I don't understand how meds make people gain and lose weight?

Is it the fact that they make you eat more or some make you eat less or it it because the meds make the metabolism lower or higher or both? thanks.

Hi Seroquel done it for me i am on 300mg , and do i get the munchies x

It is that they make you constantly hungry, but also psychiatric medicines affect the metabolism and disrupt hormones.

There is a protein which is a central regulator of metabolism called AMPK, when it gets phosphorylated in the brain it increases appetite. Some of the antipsychotics can induce phosphorylation of AMPK. So basically antipsychotics make you hungry more so you gain weight.

I don't know how the losing weight works.

Mainly, they make you more hungry.

I used to take Neurontin in the evening after I thought I was through eating for the day. An hour after taking the med, I'ld have an irresistible urge to hit the kitchen looking for something hearty to eat.

I tried waiting and only taking it just as I was getting into bed. Always, I would end up getting back out of bed to go eat something.

I went off this med because of the excessive eating. Then my appetite went back to normal.

Plenty of meds, especially anti-psychotics, strait up mess with your blood sugar level. The spikes in blood sugar will trigger fat storage and decrease insulin sensitivity. I've read before that Serotonin is also involved in alerting the brain at certain receptors to begin storing fat, which is why SSRIs will have the side effect of weight gain. So yes, it can strait up screw your metabolism without you changing your habits.

well my advice is that instead of trying to gain weight through medications and dieting, why not eat less and exercise more?

it wont matter how much you diet and exercise you still gain weight on meds didn't you read the posts before yours, maybe not quite so much but you will gain weight, you only have to look at a box of Remeron and you will put on 5lb joke/// but its close enough. People who loose weight are usually starting a med when you feel ill from side effects, plus if anxierty is still there you wont gain weight it burns straight off you. Plus wellbutrin helps lose weight its compound is like amfetemin

has it been proven to be effective?

I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt here an assume you've never been on an antipsychotic. If you were hungry would you eat to sate that hunger? My guess is yes. It's something powerful in your brain and if you don't eat you will feel hungry indefinitely. I walk two miles a day and I still gained ten pounds on antipsychotics. They make you hungry beyond whatever caloric need that you have. Some people gain 80 pounds in a couple of months...these are powerful drugs that people take to avoid constant torment.

I've gained on Risperdal during an involuntary fasting.... I bet you get fat by breathing.

Oh yea... Geodon gave me an appetite (extreme hunger) at first but I resisted food. But then it started to give me extreme panic attacks which I had almost non stop (ranging from extreme anxiety to full blown panic). I stopped the med but it took quite a long time for things to turn to somewhat normal. In that time I couldn't eat. I even could not drink water for five days (people say you die from that.. I'm pretty sure I didn't). When I felt somewhat better I started force feeding myself a cup of thin soup a day. It could have been say 200 calories. So I had maybe 2800 calories in over a month. I just lost a few pounds. I assume because the med was still in my system.

I sometimes wonder if those pills aren't superfood! And every pill is really 3000 calories! That would explain it!

I read somewhere that some of these meds affect how the body deals with the calories or such--I didn't understand all the details. I DO know that I gained a great deal of weight in a short period of time when I was on Remeron, and I don't recall feeling hungrier or eating more. That's the upsetting part. I felt no control over the process at all.

"And every pill is really 3000 calories!"

Yeah lol i think ill go with that one

of course it has, it cures depression but boosts the anxierty on most hence the weight loss.

You could say every phycotic med is 8000 calories and ssri 3000 you could be near on spot on in the way they work on most people. You don't see many log term med user,s going to the gp because they are loosing weight do you ,unless they have cancer.

REMERON 3 jean sizes in 1 month, that's not a lie , and going from a skinny guy I was then , they soon found there way in the bin.

I bought a exercise machine that just consentrated on my mid section, I was bloated and fat with meds. I worked my butt off on this machine for weeks, I gained even more weight, I put muscle on top of fat , I donated the machine to the trash.

Mirtazapine/remeron made me so miserable because of this, I felt a constant craving for fats and sugar no matter how much I'd eaten! I had to go off of it after a few days becaus e I also have an ED and I was totally breaking down going crazy.

Seroquel is what I'm on now and thankfully I haven't noticed much of a change. I make sure to exercise a lot though.

Some meds decrease your angst and make you sleepy. Therefore some people's activity level drops because they sleep. Ergo the weight gain.

Very true , and has people get older like me with arthritis in my legs from construction, I carnt run I can walk but like a seal , so has you get older exersize is only minimum. I do ride my mountain bike miles has it takes the body weight off my legs, but if I pull up fast and have to let the weight drop on one side I fall of the bike. Im not massive fat just fatter through meds ,without them I would be slim but sanity before vanity has the guy said.

Although sleep deprivation and stress makes you fat. Balance I guess.

You have to take it on the chin with meds, by all means diet and exercise like a PRO. but your expextations wont beat the med long term , it creeps up on you and slap,s you in the face. When taking a fat maker med you will never be has slim or fit has you could be without it FACT, I quite sure you can workout and maintain a fitness level to be proud of but we all haven got 10 hours a day nor there strenth and compulsion to do it like a addiction

I had a woman gyn explain to me, that SSRI's can wreak havoc with the brain receptors and increase carb/sugar cravings.

I also learned that the smoothies, that I thought were oh so healthy, HA!! do you know how much sugar is in those things. Natural fruit sugars, sugar in the yogurt and sugar in the juices. Those things add up. That's what I was eating 'wrong' on Celexa, because I didn't gain that first year, it was that second year.

Weight has been off, and staying off. Added seltzer water to my diet. And some certifying nutritionist training, for work, helps, too.

Another thing, these meds can keep you awake, later and the longer you are awake, the more likely you are to add more calories to your diet. And when the stomach is growling, c'mon now. Let's not knock those that can't help not eat to a growling stomach, when on these meds.

'no judgment zone' here!!

Ok thanks people I can see that it is mainly the cravings that are the side effect (: