Anyone else taken, thinking of taking, or on Phentermine?
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heatherhb2016
Posts: 36 Member
If so, Why or why not have you tried it yet? What has your personal experience been like on it? Side effects? Results, Pros and cons? Any thoughts would be very helpful, as I'm starting it tomorrow morning. Thank you!
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I tried it for about a month. It was hard to eat healthy with this medicine, due to the fact that I had no hunger cravings at all. It left me not feeling well. I tried to hang in there, but couldn't take feeling nauseous and sick all the time so I stopped.0
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I took it for two weeks. First, it got rid of my appetite completely and everything tasted funny. My mouth was EXTREMELY dry. So, I lost weight because I was not eating as much at all and was nauseated at time. When I realized I could still eat junk and not have any side effects, then I started to eat normally again. I got severely constipated which was not fun, and then I also could tell my heart rate was high when I wasn't doing anything. I opted to stop it because of the constipation.0
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I took it for a short while years ago. Side effects for me were alittle bit of continuous nausea, sleeplessness, dry mouth and anxious feeling in my chest. Those were the cons. Pros, gave me energy and curbed my appetite for a couple of weeks and then not so much. I only took them a short time. I would not take them again because it is very bad for our hearts and the side effects arent worth it for me now. Be careful.0
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You asked for thoughts so here is mine-
Taking pills like this teaches you nothing. The pill suppresses your hunger so you do not overeat.
What happens when the doctor takes you off the pill? Your appetite comes back and now you've learned nothing. You don't know portion control or moderation because the pill was your crutch . without the pill, most will fall back into their own habits .
Have you ever heard the saying - if you want something bad enough then you will have to work for it ! That applies here. If weight loss was as simple as popping pills then everyone would be thin. Even if people don't like to admit it, they would much rather take the easy way out then have to work for something .
Since it seems you have already gotten the pills I'm sure you already went over the side effects so I won't even go there.
If I where you I would try to educate myself about portion control and moderation . these are the tools needed for long term success. I would come up with a plan for when you no longer have the pills and try to not have a too aggressive deficit while taking them ( you'll lose muscle mass - im sure you dont want saggy hanging flabby skin so be sure to eat enough ! ) log your foods, be sure to use a food scale for solids and measure liquids. Be sure your giving your body what it needs!
I am not being rude but am giving my honest opinion. In no way was this written to bash you or make you feel badly . its your body, not mine. so you have the right to do as you wish with it.
Best of luck to you !
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I just started phentermine almost two weeks ago. I was worried about all the side effects at first but decided to go for it anyway. I haven't had any side effects except dry mouth, but my doctor said I have to drink a gallon of water a day anyway so it doesn't bother me too much as it allows me to drink more water. You do have to remind yourself to eat, and eat even if you aren't hungry because this pill WILL decrease your appetite tremendously. while medications aren't the route for all, it does help for some and It was the kick start I needed as it has taught me to make healthier choices when I eat and snack, and has helped me to drink more water. Overall it's been a positive experience for me so far (knock on wood) and I'm happy with the results. You do have to do your part too and not just rely on the phentermine alone because you're preparing yourself and your new eating habits now for when you take a break from it after 3 months. Good luck!!0
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Well of course your going to hear some who disagree and yes it does decrease your appetite tremendously. If you want to really train yourself how to eat and what meals work and what don't being on phentramine is a good time to learn. You definitely have to eat because if you don't you will feel horrible. I hope that when I do get off I keep my exercise routine and good eating habits.0
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I took it a few years ago. You loose weight but I found as soon as stop taking it i just put weight on again and then some. It's not worth it0
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Hey guys! thanks so much for your honest replies! I appreciate it! My HOPE is to learn better habits wth the aid of this medication... Not depend on it 100%. I realize it's only short term. Hence, one reason I got THIS APP yesterday. To keep a calorie/food diary and so on.
So, I've bought TONS of water(which i already drink like crazy) ensure drinks, fruit cups, yogurts, fresh fruit, etc. I'm also taking a vitamin shot(?) Called megaburn every week.
Thanks again!
P.S. I'm still SCARED to take it this morning!! (First day) Ughhhhhh!
**Have any of you tried the Megaburn vitamin shots? I'm taking those weekly as well.
P.S.S Where are y'all from? Lol My phone says you all replied In the middle of the night!? I'm from Nashville, Tn, USA
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I took it a few years ago and lost 13 pounds in a month. It made me super mean but it worked great.
I had a baby in August and started taking it again. It sent my already bad postpartum depression into overdrive. It is a great tool to aid in weight loss but if you have even the slightest bit of trouble with depression I STRONGLY advise against it.
Make sure that you're also teaching yourself how to eat correctly while you're on it. You can only be on it so long and if you don't change your eating habits you'll pack weight back on as soon as you come off.0 -
Thanks Tesha!0
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The less pharmaceuticals you take the better!
Some prescriptions are absolutely necessary for life but I wouldn't take this one.
Weight loss is hard work...
