Losing Weight after HORRIFIC Cymbalta

Actually any anti depressant is associated with loss or gain of weight !

I feel for you on the brain zaps. I went cold turkey on Cymbalta years ago and had the same exact horrible side effect. Unfortunately, it took weeks for them to go away. Hang in there

I just recently quit Cymbalta, after being on it for almost 2 years. YES, i did it with Dr supervision and did a taper VERY slowly. IT WAS THE MOST HORRIFIC DRUG THAT I HAVE EVER BEEN ON. I was prescribed for Fibromyalgia after i had a few tests come back positive for Lymes disease. I couldn't stand the side effects of this med, and my doc had me taper slowly. This was COMPLETE hell. However, I am 1 month free of this nasty drug and YES without changing my eating habits, still working out 3-5 days week (cardio/weights) i still managed to put on approx 20lbs. Yes this drug mainly has side effects of weight loss, but there was a percentage that seen weight gain. I can honestly say that I worked out more while i was on the drug since i was feeling better in the beginning, and then still seen a weight gain. You have to remember, all people react to drugs like this category differently. The response that is the good and the bad. So.. I am still loggin onto my fitness pal, trying like heck to get rid of these 20lbs or so i gained while being on it. Granted i need to lose more then 20lbs because I started this approx 2 months after my daughter was born, so I already had baby weight to lose. Nice to see some ppl are supportive on here and are going through the same thing. Lets all update on our progress after stopping this horrible drug.

This may sound harsh but depression can lead to emotional over eating and binge eating. Medication isnt going to cause weight gain. Quitting cold turkey a anti "depression" medication and binge or emotional eating will.

Since Cymbalta is an SNRI:Selective Serotonin-Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitors (SNRIs) which means it allows more serotonin and NOREPINEPHRINE to be taken in by the receptors (the reuptakers are inhibited so there is more of the desired left present). So, it acts on 2 brain chemical actions. Your weight gain/ loss will depend on what your levels were of BOTH of these prior to and post usage. And yes, anything that works on these two things will impact sleep/ wake cycle, mood, eating/ hunger etc. as those chemicals are also involved in those processes.

Hello pals,

I was hoping that if I post this I can get some really great advice and possibly acquire some new friends that are in the same boat as me or who have overcome this horrible drug Cymbalta.

I had been on Cymbalta 60 mg for about a year and a half now (Weight didn't start appearing until after a year on the pill) and just quit cold turkey when I realized that these 25-35 pounds I put on was because of a DAMN drug that was supposed to help me. I reviewed and revised my healthy lifestlye and exercise plan so much and I am still wasn't getting anywhere near the same results I had gotten before when I got skinny and toned.

I had originally attributed my weight gain to a seriously horrific breakup, surgery, and my unconcious eating habits. Once all of those had subsided I hadn't been able to change my body. A few pounds up and down on the scale don't make that much of a difference to me when my body isn't "changing".

I can't fit my old clothes at all!!!!!! :sad:

Like I said I quit cold turkey 5 days ago and only have brain zaps, tingling and stuff in arms, hands, and feet periodically.

I take Dramamine for dizziness, 5 HTP for my mood, and am drinking tons of water and Sobe 0 calorie Life water.

Oh for energy I am taking Super B Complex and L-carnatine.

Fish oil and Vitamins for health.

Please let me know your experiences ; good, bad, or indifferent.

Definitely let me know when I can possibly see that scale moving again...I am trying to lose weight like limbs since I have realized this CULPRIT!!!!!!

Thanks in advance for your support on this.

I kicked Cymbalta to the curb after 3 months. I was PAINFULLY and INCESSANTLY hungry. I could feel it making wanna shovel everything into my face! :mad:
All the best! It can be done!

Cymbalta is absolutely attributed to weight gain. I was told by my doctor the day he put me on it "you can be thin or you can be sane. You can't have your cake and eat it too." I was so upset but my life was in a serious downward spiral after my previous doctor had prescribed a near fatal drug combo. I took the Cymbalta hoping for sanity and minimal weight gain. A year and 5 months later I have gained about 65 lbs. I am a gastric bypass patient. In 2006 I went from 320 down to 142 in 2007. So please forgive me if I don't agree with you folks that say it's not the drug. I STILL eat like a gastric bypass patient. I can't eat full or even half meals. Since I stopped taking this med about a month ago I have begun to see some weight loss. I'm down 11 lbs and counting. My energy is up, my mind feels clearer and when I reach the point that I'm full I get the old signs again. I have 3 friends who have had the same experience with the same drug. Never gain will I blindly take a drug just because it's the new thing. I know my body and I will take care of it. I'm juicing, exercising, have a great support system and a healthy encouraging work environment, we can heal ourselves in some areas. This is mine. Don't give up!

