Anybody lost weight with Mirtazapine?

[pregabagaba]

I’m on 15mg for insomnia anxiety and really need to stay on it because it’s quite severe.

I want to lose weight though as not happy with myself at the moment. Has anybody successfully lost weight with exercise and calorie counting on this medication?

I ballooned from a size 12 to a size 20 on mirtazapine for insomnia. Only after 4 years did I discover that it’s used as an appetite stimulant in the elderly !! I eventually had it changed to Amitriptyline which works wonders for my insomnia.

Weight loss is incredibly difficult once your bmi gets over 35. I developed massive insulin resistance from losing and gaining the same 3-5 stone for a decade of every diet and exercise regime known to man.. I even had weight loss surgery on the NHS because I’d been left on mirtazapine for so long .. but plateaued at 15 st. Thank goodness for the invention of Mounjaro. I lost it all and am now a size 6/8 . It took a year and I will need to be on it for life but a small price to pay not to have high bp, sleep apnea, high cholesterol and injections in my knees every 6 months for weight related arthritis. My only regret was that I lost nearly a decade of my 50s v fat ,v unhealthy and incredibly unhappy. All of which I blame on mirtazapine.

@Fishingboatbobbingnightoh wow!!! thank you for sharing your experience. Do you know if you gained because it increased your appetite a lot and therefore eating more - or would you say you ate the same?

Weight gain is listed as one of the side effects of mirtazapine. I put on a stone in 8 weeks, and also got the side effect of agitation. Couldn’t sleep at all and had to stop it.

I lost 2 stone and have kept it off with consistent exercise

@BBCKwoo thank you! this is what I was hoping to hear. What mg were / are you on? I don’t want to stop the drug as it’s working the best compared to other ones I have tried. But the weight gain thing scares me.

I piled the weight on. It made me incredibly hungry, unfortunately it is a known side effect. It worked great with my sleep for a while but this dwindled so I swapped back to citalopram. Unfortunately I couldn't lose the excess weight and stayed overweight until starting Mounjaro 1 1/2 years ago.

I've been on 40mg for years. I was a size 12 when I first went on it. By 2020 I was 15 stone.

My weight just yoyos. I can get down to 11 stone if I really keep at it - 1200 calories is the absolute max or I put weight on - and exercise properly. But I can't seem to get any less. I just plateau and nothing works.

11st is still an overweight bmi for me, it's really really frustrating.

Definitely increased my appetite.. but for all the wrong foods.. turned from a cook from scratch healthy eater who sailed through 3 pregnancies with barely gaining a pound - to someone waiting for the bakery to open to buy sausage rolls and pasties ! I became a beige food freak..