Ladies: Your birth control is making you fat!

Joisgettingfit

I'm on the contraceptive implant, in the past 4 1/2 months i've gained about 15lbs,lost 5 so far though
I'll admit part of it has to do with me eating more but I wasn't eating that much beforehand and i'm trying to be healthier and eat more so going from like 600 calories a day to 1500 calories a day was obviously going to make me gain weight,
I do find myself tempted to slip back into old habbits but I want to be healthy and strong and fit so i'm ignoring my mind as best as I can.

I'm planning to leave it in 6 months and go back on cerazette because I had no problems on that at all.
This one i've gained weight,have periods for at least 2 weeks of every month, I have no idea what the word sex drive even means anymore ahaaa

I can lose weight on it but all the other effects make me want to take it out now, i'm going to wait till September though just to see if it settles.

AshDHart

I went on bc after my 2nd child 20 years ago. In spite of eating great and walking a lot I gained on average 6 lbs a week until I had packed on 90 lbs. I didn't think it could be the pill. I stopped taking it because my blood pressure shot way up and I knew the pill might not be helping. First week off was the first week I didn't gain any weight. My doctor ran numerous tests and referred me to a specialist because of the rapid weight gain. After exhaustive testing the conclusion was the weight gain was caused by the pill. No reputable doctor will put me on it again. I even got stupid one month and suggested it. Some people do react very differently than the norm. Wish I had snapped to it after just a few weeks but I think post pregnancy thinking wasn't very clear for me.

TinaS88

Well you also have to be careful WHAT you eat, more than just how much... doesn't matter if you are under your calories if you are eating all crap.

Never heard about the pill causing weight gain, but I know my mom used depo and gained a ton of weight while on it.

Mirena here... no worries in that area. :P

Oh, also... are you checking your inches? The scale can be evil sometimes.. you can loose inches without the scale actually really moving.

The type of food I was eating is actually one of the things I discussed with my doctor. I did goood . I'm not entirely comfortable with the idea of Mirena yet, but maybe someday I'll warm up to it lol. And I did lose 1.5 inches. Not enough for 6 months worth of my best effort, in my opinion.

To everyone else, I'm super jealous that your contraception didn't make you gain weight! I'm just happy that my new one isn't making me gain any more, and that it's also allowing me to lose!! It definitely does vary person to person and brand to brand, as another poster said. The "ingredients" effect everyone differently. It's just good to keep in mind for those who may not realize that this may be the reason they're not losing :flowerforyou:

Mirena is great! I have used it for 4 years now and love it! Me and the husband can have all the "fun" we want and have 100% NO worries!

fridayjustleft04

Any hormone based birth control can increase your cravings, and therein lies the danger of gaining weight. I've been on the depo shot since January and I've managed to lose 20 pounds since starting it, so potential bc weight gain can be controlled no matter what method you choose..for most women, anyway.

crjugrl

Any hormone based birth control can increase your cravings, and therein lies the danger of gaining weight. I've been on the depo shot since January and I've managed to lose 20 pounds since starting it, so potential bc weight gain can be controlled no matter what method you choose.

Wow! I've never been on the shot, but it's awesome that you're able to lose, especially since you hear of so many instances where people gain a lot on the depo shot. Unfortunately, after 6 months of doing everything I was supposed to do and not losing weight, I can say first hand that weight can't necessarily be controlled no matter what, though I'm sure it depends on the person. I think feeding into my cravings was 100% my fault, but not being able to lose it clearly was not in my control. My bc made me retain fluid like crazy and the scale just would not budge. Lo and behold, after switching brands, my weight is finally coming off. The cravings definitely are a killer though!

crjugrl

Mirena is great! I have used it for 4 years now and love it! Me and the husband can have all the "fun" we want and have 100% NO worries!

haha no worries always sounds like a good idea to me!!!! I work at a day care and one of the mothers that has her kids there had an IUD that fell out without her knowing and now she's expecting baby number 4! Yikes!! I'd always be checking, but the idea of a string hanging there weirds me out. I've never seen one, but I heard that's pretty much how it works.. I'm sure one day I'll get sick of the pill though and look to other options. Sounds so much easier than setting an alarm to take a pill at the same time every day :grumble:

Helice

i remember when i started mine they told me that one of the side effects is an increase appetite and a chance of weight gain.
but fortunately im on the pergesterone only pill, and apparently it isnt half as bad for weight gain as the combined one.

ckmama

Okay, maybe it is, maybe it isn't. But don't rule it out.

I have been busting my butt for the last 6 months doing Zumba, the 30 Day Shred, Turbo Jam-- you name it-- 4-6 days a week. I zig-zagged my calories, drank my water and kept my sodium intake below 1500. And guess what?

I haven't lost an ounce.

