Anyone here gained weight on anti depressants?
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I gained 50 pounds on Abilify, Effexor, and Lexapro. Has anyone here been able to lose weight that they gained from meds?
I've been on quite a few antipsychotics like abilify. When I was on abilify I gained 60 lbs and when I was on saphris I gained 40 lbs. I no longer take an antipsychotic (TG I'm stable). The weight is as hard to lose as anybody else that is trying to lose weight. In other words, it doesn't come right off after taking them. :sad:0 -
I slowly gained weight on Lexapro, 10mgs. Gained it over 2-3 years. Stopped taking it last summer, around June '11. Hit highest weight in June '11, 216, but have since lost 60lbs total.
Mood swings are kind of crazy now though!!0 -
I've been on them for Anxiety (same meds for both though) and have been gaining. I gain weight very, very easily as it is and these don't help at all. My doctor and I have been discussing this issue the last few times I've seen him.
I, however, can't blame the meds as it all comes down to what I eat and my exercise habits. I must and do take full responsibility and am making every effort to reverse this. I will say though that my energy levels have fallen off, I feel lethargic and hungry all the time.0 -
Citalopram makes me nauseous, so I don't eat.0
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I gained 30lbs on Tramadol. I am bipolar with insmonia and anxiety. My biggest challenge is craving sweets after I take all of my medicine at night. Anyone can feel free to add me! I am on every day.0
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I was the opposite :ohwell: Went from 182lbs to 135lbs in about 4 months but was that awful skinny fat, no muscle at all to speak of. Came off them and went back up to 166lbs. Went back on (again) and shrank down a little bit but nothing too drastic this time!0
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i was on Prozac for 4 years and cymbalta for 1 and a half. Gained 60lbs on those meds. However, I was also in college and not exercising, and not eating right. But even at the end of my time with Cymbalta, when i was trying to eat right and start exercising, I found I was way too fatigued to exercise. As in, I was falling asleep on the treadmill. I couldn't even get to a point where my heart rate was raised; I was dozing off just walking around. I went off the meds and immediately dropped about 15lbs. The rest of it has come off with exercise and eating right over the course of a little over a year and a half.
Short answer: Yes I did, but there were other contributing factors. What the meds really did was make it very very difficult for me to LOSE weight. I don't think I would have gained as much had I maintained better habits while in college.
That said, I may have been on a bad dosage. Dr switched me to Cymbalta because of the fatigue, but cymbalta actually made it worse. Maybe i needed a different dose. I was tired of feeling like I was in a fog, though, and decided to try battling my anxiety and depression with exercise. So far so good, as long as I make sure to do it, even if I don't feel like it. I understand this WILL NOT work for everyone, but for the rest of the people in my family who also battle depression and anxiety (it definitely runs in my family, back several generations in fact), exercise has been key in keeping it under wraps, with and without meds.
If you absolutely must be on meds (which is FINE. please do not go off medications against a doctor's advice. When I first went on antidepressants, I NEEDED to be on them), make sure you're honest and persistent with your doctor if you are continuing to gain weight despite consistently good habits, or if fatigue is making it impossible to exercise. Mine was so bad I was falling asleep driving to work even after 14-16 hours of sleep. I was basically a zombie. College, I only got by on adrenaline and caffeine pills. As soon as I graduated, I basically crash landed.0 -
I was on Lexapro 3 years ago and gained about 20 pounds, started watching what I ate very carefully (I was always hungry so my portions were insane) and got it off. My dr. then switched me to Wellbutrin due to other side effects I was having with Lex and Wellbutrin doesn't make me hungrier than normal. I'm actually on this site because I went off the my meds cold turkey (DON'T DO IT) at the beginning of this year, got crazy depressed and did nothing but eat/sleep for 6 months.
Good luck finding a good anti-depressant, it's a tedious cycle but so worth it when you find one that works for you. :flowerforyou:0 -
So good to know I am not alone.0
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So good to know I am not alone.0
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Can't say they're 100% responsible (I did practice pretty poor eating and excercise habits.. ) But I can attest that since going on anti-depressants, my weight increased...
