Zoloft and weight gain part 4!!

Why do they keep locking our forums ??????????? o well!

Hey guys!! It has been a while but i come bearing good news this time. i went to my gyno this morning for a regular check up. In a year since i last went to this doctor i have gained 30 pounds. Well my doctor knows me very well because i have been seeing him for years. He was not only shocked about my rapid weight gain, but also concerned and asked me what i had been doing different to have put on weight like that. I told him that i had been taking zoloft. As soon as i said that he knew right away. His exact words were,"well that will do it."

i was so happy that he agreed with me from the start and i didn't have to defend myself like i do all the time. He told me that he would never prescribe zoloft to his patients and if he did he would moniter them extremely close because of the weight gain side effect. He asked me who put me on the zoloft and i told him that it was my primary doctor and my gyno asked me if i had seen the doctor lately to discuss the weight gain with him since he was the one that put me on the drug. i told my gyno that i saw him about 3 weeks ago and that my primary doctor told me that he was not sure that it was the zoloft and that he argued with me about the whole thing, But finally after i defended myself my primary doc agreed with me. My gyno told me that if any one of his patients came in with a concern that a medication was making them gain weight or for any other concern he would not tell them they were wrong based on what the drug companies say ,but he would investigate it because everyone is different and reacts different to meds. i asked him how long he thought it would take to get back to normal and he said anywhere between 6-8 months or a little longer. I feel great knowing that i have someone on my side for once right off the bat. i didn't have to convince him or defend myself at all!!!! so pretty much it is just a waiting game! i have also been in touch with a nutritionist that is a close friend to my family and she did some research for me and she told me that most of the weight is water retention. she also said that it reduces your thyroid function and that it could take up to a year just for the hormones to reach their normal levels again.It depends on age, how long you took the drug, and etc. i feel like there is hope now and i don't think i will be obsesssing to much about the weight anymore now that i have an idea of when i will see results. based on what the doctor and my nutritionist say, i have a while and there is no sense in obsessing!! if you have any quetions, ask me and if i haven't asked my nutritionist already i will ask her and then get back to you!

Hi Allybooboo -

I just wanted to say that the threads generally get locked if they get too long because it starts to get difficult for people to navigate through them.  So once a thread hits over 50 posts chances are it will soon become locked. 

I am sorry !!

Just wanted to see if anyone had been around...looks like our group is slowing down...

Tomorrow is the end of week 1 of Phase I of the South Beach Diet. I also started taking only 25mgs of Zoloft (which I just remembered I forgot to take this morning). My doctor likened the weight gain and attempt to lose to alcoholism and is insisting I see one of his therapists about it. I don't know what's up with him.

I do know that I miss carbohydrates!!!!! I'm not really big on eggs or having non-breakfast foods at breakfast so that part of it is hard for me. I just have to hang on for another week and then I can add whole wheat back to my diet. I can't wait!!!!

I hope everyone is well...

 Hey snickersmom, great job of sticking to the south beach phase 1, its tuff!  Have you seen the scale budge yet?  I'm kinda confused as to what the doctor was telling you on your last post?  Allyboo and Mekkie so the doctors say why it takes a year to take off the weight? Do they feel that exercise and deit help in the process sooner by chance? 

 

Allyboo i know how you feel ..i have not wanted to go out or even buy new clothes because of my zoloft weight gain ...it still makes me realy unhappy i just feel that i lost myself ...when i look in the mirror i hate myself, i have got more problems from been on zoloft than before i took it ...a low selfasteam im more depressed than ever!!!
Even reading about what your doc said dont make me feel beter cause i just dont see the movement at all.
I also dont understand why other people are losing weight quick ..should it not effect everyone the same and when will they print this on the box of zoloft and remove that irritating zoloft add on this forum.

My doctor just was comparing losing weight to stopping drinking...I didn't really get that comparison either.

I've seen the scale budge a little on Phase I. It is tough!!!! All this other food is really rich and I'm not used to eating that way and now it's a little boring so I'm trying hard not to flame out. I am dreaming about bread though...oh, how I miss it.

It did take me about a year to lose my Zoloft weight but I will say that once it started coming off, it came off so you all hang in there...I've lost Zoloft weight...TWICE!!!

Yeah i agree it is good to know that the weight will finaly go and ok a year seems along time ...the thing with me was i was begining to think its not the zoloft,but it has to be. What bothers me is the fact that i finaly felt good and could stop with zoloft(i had no panics) now i have to wait upto a year to lose the weight and when its gone i can finaly feel happy about that ...BUT im then scared that my panic attacks come back and i have to take the bloody zoloft again ...know what i mean ??? Like a visious circle

