Losing on medication that causes weight gain

I was on propranolol mirtazipine and olanzipine then fluoxitine as well to add to the mix all of which can cause weight gain olanzipine being the worst. I still managed to lose although I maintained for a long time too. I personally feel watching my weight prevented me from gaining any more than the three stone I gained. Not gaining any more is still a success. You may find it helpful to continue logging. Its hard, but it is possible x good luck

yeah look at my picsthat was from meds and very bad eating. its hard work. i have a love hate realationship with my scale. the weight does go down it just takes time i'm on 4 different meds plue two others. i got type 2 diabesas well and i kicked its butt

Medication weight gain comes from different angles and is likely a combination of a few of them (there are likely to be more, but I just thought of those from the top of my head):

1, it increases your appetite thus you eat more
2, it causes lethargy so you actually move a lot less thus burn less overall
3, it causes your body to retain water
4, it lowers your BMR thus you don't need as many calories to function

I think you probably need to play around with your calorie levels a bit since the numbers the calculators give you everywhere might not be accurate for your situation as they deal with 'healthy' averages. Don't go too low as you might find it very hard to stick to it if the medication increases your appetite and then you are more likely to fail due to sheer frustration.

Exercising like mad isn't going to help unless you have sorted the calorie deficit (also if it increases your appetite disproportionately to your calories burnt you are not really winning anything). This is not to say you shouldn't exercise at all, but perhaps a happy medium could be found.

Good luck :-)

Dear All,

Have been in this unenviable situation some years back...went from 9 stone up to 20 :sad: On a small 5'5'' frame it was awful.

It was the most horrible time....not only are you dealing with the difficulties of the illness (thankfully wrongly diagnosed):explode: but the added burden of extreme weight gain and the depression and loss of self-esteem that comes with it, is a heartache. I took myself off the medication...after a 7 year unsuccessful run with depot injections....not advocating this for anyone else....

In fact it turned out I was not suffering with a biological illness, I needed counselling and still do. It took quite a long time to start to lose weight at all. Just like giggles said, I too think our metabolisms are not the same, the medications interfere somehow and in turn you may have to experiment with different styles of eating and exercise regimes to see any changes in weight.

However, that said...what I did find helped to shift things along for me was limiting the amount of carbs I took in limiting the starchy veg, breads and pastas. Plus really, really watching my calorie intake and more exercise.

Interestingly for me, the more stressing the exercise (ie high impact aerobics, boot camp style stuff) the less of a benefit I found. For me I felt more stressed, depressed and overwhelmed and in turn that state was reflected on the scales and measuring tape (either stall or gain). What was quite literally my saving grace was walking. I walked everywhere....increased the challenges when needed, got into bushwalking (oh the joy), then into mountain climbing (not Everest kind of stuff, but challenging enough). I have looked back on this and wondered if the endorphins were just in that sweet spot for me but the whole "Killing it" at the gym was raising my cortisol levels too much.

I am now taking a high dose of cortisone (have a concurrent pain illness with Lupus) but have continued to maintain around my GW. I still am gluten free (due to health reasons now), I am really conscious of keeping carbs low but now where near the restrictive levels that some advocate on here. Everyone is different I guess...maybe check out the threads.

I wish everyone here the very best......I fully understand the heartache and despair and I send my utmost respect to you all as you endeavour to improve your lives it's never easy to make such changes and when you're faced with extra life obstacles that takes courage.

Never lose heart
If anyone would like to add me as their friend I would love to support, encourage and share my own journey with you
Karen :flowerforyou:

I am on divalproex sodium, seroquel, clonazApam, hydroxine (last two as needed) all for bipolar disorder I have been packing on the pounds and I don't know what to do. I've already cried my eyes out today . Any suggestions or friend requests would be greatly appreciated thanks guys!

http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2010/10/zyprexa_and_fat.html

This article mentions Seroquel as one of the meds that messes with the way your body burns fats and carbs. Some people have lost weight on it by reducing or cycling carbs. I saw stories on the psych boards about successes with weight loss, but that was a couple of years ago, so I can't give you a URL to the exact stories. But they are a good resource. If you don't want to check carbs, it takes an awful lot of exercise and calorie counting just to maintain on Seroquel.

I want to thank everyone for their posts on this thread. I don't feel so alone now. I will keep at this thing and win.
thanks
lockmand
donna155

I am so glad I replied to this post! I've made many more new friends and feel less alone in this medication/weightloss journey hopefully together we can do this!