My dad (also a doctor) switched me to Viibryd, and with the help of excerising of course, I am managing to lose weight again....
You may want to talk to you doctor about switching to this if weight gain is a concern ^^0 -
If you check your meds on a site like www.drugs.com you can find the possible side effects of the meds you are taking. Some meds will cause loss of appetite, others will cause an increase in appetite.
I've been on Lexapro and Xanax for years plus a number of meds for other conditions. I actually think it was my depression that caused me to gain weight. I would sit down with a bag of chips, cookies, whatever, and just eat mindlessly. Now everything is about weighing and portion control. Mind over matter for me.
A word of caution to anyone who is taking anti-depressants and/or anti-anxiety meds. Do not stop any of those meds abruptly. Please see your physician as one must be weaned off these type of meds over a period of time.0 -
I've actually been struggling with this the last few days, as I just realized that despite counting and exercising, my weight has gone up 10 pounds in the last two months. I should be losing weight but it isn't happening, so I am going to taper off the meds. I'm on Lexapro, and hopefully the weight will come off when I stop it. I'll come back and update if it makes a difference or not.0
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When I discontinued Remeron I dropped 50 pounds so fast I started asking the doctor if maybe I had cancer or something! It was just extra weight I had put on because of the medication. I have taken Wellbutrin for many years and have no difficulty losing weight on it.0
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Actually, the sudden weight gain from mine was what got me to get serious about weigh loss in the first place. I gained 15 lbs within three months, but I've lost 30 since joining MFP and I'm aiming to lose another 15 before I'm done. I do have to say, my metabolism is way slower than the standard estimates on this site for height/weight/age/activity level, but I don't know if it's the meds or not.0
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I gained 30lbs from Cipralex.
I've peeled almost all of that off.
Oh... & it took a WHILE for it to start coming off... don't be discouraged, just because it hasn't started coming off, doesn't mean it won't.0 -
I gained about 25 lbs. while I was on Citalopram (successfully weaned myself off --- day 10 w/ no medicine). I wouldn't say the medicine was the main cause of my weight gain. Poor diet and exercise both took part in the gain. The medicine slowed down my metabolism, so that made it worse, but being lazy and not eating properly definitely had a bigger part of it, for me at least.0
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I am on wellbutrin *spelling* and the doctor told me that it is a pretty weight neutral pill. I have been on it for two months now and my weight loss hasn't stalled.
One of the side affects I get however is my appetite goes away. You'd think this was a good thing but I have to be on top of it or I could go 8-9 hours without eating.0 -
I'm really on and off with Lerazepam as I read online somewhere that it does put some weight on you and lord knows I don't need the extra push for that. I'm supposed to take it once a day for a month but I'm never consistent, just don't want to gain the weight. Hang in there.0
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I have no experience with anti-depressants, but I have had to take prednisone for years at a time. This also often causes weight gain because a) it actually alters how the body metabolizes fat and carbs AND b) it makes you ravenously hungry. I am not sure what the reason is for weight gain with anti-depressants, but I thought my experience might be helpful.
Most people gain 30-60 pounds taking prednisone long term. I gained 8 lbs in 3 years. My doctors were amazed by this. Here is what I did:
1) regular exercise (weight lifting and some cardio 5 times a week)
2) **this is the important one** - I cringe when I hear people say "listen to your body" and/or "eat when you are hungry". Hormones, when out of whack (yes, that is a technical term), can send false hunger signals to the brain. So, I knew prednisone would make me hungry even when I did not need more food for nutrition or energy. Therefore, I ate an amount of food that was consistent with how many calories I knew my body needed. I did not use hunger as a sign to eat, I used my brain to tell me how much to eat. This is solely what prevented me from having a huge gain while taking prednisone. You can re-train your behavior and ignore hunger if you realize it may be false. It takes a bit of self control and, of course, knowledge about how much you should eat. I did this BEFORE joining MFP; so I think with logging it would be even easier and I probably could have avoided the small gain I did have if I had been logging then.
Good luck!0
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