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I took it for about a year. Lost quite a bit of weight, and gained it all back and more afterward. I guess it depends on the amount you are needing to lose. If you only want to lose 20-30lbs, why not do it without medication? Just a question. Also, are your thyroid levels under control right now?0
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chastity0921 wrote: »I took it for about a year. Lost quite a bit of weight, and gained it all back and more afterward. I guess it depends on the amount you are needing to lose. If you only want to lose 20-30lbs, why not do it without medication? Just a question. Also, are your thyroid levels under control right now?
I'm confused because I didn't see anyone saying the were taking phentermine plus they only had 20-30 pounds to lose. I would consider a doctor irresponsible who prescribed a drug that could potentially mess up someone's heart to a patient who only had 20-30 pounds to lose. Phentermine is a stimulant that is similar to an amphetamine.
If you're only supposed to take it for a few weeks, and are supposed to "cut back on calories and try to exercise while taking the drug" why risk the side effects?
http://www.everydayhealth.com/drugs/phentermine
...People taking phentermine should also cut back on calories and try to exercise while taking the drug.
...If you take it for too long, or take more of it than your doctor prescribes, you may become dependent and develop depression or fatigue when you stop taking it.
...The FDA warns that you should only take phentermine for a maximum of a few weeks, and you should not take it with any other weight-loss drugs or herbal treatments.
...People who have any of the following should not take phentermine:0 -
I've used it. My doc set high goals of 10-12lbs a month weight loss. I rarely met that goal. But my house was fricken spotless and I was able to run 6 miles a day 5 days a week. Kinda like what I'd imagine speed was like back in the 80s.
And here I am again ...weighing more than I did when I first started taking mommy' little helper.0 -
Sorry, this is long.
I'm currently taking it. I'm somewhere around week 6 or 7 on it. My doctor prescribed it because I'm 5'4" and was 250 pounds.
I set up every-other-week meetings with a nutritionist/fitness trainer before I started taking it so I'd have someone to talk with about my nutritional needs during and after I'm done taking the meds. And I have a follow-up appointment with my doctor in February to review the results with her. And I've been logging my food in here since I started it.
It has taken away my appetite and increased my metabolism, which were both issues I struggled with in regards to my weight.
Side effects I've noticed:- Dizziness -- this has decreased a lot, but for the first several weeks, I would get very lightheaded a couple hours after taking it. This was a warning on the bottle, so I was prepared for this, but it was still disconcerting. It has mostly gone away now.
- Funky tongue -- there was a weird taste in my mouth sometimes and my mouth was definitely dry. But drinking a lot of water is good for this, and necessary for the weight loss anyway.
- Lack of hunger -- but not a lack of needing to eat. I don't get hungry much at all. There have been a couple times when I'd be sitting there and my stomach would grumble at me, loud enough for my husband to hear it across the room. So even though I wasn't feeling the hunger, I definitely needed to eat. MFP has been very helpful in this because it helps me remember that I need to eat a certain amount of calories to make sure that I can function properly.
I've lost somewhere between 10 - 15 pounds so far. I was losing 3 pounds a week there for a while at the beginning. (My scale is broken right now so I haven't weighted in for 3 weeks. My new scale arrives on Wednesday.) For the first week, I didn't do any exercising (not really a good reason why not, I just wasn't), but I made sure to log my food and make sure to stay at the amount MFP said I should hit. And that was a huge awakening for me regarding portion sizes. Since then, I've been working on exercising more and still keeping in the calories limit, with a bit of a deficit.
So it's working for me, in the way that it's was supposed to work to decrease my appetite and increase my metabolism. Now, I'm doing the work to make sure that I'll know how to eat properly when I'm off the pill and be able to get my metabolism in gear without the pill as a crutch. I've got my support network set up, with the nutritionist, a supportive husband, and a friend who recently lost 75 pounds.
It's not a magic weight-loss with no work pill. But hopefully by the time I get off it, I'll be able to better manage the things that were causing my weight to end up so high -- namely, not managing my CICO, portion control, and failure to exercise.
So, that's my experience so far. I hope that helps!0 -
KyleneSusan wrote: »Sorry, this is long.
I'm currently taking it. I'm somewhere around week 6 or 7 on it. My doctor prescribed it because I'm 5'4" and was 250 pounds.
I set up every-other-week meetings with a nutritionist/fitness trainer before I started taking it so I'd have someone to talk with about my nutritional needs during and after I'm done taking the meds. And I have a follow-up appointment with my doctor in February to review the results with her. And I've been logging my food in here since I started it.
It has taken away my appetite and increased my metabolism, which were both issues I struggled with in regards to my weight.
Side effects I've noticed:- Dizziness -- this has decreased a lot, but for the first several weeks, I would get very lightheaded a couple hours after taking it. This was a warning on the bottle, so I was prepared for this, but it was still disconcerting. It has mostly gone away now.
- Funky tongue -- there was a weird taste in my mouth sometimes and my mouth was definitely dry. But drinking a lot of water is good for this, and necessary for the weight loss anyway.
- Lack of hunger -- but not a lack of needing to eat. I don't get hungry much at all. There have been a couple times when I'd be sitting there and my stomach would grumble at me, loud enough for my husband to hear it across the room. So even though I wasn't feeling the hunger, I definitely needed to eat. MFP has been very helpful in this because it helps me remember that I need to eat a certain amount of calories to make sure that I can function properly.
