wellbutrin

tasha251983
tasha251983 Posts: 48 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Anyone on wellbutrin 300mg has it effected your weighy loss good or bad or not at all??

Replies

  • mojo75
    mojo75 Posts: 314 Member
    i just started wellbutrin about a month ago but I'm on a really low dose. I was told by several it would kill my appetite. how has it done for you?
  • Shelby1582
    Shelby1582 Posts: 191 Member
    haven't taken it myself but have read that it can help with weight loss, especially if some of weight gain is due to snacking. Apparently it blocks some of the chemicals in your brain that help with addiction so it's been recommended for people who have a food addiction or are smokers.
  • magpie0
    magpie0 Posts: 194 Member
    Been on it about 3 weeks and have lost 7lbs! Affects weight loss for the better! It kills my appetite and some people think that it may be a mild thermogenic.

    Edit: I have been trying to lose weight though.
  • Green_eyed_beauty
    Green_eyed_beauty Posts: 101 Member
    I took it a few years ago... I couldn't hardly eat for about 3 weeks. Everything made me horribly nauseous, but after that initial few weeks my appetite leveled out and I was fine. I went off it about 9 months later because my symptoms returned and I found a different way to treat my anxiety.
  • hilsidney
    hilsidney Posts: 93 Member
    I've been on it for two years. I started out at 300/day but am down to 150/day. When i first started taking it did make me not want to snack so much, but as I got used to it, it didn't really have the same effect. It also made me feel energetic. I was watching my calories and exercising a lot when I started taking it, so I associate my weight loss at the time from my lifestyle rather than the RX. If I did lose weight due to the RX it had to be pretty negligible.
  • chunkydunk714
    chunkydunk714 Posts: 784 Member
    Sometimes I feel other posters can read my mind :)

    I was going to ask my Dr. about Wellbutrin my next visit!
  • ALH1981
    ALH1981 Posts: 538 Member
    I looked at taking wellbutrin for depression/anxiety after trying everything NOT to take meds. I was told that it has quite bad side effects and so was suggested to take zoloft intstead.

    Zoloft has been a lifesaver. no side effects whatsoever, it simply 'takes the edge off' and allows me to functoin normally so that normal things in life are not a chore. The positive side effect on my weight has been that i no longer center my day around food (as i had nothing else to look forward to!) so ia m more relaxed about it and i dont worry - seems to stop any overeating or compulsions.

    :)
  • magpie0
    magpie0 Posts: 194 Member
    Also, for any anti depressant, you need to convince yourself that it is going to work. 40% of people say they improve while on a placebo!
  • purple_orchid
    purple_orchid Posts: 129 Member
    I have been on wellbutril xl for about 6 months and I have gained about 20 pounds :(
  • chunkydunk714
    chunkydunk714 Posts: 784 Member
    I have been on wellbutril xl for about 6 months and I have gained about 20 pounds :(

    With my luck this would happen to me too. While everyone I knew would lose on Prozac, I was the one who gained 30 pounds from it. Grrr
  • Phrick
    Phrick Posts: 2,765 Member
    I've been on Wellbutrin XL for about 8 months - during that time I gained 15 pounds or so BUT I fully blame the holidays (or rather, what I stuffed in my mouth over the holidays). Since I started tracking food/exercise here, I have lost 27 pounds in the last 2 months, still taking it.
  • tinytasha7
    tinytasha7 Posts: 86 Member
    I know wellbutrin is not an SSRI, but this is my experience with the SSRI medication. This has made me realize that I will now say NO to ALL drugs, even prescribed ones as often as I can. There are almost always other, more healthful ways to go:

    I have been on similar medications for years. In 2002 I was on Effexor, which caused me to gain massive amounts of weight very quickly (120 lbs in 4 months). Prior to that I was average size. At the time, the drug was classified as weight neutral, and no doctor believed me when I kept saying I was gaining these massive amounts. They'd just increase dosage and I'd have new and more wonderful gains. About 3 years ago, I was switched to Cymbalta which is a similar drug metabolized differently because (surprise surprise), Effexor can now cause massive weight gain. Cymbalta is weight neutral. Yet again, every time they increase my dosage, I gain massive amounts of weight, no matter how well I eat or how much I exercise. So I've done some research on my own. Bot h the drugs I refer to are SSRIs. Essentially what they do (and this has never been made clear to my by medical professionals) is they take the existing serotonin in my brain (which is extremely low) and causes it to be reused over and over. IT DOES NOT CREATE NEW SEROTONIN! The only thing that creates serotonin in the brain is the metabolism of tryptophan! So for the last 6 weeks, I have been decreasing my Cymbalta and have been taking tryptophan instead. My mood has been stable, my depression has been at least no worse, and I have noticed I am sleeping better, which is giving me more energy to do my workouts. My outlook, according to the people closest to me has greatly improved, though I haven't noticed so much.

