Losing weight after Sertraline?

Zoloft is the only AD that made me lose weight. I lost 25 pounds in 3 months. Totally curbed my appetite.

Hey everyone!

I have been taking Sertraline (generic Zoloft) since I was about 16 for depression and anxiety and have recently decided to try to come off of it. (I turn 21 next month). I read up on it and talked to my doctor about it who said the best way to do it was to wean myself off, so over the course of 2 weeks I went from taking 200mgs to stopping the drug completely. Yet I felt I had to take 50mgs earlier this evening due to severe Discontinuation Symptoms that had developed over the days of completely not being on the medication. My symptoms include fatigue, anxiety, agitation, dizziness, blurred vision, irritability, and sweating. A couple hours after taking the 50mgs the dizziness pretty much completely disappeared. So for those of you saying you went off of it cold turkey, I cannot even imagine!! As for weight gain/loss, before I was put on the medication, I was a STICK! I am close to 5'7 and remember weighing about 105lbs my freshman year of high school. I had ALWAYS been thin growing up, and my mom's best friend even used the nick name "skinny minnie" for me. I started noticing the weight gain during my sophomore year, and by my junior year I felt I was actually becoming 'fat'. I couldn't understand the reasoning behind me gaining the weight, other than the change in taking the Zoloft. I am now 21 and I've been riding the struggle bus for trying to drop the pounds for a few years now. I am at my heaviest I have ever been, weighing 165lbs. My boyfriend is a Marine, so as you can imagine he is pretty fit and actively likes to workout. I will join in on gym sessions and eating right, yet my weight seriously will NOT budge. This just makes me even more depressed and I give up. So I'm hoping that once I can get this medication out of my system and I get back to tagging along with my Marine during trips to the gym the weight will come off. I doubt I will ever be 105lbs again (not that I would even want to be THAT tiny again..) but I hope it will help me lose 15-20lbs.

hello!!! how are you doing after stop taking ssertraline....did you loose the weight gained???

I was switched in June from 20 mg Celexa to 200 mg of Zoloft. I was having temp anxiety because all the offers we were making on houses were getting outbid. I just wanted some sleeping meds to knock me out so I could sleep. I didn't realize that was such a drastic medication change. Needless to say I had horrible side effects and reduced the dose myself to 100 mg. I've had memory issues and gained 20 lbs in a month. I weened myself off the meds, don't need them. I do hot yoga and Zumba and have only lost 3 lbs, none of my clothes fit and all the weight gained was in my stomach. I'm furious this was done to me, I was fine on Celexa. About 2 weeks off the meds and still sound like doorknob at work because I can't remember certain words. Hopefully I can restore my metabolism and not look pregnant anymore.
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Have lost any weight??? I can't and I am feling so depress my cloths don't fit any more, help please!!!

i was on sertraline for approx 15 months and in that time i piled on 7 1/2 stone (even though i was eatting the same). i was aboslutley exhausted on it and all i did was sleep, was really dizzy and nauseous. had to go to another doctor to have my perscription changed. i've lost 2 stone 2lbs since april.

I had to make a post on here after reading.

Since my start on 100mg Sertraline and 200mg Lamictal, I have lost 89 pounds. I am a bipolar genius, and wouldn't know it without these medicines.

A huge downside is my feelings of lethargy. I have no care for anything, perhaps even depressed still. I dont know.

Though I heard adderall can save me! maybe I'll actually do something with my ridiculous IQ besides play video games.

Ok before zoloft i was weighing 186lbs at 5'8. Which is not bad for me. The first month I didn't gain any weight but the meds weren't working at the 50mg dose. They bumped me up to 100mg which started working for me. Soon after I started noticing weight gain, didn't really care was like it was just a few pounds, then 6 months later I was over 200lbs. then 3 months later I was 207lb. So i decided it was time to quit. I was orginally taking this for PTSD when my wife went into pre term labor at 28 weeks with my son. Freaked me out!! Didn't know what to do the wife was in the hospital and I had the 3YO daughter and I couldn't go to work. Well, almost a year later I am at 213lbs. I am very active. I reduced it to 50mgs and have seen no waist loss but I did have some mood swings. Now I have taken myself all the way off for about 6 days. Hopefully this is going to spur my weight loss. I know how AD affect your body weight and can effect your exercise program. I am a certified Personal trainer and if I don't look the part it's doesn't look good. Hence now it's game time I am going to try to remember to post my results here as time goes by but I hope that much more people will have success. I will now know the struggle some of my clients have gone through to get that weight off.