Naturally, I was completely devastated. So for the last month or so I've dropped all exercise and I've been back to my old eating habits (keeping sensible portions in mind, but not tracking calories) and I've continued to maintain. Much less work, and just as little progress.

I made an appointment with my doctor and expressed my concerns. She checked my thyroid and interviewed me pretty thoroughly. My thyroid was fine and everything else seemed to check out (getting enough sleep, eating properly, etc.), until we finally got to the topic of birth control. Since starting birth control pills (Levora), I have been extremely emotional (and I have never been an emotional person), it KILLED my libido (tmi) , and I've gained 15 pounds.

She gave me the spiel about how birth control pills only cause some women to gain weight, but only about 5 pounds. She said that the depo shot may cause about a 15 pound weight gain, but since that is a different form of birth control, that didn't apply to me. I didn't buy it. I have never been a compulsive eater. I've always been about 15-20 pounds over weight, but never has my weight ever sky rocketed like that in as little as 5 months. So she switched my pill to Gianvi, the generic form of Yaz.

Let me start by saying that this pill has awful reviews, and I'm hoping that I never experience half of the side effects that some people have stated they have experienced. But I've just finished my first full month of taking these pills and sticking with my normal eating habits and no exercise, and guess what? My appetite isn't half of what it used to be, the libido is back, and I'm down 3 pounds.

So if you're weight isn't budging and you're giving it all you've got, consider switching up your contraception.

Just my two cents :drinker:

THis is exactly why I don't take birth control. It made me an even bigger emotional beotch than I was before.

coolsmartygirl

Careful with Yaz! My friend just found out she is pregnant after a year of being on YAZ!!! No missed pills, no antibiotics were taken while on it either!

All pill birth controls have that risk, they are not 100% fool proof even if you are a perfectionist taking them.

queenbcronen

I suppose for everyone it will be different. People will react differently to hormones. I've been on many different birth control types as I have endometriosis. I never really gained weight with any. I started depo 4 1/2 years ago after I had my daughter. I had heard all the weight gain hub-bub about it but my dr. thought it would be the next best choice after the Mirena to controlling my endometriosis. My insurance did not cover the iud very much and it was spendy so I went with depo. It is controlling my endometriosis AND just 6 mos after having my daughter I was in the BEST shape of my life. No weight gain. My weight gain now is from other factors and is not birth control based. Thank goodness! I feel for those here that have to deal with that.

frg4bama

Well, I will share with you some of my story. I was not over weight when I graduated from high school. I weighed 140 pounds. I gained maybe 5 pounds in college. I started Depo shot for BC and my doctor told me I would gain weight but, I didn't believe her. I busted my *kitten* for a month so that I wouldn't gain weight. I gained 12 pounds in one month. Now, I weigh well over 250. Now, I do realize that not all of my weight issues are from taking BC. I am an emotional eater and I have had many stressful things happen to me over the years. However, I can dang sure pinpoint when my weight problems STARTED and that is when!! I am convinced that monkeying around with hormones causes a lot of problems. Just my humble opinion...

spartangirl79

Do you know anything about the Mirena? That's what I have.

The Mirena was a nightmare for me for five solid years. If it's still working well for you, that's great. If you have any questions please feel free to message me. The pharma company did NOT do its part by providing complete and factual side-effect info in the patient info insert, and the Mirena pretty much ruined my life for five years. I had to have a $15,000 surgery to remove a softball-sized ovarian cyst, and that was the least annoying part of my Mirena experience. Got it out a year ago and still recovering.

My hormones are still so out of whack, it's been hard to find a birth control pill I can tolerate. I need the pill because of endometriosis, which stinks.

10acity

... doesn't matter if you are under your calories if you are eating all crap.

This is absolute nonsense.

I've never had a problem with the pill, but have avoided other methods (depo, specifically) because the last thing I need is help gaining weight.

WalkingGirl1985

I'm on Depo, and also still managed to lose weight as well.

lauren128m

Yaz worked fine for me. The four ppl I know that got blood clots from it smoked. And there are always warning signs about not smoking on birth control because it increases these risks. So for them it didn't work out because they didn't take the proper precautions. But I love yaz and have been on it for 3+ years and have yet to have a problem.

HipsBreastsandMore

Birth control works differently for each woman so what doesn't work for you will work for some other women.

I get nausea when I took birth control pills, so when I was 19, I decided to get the Depo shot. BIG MISTAKE! I gained over 60lbs with the Depo. It took me 2 years to finally work that off to 175 lbs. After I got off the Depo, my monthly periods were crazy. I would have a period like every 5 to 6 months. Thank goodness, I was making sure that I was using protection. After I got married, I had my tubes tied so I gained about 40 lbs post pregnancy weight.

Depression also can cause you to gain weight as well. Everybody bodies are made differently.

nwhitley

Weight gain can be a side effect. That's why I stopped 2 years ago when I gained 10 pds. I googled and saw a lot of other women complained about the weight gain too.