Birth control and weigh loss stall

Deviette wrote: »

Hormonal birth control can have "increase appetite" as a side effect. This often leads to weight gain, as you need to consume more food to feel just as satisfied as you did previously.

However, I'm more interesting in your weight loss. You say that your current weight loss has only been going on about 3 weeks? And you've lost, what, a pound or two? tbh, you might just need to adjust your expectations. From the way you're talking it sounds like you're not massively overweight (listing your height and current weight would be useful). At that point, you're probably looking at losing at a rate of around 0.5lbs per week.

Also, at only three weeks, you cannot adjust for hormonal changes that happen as a result of your period cycle. These fluctuations aren't fat gain, but only water weight. A change in contraception could change how much water you retain, so you can't really use the data you has from before you started on the pill. Speaking personally, I gain about 2-3lbs the week before my period, which masks my fat loss for that week (and often the week before).

The reason why you might not have succeeded before was because your logging wasn't very tight (and is possibly the case now). As you lose weight, the accuracy of your logging becomes more important. If you're not very accurate about how you log (such as not logging alcohol, for example), the possible deficit isn't going to be that large, and so the little bits here and there can really make a big difference.

marieamethyst wrote: »

So medication can affect everyone differently, but I've been taking the Pill in various doses/types for over 10 years now and can't say I've seen it affect my ability to lose weight. (I'm also 5'5 and 165 lbs was my highest pre-pregnancy weight) If it's not working out for you then maybe talk to your doctor about alternative forms of birth control and see if you can find the one that works best for you.

tinkerbellang83 wrote: »

POP messed with my hormones when my lovely doctor insisted on me swapping to it after being fine on my previous birth control for 15 years, I retained a lot of water and it seriously messed with my appetite, before throwing me into total hormonal imbalance.

Medication can affect your weight in 2 ways:

• Increased appetite leading to eating more than needed.
• Increased water retention

If you're only 3 weeks in at weighing/logging food super accurately again I'd give it a couple more weeks before you change anything.

sarjenki wrote: »

In my experience the mini pill is EVIL. The effect that combo pills have of making periods more regular and lighter/shorter was what I liked most about them. The mini DID NOT have that benefit for me, in fact it made them much worse. They were much heavier even, with no regularity, and much less time in between periods than I'd had before taking those awful pills.
I also noticed it did affect my weight as well. I wasn't specifically trying to lose when I first started taking them, but I did quickly gain 5 pounds. That was probably water weight, but it didn't go away the way normal water weight fluctuations tend to. I was running three miles a day and felt like I was STARVING just to keep from gaining weight.
It also gave me hormonal acne, which had not been a problem for me since middle school.
All this went back to normal pretty much as soon as I stopped taking them.
Mirena however has been a good experience for me so far even though it's also progestin only, but since it releases the hormone directly into the uterus less makes it into the blood stream, so it should have less systemic side effects.
That said everyone reacts differently to different things. I've talked to some who hated Mirena but liked the mini pill.
It's best to talk to your doctor if you don't like your current form of BC.