I've been on sertraline for nearly 3 years and in that time I've lost weight and gained it, but nothing I would attribute to the drug. Have been eating clean for about 6 weeks now and don't seem to be having any problems. Weight loss is slow, but I'm eating at a very small deficit and lifting weights, so weight loss isn't my primary focus anyway.

Hm. Never from Zoloft. The only medication that caused me to gain weight (and makes it hard to lose it!) is the Gabapentin I am on.

I gained 23 lbs in a year while I was on Zoloft. My doc just recently switched me to Wellbutrin. In just a few weeks, my weight has leveled off and is no longer climbing! Thank God! Now I have to work this weight off.

Hello, I am 49, starting menopause, and fat. Oh yeah, and I just got off the Zoloft about 6 weeks ago. I haven't really lost any weight yet, but at least the upward weight gain has finally stopped. I am 5'7", and 185 lbs. I used to be 138 lbs. my whole adult life, until about 4-5 years ago. That's when I gave into the lure of anti-depressants after some horrific tragedies in our neighbourhood. When I upped my Zoloft from 50 to 100, I ended up with severe diarrhea, and lost some weight. But then it came back on. In spades. I increased the dose again, but it only packed more pounds on. Like someone else said earlier, I would rather deal with anxiety than obesity now.

I suffered a broken foot last winter, so that sabotaged my gym workouts because I like to run and cycle. I take a lot of Vitamin D everyday, and because I have a desk job, it is important for me to work out lots, but without the exercise, no weight is shifting.

My foot is mostly healed now, and although work is still very busy, I will start back at the gym tomorrow.

I WILL NOT give up. And you shouldn't either!!:happy:

When I was taking zoloft, I was really heavy, but not because of the anti-depressant. I was heavy because I ate too much and ate too many carbs. I've never heard of anti-depressants causing weight gain. So I don't know if that's the culprit. I've also not been on any sort of medication for mental illness since I took myself off of them for good in 2009.

I've had the total opposite reaction to the majority of posters here. Before Zoloft, I had constant cravings for sugary foods and for fatty/salty foods (in other words, chocolate and cheese). I've been on a low dosage of zoloft for about three weeks now and I've lost 7 pounds, though I should note that I am eating better and am working with a trainer. Prior to Zoloft I had lost about 18 pounds over the course of ~8 months. No matter how hard I worked out, I couldn't beat my cravings for food.

The most remarkable part of Zoloft for me, besides the fact that I am finally calm and happy, was that my cravings are COMPLETELY gone. I talked to my doctor about it and learned that having low seratonin levels can cause cravings for sweet foods. I think, for me, my weight gain over the past decade has been because I've been self-medicating with food. I had incredibly strong cravings and had a hard time saying no. I ate when I was happy, I ate when I was sad, and I ate when I was stressed. Now that I'm "balanced out," I'm not seeking food for comfort and I can say no to a piece of chocolate without feeling devastated or deprived. For that matter, I no longer crave any junk food, and the thought of eating foods that I loved just 4 weeks ago actually makes me sick. I'm taking advantage of this new found lack of cravings by making healthy food choices and working out with a trainer.

I know a lot of people on this board have had weight gain on Zoloft. I am obviously not a doctor, but I'm sure it was not ONLY zoloft that makes people gain weight. You have to contribute to the process, too. Maybe you were feeling better so you indulged more. Or maybe you experienced some increased hunger (which can happen for some people on Zoloft, but not all people) and you responded by eating more -- obviously a natural reaction to hunger, but it's not exclusively the drug causing weight.

I just thought I'd share my experiences because, for better or worse, I did a lot of internet research before agreeing to start Zoloft. If your doctor has suggested Zoloft, and you're similarly researching online to see how people reacted to it, I hope that my experience makes you more willing to try it out. I have never been this happy or calm (no more anxiety attacks!) in my entire life and I attribute it exclusively to Zoloft.

I wish you all the best of luck on your weight loss journeys!

Been on Zoloft since the mid to late 90's. My weight has gone up and down the same as it did before I was on anything. Eating too much and low activity levels are the only thing I can attribute my weight gain to. Just chiming in with my own experience.

I have taken Zoloft for several months, twice. I hated it, but I hate all meds of that nature and will no longer take them for any reason (or pretty much most meds in general). However, I lost about 5 pounds on it and I did feel it helped a little with controlling my binging. However, I felt 16 feel tall, bullet-proof, and feeling-less.