I too made the mistake of cymbalta (among other antidepressants) and suffered and it is hard to explain if it was a direct link from the meds to the weight gain or indirect. The one thing I can tell you is patience is required! I have always been thin not skinny mind you but thin. The kind of thin where you would not be admonished for wanting to better control your eating and exercising habits, but thin enough to where no one would ever recommend it either. Say with in 10-15# of skinny. Most commonly I would weigh 125 so when I climbed on the scale at Weight Watchers and heard " ok so starting off weight is 186.8 " I don't think I actually inhaled again for at least 2 minutes.

Long story short there was no quick fix. I found that my metabolism was so stunted from the meds which don't cause weight gain that I'm pretty sure the first 6 months of WW was just resetting my metabolism. It took me 6 months to lose 20#. The good news is after that my beautiful new metabolism started kicking butt! I lost 25# in the next 2.5 months, doing all the same things and for the most part it was a breeze at that point. I just followed my tracking and points, showed up for the meetings & walked my dog - a lot!

I wish I could give you a short cut but I learned when it comes to my mood I trust vitamins, minerals & lots of amino acids - God bless all the people who have benefited from antidepressant medication but for me no sir. I will get my therapy through my running shoes and my mood support through my B-complex. I will say my best friend swears by his antidepressant & he is amazing. So each person does need to find their way with the support of their medical provider.

I was on Cymbalta for years with no weight gain. One medication that did make me gain weight was seroquel. My doctor prescribed it for me to sleep in a very high dosage and I packed the pounds on. 40 in 6 months and another 10 over the next 6 months trying to get off of it. It was highly addictive. I'm not on medications anymore. Too many side effects!

To the orginal poster, can you tell us how your weight loss has been? Success?
Ofcourse, everyone has their own opinion. Let me tell you about myself.
I am 34 years old, and started to have horrible anxiety when I was 24/25. I am 5'9" and was 145. No kids, working out, etc. I tried every single SSRI including Cymbalta. I sticked with Lexapro and went up to 170 (this is from 145). Lexapro seemed to have worked great, and I went to 209. This is ridiculous. I have taken out soy, dairy, alcohol, gluten, sugar, etc. I have been on daily burn working out 6 days a week. I eat 1600 calories a day. Enough is enough.
The problem originally started for insomnia and now I am so self-conscience, it is insane. On the BMI scale, I am obese!!! I quit the Lexapro cold turkey though can't etch it in stone. My sleep last night was not bad. If I can continue with normal sleep without taking meds, I'm going to.

I went off Cymbalta about 3 weeks ago, largely because I blamed it for gaining so much weight. I had done Insanity on it and hardly lost any weight at all. I was on it for depression, but how big I was made me more depressed so I decided enough was enough. I did a little research into holistic treatments, and am currently working through a Therapeutic Lifestyle Change group based on the book "The Depression Cure" by Stephen Ilardi. I am interested in sharing my experience and supporting others if you need it.

I stopped Cymbalta last Feb., and I am STILL losing weight!! I have lost nearly 70 pounds now, and they kept telling me that I was eating too much. Different people react differently to medications, Anyway to know side effects, drug interactions you can visit here http://www.internationaldrugmart.com/cymbalta.html

Cymbalta isn't a drug associated with weight gain, actually the reverse. Drugs don't make you gain fat, eating too much makes you gain fat.

some drugs can mess up your hunger/full signals which means that someone who's always maintained a healthy weight through listening to their hunger/full signals (which IMO is a good habit to be in) will gain or lose weight through doing the exact same thing they've always done which helped them to maintain a healthy weight, i.e. listening to their hunger/full signals. If a drug has messed those up, the person taking the drug rarely knows that this is going on, few doctors even mention all the side effects of the drug, and if weight gain is mentioned, there's no discussion of *why* this happens (e.g. whether the drug actually slows the metabolism, whether it disrupts the hunger/full signals) or what to do about it, so the inevitable result is that someone gains weight without actually changing any of their habits.

People who've maintained a healthy weight throughout their life have done it through listening to their hunger/full signals, they don't weigh or measure their food, they usually don't know how many calories they're eating, they barely pay attention to that, they pay attention to "I'm full, stop eating now" - and if that signal doesn't come when it should because of the drug, then yes, the drug did cause them to gain weight. That doesn't mean that weight gain is inevitable or can't be reversed, but how many people who are put on these drugs are told by their doctor "this drug may cause you to accidentally overeat because it messes with your appetite signals, so you should start counting calories while you're on this drug to ensure you're not overeating, thus preventing weight gain" - I'd say pretty much no-one is actually told that.... and even when they do gain weight, they're rarely told why or told how to fix it.

OP: you should discuss this with your doctor before quitting the drug. If the drug is helping with the medical condition, you can prevent the weight gain and lose the weight you gained, but you'll likely need to count calories to do so, without actually quitting taking the drug. The weight gain isn't inevitable. See what I wrote above.

I was written up for Cymbalta today. My doctor said very few people gain on it (?).

After reading all of these posts, there's NO way I'm taking it :noway: :noway: :noway:

Doctors pretty much tell you what the drug reps tell them about side effects and such, imho.