I’ve been struggling with my weight ever since I’ve been taking zyprexa. I am 20 lbs overweight and want to get to my ideal weight. I don’t care even if I lose half a pound per week, as long as I get there eventually.
Switching meds is not an option for me right now.
I crave carbs (rice is one of my favorite foods, fried rice especially). I have 2-3 cups every meal. I know I shouldn’t be eating this much but it’s hard for me to stop eating so much of them.
Will I lose weight if I just reduce my intake of refined carbs (instead of switching to unrefined carbs)? Or do i need to stop eating refined carbs altogether?
Will my metabolism eventually adapt and sabotage my progress if I just try to lose 1-2 lbs per week?
Is there a plan or resource I could follow to gradually switch to healthy eating. I need a system pls.
Thanks for your help in advance. I hope other members on this forum benefit from the answers provided to these as well.
In the past I too gained lots of weight and then I controlled what I eat and I lost my excess fat, not all of it but, most of it. I used to eat oats with milk and keep on being empty stomach all day.
You can try cinnamon, my personal experience is cinnamon made me free of cravings and this is not research, just my thoughts on it.
You can try cinnamon, alpha lipoic acid, B6 to reduce blood glucose and reduced blood glucose means insulin will not be more-generated in the body which tells the body to store food as fat.
Best thing to do is calorie restriction, don’t eat and eat very very less and eat good foods only,
Learn from these two quotes.
Quote 1: GOOD HEALTH IS HEAVEN.
Quote 2: LIVING HEALTHY COSTS MONEY, BUT HOSPITAL VISITS COST MORE.
When I was on Zyprexa I craved sugar and I wanted to sleep a lot. I was also mildly depressed. Now I’m on Geodon and Seroquel. One thing that helps me lose weight is walking two hours a day. I walk briskly back and forth in my room - one hour in the morning and one in the evening. It burns calories, and it also eats up time, so I’m not sitting around thinking about good foods to eat. As far as losing 1-2 pounds a week, that should be okay. A lot of what you lose daily is water. If you drink a cup of water you gain a half a pound. If you take a large piss you can lose up to a pound. You can sweat out surprising amounts of weight. A lot of what you lose may be water weight. A pound of body fat has 3,500 calories, so you would have to have that calorie deficit to lose a pound of body fat. Spread out over a week that should be fine, but your body may also drop your metabolism to protect its weight.
My bro takes Zyprexa and he has managed his weight pretty well but he has adopted a rather extreme diet… no gluten, no sugar (including not too sweet fruits), no tomatoes, no corn, no carrots, no milk or cheese products. He eats a lot of rice products, frozen vegetables, peanut butter, chicken, some beef, some potatoes, and fish.
His bloodwork is perfect, but he has a lot of trouble finding something when he goes to restaurants.
I am struggling with my weight on Risperdal, but I like pizza, hamburgers, bread, bananas and a lot of other tasty things.
I’ve lost 34 pounds in 1.5 years of being on a ketogenic diet. Used to be 211lbs and now I’m 177lbs… I don’t have a six pack yet but I’m working towards it, I’m at about 17% body fat. I switched to olanzapine late last year and still was able to continue losing weight, so it’s possible even while on olanzapine.
I do believe keto is the way to go while on antipsychotics because it controls hunger very well and also keeps glucose and insulin levels in check, which some APs are notorious for increasing these levels.
I don’t think this diet is for everyone since you do have to cut out sugar and carbohydrates completely and instead up your fat intake (a lot) and keep protein moderate, and I’m sure you’d have similar results with more carbs at an equal amount of calories, but I also do it because I do feel better on this diet. For a little while in the past 1.5 years, I upped my carbs to around 140g, and I started feeling more anxious and hungry, so I switched back to keto.
Check out ketogains on the reddit forums, they have a good amount of info in their FAQ section.
I was on 20mg of that for well over a year and have put on a few stone. I halved it a few months ago and started getting bad symptoms again. When I was younger and was taking it I put on three stone. I just started cycling and eating a vegetarian diet. Be careful though, I lost so much weight before that I ended up weighing only 9 stone and did not look healthy at all.
Zyprexa…I’ve taken it- that crap makes your satiation mechanisms for food malfunction. That’s why you crave carbs. I did too. I would eat a full meal and then feel like I hadn’t eaten. I kept on my diet and still gained a little fat from it (and I am known for having abs so that didn’t go well, I still have that paunch) yeah ■■■■ zyprexa even my psychiatrist was like “this is only for short term” and didn’t want me on it for long at all because it also causes ducking diabetes.
