I stopped anti-depressants and I'm losing weight super fast - need advice

fruitechris

I am male, 35, going to the gym 5 days a week. At the gym I do 30 minutes of core exercises followed by one hour of Pull, Push or Legs. I walk to and from the gym every day, 40 minutes each way, around 10,000 steps daily. I don't drink alcohol.

Last month I was shocked that my weight was 84kg, with a Body Fat percentage of 27%. which is considered overweight. When I looked in the mirror, I could see I had accumulated a lot of fat on my hips and back, as well as my abdomen. I found out that the anti-depressant I was taking (Mirtazapine, 30mg) was causing me to put on weight. It does this through increasing appetite as well as changing the way the body stores fat. In May 2023 my medication dose was increased to 45mg, this is when I saw a dramatic increase in my weight. I have been taking the medication for 5 years.

Two weeks ago I stopped taking the meds completely. I also cut out carbs to help me lose weight fast, and followed a keto diet (around 10% carbs). My weight is dropping very fast - I have lost 5kg in 2 weeks, which is pretty insane. I am now 79kg. It's worth mentioning that this weight loss has been during a two week holiday where I was working out only 2 days a week, and not very intensively. I am now back in London and I have resumed my regular working out program. Since resuming my regular training I am finding myself getting very hungry.

My original plan was to get my weight down to 73kg and my Body Fat percentage to 15%, and then at this point begin to bulk gradually. This is apparently optimum body fat to begin bulking with. I am tracking my calorie intake, currently with a daily goal of 1,561 (156g protein, 87g fat, 39g carbohydrate).

I am losing weight faster than I thought possible and I am wondering if I should re-calculate my calorie and macro intake. I thought it would be a slow process losing weight but it's literally disappearing so fast. It is also hard to calculate what my calorie intake should be because I am losing weight naturally without doing anything. I will only have a realistic calculation once I have levelled out. I am not sure what I used to weight before the meds, maybe around 68kg. I am also not sure if my carb intake should be quite so low. I did this in order to help speed up the weight loss, but it seems a bit excessive now. I am finding myself getting tired during and after training. When I look in the mirror now I see improvements daily. My muscle is more pronounced and my fat is reducing, leaving me looking more toned and lean.

Any guidance on what you would do in this situation would be appreciated, I understand that this is a unique situation.

yirara

just 1500 calories per day for a male IS very low. Some questions for you: How fast are you losing lately, and over which period of time? Are you eating exercise calories back, and how much?

cmriverside

I'd say just set your Goals on this site to "Lose 1 pound per week."

Add in purposeful exercise on days you do it.

There are a lot of TDEE calculators out there...sailrabbit is a good one: https://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/

Obviously a bunch of random strangers on a forum can't give you an answer on this complicated issue...maybe see your doctor. I think you're just under-eating and need to fix that.

Other than that, all of us have to go by some calculator at first that may or may not be accurate for our situation. Then we adjust. That's what you need to do, rapid weight loss is not a good thing.

Lietchi

I saw that you started doing keto. Eliminating carbs means you're losing a LOT of water weight. So your rate of loss is exaggerated at the start. After a few weeks, the water weight effect should be over, and your rate of loss becomes a more relevant number to evaluate if you're losing too fast.

fruitechris

yirara wrote: »

just 1500 calories per day for a male IS very low. Some questions for you: How fast are you losing lately, and over which period of time? Are you eating exercise calories back, and how much?

I only started losing weight once I stopped the medication. In the two weeks since I stopped the medication I have lost 350g a day on average (from 20th September - 3rd October)

I am not eating exercise calories back, or calories from my 10,000 steps.

yirara

fruitechris wrote: »

yirara wrote: »

just 1500 calories per day for a male IS very low. Some questions for you: How fast are you losing lately, and over which period of time? Are you eating exercise calories back, and how much?

I only started losing weight once I stopped the medication. In the two weeks since I stopped the medication I have lost 350g a day on average (from 20th September - 3rd October)

I am not eating exercise calories back, or calories from my 10,000 steps.

So that's about 4.5kg in 2 weeks? That IS very fast, however, antidepressants can lead to waterweight gain. It's maybe possible that keto alone didn't help with losing initial waterweight due to that but that it only started once yous topped the antidepressants.

So ... even if it was just 1.5kg in 2 weeks it's still fairly steep for your current weight. Here's a suggestion: if you walk 10k steps per day then this brings you straight into the more active territory. Update your activity setting to active or very active (probably active), set your weightloss goal to 1lbs per week and eat this for a minimum of 4 weeks. Then see whether your weightloss has ended up in a more reasonable territory. If it's still high then eat even a bit more.

Yes, I know we all want to lose fast. but there are several problems with it: losing a shitload for muscle compared to bodyfat, and feeling miserable eventually which might lead to binging and/or just giving up.

kshama2001

Since you only want to lose another 6kg / 14 pounds, do slow down your rate of loss considerably.

Go here: https://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change-goals-guided or More > Goals in app.

