I’ve put on 3 and a half stone since being on anti psychotics. Has anyone lost weight since being on anti psychotic. My friend is on a diet where she eats 2000 calories a day. Do you think I’ll lose weight eating this amount. I’m female. If I eat less I feel starving.
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Everyone can lose weight counting calories and exercising.
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Yeah but it’s hard to restrict caloreis when your starving on anti psychotics and they slow down your metabilism.
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I gained 60 plus pounds on an AP,
And had to be put on a different medication to lose it.
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they put me on topamax to lose it and ive lost 8 lbs
i see what youre saying but i was always muscular and lean pretty much the whole time before antipsychotics, but now if I eat a cheeseburger I put on weight like noone’s business. The medicine affects your metabolism like @Lowri said. It’s not easy.
Plus on antipsychotics eating is almost compulsive and hard not to do.
in the first like, three months after starting abilify i went from 200 to 230. ive gone back down to 185 now though
I gained about 30 pounds in two months on respirdal. Then I was switched to abilify and slowly gained about 10 pounds over the course of a year or two. I fluctuated for a while on abilify until I was put on Wellbutrin along with the abilify. Eventually after being on ap Meds for a couple of years I finally adjusted to the food cravings and got some discipline. I then lost 20 pounds within one year eating about 1200-1400 calories a day. I’m 5’4” and went from 168 to 148. I then got lazy cuz I finally felt less self conscious so my self control waned. I’ve been slowly since then trying to lose weight. Currently my lowest weight within the last couple of weeks was 136. I do feel hungry but you can lose weight while taking antipsychotics. I started losing weight again when I switched from abilify to vraylar. I was on 130% of the Max dose on abilify and am only on the max dose of vraylar. So yeah ap Meds made me gain about 40 pounds but after being on ap Meds continuously for over five years I’ve managed to adjust to the hunger and lose weight through just dieting and no excersize. The trick is counting calories and sticking to it day after day. I actually find it easiest to lose weight while eating processed foods because they all have labels telling you exactly how many calories each bite is so it’s easier to keep track of the calories
My weight only came off when I stopped the meds, and that was a bad idea.
Just call me sane chunky.
I put on a lot of weight when I was briefly on zyprexa years ago.
I lost it when I came off of it and went onto qutiapine but it took ages for the weight to come off. It was gradual.
So yes. But it took a switch. Plus I also started walking more when I was on qutiapine so I think that helped and I was not constantly craving fatty foods and feeling hungry all the time.
I think part of the problem IMO with the weight gain on AP is that it causes your appetite to increase and your brain doesn’t tell you when your full (this is what I experienced ). So I kept eating and eating. Plus the wrong kinds of food.
If you can fight that you may be able to loose weight but with me the weight loss happened with a switch of medication.
I put on 30 kilos over two years on Olanzapine.
I came off that drug about 3 years ago and I have lost 15 kilos of what I put on.
I do not exercise a part from the occasional walk. The key for me is cutting down takeaways and looking at the percentages of fat salt and sats etc to make sure what I am eating is marginally healthy.
If you don’t eat much healthy food smoothies are good - I drink a lot of those
in the past two and a half months i have lost two gallons of body fat, sixteen pounds.
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I’ve lost 5 kg’s by heaps of exercise and cutting out most sugar and snacks. It’s a hard road but if you find enough motivation it can help tremendously.
That motivation can be a hard thing to find but I’ve discovered that some regular exercise becomes easy if you do enough of it! You’ve nothing to lose!
I put on loads weight on clozapine then went to a "healthy living group " and lost more than a stone or two
The group finished and weight gone back on
But last couple weeks doing well lost 3 lbs so far
It’s not just the number of calories but diet in general. As people have noted, the meds will do all sorts of things to your metabolism. It can be hard, if not impossible to avoid gaining weight or losing all you’ve gained but you can always work towards progress. I found that meds caused cravings that were hard to control. It can help to have a meal plan and seeing a nutritionist may not be a bad idea. You can get an idea of what changes to your diet and portions may help you and see if you may not be getting all the nutrients you need. It can be discouraging to need the meds but have to deal with the weight gain but it’s important to remember that even if you can’t be skinny you can improve your overall health with a healthy diet.
I put on 30 lbs from Risperidone a ways back and I managed to lose around half of that, so I at least am not overweight anymore. Unfortunately I’ve gained a few pounds recently due to stress eating so. My goal weight is still my weight before risperidone.
It’s so insanely hard to lose weight.
It is hard especially as you get older
It’s difficult, but it is possible. I put on 3 1/2 stone when they put me on olanzapine, when I hit 14 1/2 stone I realised I had to do something. I’m hungry all the time too so restricting calories is difficult, but I’ve changed the kind of food I’m eating and am slowly losing the weight, have lost about 10 pounds in the last 6 weeks. I’ve partially switched to a Mediterranean style diet. Eating a substantial breakfast definitely helps stave off hunger throughout the day, so I will have a plate of mixed Italian or Spanish meats ie chorizo, salami, pepperoni etc, with slices of brie or goats cheese, and a sliced apple or nectarine or some grapes. My main meals are chicken or fish with a few potatoes and a big helping of salad - it is possible to make salad tasty and exciting lol. I only eat red meat about twice a week. If I’m hungry I’ll make a mixed fruit cocktail with some yoghurt and fill up on that.
I think the trick is not to try to starve yourself, grazing throughout the day is better than 2 or 3 big meals and keeps you from snacking on unhealthy stuff. And when you’re hungry fill up on stuff that won’t put weight on. It’s slowly working for me… Good luck to you!
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It seems schizophrenic people have a lot of selfdicipline. The antipsychotic medication takes that discipline away to get through the psychotic mental wall. The body suffers enormously.
I gain 30 kilos also on olanzapine in 6 months. I have stretch marks on my skin