Fear of lithium

In high school I was put on lithium and Pamelor and gained weight. At least 20-30 pounds.

My cocktail is not working anymore and my pdoc suggested lithium but I am terrified of the weight gain.

I want to feel better, but I know if I gain any weight that part will make me feel worse.

Anyone not gain weight on lithium?

I gained 50 pounds in 8 weeks going on lithium 4 years ago. It suck because for a medication I mentally react well to it. But due to the weight gain I went off it. Took me until this year to lose the weight. About a year ago we were spinning tires trying to figure out what medication to us. The decision was to try a small dose of lithium. By small I mean 300 for months and over the last year I've gone up to 750mg. I was losing weight up until this last 150mg hike but I can also blame that on poor food choices.

I've been on lithium for over 3 years. No weight gain here. I log everything I eat into myfitnesspal to keep my eating under control

I have been on lithium for 12 years at least at 600 mg per day. Weight has been stable. I did see weight gain when combined with antidepressants known to cause weight gain. I blame the AD and not lithium for that.

Taking 900 mg. No weight gain. I had quite a lot of bloating initially (from the water drinking), but that seems to be resolving, and my body is adjusting to all the water I drink. I have noticed that I don't seem to get full when eating. I'm not sure if it's from the lithium or other meds, so I just monitor how much I eat and stop when it seems like I would have normally been full. It's hard to eat and not feel like I've eaten, but it's better than gaining weight and still want to eat.

im 1200mg and I don't think I have gained much. Truly, that's good for me.

I've been on 900mg for years with no weight gain. The only weight gain I've had was from antipsychotics.

count your calories while on it and you'll be good. You can't gain weight without excess food.

A person taking psychiatric medications whose side effect is weight gain for the most part gains weight NOT because of eating more. There are medications that cause weight gain and appetite increase, and the weight gain is both directly caused by the medication and indirectly added to via eating more, but those are in the minority. Most psychiatric medications that cause weight gain do so via many different pathways and you can be eating 500 calories a day and still gain weight on them.

OP - a lot of people have gained weight on lithium and a lot have not; the fact that YOU gained weight on it is indicative of YOUR propensity to gain weight on it, so you might gain weight again if you go on Lithium. However, since you were in HS, maybe taking Lithium coincided with a growth spurt and some of the weight gain was actually normal. Do you remember?

I was on Lithium 1800mg and didn't gain anything, lost some weight as I was sick and ended up in the ICU for a week with Lithium Toxicity. I wouldn't touch it again, I'm doing wonderful on Invega Sustenna injections now. Everyone is different though.

You cannot gain weight without the calories, that's not how it works. Also you can gain water weight with lithium because it is processed through the body like sodium/salt.

One can gain weight without the calories, and countless people, me included, can confirm that. The "calories in/ calories out" line is not supported by evidence; in other words, it is not true.

It is surprising how much people hold on to the "calories in / calories out", given that even outside of medication side effects, everybody has observed folks who:
- eat little and weigh much,
- eat little and weigh little,
- eat much and weight little, and,
- eat much and weigh much.

These observations should be sufficient to bury the "calories in / calories out", but... oh well.

Yeah that's like a truckload. Too much coffee and you're done for.

Hellboy

The APs can make you ravenous. I was never satiated and always on the hunt. I would binge regularly and never be satisfied. It really socks because they're good meds.

Hellboy

I believe some of the meds slow your metabolism, so you can gain weight from that. It can take awhile to adjust.

I had no weight gain on Lithium, but I no longer take it.

When I was on lithium it did not cause weight gain, my other meds did.

We're all different.

I hope you find the combo that works for you.

Be well.

I chose to start taking lithium 8 months ago after taking first Olanzapine and later Seroquel for the last 12 years. Seroquel caused me to gain about 120 pounds. It seemed to cause "trance-like" eating that felt uncontrollable. Before Seroquel, I was a runner, a gymnast and a snowboarder. All those years of Seroquel has done serious damage to my physical health. After 2 months on lithium I lost 24 lbs. Unfortunately I have been in an emotional slump for the last 2 months and have gained it all back

Don't fear the lithium. Fear the depression.

Thank you all. I am feeling desperate and it seems like lithium probably causes less weight gain than all these newer drugs. After yesterday I need to decide if I'd rather be heavier or dead.

I agree with you on how seroquel causes you to want to eat constantly.

Hellboy

Seroquel = eating 24/7 and makes your couch look tasty .. Horrid medication !

Seroquel= I was So mean and angry ALL the time!! It was scary. And I gained forty lbs

I am on 900 mg (0.8 blood level) for ~5 years and I have had no weight gain. It's been an absolute miracle drug for me. If you gain a little at the beginning it will probably be fluid retention since it is a salt. But what little weight I have gained, I blame on going from school to uni and being more sedentary (and possibly my tricyclic but I doubt that too). I see you have an ED history. Are you sure the weight wasn't just down to the fact that your eating patterns were changing?

Horrid for sure! It helped me sleep and not be crazy but at the same time I feel like it robbed me of my life and no one understands what it does to you. You can't tell a normal weight person that you're fat because of medication. They think like ok maybe 20 or so of those pounds like when you take hormone pills or quit smoking. Most people I know who've been on seroquel gain huge amounts of weight. I'm talking 80 plus pounds or so.

Saw pdoc today. She wanted to put me on something that will snap me out of this depression fast. She first wanted to use abilify, but I decided lithium instead and she agreed it would work similarily. Even though the side effects, lithium has been around so long and it worked for my mood 20 years ago.

I was supposed to work tonight waiting tables and could find no one to work for me but there was no way I can work right now. My sister in law works there and at first said no so I begged. I don't want her to know what is going on so I was vague- she just knows it's some kind of emergency.