Has anyone tried Qsymia weight loss medication ?

chris_in_cal wrote: »

I'd never heard of Qsymia before here on MFP

The prescription arrived yesterday, I'm still unsure if it is right for me, and if I'm going to take Qsymia.

Day 5 on the starter dose of Qsymia. Maybe some very mild gastrointestinal issues, might be unrelated.

No noticable changes in anything.

I think it's too soon for me to notice a difference with my appetite.

The optimistic in me says it has decreased a little...but I'll keep going until I can say that definitively.

zebasschick wrote: »

I think it's very simple. It's not easy, but it's simple.

In this family of logical conclusion is:

Can't do calculus? Write down the answer to the problem.

Want to be a millionaire? First step get a million dollars.

Alcoholic? Don't drink alcohol.

All very cute, and all very unhelpful.

sollyn23l2 wrote: »

It's complicated to actually follow through on, but the answer is simple.

Would you agree that it is fair to judge, mock, dismiss, disregard, or hold low a person who addresses another suffering human being who is facing a difficult personal situation and spouts an unhelpful self-evident bromide? I think so, don't you?

It's an interesting concept Chris in that you never know what will catch the attention of the other person.

You will note that I almost never use (I think I've used it once but I'm not sure that I did) the flow chart.

Yet technically the flow chart is correct and does cover most if not all eventualities including edge cases.

So can the receiver process through the flow chart and truly determine where they're at and is that helpful to them? I think that in a few cases it is. In many it is something that jars. Which in the cases where it proves helpful may just be what is needed.

By the same token the complete picture is seldom exchanged.

I mean today's questions on this forum include "how much calories do I need" and other one line questions.

Yes, backstory and information are not only relevant but may help the questioner better frame and discover their problem(s) in trying to compose their question.

Did they try losing weight before? Did they have any success? Where and how did their attempt(s) fail? Did they try more than once? Same way or different? What was different? How did that derail? Were there any commonalities? Are there conditions where more success was found than not? When/how did the fails occur? Are there general conditions that impede loss or promote regain or continuous gain? Is the person entering this after a period of continuous gain (how much, how long?) Regain (how much how long)? Do they have health or physical impediments? Do they have unaddressed psychological impediments? Where is it likely that they should direct their efforts in order to succeed?

If you (or I) start from a position of being morbidly obese, a position we got to over the years doing things a certain way, we better get into this weight loss intervention with the intention of coming out of it with SOME long term changes that will be promoting a change to our weight.

I am not saying that everything will change or that it will do so right away.

But I **am** saying that if I change nothing in terms of the way I live the overwhelming majority of my life between my 280s and my160s or 150s then the 200s cannot change either, not in the longer term that includes the preponderance of behaviors that promote the higher weight

So I am glad that in my 280s, after some hesitant starts due to uncertainty that it was even possible, I decided that EVERYTHING was on the table FOR EXAMINATION as to whether and how it should be modified so that I could end up with a life that was more LIKELY to promote a lower weight.

Financial, entertainment, relatives and interpersonal relationships, personal likes and dislikes and preferences.

Every single sacred cow that you decide to not (or inadvertently or deliberately fail to) consider for modification and do not modify even though it is still promoting the weight level you don't like is a tiny tug against where you would like to find yourself in the future.

Do I have a sedentary job? Yes. But I actually did contemplate changing it and did find some ways to modify it a tiny bit. Do I still have sedentary entertainment time? Too much of it, but again less than before. Do I still eat high calorie non nutritious bombs? Yes. But less so than in the past. Do I still have episodes of excess overeating? Yes, but occasionally instead of continuously.

Do I still have over tired, over stressed as well as interpersonal relations and psychological issues that cause me/induce me to overeat?

While I do employ some tricks to minimize the damage when they happen , the truth is that I do.

And if I am forced to admit to it this is precisely the area where I have failed to achieve solid resolution and I'm only continuing with ongoing management and mitigation.

So I HAVE (after many years of truly believing that most of my overeating was not emotional and psychologic in nature) come to the realization that in fact it is my one (currently) remaining road block to auto magically being able to regulate my weight.

So if in the future I prove unable to continue to manage my weight (yet believe that I should), would my big win on that future date be controlling my calories for a few months, or would it be trying to find a real resolution to my emotional overeating?

That's a sacred cow I haven't touched and for now mitigation works well enough.

But only because I made the effort to additively make a large number of incremental changes-- while keeping very few other things off the chopping block.

You are at point A today. You sort of have to envision yourself slowly getting to point B and how things will morph on the way from A to B to promote your desired calorically neutral balance in terms of expenditure and intakes at point B.

That takes time. And some naval gazing. Or short cuts via professional assistance. Some luck. And some good decision making along the way. Some effort. And a willingness to go with the flow.

chris_in_cal wrote: »

I think it's too soon for me to notice a difference with my appetite.

The optimistic in me says it has decreased a little...but I'll keep going until I can say that definitively.

I tend to notice about days 3 to 5 when I change eating (think start keto or a low cal diet plan)... improving further over first 3 weeks.

Am interested how long it takes the med to kick in.

2nd, my insurance also requires older meds tried first. Took 2 years of the try/fail approach before approval of a newer med (for 2 different conditions.)