Stopped prozac - how long before weight comes off/metabolism

Wow, as a nurse I never knew about the weight gain, I have gained 20 pounds in two years, yes I have not been exercising like I usually do, but I could not figure this out. Anyway I am off prozac for a few weeks. Felt really dizzy, headace, tired etc for a while. My concern is being 47 will this weight come off. It has me more depressed than anything. How are you folks making out with the weight loss. I am determined to fix mysad moods with diet and exercise. no more pills for me. They didn't even work well anyway. It was an easy answer for my doctor and I agreed, should have known better.

nurserosie,

Late 2009 when I began taking Prozac that my weight spiraled rapidly out of of control. I was originally a big boned chubbyish 24 year old man in the 220-230 (6 foot+). After taking Prozac for several months I ballooned up to high 250s low 260s, and even after I stopped taking, I went back to lexapro and have had trouble loosing the weight and have been slowly gaining. My lowpoint actually came early this November when I had spiraled up to 285. I decided enough was enough and I ran (not walked) to an endocronlogist.
I recently found I have pre-diabetes a 5.4 rating (I believe scale of pre-diabetes) was between 5.4 - 7.0; and if you don't shape up when you are at those ratings you will likely become a diabetic w/in 5 years or so.

My advice for anyone struggling is. Try to block out negativity from your doctors, family, and friends. Many of them are convinced you want to be fat because you probably just sit around and eat too much junk food. The truth is for most of us these medication drove up our insulin resistance during and after taking them causing us to gain weight. Intially, I'd suggest trying to learn as much as you can about diabetes, and trying to eat like a diabetic would. Since I've been following a diet very low in sugars, and white/complex carbohydrates I have seen about 9 pounds of weight loss since 11/6.

Combine with cardio exercise and do the best you can. Even if you maintain or lose a couple of pounds it's better than blimping up any further. Lastly, I cannot emphasize this enough, go to an edoncronlogist and get a full workup including blood sugar and metabolism, and based on those results I would suggest seeing a professional nutritionist. I have been struggling this physically and emotionally for the past 2 1/2 years, have read many of these boards, and this is my first time posting. If anybody wants to e-mail me with suggestion or comments or just needs a friend to discuss their condition I would be more than happy to help. Good luck everyone and sorry for the gigantic posting !

Joseph Candela ***this post is edited by moderator *** *** private e-mails not allowed **
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I have been taking 20mg of Prozac for 5 years and gained 15 lbs. I have quit cold turkey and even though the withdrawals are horrible I have managed to keep off it. I weighed myself today after being off the meds for four weeks and I lost 7lbs. Don’t give your hopes up. It may just take awhile for your metabolism to jumpstart. Try taking green tea extract to help boost your metabolism.

I started taking Prozac 10 years ago. I lost 20 lbs in 20-30 days! And I didn't have any bad side effects. My appetite was just gone! It would have been the geratest thing in my life had I not been suffering from cripling panic attacs at the same time. I was skinny for about 3 years after that, and then I guess my body became used to it and I started gaining back the weight. Now, 10 years later I'm still on Prozac and I'm 20 pounds overweight. How do I get the weight off again? How does Prozac do it?

I am on prozac and my husband is on adderall, Adderall will help you lose weight for about 3 months, as your body adepts tot he changes, but if you don't live a healthy lifestyle your not gonna have that weight off for long. I started out at 390 pounds when i started on prozac, The pills i am taking are 20 mg right now, and its actually worked to get me to the point where i WILL go to the gym instead of thinking about it. I have lost over 120 pounds now because of that hard work and exercising. Each person is different, there are what? 10 posts here about weight gain, probably 100 for every 10 that have not had weight gain. Each person will have their reaction differently. To not treat your depression because of the thought of weight gain is plain stupid. I have been struggling with depression for 10 years without medication, and I'm finally feeling normal this past year. Try it out, see if it works for you if you don't like the side effects, or feel that your gaining to much weight, then change it up. All depression medication has a possible side effect of loss of weight and gaining weight, your messing with your bodies chemicals what do you expect? Just remember to each healthy and exercise. even 30 minute walks a day make all the difference.

My 17 year old daughter started taking Prozac a few months ago. She started with 20 mg and was ramped up to 40. She is feeling so much better & is thrilled to have lost about 15 pounds in the last 3 months. Hope she does not get too skinny! I'm thinking of switching from Zoloft to Prozac to help me loose weight- sounds like it affects everyone differently. Worth a try anyway.

I've been on two different anti-depressants over the last two years.  I started off with Celexa and then I realized that I was gaining weight.  Over a few months I had already gained at least 10 pounds.  It made me feel tired all the time.  I switched to Prozac at least half way through last year and felt that it was doing wonders for me.  I was  tired ALL the time though.  Much worse than when I was taking Celexa.  I gained at least 10 more pounds that year and 10 more this year.  That's a total gain of at least 30 pounds!! I've always been able to drop weight quickly and when I tried to diet while on the anti-depressants the weight would come off so slowly or just come to a stand still.  I am a college student that walks to campus and that is at least 5 miles every day, I don't binge eat.  I'm just finding that I'm really frustrated with the weight gain even though my Doctor says that Prozac should make you have a "decreased appetite".  

