Citalopram/Celexa DOES make you fat!

@daybehaviour I joined this purely to reply to you because I disagree hugely with your points and think what you are suggesting is offensive to people who have been affected by SSRIs and weight gain. I was prescribed them for depression but I also struggle with OCD and the remnants of an eating disorder. For me this means I keep a complete log of my calorie intake and I workout routinely at a minimum of twice a week. I have been doing this for 5 years and during the 4 preceding citalopram my weight has stayed exactly the same (excluding water fluctuations at time of the month). NOTHING in my dietary or exercise routine changed during my medication time. I kept the same log as I always had done. My weight was constant for the first six months, after this I gained on average 2-3lbs a week. I have gained a total of 14 lbs since. As soon as I realised it could be the citalopram I weened myself off it. Since not taking any for a few weeks my weight has remained stable. Again nothing in my excercise or diet has changed. While it's still true that energy in < energy out to lose weight, I believe that citalopram effects the 'energy out' rather than 'energy in'. I agree to a small extent that people can blame SSRIs for lazy habits but there IS a strong body of evidence that they cause weight gain and this is not due to changes in diet/excercise. I have been reading the literature and it is hard to ignore this. It is people like you who are hurtful to people like me who have genuinely gained weight beyond our control because of an SSRI. Yes not everyone will, but I find it hard to believe that my gain was caused by anything else.

I know this is an older post, but daybehavior has outraged me. I was on MFP for over a year and lost a good amount of weight, was halfway to my goal weight, and was feeling awesome. Due to issues with hormones and my moods I was put on celexa last May 2013 and began gaining weight. I continued to track, to exercise, accounted for every calorie, and the weight wouldn't budge. I ended up gaining back half of what I had lost. My doctor told me it had something to do with the medicine, my doctor said that everyone reacts differently, and the affects of drugs like celexa on the brain can cause issues with metabolic tendencies. I don't need someone like you @daybehavior to tell me I'm an idiot and obviously not doing something right. Just like all drugs, some will gain, some will loose, but you will always be an idiot.

I totally agree. Celexa gave me really bad carb cravings and if I didn't eat carbs I felt nauseous. It really helped my depression though so it was worth it at the time.

That *kitten*!

What about Celexa makes someone gain weight, is it loaded with calories?

I have been gaining since starting celexa, I've also been over my calorie limit by approx 400 calories each day. Coincidence?

www.cchr.org
Get informed about what you are doing to your body and soul by taking psychotropic ****!

Looks like they're selling something.


Deported.

What about the pill itself causes weight gain? I'm just curious.

I have gained weight as well but I am chalking it up to my lack of weighing/measuring my food, plus over eating.

For those people who have to say " you're a special snowflake" try walking a step in other people's shoes before handing insults like those out. Calling people that when they have taken meds that are proven to cause weight gain is not only insensitive but also shows how little you really know.

You're missing the context of the whole argument. People are saying that they are gaining weight while apparently being on a caloric deficit, which is impossible. They only reason I was being "rude" was because I was sick of everyone jumping on me for reiterating what was already said (in ruder terms) by several other posters yet I was the one being singled out for pointing out this physical impossibility.

For the record, I was on Citalopram for six months and I managed to lose 40 pounds all the while battling some horrible things going on in my life, so don't tell I need to "walk in their shoes". If SSRI's had the magical property of making you gain weight while eating at a deficit, people wouldn't be dying of starvation all over the world.

I gained 25 lbs the first two years on Zoloft/ Trazadone, but I AM eating more, no doubt. I am also feeling great and exercising more though.

I don't think about the meds too much though, because I still believe in CICO. Does it make it a little harder- maybe? But having kids makes it harder, working full time makes it harder, being married or single can make it harder. There are a LOT of barriers to weight loss, but none of them insurmountable if you're completely committed to clearing the hurdle.

I take Zoloft in the morning, but the whammy for me is when I take the Trazadone at night for sleep. When it kicks in I become the most ravenous animal. After a full day of eating well/ healthy over all, I engage in a 700 (or more) calorie binge, preferably on unrefined carbs. I have stopped the chips/ cookies since re-starting here this week, and have replaced it with tuna/ baked chicken/ triscuits with low-fat cheese etc, but I haven't eliminated the 700 calorie binge yet. I think it's a bad habit I've developed but it's also something related to the meds, and probably the underlying imbalance as well. Right now (the next week or two) I'm just getting the habit down of logging, eating better foods and looking at my patterns.

I don't have the science but I believe SSRI's slow down certain body systems. Perhaps, it's the fact that they allow more Seratonin (relaxing, balancing) to remain in the brain, in comparison to other neurotransmitters like dopamine and neuroephendrine (sp?) which are more stimulating (i.e. the reduction in libido as well). I imagine it may be similar to how we weigh and watch children on stimulants for ADHD because it can decrease appetite and induce weight loss. I believe SSRI's can have the opposite effect.

I tried Wellbutrin for ONE day. I felt better, my appetite for food was down and for sex was up, lol. My husband was happy until the crazy, anxious, angry, insomniac wife showed up and he was like- Get back on the Zoloft/ Trazadone! You can just be fat and frigid (I'm JUST KIDDING!!) I'm neither and if I was, we've been married 17 years- he'd know better than to say it!

So, here's to slimming down on SSRI's!!

The thing is, all of our bodies work differently. We have different genetic makeup, metabolism, etc.

We're not all that different. Humans are 99.9% percent genetically similar. Your metabolism doesn't stop or slow down to the point where weight loss becomes exceedingly difficult just because you're on anti-depressants. Calories in / calories out still applies. Celexa doesn't help you defy physics and make you magically gain weight.

the problem is that when i have started eating better, i'm still gaining weight.

You could have been "eating better" but you were still consuming more calories than you expended.

People really just need to stop trying to blame their doctor for their fatness and start owning responsibility and changing something.

This.

You are incorrect. My father is a noted psychiatrist, dual board certified in internal medicine. He specializes in psychopharmacology and has an additional certificate on that subject. He also teaches courses on psychopharmacology to medical students. He says that ADs affect people differently depending on a whole host of various chemical and genetic characteristics and interactions. That is why most antidepressants include both insomnia and somnolence in the list of possible side effects, ditto for weight gain/loss. Some people, for example, metabolize drugs at different rates than other people do. This is well documented fact.

Also, most studies are fairly short term. Weight gain sometimes doesn't start to kick in until several months have passed.