Losing weight while on birth control and anti depressants

[How78]

I've been the same sort of healthy weight my whole adult life, and then I started taking the progesterone only pill and antidepressants and my weight shot up by 1 and a half stone in a few months. I suppose the lockdowns didn't help with the weight gain either.

I can't come off of these medications for health reasons. I think they've contributed to my weight gain but I don't know which medication is to blame.

My appetite has increased quite significantly with these meds whichever I'm finding hard to control.

I've managed to stay stable in my weight for 6 months but not managed to lose any.

I at some point ate what I deemed a calorie deficit diet (1300 cals a day) for 2 weeks and noticed no weight loss and I ended up giving up. Not eating a lot with the appetite these meds give you is pure torture.

Does anyone have any weight loss tips when you're on meds known to stimulate appetite and increase weight? I would love to budge a stone.

Thanks

Just thought I'd also use this thread as a marker of my current weight so I can hopefully come back and see if I've lost/gained any.

I'm currently 10st 12

Hello
I have the same problem but with antidepressants rather than the progesterone only pill (and now I’m on HRT I’m gaining even more, especially since on testosterone sadly). I started on escitalopram almost 7 years ago and I now weigh almost 1.5 stone more than I did before. In those 7 years I have lost and regained up to a stone a couple of times using various diets including fast 800, human being diet, weight loss coaching which involved lots of protein and few carbs.
I am keen to try and lower my body’s set point rather than yo-yoing which is so terrible for health. After doing a lot of research I’ve come to the conclusion that the best thing to do is time restricted feeding along with healthy choices and lots of exercise. Broadly speaking a Mediterranean diet within a 9 hour window. Ideally 8 hours but I don’t think that’s realistic for me.
I’ve downloaded the circadian clock app which I think will help me track things. my focus is much more on health and fitness now than specific numbers on the scales. I’m also starting to taper off the antidepressants now that my HRT is fully in place. I’m starting the time restricted eating on Sunday evening, going for 9 hours to begin with. Hoping this will help me keep control of wine intake and cut out the unnecessary evening snacks. I’m guessing weight loss will be slow but having done rapid loss plans and regained it I don’t mind that.

Protein and healthy fats will stop you becoming too hungry. Alcohol increases your appetite too. Simple sugars will spike your insulin and there are lots of bad effects of that, including increased appetite.
lots of fluids
I did slimming world years ago and I remember eating really quite a lot but never feeling particularly satisfied. Maybe it’s changed now but it seemed quite generous with food intake.

I’m sure you will get a lot of conflicting suggestions because different things work for different people!!
Good luck!