Antipsychotic/Antidepressant Medicine and Gaining Weight

I have no personal experience, but from what I know from a close relative, what you describe is not uncommon. In his case, antipsychotics cause an increase in appetite, so he is pretty much showing zero self-control over what he eats. On the other hand, never feeling content and doing everything to the extreme (eating, drinking, smoking) are also common in his illness, so I do not know if he would not have had the same issues with food even if he was not medicated.
What does your psychiatrist think?

Your coke and cookies diet might offer scope for improvement ?

It is a concern of medics that weight gain can lead to discontinuation of medication. Increased carbohydrate craving is one of the mechanisms proposed for SSRI related weight gain and I observed you were eating oreos and drinking full sugar sodas.

You should eat enough protein first and foremost, and at least 30 grams of fat, and carbohydrate to make up the rest.

Your question is "controversial" ie not everyone agrees. I think if you eat cookies and drink sugary drinks all day you'll fatten up your liver and put on weight that you wouldn't eating whole foods. Others will disagree.

If your BMR is 1500 you should use up about 1800 cals a day even if you don't walk much. So eating 1300 - 1600 cals should lead to weight loss, but the BMR calc is an estimate and you might be a hundred calories either way.

Fundamentally if you're gaining weight you're eating too much. The drugs can't make fat out of thin air.

All day munchies is likely to result from a high carb / sugar intake as you ride the blood sugar / insulin roller coaster. Have you had a fasting blood sugar check ? Pharmacies often do them for free if you can't get to the doctor.

Zyprexa is one of the worst for me. I never felt full on that one. I craved chocolate too. Seroquel blew my cholesterol sky high, but the weight gain wasn't as bad once I got up to a high enough dose. There are many AAP's and AP's out there though. You may want to check with your psychiatrist to see if you can find one that is more weight neutral for you.

As far as AD's go, many find that Welbutrin is weight neutral for them. It didn't work well for me though. It's kind of a hit and miss and try as you go type thing. Celexa works great for me and is weight neutral, for me.

I can't really speak for mood stabilizers, since that's not really my thing. I've heard many complain of the weight issues brought about by Depakote though. I've also heard of the wonders of using the AAP Abilify as both mood stabilizer and AAP, but it can be a bit speedy. I've heard of many using Lamictal (an AED) as a mood stabilizer that tends to be weight neutral, but it seems to work best for BP2 and it can take a long time to titrate up to a working dose. It also tends to be really rashy, though not THE rash but doctors are quick to take people off just the same.

I've had a bunch of experience with AAP's though. So if you need a run-down of how they worked for me, just let me know. I understand the pain.

It's simple math. Caloric intake verses expense. Yarwel said it best, it's what goes in that counts. If you use this app you'll realize the number of calories for convenient processed food, fast food, etc compared to eating clean. You can eat so much more whole foods compared to processed foods so you don't feel hungry. That doesn't mean you can't have a treat; it's about portion control. Grazing all day isn't a bad thing it just has to be better choices. It can actually keep your body from freaking out like it does in starvation mode and help increase your metabolism. Add a little exercise here and there to get started and soon you will be dropping weight and feeling great!!!

My postmenopausal wife put on thirty pounds on an anti psychotic(risperdal). She's now lost 44 pounds while still on it! Obese to normal BMI. She ate 1250 calories daily of a balanced diet with very little processed food. Add in 1-2 miles of walking every other day.

Odd thing besides the weight loss, a twenty year depression is gone! She still takes meds but was moderately, sometimes severely, depressed for twenty years on basically the same meds. Her anxiety went from daily severe panic attacks that a sublingual 2mg of zanax didn't do much if anything for, to having one every few days that 1mg handles very well. Overall she's been able to reduce her dosage of meds 66%, with a huge improvement in quality of life.

Her specialists have no idea on what caused the changes, they do not rule out exercise or dietary changes. I'm just grateful for the improvements.

Best wishes to you.

mssgeni wrote: »

See, that's the thing... I've been eating like this for a long time now. Midnight munchies... actually all day munchies. I feel like I'm eating less now that I'm tracking what I eat, and I still gained weight. Obviously now that I have my food sins on record I'm going to eat way healthier, but I'm trying to rule in or out of it's the medicine to blame.

You have two things working against you here:
1. Medications that may be stimulating your appetite
2. A house full of food that does not fill you up and so you eat more and more yet are never satisfied

My brother takes antipychotics and mood stabilizers. When he was in a hospital with hospital food and little ability or motivation to exercise, he gained weight. Now that he lives with Mom, is eating healthier and getting exercise via walking, yard work, and drumming, he's lost the weight and has maintained it for 18 months so far.

Yesterday, you had 94 grams of protein left over and were -68 for carbs. I suggest you work on meeting your protein macro and only after you have hit that, have a treat at the end of the day if you have calories to spare.

Right now you're getting a lot of calories from Oreos, Pepsi, and cake. Consider limiting yourself to one treat item per day - two Oreos, one slice of cake, or one Pepsi - but not all three in one day, and none of these for breakfast.

I suggest you think really hard about what you want in the house and what foods you can control yourself around. I can control myself with Ghiradelli squares, so that's what I bring into the house. I personally cannot have Oreos in the house. Eating them for breakfast would set me up for a disastrous day. Maybe you will eventually learn to moderate them, but until then maybe you'd be better off buying the single serve packages, one package at a time, at night, after you've hit your protein goal. Yes, they cost more per pound this way, but they do cost less calories per serving, when a serving is two Oreos (107 calories) as opposed to nine (480 calories) like I saw in your diary on Wednesday.

To sum, while the medications may be increasing your appetite, your diet of Oreos, Pepsi, and cake is likely a bigger factor in your weight gain as these are foods that do not fill you up, causing you to eat more than if you'd made other choices. See https://www.nutrition.org.uk/healthyliving/fuller/understanding-satiety-feeling-full-after-a-meal.html

It's a sad fact that many antidepressants and antipsychotics do make you put on weight. However it's because they make your appetite ravenous! I am on two weight-gaining antipsychotics and an antidepressant, and i am losing weight because i'm on a 1200 kcal diet and exercising regularly.

I never lost weight on antipsychotics, especially Seroquel. Even if I ate right I would still retain water. I went off it and asked my dr to switch me to something else, tbh.

Zyprexa is known for its weight gain due to increasing hunger and decreasing energy