Has ANYONE managed to lose weight whilst on Anti-Depressants?

[coldfield]

Curious. Been losing weight and have so far lost 2 and a half stone but want to lose another stone. Have just been prescribed ADs (after thinking long and hard about it) and would be gutted if I wasn't able to lose anymore or started to gain.

Anyone care to share their experiences?

Don't know, but I have been avoiding accepting the prescription from Doc because I don't want to gain any more weight :(

Well done on the 2 1/2 stone loss coldfield, have you asked your doc about poss side effects of your AD's? Is weight gain one of them? I'm sorry to hear you need them but speaking from personal experience I found them brilliantly helpful at a difficult time of my life.

I lost loads| of weight whilst on AD's years ago. I think I was on Seroxat and it totally killed my appetite and the chub just dropped off in a most satisfying way.

I think I got to just under 8 st when I started to think I probably should start to try and eat stuff. I'm pretty short tho, so 8 stone looked ok for me (in fact I looked brilliant ) but any less would have become scrawny.

They did cheer me up too, so bonus!

Thanks Claudia. I've been given a prescription for Setraline and after trawling through the contraindications and side effects it looks like weight gain or weight loss could be a side-effect. There's plenty of references to piling on the weight (especially if you do a search on ADs and Weight Gain on mumsnet which is a bit worrying).

What I am trying to work out is whether the ADs give you an increased appetite and huge cravings to eat and IF you give in to this then you end up gaining weight or if it simply does something to your metabolism and even eating very carefully and sensibly leads to weight gain??

Solo - I nearly didn't go to the doctors because I didn't want to sabotage my own rather excellent weight loss! However, I have avoided them for so long (nearly 10 years in fact) because I have been scared. I can't say whether it is a good decision because I don't know whether they'll agree with me or work. But I just felt that I had run out of options and needed to at least try. I can always come off them (carefully and slowly) and hopefully will be none the worse for it. That's my attitude anyway .

I'm currently doing the Dukan diet to lose weight and it will be interesting to see whether this completely scuppers it.

oh dear... I've been on a low dose of sertraline for a couple of months, couldn't cope without it now. finding it very hard to get the motivation to lose weight though, no idea if it's because of the ADs!

I did SW whilst on ADs and lost 1.5 stone.............I don't think ADs would stop you losing weight as long as you stick to which ever eating plan you chose to follow, but I know some of them can make you feel tired and may therefore affect your motivation.

That's reassuring sapphireblue. I kind of think that if I've managed to have the motivation to lose weight while I have been feeling like this then hopefully I will manage if the ADs do their job. Maybe there will be a few blips whilst I get used to them (first 2-3 weeks I'm hoping.

MathsMadMummy - have you been trying to lose weight or had you had any success before going on Sertraline? Just interested to hear whether you have "lost" the ability to lose weight or whether you are just starting out trying and finding it hard IYSWIM? I always find it impossible to summon up the energy to start but once I go to that first WW or SW meeting it usually helps kick start it.