Can you help solve an argument?

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  • SCoil123
    SCoil123 Posts: 2,108 Member
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    Some medications can cause water retention which will make the scale weight increase. Some will also slow someones metabolism rate slightly so they may burn a little less doing the same activities that they did before.

    CICO still works though. Once you figure out what you are actually burning if you consume less than that you will lose weight.
  • aokoye
    aokoye Posts: 3,495 Member
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    I just skimmed a study (and actually read the discussion section) a week or two ago that found that the weight gain that was found in people who were taking SSRIs (it may specifically have been Prozac - I'd have to check) was tied to people having more energy to eat due to their decreased depression. It wasn't a metabolism issue, it was a "people have more energy to eat" issue. I can probably find the article again if you're interested (though it may be behind a paywall).

    And yes, I am someone who will forget to eat or resist getting out of bed (and thus not eat because food isn't just going to come to me) when my depression is especially bad. I know that I'm not a unicorn in that respect.
  • Psychgrrl
    Psychgrrl Posts: 3,177 Member
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    earlnabby wrote: »
    In a nutshell, some antidepressants can affect hunger signals. None can cause a person to gain weight by themselves. If the brain chemistry is affected to where someone feels hunger more often, they are likely to overeat.

    And be less active/more lethargic. Not in a dramatic “I can’t get out of bed” way, but in a slowly creeping “I’m tired” way. More fatigued. Folks may not realize their workouts are less intense or that they’re moving less than usually. A fidgety person might be less fidgety or their normal walking pace might be slower.

    Combine that with increased appetite and it’s a weight gain double whammy!
  • aguilar_k3
    aguilar_k3 Posts: 14 Member
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    NovusDies wrote: »
    aguilar_k3 wrote: »
    NovusDies wrote: »


    All you have proven is that you expected weight loss to linear on a bathroom scale and it is not. What your spreadsheet proves is that you are a normal human that experiences very normal weight fluctuations.

    Your body requires energy to operate. If you burn more than you consume the balance of energy MUST come from somewhere and that is your energy reserves. Much like a balance sheet the assets and liabilities will always add up to zero as long as you are alive.

    In case it wasn't clear, I spent well over a year trying to lose weight, and never experienced a sustained weight loss of any kind. The scale only went up overall. Somehow, in all the years of my adult life prior to being on antidepressants, I never struggled with understanding how to eat food or how numbers worked. Did I just forget one day?

    If you look back at my first post on the subject, I am not saying that they Calories in/Calories Out Equation Doesn't work. I am saying that the medication impacts the calories out to the point that it is difficult--and maybe impossible--to maintain weight while also living life and taking in enough nutrients to actually be healthy long term.

    So a medication slowed your metabolism to the equivalent of a coma patient without any other symptoms? You realize that as far as possible answers go that is highly improbable, right? The far more likely answer is that even if you were burning slightly less than average for your stats you were also eating more than you realize.

    You can choose to believe what you want about yourself but unless you have a more scientifically controlled set of results you should be cautious because you are very likely feeding a myth and possibly depriving others of hope.

    It IS backed by science. As I've said elsewhere, the accepted consensus seems to be that antidepressants may cause a mix of both increased appetite AND alterations to metabolism. When I'm eating almost exclusively pre-portioned protein shakes/vegetable purees and doing meal prepping at home, it's pretty hard to make the case that I'm just eating uncontrollably and somehow don't notice.

    I'm not understanding how you think it's helpful for people to be lied to about real side effects of a medication.

    https://www.bmj.com/content/361/bmj.k1951
    "Antidepressant treatment may also be associated with weight gain,12 through mechanisms that are only partially understood."

    https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ben/emiddt/2015/00000015/00000004/art00002
    "Metabolic changes associated with weight gain include disturbances of glucose and lipid metabolism. Clozapine and olanzapine may, in addition to mechanisms resulting from weight gain, impair glucose metabolism by blockade of the muscarinic M3 receptor (M3R). Antidepressants associated with weight gain appear to have fewer unfavourable effects on glucose and lipid metabolism than the second-generation antipsychotics clozapine and olanzapine."

    https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/319527.php
    And here's a nice easy read: "Experts do not fully understand why antidepressants lead to weight gain in some people. One theory is that both metabolism and hunger levels may be affected."

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