Gaining Weight With Medication

I hate exercise so much. I do it because I like the results. Lately I have given up on it. To help me get back into it my husband came up with an idea. It's a wicked idea.

My husband who does triathlons challenged me to a distance walk-a-thon. We have distance trackers in our shoes that tell us how many kilometers, or miles that we have walked or ran during a workout. (Walking in the mall doesn't count.) Whoever has gone the furthest distance by June 1st gets $400 cash.

I love money and I love winning. Since my husband is a runner and he can bang out 10K in a hour I have to walk a lot more during the day. I might even have to take up running to win. He works all day and I have time on my hands. I want to win so bad thus I am going to spend a lot of my free time outdoors.

Today is the first day of the challenge. I am going to be blogging about the 'Great Distance Challenge of 2012' I know I will win. The first thing I am going to buy is a Fossil Handbag and a Fossil watch...wait that may be the only thing I can buy.

I know there is a weight gain/loss thread but I thought it would be nice if there was a thread where people could blame their medication solely...Forget personal responsibility for once.... because our medication is a major cause of weight gain and one of the reasons why we can not lose it. Yet we (I am speaking from personal experience and that of people I know) tend to beat ourselves up for not being able to control our weight issues.

Why not lay it on the table? Give our guilt a rest.

Did you know most drugs that we take turn off the sensor in our brains that tell us that we are full? The drugs also make us crave sugar as a counter balance to all of the salt that is put in the drugs themselves? There is also a component with our medication that makes us crave carbs. I don't even have to mention that most of our drugs can slow down our metabolism.

Let's blame the drugs for once. Not ourselves. Even just for 5 minutes...

Amy, there is so much truth in what you are saying. However, the weight loss thing is not only related to speeding up your metabolism through exercise and elimination of refined products, including white flour, sugar, potatoes, and other grains, it's vital for you to drink water and plenty of it.  (Advice for me from my nephrologist)

I had a specialist from Virginia tell me once that the stomach doesn't care what you put into it so long as it has something there. Give it water, water, water. And he restricted fat to the extent that it was necessary to take a high-level Vitamin A supplement (available by prescription only.)

Avoid coffee, (which triggers appetite)tea, (which does the same thing--and both are addictive because of the caffeine in them). Caffeine makes bipolar illness worse. Avoid alcohol completely; it makes bipolar illness worse.

Eat small amounts of protein with each meal--not steaks, etc. which are large amounts.

So long as you're having salads every day once a day, cutting back on the amount of protein and carbohydrates, and getting exercise--which is the real means of losing weight--you'll be okay with Depakote in my view.  (I've taken it and found it made me lose hair--not much more effective than that after about 6 weeks of it for me.)

If your doctor would consider prescribing Victoza for diabetes, type II if you're diabetic at this point, that will help you lose weight--about 10 pounds within just a couple of weeks. Otherwise, it's going to be all up to you to do what's necessary to lower the cravings.  (See note below about our not being doctors, of course.)

Fresh lemon juice, strangely enough, (without added sugar) and with added water helps to reduce the cravings. So does molybdenum for some of us; but you need to know that what works for one may not work for another because everyone's chemistry may vary enough to make it impossible for you to use that product. Again, exercise plays a significant role in lowering cravings.

A major factor may be that you are building fluid from weakening kidneys. Are you taking any medication for that?

Do all your research to find out the answers that are best for you.
I wish you real success this time in getting the weight off and keeping it off. If you can afford it, get a treadmill and work at it daily, building just a few more minutes each day. The weight melts off when you're going strong on that.

We are not doctors and can tell you only what we have learned from our physicians and what works (or has worked) for us.

You may change your name in time from "Amy Loves cookies" to

"Skinny Winnie".

Take care.

It's Genetic

Post Edited (It's Genetic) : 2/6/2012 2:29:20 PM (GMT-7)

Thanks for all the advice it is much appreciated.

I am very lucky not to have any ill side effects of being on the heavy side. ie: diabetes, heart problems, high blood pressure ect...with the exception of the kidney thing. As for the food thing goes my lap band does limit what I can eat and how much of it I can eat. I do not eat a lot of cookies despite what my profile name is. I do eat one, but not four, I just can't fit them all in, and that is why I got the band in the first place. I still get the cravings.

I also drink lemon water by the buckets due to the fact that I had a tummy tuck and my lymphatic system was damaged as a result. That is par for the course. It normally takes a year or so for your lymphatic system to recover from the trauma of being sliced and diced. I drank a so much lemon water to keep down the bloating I developed a real craving for the stuff. So did my family, and my extended family.

As for the exercise I will be the first to admit that I hate it with a passion. I would rather stab my eyes out with a dull knife than exercise. I still do it. I do have a treadmill, a gym membership, a Nike + iPod tracker, a Body Bugg, well let's just put it this way- if it's expensive I have it. Heck, I put in a $15,000 weight loss tool inside of my body.I didn't lose 95 pounds doing nothing. I worked my butt off.

I was chugging along just fine at 160 pounds until the doctor put me on the new medication. That is when my weight went up. My eating habits didn't change. I didn't suddenly start eating mass amounts of food. The only difference in my life was the medication change. Now I find that I am having to work harder to get the weight off this time. That can't be just me. That was all my point was. I am soooo frustrated. I don't want to take these orange pills.

I am kind of lucky...in a twisted way. Since I have kidney issues I will be getting a renal dietitian next month, and that will help. And this is the twisted thing- if you have to get a chronic illness kidney disease isn't the worse because most kidney patients lose tons of weight. I told you it was twisted. Hey I have mental issues, what can I say?

But I will always be 'Amylovescookies' they can't take that from me.

My mother used to tell me that I should be 'skinny minnie' and she would not let me eat food. She used to give me a cup of yogurt and nothing else for lunch. We were not allowed to eat dinner if we ate during the day. My mother did not want any fat children. Ha ha ha...changing my screen name to 'skinnywinnie' (too close to skinny minnie) that would brighten my mothers day. Too bad I hate my mother for obvious reasons of course...

I also had a gastric by-pass after gaining weight, after reaching my goal weight I was put on mood stabilizers for Bi-Polar and gradually gained back most of the weight. I asked my Dr. what could help with the weight gain. Right now we are trying weaning off of Seraquel (down to 50mg) and started Abilify (5mg). My appetite seems to have increased since starting it, but I have more energy and have started an exercise program. I have been on the gastric by-pass eating program for 12 weeks and have lost alittle weight, nothing compared before starting mood stablizers. This is a battle even with a gastric by pass. There is no quick fix to the weight gain from the mood stabilizers from my experience(even getting a gastric by pass). I will continue to take my meds, watch what I eat and exercise to help maintain a healthy mood.