Sertraline and weight gain!!!!!

[nh_user_1201045]

Okay so for the last 8 months I have trowelled the internet for some sort of success story for losing the weight that sertraline piles on for my own sanity and hope. Unfortunately I think I only found one and now mine 😀 

I was on sertraline for about a year. 40mg then 50mg then up to 100mg.. the first 6 months I put on about 10lbs but as a fitness instructor not working i accepted that as a normal change to my lifestyle. I still went to the gym 5 times a week and didn’t let my diet drop.. I’ve never been massively strict on my diet so just stuck to my normal. Then after 6 months I was put up to 100mg and that’s when the weight piled on... a whole nother stone of weight to my 5ft4 height with no more lifestyle or diet changes. So my original anxiety and depression was getting better but was then being replaced by new self hatred and anxiety about my appearance. Great!!!! 

I was getting so down about this increasing weight gain that in January I decided to stop with the tablets all together. As shallow as it sounds I’d have rather had my original problems but have the self confidence to leave the house and have those days where you look in the mirror and think

“You look alright” than the constant self consciousness and embarrassment of my size. Now I do know this sounds very extreme in feelings and the next person would take the gain for the mental improvement but it felt worse than the original! 

So I stopped cold turkey.. it’s not recommended so I’m not suggesting you do this.. I did have a few dizzy moments and headaches in the following weeks but I’d prepared myself to be in complete physical withdrawal so it wasn’t as bad as I’d been expecting. 

Off the tablets, still going to the gym, still eating well, calorie deficit on point... losing weight?? NO not an ounce not an inch not a millimetre. I can you it was my own personal nightmare. So I ramped up the workouts, cut the calories more, ate as clean as is humanly possible... lost weight? NOOOO PUT IT ON! couldn’t believe it! Went online searching for some sort of answer and help to the dilemma and all I read was the same story as mine... depressing!!!! 

So I started “pretending” to love the skin I seemed to be stuck in. “Oh well least I’m better” I’d say to my husband when he could tell I was stressing about it... and kept researching. I was still going to the gym and eating well etc etc.. holding onto blind faith it may pay off. I wasn’t better if anything i was obsessing over it slightly.. okay massively. 

GUYS IT DID!!!! Over the last 2 months I’ve lost a stone!! I haven’t changed a THING from before... so it took just over 6 months for my

Body to get rid of the fat loving rubbish and start functioning normally. So this is another success story for people googling the same as me with no answers. 

DONT GIVE UP!!! And try not to let it stress you out, easier said than done, but stay strong and keep doing all the right things. 

I really hope this helps at least someone in the same crappy situation I was in a few months ago. 

💜💜

[nh_user_1185700]

Well done you xx

[nh_user_1192916]

Hi Katie my god it was great to hear your story i thought i was going mad, i have always struggled with my weight which left me with eating disorders, and a a disease called BDD, which is body dysmorphia disorder a person that hates them self and their body, no matter what people say, in it all in the mind, i am 9 stone but when i look in the mirror i see a 15st girl i was when i was 19 ,i am 54 now, i work so hard to keep my weight off that it has now affected my health, i am on sertraline, and i thought i was going mad when i told people i was putting on weight, i feel like i got an extra tyre round my hip and bum , i am mortified, reading your story i now know i am not going ma, so thank you, only problem now is i need to come off of them like you , my weight is more important , i cant cope with the depression and anxiety another way, i am in touch with a counselling, now i just have to get rid of this spare tyre, any suggestions 

[nh_user_1201045]

I know exactly how you feel I have the same where i could be as skinny as can be but still can’t see it myself. I’ve never been diagnosed with body dysmorphia medically but I know I have a mild case of it and obviously once you do put on even a lb or two it gets worse! I didn’t get on the scales for a couple of months and just went by measurements so when they didn’t budge even though I knew I was doing everything right I felt even more crazy!!! 

I don’t have any “solutions” as such but the research I did and am still doing loosely suggests that for every mg you put into your body it takes a certain amount of time to come out and then the amount left obviously we’re topping up everyday with another dose and then the higher dose that’s left we’re topping up again and so on so the time needed to expel the drug completely then gets longer and longer (hence my panicked decision to come off them completely lol). How true this is I don’t know but it seems to have been the case with me at least. I worked out it should’ve taken about 6 months to be completely clear of sertraline and I started losing weight about 7 months in roughly. I’m not a “naturally skinny” girl and never have been so I’ve always worked hard to stay as “normal sized” as I can (honestly I can hear the dysmorphia as I type 😂&#128584 but from that, even pre medication, I know my stuff on nutrition and exercise so knew it wasn’t the bog standard GPS answer of “well maybe you’re not exercising enough, or maybe you’re mindlessly eating, not drinking enough water, etc etc etc” makes me sooooo mad that they 1 don’t warn you of this potential/highly likely weight loss and 2 when you go to them when it happens they act like it’s something you did! 

Anyway now I’m ranting... back to what I was saying... 

if you feel you still need the medication I would go to your doctor and INSIST they try you on something that hasn’t got weight gain as a common side effect, which I’ve also found a lot of but was never offered. If u don’t then go see them about coming off the meds. 

Diet wise the best thing I can recommend is slimming world (no I don’t work for them &#128514 but I’ve recommended their diet plan for years and years as you can EAT when you’re hungry and it’s not all scales and measures.. we don’t need anymore stress. There are so many recipes online literally thousands to choose from and they’re really quite tasty. 80% of changing your body fat level is diet. Just don’t give up. If the doc fobs you off go back! Be strong. I was so happy writing this post for this reason.. I spent hours reading and researching, crying thinking there’s no hope this is me now and what have I done being so weak I had to take tablets in the first place... all kinds of thoughts. No one puts up the success stories so I wanted to bring a bit of positivity into the depressing world of anti depressants 💜 hope t helped xxx

[nh_user_1192916]

Oh katie your a woman after my own heart lol shame we are not neighbours , our ones are strange not the way your thinking ha, i have decided to come off the meds for a while just to see , but i am sure they are due to my weight gain, you did make me smile , about slimfast, i have been on that for 30yrs, i won slimmer of the year on that i lost 6 stone in one year , they are my bible , so can see why i get very depressed if any drug puts weight on just like you, if i could have my jaws wired up i would though i know my hubby would have them wired up for other reasons,lol, i am scared the depression and anxiety will creep back, but i will just have to find another way to deal with it , i am waiting to see a counsellor, so thanks so much for your help, and i wish you too good health and happiness , stay in touch i would love to know how your getting on x

[nh_user_1367463]

I am sat reading this. In the exact same position. Crying because I feel physically unwell at the sight of myself.
I can’t carry on like this. I stopped the meds. They made me gain 10lb when I got upped to 100mg.
I have got fat all over. Cellulite I never had! I am bloated and look pregnant. The weather has got hot and I don’t want to leave the house looking like this.
My body dysmorphia is in overdrive.
I have googled for answers. It too you 6 months. That’s so long. I’m so sad x x x