though we already know that isn't true). Unlike the the poster above, I kicked my own butt trying to lose weight for over a year--having never struggled with my weight previously--and experienced loss at a significantly lower rate than anticipated based on my caloric deficit (if at all).

I've been working with a psychiatrist and have been assured that, just because I experienced weight gain with one medication in the class, it doesn't mean that will happen with all of them. If you haven't already, I suggest talking to an actual psych rather than a GP to get that extra expertise.

I agree and can't believe 14 people "woo'd" your post! I was on Zoloft and gained 50 lbs in 3 months while doing nothing different and as soon as I stopped taking it the pounds came right off,I don't care what anyone thinks they know about these meds saying they just rev your appetite and you eat more therefore gain more,that's absolutely not true in my case and from what I've read alot of cases,go ahead and woo away,I know what happened to me

Good job, you solved world hunger. Just give everyone an SSRI.

I'm sure if they were in the U.S they'd be prescribed them at some point,docs love handing them out to everyone for every ailment

lindamtuck2018

I don’t know what the problem is with people acknowledging that yes antidepressants cause weight gain. Yes the meds have no calories but the side affect is weight gain. Yes it increases your appetite but guys this is real. Until you have been there have some compassion. It is not all black and white. It is tougher to lose weight when you are on these weight promoting drugs but the drugs are as necessary as blood pressure meds.

tinkerbellang83

lindamtuck2018 wrote: »

I don’t know what the problem is with people acknowledging that yes antidepressants cause weight gain. Yes the meds have no calories but the side affect is weight gain. Yes it increases your appetite but guys this is real. Until you have been there have some compassion. It is not all black and white. It is tougher to lose weight when you are on these weight promoting drugs but the drugs are as necessary as blood pressure meds.

People have compassion, and nobody is saying it's not difficult, what they are saying is that it's not impossible.

For years I blamed my contraceptive pill for me not being able to lose weight, but turns out I was just eating too much, both as a result of hormonal mood swings and the increased appetite, once I started logging food with a food scale, bulking out my meals with more low calorie, high nutrient foods and finding alternative ways to deal with the mood swings than emotional eating I lost weight.

linda513

I gained 45 pounds while on Zoloft. It made me very tired, I was sleeping 2 hours in the afternoon and 10 hours at night. I was also more hungry and I ate more. I lost the weight after I stopped the medication. But I do know that some SSRIs can change your metabolism - a good friend had her RMR tested before meds and was burning 1500 calories at rest, after starting the meds she had the RMR retested, and she was only burning 1200 calories.

MichelleSilverleaf

lindamtuck2018 wrote: »

I don’t know what the problem is with people acknowledging that yes antidepressants cause weight gain. Yes the meds have no calories but the side affect is weight gain. Yes it increases your appetite but guys this is real. Until you have been there have some compassion. It is not all black and white. It is tougher to lose weight when you are on these weight promoting drugs but the drugs are as necessary as blood pressure meds.

The bolded is the reason you gain weight on meds, which is what everyone is trying to point out. Meds don't just magically defy CICO. The reality is they changed something in the CICO equation, like increased appetite for example.

erickirb

linda513 wrote: »

I gained 45 pounds while on Zoloft. It made me very tired, I was sleeping 2 hours in the afternoon and 10 hours at night. I was also more hungry and I ate more. I lost the weight after I stopped the medication. But I do know that some SSRIs can change your metabolism - a good friend had her RMR tested before meds and was burning 1500 calories at rest, after starting the meds she had the RMR retested, and she was only burning 1200 calories.

So still cals in vs cals out, just the meds change one side of the equatiin and may make you hungrier too

Johnd2000

I gained and lost weight on SSRIs (prescribed for neuro pain), over a 2 year period. I stopped the meds about halfway through my main cut (50+ lbs) and my data showed that the meds made no real difference to my BMR. My rate of loss with and without the meds was the same.