why does medication cause huge weight gain?, it is the worst side effect for me, thoughts?
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Antipsychotics can slow metabolism down, making burning fat almost impossible for certain people.
It’s horrible side effect.
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I am on generic prolixin (fluphenazine) and lost all my extra weight on this med…no side effects…it’s an older generation drug though so that scares most ppl off.
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I’m on Lybalvi and have not too much hunger. There was a time I thought it’d never end
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I started Risperidone recently and gained 16 pounds within a month with no change in eating habits. I’ve had to totally change my diet to start losing the weight. In about 5 weeks I’ve been able to lose 7 pounds. I think it’s been 5 weeks now. Anyway, my point is it’s way easy to gain, gain, gain and hard to lose. And I believe @Green because I feel that what I’ve had to do to get the weight loss is eat all the time, just high protein, low fat and low calorie to boost my metabolism.
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What green said.
I’m on abilify, all the other meds i’ve tried too, can’t lose a single pound.
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Since i started APs,
I have gained a lot of kgs.
My psychiatrist says it’s not the meds
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He has told me that other patients
with same diagnosis and meds with me,
are slim.
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Same— I was like mkay, where those patients at though?
I want proof 
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I lost weight slowly over 6 months using huel.
To maintain my weight my bioimpedence scales tell me that I can eat 1500 calories.
I weigh myself everyday and it turns out to be true.
Every time they inject me with risperidone I get crap retention which skews my figures where I gain weight, and then I spend the rest of the week starving myself to get back to the correct weight. And then it starts the cylce again.
For me, I have to live with a certain amount of hunger every evening just to maintain weight. If I have that evening bowl of cereal then I will gain.
Hunger is something that one has to get used to and I understand a lot of people can’t do that. The temptation is too high, or their hunger is magnified by the meds like mine was when they tried me on haloperidol back in the day.
To find out your resting basic metabolic calorie intake is a guaranteed methiod to lose or maintain weight. My bioimpedence weighing scales does that, or you could go to a gym where they should have the equipment to do it. Don’t eat over that rate and you should be fine.
Coping with hunger is another story. It is possible to lose the weight and maintain it but it takes a super amount of effort.
Don’t buy the sweets, crisps, pizza etc in the first place to tempt you in the house, that is the first major lesson.
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Same, seems like risperdone was one of the worst ones for this, abilify was basically the same, but they lowered my dosage of abilify from 30mg to 10mg so hopefully I can lose weight. Supposedly it’s “weight neutral” so it shouldn’t increase appetite but it does
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You seem to have a bit of expertise on this, I want to increase my exercise to at least a few walks a week, and try to diet, but I’ve concerns about nutritional deficiencies. I only eat one big meal a day, but I’m still maintaining my weight at 280ish pounds. If you can point me to any reference material to look into I would love to take a gander.
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@Ryanana
I am in no way an expert. So can’t offer any proper advice.
This is what I did.
I worked out my resting metabolic calorie rate. That is the rate you expend in calories just resting every day.
I have a renhpo weighing scales which uses bioimpedence to calculate it. They cost me under ÂŁ20.
If you are a member of a gym they should have the equipment to use it.
It is then a simple calorie calculation to know when I eat too many calories or not using myfitness app or similar.
I also got a kitchen food weighing scale and used the app to calculate exactly what I ate.
I drank Huel protein shakes which ensured I drank the essential vitamins and nutrients every day.
The weight loss was slow over 6 months. I didn’t have that much to lose in the first place.
I don’t buy sweet luxuries, so am not tempted by them in the house.
I do 100 press ups every morning as a bit of exercise and did yoga throughout the diet, No cardio though.
It was calorie control and not exercise that did it for me.
I am not a doctor. I have no expertise. I advise you seek professional advice, especially if you are starting at a higher rate. Go to your GP for starters and tell them of your intentions if I were you. 
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I don’t know but when I was in a college course at the hospital, a facilitator there said that antipsychotics, they make many people not know when they are actually full, very well. So many of us tend to eat more than we actually need to fill us up, physically.
That’s according to her.
It’s called recovery college where I went.
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APs increase blood glucose levels. Pancreas release more insulin in response to this. Insulin is fat storing hormone.
This is one thing I can think of.
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I’ve gained the most weight on weight neutral aps like Geodon. Gained 100 pounds on that one. I am losing weight on Lybalvi which is Zyprexa and a weight resistant compound. Fingers crossed.