Posted by caroline on April 9, 2000, at 16:08:33
Hi.
I'm very new to the board - logged in for the first time last week - but in my trawl through both recent and archive messages, I noticed a good number were from people desperate to lose weight on their anti-depressant meds. My own experiences have been with anafranil and, more recently, Remeron (for the past year). My message is basically one of reassurance: you can lose weight on these sorts of drugs!
In my experience, it simply takes about three times as long as it does off the meds to reach the size you want. If you are the sort of person who has been on diet/excersise regimes whilst not on these sorts of meds, you will know roughly how long it takes you to get your weight back down to 'normal' after a 'larger' period and how long it usually takes you to lose still more weight to get below what you consider 'normal'. If you are on a drug like Remeron or a TCA, persevere - allow for it to take approximately three times as long as you would in the normal way (I cannot generalise, not having tried a wider range of meds, but I keep my fingers crossed this could work for you whichever of the AD's you are on)
It really works! At least, it has for me. I put on about a stone in my first ten days on Remeron. I started a diet/excersise regime and it' s taken months (and months) but I am now a lot lighter than I was when I started on the drug. I know we are all different and I know that these drugs interfere with the brain mediated mechanism by which metabolic rates and appetite are regulated (adjusting the set point, as it were, and telling your body to weigh more - stacking the odds against us all), but if you can find the willpower to allow for the fact you will need to diet/excersis for much longer to see the results you want, it's got to be worth trying - particularly if your AD is helping you in many other ways.
I really hope some of you will take heart from this. Reading your messages to each other has helped me feel less alone this past week.
With best wishes
Caroline
poster:caroline
thread:29445
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000401/msgs/29445.html