- changed metabolism
- eating more
0 voters
when i was first hospitalized with psychosis i quickly gained 30 pounds when before i had been fit.
POLL: is weight gain from antipsychotics caused more by a change in metabolism, or from eating more?
From my experience, its the negative symptoms that cause most of the weight gain. Even if you are on meds you will lose weight by doing a calorie deficit which means burning more calories than your intake.
My negative symptoms were better on Abilify, I was going to the gym for 1-2h almost daily. As a result my weight was 180-200lb eventhough I was still eating a lot of McDonalds. Now on Risperdal I cant really exercise much and as a result I got up to 295lb. I am doing a diet and now 278lb.
FYI Metabolism is controlled by your thyroid and no, antipsychotics don’t affect the thyroid.
Fastest way to lose weight is a low fat low carb high protein diet. I went down to 268lb in a month.
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Both IMHO. I had haldol for a couple of weeks before it gave me TD, and it made me ravenous. I haven’t felt such a hunger n my life on any other med especially, so aps can make you eat more.
I don’t eat a lot at the moment and even did a 1200 calorie diet for a month and stayed the same weight, so that is the aps affecting my metabolism.
The fact is if you are on aps then you have to watch what you eat. It is the equivalent on being on a diet all the time. That means no pizza ever for me for example.
I maintain weight on a 1600 calorie a day diet. That is not a lot for a male. Any more than that and I gain, unless I cardio excessively.
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I also piled the pounds on in hospital I think it was because of drinking cups of tea all day with 3 sugars
Did you exercise?
Try the Atkins diet supposed to lose a lot
not on 1200 calories I didn’t other than my daily press ups of now 120 in one go.
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I did. I lost a few kgs in a week or so, and did it for nearly a month. Most of the weight loss is due to glycogen store loss and you put it back on when you start eating normally again, so is pretty pointless.
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Thats exactly my opinion. Its a temporary solution. Once you want to go back to regular eating it undoes itself.
My weight is really bothering me at the moment. I’m 6’2 and about 18 stone. Before psychosis I was around 12 stone (same height).
Every year I put on about half a stone or something.
To put it another 1 third of my body weight is unneeded.
The last 2 months I’ve been trying to eat half as much for lunch and breakfast and regular short walks, but it hasn’t seemed to make any difference.
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I guess the psychs won’t tell you that on taking aps you have to live the rest of your life on a diet due to non compliance, but it is the truth.
It is possible to lose some of the weight when you are of a higher weight to start with. I was 85kg a few years ago, now I am 76kg. I lost 5kg quite quickly through rigorous exercise in a month of hard work. the rest was much harder to lose.
When you don’t see the scales move and you work so hard to lose it, motivation is kicked in the balls.
I am only 5ft 6 so 85kg was quite big to me, hard exercise on an exercise bike took the first 5kg off really quickly.
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do you consider the question in the poll, the issue of how meds affect weight gain to be settled scientifically or is it an open question?
For me personally I’ve exercised regularly for 6 out of the 7 years I’ve been on meds and have been atleast 50lbs/22kg overweight the entire time, some people are fine on meds but for me it’s been an endless struggle of weight gain all 7 years. I measure my food portions by weight and calories and still am a fat f*ck. It has to be more than just being more hungry atleast in my experience.
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I read that meds make us hungry because there is dopamine receptors in the pancreas. It was posted here on the forum.
When I started risperidone it made me super nauseous, and I barely ate anything. Still gained 30 lbs in a month.
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I believe you are incorrect. I have hoshimotos disease due to seroquel. Also I have several medibolic disorders due to being on seroquel for thirteen years.
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I think it’s both combined.
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Oh didn’t know that, my thyroid tests were always normal.
@Aziz , @labratmat , @Ninjastar , @anon78876561 , @lofifunk , @schizo_freak , @StarCrazy , @Tommo , What you have to learn to do is never go back to normal eating. You have to restrict your calories severely your whole life.
That’s what I do. I used to be obese. I lost all the excess weight through calorie restriction and I kept restricting my calories even after my BMI was normal. That’s how I’ve been keeping my weight at normal for the last six years.
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