 Hey everybody, I see you were all busy today chatting, its good to see everyone posting, it really helps for support reasons.  Tomarrow my daughter will go and visit with the trainer up at the work out therapy place we go to.  She's hoping that she can help her establish a good ab work out.  She is so with you guys on this weight gain thing, she hates going to malls  and is really depressed  about the weight too.  All the girls she hangs with are probaly about a siz 0 to a size 4, it seems her weight that she lost that week in half had came back in a matter of days still doing the deit so she gave up in fustration, but now is trying to stick to a 1000 calorie deit and working out.  I just feel so bad for everyone because this is truley not your faults.  I look back at pictures of her from last year at this time or even the year before and think how unfair of that company to not tell people to be aware of this!!!!  It was like all of the sudden this stomach was their and the weight was too.  By the time we relized what was going on it seemed to be to late.  Allyboo did any of them say anything about the insulin resistance becasue that has to do with the hormones and them not functioning right.  I also read that hot flashes are sign of it too along with the abdominal weight gain that is impossible to lose.  Could the zoloft effected this, I did read about it on a sight about birth control and side effects.  I was wondering if your gyno or nutritionist would know about this or have any comment about it.  I know my daughter feels so much like you guys, her pains and words are the same as yours!!!!  Do any of you think jaymay lost eaier and quicker becasue he is a male and that the hormonal effect is different and the metablosim is faster?  Have to go but hope to hera from you all soon!

Rebeccastarr ... i have to tell you that when i started on zoloft i did`nt eat much at all, my diet never changed and i guess thats a typical man way of thinking.To say that we expecte it to happen !!!! I didnt even know that it was possible to put on weight with zoloft because it stands so clear on the box NO WEIGHT GAIN. To top that off i sported like mad and still was gaining weight so what he said was utter bullcrap,i can understand that it made you feel crap.

Nivram.... what i notice with the weight gain is just before a mensturation you hold alot of water fluid and then after you lose abit and then the next month you gain and then you lose abit more ...well thats how im seeing it changing with me.I was first 65 kilo then the next mensturation i lost 2 kilo 2 weeks after i put it back on then again mensturation was over i lost 3 kilo then 2 weeks on i put 2 kilo back and now i lost 3 kilo ...if you know what i mean it sort of works in a patorn......i realy think it will take along time but atleast i see movement evey month even though its little bits and very frustrating.

Alybooboo I agree. this does suck, and i am really scared it has ruined my metabolism for good! i have been drinking TONS of green tea, it is supposed to rev up your metabolism, hopefully it will work.Also, i am going out this afternoon to look for this relacore stuff,i don't want to be looking like this when summer gets here....all my lo rise jeans look ridiculous with my belly hanging over 'em and i hate to feel like this...hope that relacore stuff works!

Hello everyone...and welcome to Rebecca! I've been fighting a cold for the last two days and to make matters worse I'm still in Phase I of the South Beach Diet...but I didn't break the cycle...I still haven't had any of the unallowed carbohydrates which has played havoc with my stomach during this illness. What I wouldn't give for some dry toast or a bowl of cereal!!!!! But only a few more days and I'll be in the all important Phase II where I can start having whole grains again...I actually dreamed about gum the other night (you're not allowed to have regular gum)...Hee Hee...how sad is THAT????!!!  The weird thing is...I'm not really having any of the overwhelming cravings that other people on those boards talk about...probably because I was already eating a lot of vegetables and not a lot of bread but when I did eat bread I tried to make it whole grains. I did eat a lot of pasta because...ta da...supposed to low in fat. Who can keep up with what you're supposed to eat and what you're not supposed to eat anymore??? Anyway...

I know...I get so mad at people who think that I gained all this weight myself without any help from the Zoloft. I just want to tell them that to gain all the weight I did I would have had to eat nothing but cheesecake and fried chicken and fries and burgers and cake and cookies every day all day...and I certainly didn't do that!!!! Do they think we WANT to look or feel like this?

I do think men lose weight easier and faster because they have faster metabolisms and they have more muscle mass than women which burns fat more efficiently.

Anyway...we'll all hang in there together and eventually we'll see some results. It's very frustrating but we just have to keep telling ourselves and those we love "It's not us...It's the Zoloft!" 

els said...
Hey snickersmom,
I didnt want to interrupt your conversation here, but I was on Zoloft for a few years and did gain some weight. I also gained in part to my being diagnosed with MS and my activity level decreased quite a bit. Anyway my point is.... That when I finally got fed up with the weight and decided to loose I went low carb. It really worked wonders for me. I ate alot of protein, vegetables and cheese. Eventually I added in whole grains, I used to be a white bread fan so getting used to wheat was really hard. Anyway, I can have macaroni and cheese and spaghetti still I just make it with whole wheat pasta and once it is cooked you cant tell a difference at all. So kudos to you for sticking to your diet. Good luck......

Thanks! It's been really hard...but I've done it. I usually try to choose whole grains even before I started the South Beach Diet...except for the pasta. I live in Texas so I think the whole wheat tortillas are going to be tough but I'll give them a whirl. I'm still in the "mad at Zoloft" phase right now...

Oh yeah I don't blame you at all for being mad at the Zoloft.  They should inform the doctors that the medication causes weight gain and have a big warning label posted.  I am Italian so going to whole wheat products was a big deal for me.  I have tried the tortillas and they are pretty good.  They are really soft and chewy. Give em' a try you may like them,  I do at least.  I cant eat white bread or pasta now as it reminds me of school glue paste.