Anti-Depressants & Weight loss/gain

MissAnjy

Hey, just curious, has anyone who's been on anti depressants found they had any weight loss or weight gain attributed to their medications?

khall83

I am taking Welbutrin 150mg & Klonopin - i havent had any weight gain. The medicine is suppose to aid in weightloss, but i feel like the weight is coming off pretty slowly..

MayhemModels

Alot of anti depressants do cause weight gain such as Lithium, almost all of the anti-convulsants used to treat depression

rissuhbissuh

I've just started on Fluoxitine less than a month ago. I am told that it will make me lose weight/keep it off/make me less hungry. I guess I shall see as the months progress.

Shweedog

I gained 20 on Effexor and lost 10 on Cymbalta. The Effexor increased my appetite significantly and is was back in the day when I did not calorie count. My point is that as long as you stay within your calorie allotment then you shouldn't gain weight, at least not from an increased appetite.

Becky1971

I'm not on meds anymore, but when I started Zoloft I gained 40 pounds right away, and that was at a time when I was going consistently to the gym. My daughter is on Lexapro, she gained from it, and we had to recently up her dosage and she gained alt real fast. I'm trying to help her get back on here and track her eating, though I know shes cut back on the snacking all day, and has been more active, riding bike and tennis and Zumba, but I worry about her having a hard time making any loss show, cause I know how hard it was for me to lose weight with meds, vs. without.

jpeterburs88

I was put on Zoloft in high school, then gained weight. I am not sure that the anti-depressant was purely to blame, but I have heard that it can cause weight gain. Then I switched to Lamictal and gained more weight- again, not sure if it has to do with the meds or not. The good news is, even if there is weight gain involved, the meds don't stop you from losing!!

marindak

I started taking Zoloft a couple years ago. I have a gained a lot of weight since then but my eating habits were bad and I was inactive at the time as well. I have since stopped taking it and the weight has not "fell off" ... so I don't know if I can contribute it to that. My doctor says Zoloft should make you lose weight because of loss of apetite.

therealangd

I gained 20 on Effexor and lost 10 on Cymbalta. The Effexor increased my appetite significantly and is was back in the day when I did not calorie count. My point is that as long as you stay within your calorie allotment then you shouldn't gain weight, at least not from an increased appetite.

This.

Anti-depressants don't change your metabolism. The change your appetite. If you are counting calories and staying within your allotment, you will not gain weight.

maysflower

I was on Paxil for the longest time. Working out 4 days a week, watching my eating (kind of) but the weight never came off. I was so frustrated. Due to other side effects, I change medication to Wellbutrin. Within a month of changing medications the weight started to come off. Now I am losing at a good pace.

Anti-depressants can make losing weight really hard. If you are having a lot of trouble I would suggest talking to your doctor about it and maybe asking to be switched to a different anti-depressant.

Good luck! I know how hard it is dealing with trying to lose weight and depression. You'll get through it and be stronger in the end.

mindyrenee81

I was taking Wellbutrin XL for about four months. I gained weight with it almost 15 pounds. Im taking Effexor now and I havent gained anything I have lost weight with it. My doctor put me on it to help keep me from gaining weight. I know that a few people have had the opposite effect on Effexor but so far I havent had any problems.

MissAnjy

If anti-depressants don't change your metabolism, I should be good to go. However, I was told that lithium changes your metabolism? That person could be wrong. I want medication to be a last resort in my case, and only if I have a chemical imbalance (which I will be looking in to next week). I can't imagine how gaining weight would make someone any less depressed. That's depressing in itself.

Heatherbelle_87

If anti-depressants don't change your metabolism, I should be good to go. However, I was told that lithium changes your metabolism? That person could be wrong. I want medication to be a last resort in my case, and only if I have a chemical imbalance (which I will be looking in to next week). I can't imagine how gaining weight would make someone any less depressed. That's depressing in itself.

Lithium is only used in severe bipolar cases (routinely) anymore due to having a variety of safer, and better controlled medications. The reason Lithium is popular and standard for Bipolar is because its easier to customize the dosage and can be combined with more medications. Most anti-depressants on the market in the last 2-3 years are combination therapy drugs (when they used to prescribe two seperate meds that we eventually found causes seriouse health issues due to certain interactions that have been alleviated with the new meds) and are less likely to cause weight gain, but everyone is different. If you notice gain while on a medication you need to let your Dr know. Having MFP can prove you are/arent eating well if you are tracking as well. The more information you Dr has when treating depression the more efficiently it can be treated

Becky1971

Interesting your doctor said that about the loss of appetite with Zoloft, because I was thinking that was the case for me, but yet I still gained weight. I definitely agree that meds can affect our appetite and that be the case for the weight gain, but I have seen my daughter eating the same as she had before the increase in her meds, and she just ballooned up all of a sudden. So I don't know.

I started taking Zoloft a couple years ago. I have a gained a lot of weight since then but my eating habits were bad and I was inactive at the time as well. I have since stopped taking it and the weight has not "fell off" ... so I don't know if I can contribute it to that. My doctor says Zoloft should make you lose weight because of loss of apetite.

Becky1971

There are definitely meds out there that have made it impossible for people to lose weight, I saw it many times when I was doing ww, usually was something older people had to take.

I was put on Zoloft in high school, then gained weight. I am not sure that the anti-depressant was purely to blame, but I have heard that it can cause weight gain. Then I switched to Lamictal and gained more weight- again, not sure if it has to do with the meds or not. The good news is, even if there is weight gain involved, the meds don't stop you from losing!!

electromg

Prozac -- I was in middle school. I thought I was going to gain a bunch of weight, and I think I told myself I did. Looking back, I actually lost 15 pounds over a year even though I ate badly.

Wellbutrin -- I lost 30 pounds over six months with yoga inspiration at the beginning, and being whole heartedly dedicated to eating well. Mind you, I don't lose weight easily at all since I have PCOS. I do think this helps you lose weight by lowering your appetite, and also giving you a halfway OCD mindset of healthy habits. I think this medication would be bad for someone with OCD actually.

sunnyrunner23

You would think that if your liver is busy metabolising the drugs it will not be efficiently buring fat at the same time. Isn't that the argument for alcohol consumption?

Zomoniac

I've been on Citalopram for about three months, since when my weight loss rate has slowed dramatically, but I am now well past the new dieter stage of it all falling off instantly and onto the hard graft, so I wouldn't necessarily say that there's any cause linked to the correlation, but it's entirely possible.