    One of the major things my research and testing has determined, is that I am extremely vitamin deficient, no matter how well I've been eating...and generally that's been pretty good. In addition to the tryptophan, I am now currently taking vitamin D3, B complexes, Coenzyme Q10, Zinc, fish oils, chromium picolinate and Vitamin C. I will be adding several other vitamins, minerals, amino acids and enzymes as time goes on, and as I have time to research quality of products.

    It's pretty scary now that I'm researching several of the drugs I've taken in the past. Some of them are known to be deadly. I no longer trust the drug companies nor the medical community's knowledge of drugs. (My doctor didn't even know what tryptophan was....that's just crazy).
  • kelly_a
    kelly_a Posts: 2,010 Member
    I have trialed and taken a lot of anti-depressants over the years. I have been on Wellbutrin SR 150 for over 6 yrs now. It's ok. I don't feel like sobbing all day, however I do still suffer from depression...possibly SAD. I have never noticed any change with my appetite while on this dose. But, a couple years ago when I was feeling more depressed than normal, my Dr had me double my dose. Initially it was all at once (daily in the am). I felt horrible. It definitely affected my appetite. I had none. I did lose weight and it made me more anxious. What was more scarier was that I felt like my brain was seizing. So, my Dr suggested I take it every 12 hrs. Similar symptoms. I finally called my pharmacist and she told me Wellbutrin SR should not be taken as a double dose...only the XL could be? She said I was lucky not to have a seizure. Scary. I would love to be off my meds, but I am concerned I would end up in the hospital mental ward like I did almost 7 yrs ago.

    edit...just want to add that I take the generic form of Wellbutrin
  • lisaturner115
    lisaturner115 Posts: 1
    I'm taking Wellbutrin now, after stopping for a few months. I initially started it to quit smoking (it worked!). I haven't noticed any effect on my weight. It has helped my mood a lot though. If you're considering starting the drug because you're having difficulty getting through the day (anxiety, depression, etc.), I think you should go for it. But it won't be a magic pill to help you lose weight.
  • Kensie125
    Kensie125 Posts: 1
    Hey y'all! I'm new here, but I'm a medical student in my last year of school and I'm going to be a psychiatrist (not to mention I've had my own struggles with mental health and have been on a myriad of medications). It's so important to be up front with your psychiatrist and even doctor-shop if you're not happy. The first time I met my psychiatrist 3 years ago, one of the first things I said was "If a medication makes me gain weight, I'm just going to stop taking it". And I meant it. She tried to prescribe the most weight neutral drug for me (which is hard with bipolar... most of the drugs cause weight gain) and I ended up spending a full year tweaking meds to find what was right for me.

    In the end I'm super happy on Zoloft (an SSRI) and Wellbutrin (an NRDI). My point being, you have to find what works for you. Some SSRIs might make some people gain and you lose. It can be a frustrating process to switch meds a lot, but unfortunately, at this point in psychiatry, it's all we have to work with (and electroconvulsive therapy... yes, we really still use that).

    Furthermore, yes, tryptophan is involved in the production of serotonin but it's rare that the reason you don't have enough serotonin is because you're tryptophan deficient. And yes, SSRIs stand for "Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors" but that's not exactly their mechanism of action. Think about it: antidepressants take approximately 6 weeks to work, but the serotonin in the brain is increased immediately, sooooo... shouldn't it only take 1 day to work? In fact, SSRIs mainly work by creating new neuronal pathways in the brain, which takes about 6 weeks.

    Sorry for going on, but I'm pretty passionate about psychiatry as well as dispelling the many, many myths there are surrounding the subject.
  • mrsjas2000
    mrsjas2000 Posts: 908 Member
    I am on 300 mgs of Wellbutrin and 75mgs of Effexor when I started 8months ago I was just on Effexor I had no appetite for food or sex, so got changed to Wellbutrin I had no problems but it didn't work on it's own got put back on Effexor and after a couple of months everything is fine now. You have to be honest with your Dr. which took me a long time to do that, and I only hurt myself.

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