I've lost somewhere between 10 - 15 pounds so far. I was losing 3 pounds a week there for a while at the beginning. (My scale is broken right now so I haven't weighted in for 3 weeks. My new scale arrives on Wednesday.) For the first week, I didn't do any exercising (not really a good reason why not, I just wasn't), but I made sure to log my food and make sure to stay at the amount MFP said I should hit. And that was a huge awakening for me regarding portion sizes. Since then, I've been working on exercising more and still keeping in the calories limit, with a bit of a deficit.
So it's working for me, in the way that it's was supposed to work to decrease my appetite and increase my metabolism. Now, I'm doing the work to make sure that I'll know how to eat properly when I'm off the pill and be able to get my metabolism in gear without the pill as a crutch. I've got my support network set up, with the nutritionist, a supportive husband, and a friend who recently lost 75 pounds.
It's not a magic weight-loss with no work pill. But hopefully by the time I get off it, I'll be able to better manage the things that were causing my weight to end up so high -- namely, not managing my CICO, portion control, and failure to exercise.
So, that's my experience so far. I hope that helps!
You will more likely have success because it seems as though you completely understand that weight loss comes down to cico. And that portion control and moderation are important for long term success. You have a support system set up ! All good things!
Many people take the pills thinking its a magic cure. They are usually the ones that fail . there's definitely no magic pill that can cure obesity. Nothing can replace hard work.0 -
heatherhb2016 wrote: »Hey guys! thanks so much for your honest replies! I appreciate it! My HOPE is to learn better habits wth the aid of this medication... Not depend on it 100%. I realize it's only short term. Hence, one reason I got THIS APP yesterday. To keep a calorie/food diary and so on.
So, I've bought TONS of water(which i already drink like crazy) ensure drinks, fruit cups, yogurts, fresh fruit, etc. I'm also taking a vitamin shot(?) Called megaburn every week.
Thanks again!
P.S. I'm still SCARED to take it this morning!! (First day) Ughhhhhh!
**Have any of you tried the Megaburn vitamin shots? I'm taking those weekly as well.
P.S.S Where are y'all from? Lol My phone says you all replied In the middle of the night!? I'm from Nashville, Tn, USA
Downloading this app was a good decision! Make sure to meet your goals and learn all about portion control and moderation. Take this time while your on the pills to read up on the forums here and absorb all the info you can. Learn that there are no bad foods or food groups but instead bad portions . for long term sucess it was key for me learn that deprivation didn't work for me. ( some people deprive themselves of carbs or treats because they think it will aid in their weight loss efforts) I realized that moderation was better for me. So take this time to learn all these things while you have the crutch.
I have never taken the megaburn shot and don't know much about them. The only thing I know about them is that those ridiculous weight loss clinics that peddle all their weight loss products use them as an "add on" item to their plans . tons of these places are popping up everywhere and they peddle an array of products and usually offer tons of bad information . they seem to want people to fail so they keep coming back to spend more money. If I was going to see a doctor about weight loss ,I would talk to my general practice doctor first and then take it from there. I would not go to a fly-by-night weight loss clinic . but that's just my opinion. I'm sure there are some decent ones out there but most plans that I have looked at written by those types of places are laughable.
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kshama2001 wrote: »chastity0921 wrote: »I took it for about a year. Lost quite a bit of weight, and gained it all back and more afterward. I guess it depends on the amount you are needing to lose. If you only want to lose 20-30lbs, why not do it without medication? Just a question. Also, are your thyroid levels under control right now?
I'm confused because I didn't see anyone saying the were taking phentermine plus they only had 20-30 pounds to lose. I would consider a doctor irresponsible who prescribed a drug that could potentially mess up someone's heart to a patient who only had 20-30 pounds to lose. Phentermine is a stimulant that is similar to an amphetamine.
If you're only supposed to take it for a few weeks, and are supposed to "cut back on calories and try to exercise while taking the drug" why risk the side effects?
http://www.everydayhealth.com/drugs/phentermine
...People taking phentermine should also cut back on calories and try to exercise while taking the drug.
...If you take it for too long, or take more of it than your doctor prescribes, you may become dependent and develop depression or fatigue when you stop taking it.
...The FDA warns that you should only take phentermine for a maximum of a few weeks, and you should not take it with any other weight-loss drugs or herbal treatments.
...People who have any of the following should not take phentermine:
Sounds more like you're passive aggressive than confused. I didn't see that HER doctor was prescribing the drug. I also didn't see an amount of weight she was trying to lose. I went to a medical weight loss clinic both times I took the drug. Was not told that it should only be taken for a short time, and he just kept prescribing it to me. I was 24 at the time, and about 40 lbs overweight.
Anyway, good luck with the Phentermine, Heather. I think the dry mouth and fast heartbeat were the weirdest side effects I had. But I drank LOTS of water, and learned to love the hyperactivity. It sucks when that part goes away haha.0 -
Oh! OP, one more thing: No alcohol while you're on it, according to the drug info. But booze is high in calories and not nutrition anyway.
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