Not all antidepressants put weight on u. side effects for prozac is weight gain. Effexor did the opposite for me im loosing weight now. However ,antidepressants make you slow down and tired. Of course that means weight gain. so its  a struggle be over weight or depressed. wow

Guest wrote:   You are not crazy.   I went on  the generic version of Prozac for 2 years and am almost weaned-off now after a slow tapering for 3 months.   When I first went on Prozac I lost about 5 lbs. without trying.  In fact, I felt like I could eat even more calories and still lose weight.  Didn't make sense.  I thought, hey, this is a nice side-effect.  Now, in the past few months, I have gained about 10 lbs which I cannot seem to lose.  I am exercising hard, at least 1 hour per day, eating relatively healthy.  But, the weight is so stubborn.  This is VERY unusual for me.  I can usually exercise hard and the weight comes off, esp. when I am at a weight which is the highest I've ever been.  I am still within normal range (I am 5' 4  and 128lbs--but this is not normal for me) and so Drs. aren't concerned.  But, it is really frustrating!   I also have sort of a puffy face, bloated look.  I think the going on and now off the antidepressant somehow messed up my metabolism.  Just a guess. 

Hi Everyone.

I started taking prozac 20 mg, then 40 mgs, about 8 months ago. At first I noticed a little weight loss (4 lbs) but after being on it for about 6 months I noticed rapid weight gain. I'm only 5'1" and when I started taking prozac I weighed about 107 lbs. It seemed like over night I gained 10 lbs. By no means am I obese but this is a lot of weight for a person with a small frame to carry. I stopped taking antidepressants about 6 weeks ago, I've been dieting, and I hired a personal trainer. I can't seem to drop the weight. Before prozac I could very easily lose weight, but now it seems like no matter how hard I try the weight just won't come off. I feel like prozac has ruined my metabolism. Tell me I'm not crazy!

I also gained weight on prozac. First I started on a VERY low dose. I was taking 10mg every other day and it didn't affect my weight. When I increased the dose to 20 mg a day I gained about 25 pounds. I thought I gained it because I was getting older and thought maybe I wasn't eating as well. However, when I stopped taking it, the weight came off and I am back to my 118 pound regular self and feel great. My eating habits haven't really changed. I am having some trouble in my life and wonder if the prozac could help but do NOT want to gain weight so not sure what I'm going to do.

Hi Everyone,

Hey Stef. I've been on and off ssris for 2 years trying to find one that didn't cause weight gain. They all did. In between trials I would stop for a while. Each time it has taken longer for the weight gain to come off. This time I was doing well on prozac generic 20 mg. Wasn't gaining weight. I was actually losing weight. I gave 40 mg a shot and I started to gain. So after 2 weeks on 40 I stopped ( Aug 18 ). From Aug 18 til about late OCT I gained an additional 17 pounds while on NO meds. My total weight gain was  about 33 pounds. Now I'm closing in on 4 months off the meds and I'm finally starting to fluctuate which is how I lose the SSRI weight ( very odd) I lose 4 then gain 3 then lose 6 and gain 5. Not normal flucts. All this has occurred and I know it isn't because of poor eating habits or lack of excercise. My total loss is about 3-5 pounds. I have gotten within 8 pounds of my pre SSRI weight during one of my "stops" but it has been very fustrating. Everyone is different with the gain and loss.

HY!

I have the same experience! I was using prozac for about 1,5 year and i gained soo much weight!! I stop taking prozac in september, but still weight is the same, it hasn´t changed yet...i am feeling sad and also depressed beause i am only 23 and so fat...my story began when i was 5 years old and was sexual abused. I told my mum what happend to me, but she didn´t heard me...so I was on my one, food was the only frend and comfort for me. I was trying to kill myself, i was cutting myself...it was verry horrible time of my life. WHen i was soo down, i had to start AD (prozac) and then a lot of things were better. I told my mum again what happend, i went to the police, but they couldn´t do anything because there was not enought evidence..Life was better...i pass all the pain from the sexual abuse, and i start living again. But then I Gained weight for the first time. I was soo sad and i stopped using cipralex and in a few months i lossed weight. But anxioty and panic attacks came back when i was on college. So i had to start using prozac (20mg) and i again gained weight. now i hope that will be able to live without prozac and loving myself, my body, but is soo daam hard because of the abusement i often feel that i am not a good person...i am afraid of man and one day i was thinking, my fat body is a kind of safety for me, because if i am fat, man would look at me as a sexy person...i am afraid to be sexy, to be a woman, because of all the pain of abusement...

it soon be new year, my promises will be; to start loving myself, to eath healty and to loose weight...i hope that this will happen i and i am going to start a new, fresh life....

I am from Slovenia, so sorry is all the words are not correct...:)

I am sorry to hear your story. Just know you arent alone and alot have experienced pain when they were children. I did myself and never got a chance to have a good childhood. On the medication I have lost 8 pounds and have 24.5 more pounds to go. It is finally starting to come off. Slow but Ill take that.

The week before Christmas I got bronchitis & and an ear infection so I missed a week of working out. Dieting didn't go too great over Christmas, but I still ate pretty healthy.