Gaining weight off birth control!!?? :(

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MaryB73189
MaryB73189 Posts: 11 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I stopped taking my birth control pill aprox 6 weeks ago and have gained 9lbs! I've been maintaining my weight pretty well lately but considering I am still overweight, I wanted to limit my weight gain with this pregnancy. This is definitely not helping!! Anyone else have this problem? I am not pregnant yet and I'm already worried about the weight gain. Nothing about my diet has changed, so I am praying its just water weight from the hoemone change. Help!

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  • rjordison
    rjordison Posts: 10
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    Hi Mary
    It's very likely that your change in weight is a hormonal one. Your birth control will have been regulating your hormones and they can affect your weight unfortunately. I had the exact same problem but the reverse of yours. I went onto the depo and it makes me want to gain weigh! :(
    If you focus on drinking lots of water and eating good food with maybe start taking some multi-vitamins or pregnacare (to help you get your hormones and Folic acid levels right for when you do get pregnant) hopefully things will level out for you and your body can settle itself down.
    Good luck with getting pregnant :happy:
  • fit_gal
    fit_gal Posts: 167
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    It must be hormonal seeing as you've recently come off birth control. For some people they gain weight ON birth control. I'm sure you'll settle down x
  • dnhardy
    dnhardy Posts: 59
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    I was just coming on here to ask the same thing. I stopped taking the pill, my eating/exercise habits haven't changed and I"ve gained at least 5 pounds in the past 3 weeks. Its frustrating. But good to know I'm not alone.
  • TrappedInAutumn
    TrappedInAutumn Posts: 2
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    This has happened to me too!!! Desperately dieting and exercising to get back down. I have a feeling it is because my body is now storing more water...I knew the pill had made me lose weight, but I thought I could maintain it as I came off, but it just keeps gaining. I'm around 125 lbs now and was 119lbs while on the pill which WAS my goal weight. So I'm now back on my 1200 calorie diet...fingers crossed...
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
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    That's frustrating! Out of curiosity, which hormonal birth control were you using? I vaguely remember a few of them advertising weight loss as a "side effect" of being on them.
  • mashbrook
    mashbrook Posts: 4 Member
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    Exact same has happened to me. Just been off for about 6 weeks and have been yoyoing up and down even with dieting and exercising the same as I was before. Didn't expect this! Glad to know I'm not alone.
  • dbmata
    dbmata Posts: 12,950 Member
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    Oh man, 9 pounds in 6 weeks. What about the next 39?!
  • tracydr
    tracydr Posts: 528 Member
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    It may take a few months for your cycles to level off after stopping the pill. In the meantime, you may gain tons of water weight, depending on what your own hormones are doing to stabilize. It's possible that you have a high level of progesterone and estrogen right now as the inhibition goes away, causing you to gain.
    Also, have you done a pregnancy test? It's quite possible that you've gotten pregnant as some people get pregnant missing a couple of pills. First trimester weight gain is usually caused by higher levels of progesterone, the pregnancy maintenance hormone.
    I was given hormone replacement a few years ago before I found out that I have a clotting problem. When I started the progesterone, one month after being on estrogen, I gained so much water weight that I thought I was going to have to cut my wedding ring off.
    I do recommend prenatal vitamins for anyone trying to get pregnant. The increased Folic acid is needed in very early pregnancy, before you even know you're pregnant, for spinal cord formation.
  • MeganAnne89
    MeganAnne89 Posts: 271 Member
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    I went off the pill recently as well (well, about two months ago). I haven't really noticed any weight gain however, I was feeling nauseous off and on (and no, I'm not pregnant) and just felt overall very strange for a while there. I spoke to my doctor about it and he told me that it can take up to a few months for your body to regulate everything on it's own all over again. So any strange side effects like weight gain, nausea, light headedness, etc. should go again during that timeframe.

    But everyone's different and their body will react in strange ways sometimes.
  • becky10rp
    becky10rp Posts: 573 Member
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    Someone else asked the question - what pill are you on?

    I was on Seasonique for about a year - that's the Pill where you only get your period once every 4 months - and I gained about 18 lbs. I googled it - and sure enough - gaining weight was one of the side effects.

    I scheduled an appointment with my Doctor and asked him if indeed weight gain was a side effect of Seasonique - and he said 'Oh, yes indeed'!

    I had him switch me to a different Pill IMMEDIATELY - I'm now on Sprintec - no weight gain.

    Make sure you do your research!

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