And it killed my boner. Whilst with a really nice looking lady. But then it came back. With some work. Ok that was too much
I have a good plan. I’ve already lost 40 pounds. I used to weigh 200 lbs. I was obese. I need to lose 30 lbs more. I will lose it. For sure. I am on tons of psych meds, Just like you. Whats my secret? I have many. I should charge. But, I’m not. The main one is this: Do research. Google weight loss tips and secrets on the internet and put as many as you can into practice. THEY WORK!!! Next, quit drinking sugar pop, diet pop, and cream and sugar in your coffee and tea, and lattes and cappuccinos. Just quit. They’re all very high in calories or cause weight gain despite having no calories. Start drinking water and tea and coffee without cream or sugar or artificial sweetener. Get at least 6 hours of sleep every night, Eat cereal every morning. And don’t eat a thing after dinner. Use a calorie counter like MyFitnessPal.com And don’t forget to exercise. Do any exercise of your choice, for at least 2 hours per week This is all I’m going to tell you. But, that’s the basics of it all anyway…
I went from 156 to 180 lbs on Zyprexa almost overnight. Scared the heck out of me. My psychiatrist was satisfied with that. I wasn’t. This was years ago. Did wonders for my sza though.
When you reduce carbs to lower than around 50, your body starts looking for an alternative energy source, and what it does is break down fat into ketone bodies, which then your body uses for energy. Your brain’s demand for glucose goes way down and is replaced by ketones. The good thing about this is there’s pretty much unlimited number of calories in the form of ketones (fat) but only a few thousand calories worth of fuel from glucose in your glycogen stores… So when you’re keto-adapted, it’s mainly steady energy, but when you’re dependent on carbs energy levels can go up and down depending on blood glucose and your glycogen reserves (called “bonking” in the fitness world).
I eat about 30-40g of carbs (total) but you should be in ketosis if you stay below 50.
It’s not a magical way to lose weight but the satiety from protein and fat does make it easier to stick to, and also cholesterol pretty much always improves on low carb high fat diets, especially HDL and triglycerides.
I think it’s sustainable if you enjoy eating low carb foods like meat (any kind), eggs, cheeses, avocados, vegetables, sour cream, whipping cream (goes well with protein powder), cottage cheese, bacon…
You can substitute sugar with stevia/erthyritol which are zero calories and won’t kick you out of ketosis.
There’s a lot of fat-phobia in our society because of crappy research from the 80s… Recent research (a meta analysis) shows no correlation between fat intake and heart disease.
One thing to know is for the first few days on this diet, you might feel a little bit like you have the flu which is your body switching it’s preferred fuel source from carbs to fat. For me it was very mild and actually on the third day I felt really great for a little while, so yeah your metabolism adapts to burning fat for fuel.
A good documentary to watch is called Cereal Killers.
Absolutely right about the cinnamon, I used to struggle with sweet cravings. Now, I drink cold water mixed with some cinnamon powder all day. It takes away the sweet cravings and cravings for food between meals. I’ve gone from a BMI of 30, which is obese, to a BMI of 24, which is normal this way. I used to drink diet cola exclusively. I never drank water. I used to think that I didn’t like water. Diet and regular soda, now, have both been proven to cause obesity in those who drink them. Do not put sugar or artificial sweetener in the cinnamon water. If you do, then you will have food and sweet cravings.
Zyprexa is a tough one. I did not get relief from psychosis so did ask Dr for other drug. Risperdal is tough one on meds too…Seroquel is okay for insomnia relief. Never got psychosis to stop anyway. Is just how crazy works here in my area, some end up hearing it for long while and meds don’t work.
I was recently prescribed very low dose Zyprexa - My pdoc said that if I continue Walking Everyday and continue on my low carb diet - I should not worry about my blood glucose levels spiking or gaining weight on added low dose Zyprexa - if I choose to take it, havent decided yet.
I have been on zyprexa for 10 years. My weight has leveled off for several years. I eat no different than before i was on zyprexa. My metabolism just slowed a little. The pill is very effective for me. I am walking 4 miles about 4 times a week. I am thin everywhere but my belly. My belly isn’t that bad head on. Just from the side.
live hungry, and go through torture cravings all the time
I’m no longer on zyprexa but i don’t eat sugars, including honey, high fructose corn syrup, maple syrup, maltodextrin, etc etc even as a low down ingredient of any food
I have been trying to lose as well but i have never found a diet so easy after the initial 2 years it took me to give up sugar…
the cravings are hell
then they go
get through it
get past the craving and then just eat healthily when you can…
i’ve lost 15 kg since Christmas, bout a lb a week bit more
I can help more
If you avoid all fruit for the first few days - week or two then you have fruit as a treat it is amazing.
i don’t take fruit holidays and sometimes eat dried fruit but the lower you set your bar for blood sugar spikes the better, and i’m not perfect, here i’m pretty bad i even freeze fruit smoothies