1. Put in your stats.
2. normal daily activities refers to your job.
3. Ignore How many times a week do you plan on exercising? - that does not get included in the equation.
4. Select Lose 0.5 pound per week.

The resulting calories is your daily calorie budget. It's normal to go a little over or under, but since weight loss is already included in these calories, you don't want to intentionally go hundreds of calories under.

fruitechris wrote: »

yirara wrote: »

just 1500 calories per day for a male IS very low. Some questions for you: How fast are you losing lately, and over which period of time? Are you eating exercise calories back, and how much?

I only started losing weight once I stopped the medication. In the two weeks since I stopped the medication I have lost 350g a day on average (from 20th September - 3rd October)

I am not eating exercise calories back, or calories from my 10,000 steps.

Unlike other sites which use TDEE calculators, MFP uses the NEAT method (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis), and as such this system is designed for exercise calories to be eaten back. However, many consider the burns given by MFP to be inflated for them and only eat a percentage, such as 50%, back. Others are able to lose weight while eating 100% of their exercise calories.

https://support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032625391-How-does-MyFitnessPal-calculate-my-initial-goals-

kshama2001

I took Mirtazapine/Remeron last year. My goodness, it sure did spike my appetite! The many doctors to whom I complained about my appetite increase thought it was due to my recent surgery. Someone here, I think @sollyn, mentioned it as one of the many antidepressants that can increase appetite, and I stopped taking it. I'm back on Wellbutrin now.

Remeron did help me sleep. I'm taking Buspirone for anxiety at night and it also helps me sleep.

fruitechris

kshama2001 wrote: »

Since you only want to lose another 6kg / 14 pounds, do slow down your rate of loss considerably.

Go here: https://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change-goals-guided or More > Goals in app.

1. Put in your stats.
2. normal daily activities refers to your job.
3. Ignore How many times a week do you plan on exercising? - that does not get included in the equation.
4. Select Lose 0.5 pound per week.

Thank you very much for this, I have updated my goals and my suggested daily intake has increased by 500 calories, to 1,910, so I'm going to go with that.

fruitechris

kshama2001 wrote: »

I took Mirtazapine/Remeron last year. My goodness, it sure did spike my appetite!

Honestly can't believe how quickly the weight has gone since I stopped. I thought it would be an uphill battle.

Yeah I found that about an hour after I took it I got really hungry and would have a midnight feast on the daily, with a non-stop appetite for sugar. Since I stopped taking it I have become much more disciplined.

cwolfman13

1500 is the floor for a sedentary male. Even sedentary, most men would lose pretty quickly on so few calories. You're doing 10K steps on top of that and working out, so losing weight overly fast would pretty much be a no brainer. You're in no way sedentary but eating like a sedentary male with an aggressive calorie deficit and making that deficit bigger with exercise and not accounting for that activity.

PAV8888

10k steps is, by itself, sufficient to assign the multiplier used by the MFP active label if the step activity is not also captured anywhere else.

The important thing for low carb induced initial weight loss is not that it is just water weight but that it is borrowed water weight that will come back when glycogen restores.

I would discuss alternative options with your doctor of course... and you're hungry because you're overdoing your deficit. Also don't be surprised if with exercise and a bit more food you stop seeing progress via eyeball. Weight trend apps and websites exist for a reason. And any weight loss we see on a consistent daily basis is almost always too fast!.

Take care

AnnPT77

fruitechris wrote: »

kshama2001 wrote: »

I took Mirtazapine/Remeron last year. My goodness, it sure did spike my appetite!

Honestly can't believe how quickly the weight has gone since I stopped. I thought it would be an uphill battle.

Yeah I found that about an hour after I took it I got really hungry and would have a midnight feast on the daily, with a non-stop appetite for sugar. Since I stopped taking it I have become much more disciplined.

There are three things in the picture that could lead to dumping water weight: Stopping a medication associated with weight gain (water retention can be one factor in the weight), doing less exercise than usual (because muscles retain water post-exercise for repair), and dramatically decreasing carb intake (we retain water as part of metabolizing carbs, so a quick switch to low carb usually results in a very visible water retention decrease).

I think you're doing the right thing by increasing calorie intake, because fast loss is a bad plan, generally - especially if little weight to lose (like you have) and/or athletic goals.

But I want to underscore the point that two weeks isn't really long enough to get a clear picture, IMO even for a man. I'd look at 4-6 week results for a better picture, and even then, if the first couple of weeks look wildly different from what follows, I'd ignore those weeks in estimating average weekly loss over 4-6 weeks.

Eating more is a good plan. Even a gross intake of 1910 may not be enough, but it should be OK for the 4-6 week trial period at least. (If you start feeling weak or fatigued for otherwise unexplained reasons, eat a little more. Otherwise, stick with it for the 4-6 weeks. I wouldn't be surprised if you re-add some water weight when you're fully back to your regular workout schedule, and sometimes if there's been a big-ish water weight drop at first, there can be a water retention rebalancing that follows, and looks like weight regain on the scale, but isn't fat regain.

Best wishes!