how long after stopping celexa will i lose weight

I was on citalopram for 2 years. I gained 25 pounds. I have been off for over 2 months and haven't been able to lose a POUND. I have increased my exercise and am watching what I eat. Prior to being on this horrible medicine, I would have lost weight by the increase in exercise. I am furious that I ever went on this medicine to begin with. >:( Weight gain was my biggest fear, and I shared that with the doctor. "Citalopram isn't known to cause weight gain," was his reply. By 1.5 years into it, it wasn't helping anymore anyway. Now, I'm as depressed as ever AND have 25 pounds to lose. I would LOVE to hear someone say that their metabolism eventually does go back to normal.

I was on citalopram for 1 1/2 years and gained weight gradually. It's all around my stomach and waist. I've always worked out daily and it's depressing to see the totally fat waist that I have now when I've never had this problem before. It looks like I don't even work out or watch what I eat. My work clothes pre-citalopram barely fit. I've been off of this drug for about 2 months, and I haven't seen any improvement so far. I'm trying to kick it up a notch with my workouts, but it's discouraging to see that the fat hasn't budged. I will give you all an update in a couple of months to tell you if the weight drops. Please do the same, everyone. Let's see if we can encourage each other.

Hi everyone, I'm from Holland and since 2 weeks completely off the cita. Have been on it for 4 years for depression and anxiety. was 2 years on 20 mg and 2 years on 10 mg. Last 2 weeks on 5 mg.
Have also gained weight, and even running 10-15 km's a week doesn't/didn't change it. I have now noticed a slight decrease in weight. The most fat is around my tummy. That's the biggest turn off. I have withdrawal symptoms, like weird eyeball rolling, nausea, sweating, crying, anger etc. But these symptoms are bearable so far. I hope my weight loss does continue! I am a bit sceptical, though....
I'll keep everyone informed. Stay strong everyone.

In addition to my reply; I am a 49 years 'old' female, who gained 10 kg's over the last 4 years and also developed asthma. Don't know if the last is due to the ad...

Hi everyone! An update: 

 

It has been three months now and I have lost 6.2 lbs so far of the 30 I gained while on these drugs. Everyone's experience is different, but I have just started actually losing weight due to analyzing what was really happening. 

As some of the others of you, I had been running 5K or so sometimes daily and not seeing any budging, also had been on Weight Watchers since I went off meds. All of my struggles to work it off were in vain. 

I discovered that I was having panic or anxiety attacks whenever stress or conflict occurred and had the sudden deep rooted desire to just eat, eat, eat. So even if I was running and eating healthy foods, I was still eating more than I needed. I believe the antidepressants gave me those attacks (along with frequent nightmares) and they continued after stopping the drug out of habit. I had to become aware of them and then address the underlying issue. No dieting or exercise would work, because the anxiety/panic was sabotaging everything I was trying to do, every time. I believe it was my body feeling threatened and just trying to ensure survival. 

These drugs do weird weird things to our minds, my friends! 

I finally reached a point where I knew I had to either:

A: Go insane

B: Go back on meds (not really an option, I just won't)

C: Go totally zen

I chose C and the plaguing desire to eat all the time went away with it. I have been studying and applying feng shui in my home, practicing yoga and meditation, and in general just letting go. I can't be everything, I can't do everything, but I can definitely be whatever I am, end of story. 

Like I said, everyone has their own path to find, but trying to apply principles that worked for me before the meds wasn't enough. I couldn't make the weight go away until I found out what was really making it happen. Since I'd never experienced that sort of panic-eating in my life before the meds I didn't recognize it until I really paid attention to triggers and what made me eat. 

I am more active in general and am no longer chased by the "eat now now now!" feeling. I'll keep updating until the weight is off or if something changes. 

I really hope this helps in some way. 

 

Feeling Fat... Would love to know how you are doing the switch to Cymbalta. My dr is about to change me over

I gained 40 pounds on celexa within two years (which I was only supposed to be on for 9 months for anxiety). I went from 130 to 170 and am 5,9. For the past 3-4 months I've been running and doing ciruit workouts almost everyday and trying my best to eat less and healthier,  but after not loosing anything I was really depressed about how I looked so I just came off cold turkey. It`s my 10th day without it (which before I couldn`t go a day without celexa without experiencing extreme anxiety) I am no longer anxious but the withdrawal side effects are terrible. I get cranial shocks constantly and have head aches and sometimes get so dizzy I can`t stand. Also I always feel like I'm starving - Even though I've been eating like a cow I've lost 5 pounds already! I had a really high metabolism before I started this medication and I feel as though celexa completely killed my metabolism. but as said before, I'm glad my metabolism as sped up again and that I'm loosing the weight. I definitely recommend celexa for anxiety, but the withdrawal and weight gain while on it is definitely terrible. worst withdrawal EVER. EVERRRR. 

