Antidepressants and Weight Gain

aguilar_k3

Hi All!

I am looking for success stories for motivation. I gained 20+ lbs on antidepressants and am wondering how easily people were able to lose the weight after going off medication.

As of late 2017, I was at a very healthy weight and possibly in the best shape of my life. I had never been overweight. Then I started citalopram. Over the course of the year, I saw my weight skyrocket despite my efforts at calorie counting and exercise, though I had never had difficulties before.

My GP insisted that citalopram caused minimal side effects and the problem was probably my "lifestyle." The first few months of the year, I sustained the strictest diet I had ever been on--low carb, high fiber, high protein, minimum added sugars, exercise 5-6 times a week--and, although the numbers added up to about a 7 pound weight loss, I lost only a pound or two.

FINALLY, I talked to a psychiatrist with an actual background in this stuff, and she admitted that weight gain is a very common problem with SSRIs--sometimes as much as 50 lbs! I'm glad to no longer feel crazy, but I'm worried about the long term effects on my body.

Anyone else been through this?

mbaker566

it's frequently because a change in appetite not due to the medication itself.

i've gained and lost on almost all the common and a few odd anti-depressants. the only one that i only gained on was remeron. i was ravenous all the time.

i only lost on xanax.

aguilar_k3

mbaker566 wrote: »

it's frequently because a change in appetite not due to the medication itself.

i've gained and lost on almost all the common and a few odd anti-depressants. the only one that i only gained on was remeron. i was ravenous all the time.

i only lost on xanax.

From what I've read, it's still not known whether the weight gain results from a change in appetite or to metabolism, but it seems fairly accepted that it may be a mix of both. I personally did not experience a change in appetite on citalopram. Prozac though, which I tried for a few weeks after going off the citalopram, did make me ravenously hungry.