Citalopam + weight gain

[Helenas2]

HI
I gained 2 stone on Citalopram - (has made me even more depressed) My gp told me It takes a year for your body to flush out Citalopram and only then would the weight start to drop off.
Been clean a month - have been on a diet for the past year! cant loose a pound!
Does anbody have any simular experiences - any advise? It's really getting me down I feel like Vanessa Feltz!

[yorkylover]

Hi Helen I found I gained wieght on citalopram.I saw a nutritionist,and she helped me.I lost a stone.I stopped having tea and coffee,sugar,biscuits and cakes.I cut out bread to,red meats.Now I allow myself bread,but limit myself.And I have biscuits and cake in very small amounts.Im just carefull, I dont diet.I eat lots of white meat and veg,fruit.And drink lots of water.
I probably havent been much help to you,but this is how I did it.Iv still got wieght to lose but it seems to have just come to a stand still now.

Ellen XX

[Helenas2]

Thanks Ellen to your response.
I ambecoming a bit obsessed at the moment with the whole weight issue.
I eat well, I dont eat red meat or chicken - so my diet consists of fish, vegetables pasta rice lots of fruit etc - so relatively healthy - i can go a month without cutting out most carbs eating no chocs etc and being really good and i wont even loose 1ib - its seems to off just stuck.
Can I ask a couple of questions please - did you come off medication before the weight started to drop off? if so how long after did it start to drop off? You have been really helpful least i know that i can loose some! somehow?
Helena

[yorkylover]

Hi,I was still on the meds when I lost wieght.But the diet the nutritionist put me on was really drastic and very hard to stick to.I wouldnt do it again.My wieght is at a stand still now!!!!You seem to eat really healthy.We need to exercise to.But I never have the motivation to do so.Luckily I have dogs who need walking.

Ellen XX

[pipsie]

Hi, I have gained quite a bit of weight in the last few months despite my diet or exercise levels not changing, and have only just thought about a possible link to being on citalopram. I have been very over weight in the past and woulod hate to get like that again. I'm due for a review on citalopram with the doc so I may ask to stsrt coming off it! I do feel better anxiety wise but gaining too much weight would make me depressed! What do people think please? Pipsie

[Franz]

I put on weight on citalopram and clomipramine. The only way of losing it was to reduce my calorie intake and exercise more.

Forget crash dieting. I tried it and within 3 months of stopping had put almost all my weight on again. Your body "panics" at the sudden drop in in energy intake and your metabolism slows down, so in fact you start to put on weight more easily than before you went on the diet. (This isn't permanent though and your metabolism readjusts once you're eating more normally again.)

I've managed to keep my weight down simply by eating a bit less. It was a slowish process and at first I felt hungry a lot of the time but I don't any more.

[sheena]

I was put on citalopram when I first became ill. I lost a stone and a half as I was so ill at first.

I am now on sequoel and I think, with the combination of the citalopram have increased my weight. I have put a stone back on and find that I cannot eat as much as used to, to sustain my weight. I seem to be still putting on a 1lb a week.

It is definately the drugs as I also walk my dog twice a day for exercise.

Sheena

[bab]

Hi there

I used to be a size 8 and since going on ssri's I am now an 18 - I can lose a bit from dieting but only a stone at most - noone believes me when i blame meds

[pipsie]

Does anyone know why we gain weight on these drugs, it's really starting to get me down now, gonna see gp tomorrow, Pipsie

[Cathy V]

Pipsie, this is a question i asked not so long ago myself, as ive put on 2st in the last year and im convinced its meds (i take propranolol, and they supposedly slow down your system) Nobody really answered the question for me though so maybe its down to the docs to tell us why, but getting them to admit to it is the first battle!