I was 48.......5'3" and losing weight with Weight Watchers.  Hit my Lifetime goal of 141 within a year.  Had no trouble losing the weight or exercising.  At the same time I hit Lifetime I started getting panic attacks........Doc attributed it to the fact I was stressed and my oldest was graduating from high school.  Put me on 20 mg of Celexa to 'take the edge off'.  Told me I could go off in 6 mo, after that time I was feeling pretty good although it did seem like I didn't really care about anything.  Seemed so weird that I didn't even cry at my sons graduation and I'm normally a sensitive person!  Long story short, even with being on WW and exercising I seemed to put on 10 lbs with no effort.  WW leader was at a loss as she suggested adding more exercise, cutting down on fruits etc.  Couldn't cut my points as I was down to the lowest of 26/day.  Was up to exercising 80 min a day and still continued to gain.  After a year and half, I finally weaned myself off of Celexa.......took about a month but at the end I was even down to taking 1/4 of the pill every two days to avoid the side efffects of weaning.  Didn't have any problems that way.  BUT after being off the meds entirely for 5 months I still haven't lost the weight, in fact I have gained.......still being on the WW plan.  I have done research and found that these drugs do alter your Hypthalamus Pituitary glands.  Now that I'm 50 and going through menopause, I have a feeling this weight may be even harder to get back off.  As others have said, mine settled around my middle from my ribcage down to my lower abdomen.  Also in hips!  UGH. I'm with others when they say NOT to believe the Dr when they say the meds don't cause weight gain.  I would guess that over half the women in my WW group were on some kind of depression or anxiety meds and they had NEVER reached lifetime, but have been going for years.  A real cash cow for the WW organization and also the anxiety meds company!  If anyone has a magic bullet for the weight loss .........please post

I forgot to add that I did start taking a Vitamin B complex and I don't feel the anxiety or the depression that I felt before being on the meds. Don't know if being on the diet plus all the exercise was depleting my body or what. Even with the weight gain, I feel happier then I ever have...............just can't stand weighing this much with being only 5'3". Like another poster said..........I do have less bloating being off the meds. A lady at WW meetings always told me my face looked 'puffy' while I was on the meds.

This is BS. I am off citalopram( celexa, celexia or what ever the eff you wanna call it) since 2014.04.10 today is 2014.07.27 and i started to take the pills on the 3rd 04.2013 so after a year of taking it and working out on a regular basis 3-5 times a week and a 1500 net kcal diet i have gained over 35 kilos thats like what 70-75 pounds? And i have increased my workouts to daily since january 2014. And decreases my net kcal intake to 1200 and i still havent lost a single pound. I admit, i lost an inch off of my waist and maybe 1-2 inches off of my hips and thighs. But before. If i were to have such strict regimen i would have been already on a bikini fitness model contest. I am beyond rage and what not, and i just want to on a killing spree, and pretty much slaughter every single doctor who prescribed me that piece of c**p medicine. I feel so much worse, my quality of life has screwed up to the point beyond return, i cannot go to a store and buy food without anxiety of feeling judged by others as i am fat and i am not worthy of food..... And its already 7 months and no change i am on the verge of going to become anorexic and skip meals and just fight this fatness the only way i can imagine. By forcing my body to eat up the fat the pills stored up. I have read a lot about the pills and what it does to you, and apparently some people wait up to a year before they start seeing actual weight loss... I just want to give up. In a couple of days i will go to my doctor and demand lypo or something. He did this to me. So he should take it away.... And on a more serious note, i will get yet my second blood tests done, as the first ones were right before the antidepressant stopping, and check if i am not diabetic, as i do tend to get hand shakes if i do not eat for a while, and then check my thyroid, and do some test, if possible, on my metabolism. Ill let you know what my doctor will suggest.

I can 100% empathize; it is insane. Everyone (doctors) treats you like you're too weak not to gain weight but you just gain it no matter what you do. These pills do it to you, and they end up making you more depressed than you were when you started because you're so overweight!

Being overweight isn't just a "vanity" thing. It is inconvenient, uncomfortable, irritating, soul-crushing, and makes you feel physically bad.

An update from me: I stopped Celexia in February of this year after gaining 30 lbs: First 3 months, no budge. Next 3 months, 5 pounds. This past month, another 5 lbs. This week, 2 lbs. I used Weight Watchers for the first 4 months, Eat This Much for the last 2, however it wasn't going to come off until my body was ready to let it go. I still have ~20 lbs to go but I feel good about it, like it is happening and I don't have this frustrating uphill battle to get back to a weight where I feel comfortable. I think that Celexia and other antidepressants put our bodies into panic mode, which would explain the fattening.

Be very very careful with klonopin. It is xxxstremly addicting and sheer hell to withdrawl from!!!

I hadn't known about citalopram and weight gain, but something was packing the pounds back on me after weight loss surgery! I went off citalopram because I suspect it was making me go bald. It's been a week and my appetite is calming down. What frightens me is the rage. I'm crazy irritable, things that used to pass unnoticed make me so mad I'm hanging onto sanity by a thread. My old, slow mother...rage! My old, slow computer...fury! 

I'm taking St John's wort in the daytime and 5-HTP at night. Will the anger go away before it ruins my life and/or makes me kill somebody??

I recently went off Celexa after about a year if taking it. I was previously on Wellbutrin for 7 years and my anxiety got very bad out of nowhere so I was put on Celexa. I gained 25 pounds without even having my appetite or lifestyle change. I was actually eating less because I would become so uncomfortably full after a few bites of food. It was awful. I also noticed it was very hard to focus and just forming sentences took a lot of thought. It's like it slowed down my metabolism and my brain! I just switched to Wellbutrin again about 3 weeks ago. No weight loss yet, and I've been dieting and exercising. I really hope something changes soon because being this overweight is depressing on it's own.

Every other day meds is not a great idea, I have found. In May 2014 I was on 300mg Effexor, 40mg Celexa and 50mg Amitriptyline. As of Oct 1st, I am antidepressant free! It was horrible, I'm not going to lie. Take tums, omega 3 and nausea pills if you need them, those all helped me. The three weeks starting Oct 1st, when I was pill free were the worst, but now 37 days later, I'm soooooo much better. A little light headedness, but that's it. I'm not more depressed or anxif us than I was prior. And I've had times while on THREE meds, where my anxiety and depression were WAY worse! I've started psychotherpy, and am hopeful for the future with NO SSRI side effects! Hey, and I lost 4 lbs just this week!