Zoloft

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So yesterday I got put on Zoloft. I'm very nervous about gaining weight.

Has anyone ever taken it? How much weight did you gain? I've collected way too many clothes for that to happen to me.

Zoloft can cause weight loss as well as weight gain. The important thing is to keep a spreadsheet or journal to record sideffects & weight changes so that you can communicate them accurately to your doctor. Wikipedia has a full list of side effects for reference.

Zoloft actually caused me to lose weight at first, then to gain weight after about a year, so I had to be careful about tracking my weight and compensating with changes to food & exercise approaches. Just make sure to keep making healthy choices when it comes to nutrition - getting all the right nutrients will have just as big an impact as the SSRI when it comes to helping you feel better.

The weight changes that occur will be slow and small, thus easy to compensate for. The two reasons that SSRI meds can cause weight changes are: 1) as your depression/anxiety improve your appetite will return 2) because SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) increase the amount of Serotonin circulating in your entire body (not just your brain) the extra Serotonin can change the way that your Entric Nervous System works. (your entric nervous system is the nerves that control how your digestive organs - stomach, intestines... work.) These nerves are as sensitive to serotonin as those in your brain and can be stimulated by SSRIs like Zoloft.

Good luck with the new medication. It took a few months for it to start working for me, but once it did I was really glad that I stuck with it because it gave me back the ability to think clearly and work on self-help techniques (therapy, books, exercise, joining WrongPlanet...) that I would not have been able to do while in the grips of major depression and severe anxiety. I have been able to come off of it after about two years and seem do be doing ok - it pulled me out of a bad biochemical situation and gave me a chance to learn how to try and keep myself from sliding back into that situation. I hope that it works well for you too.

I was prescribed Zoloft and Risperdal when I was in the first mental hospital I went to at 12.

I think my situation is a little extreme, but I gained 50 lbs while taking them, which was only within a few months. I'm not sure if it was just the medicine having effects on my appetite and metabolism, or because it was around the time I started puberty, both, or something entirely different. I've been insecure about my body ever since. You can still see some of my stretch marks.

If you're quickly gaining weight, talk to a professional IMMEDIATELY. If it's more gradual, then it might be easier to control. I really hope you haven't scared you.

I'd say that Zoloft on average causes weight loss. It reduces your sadness, hopefully, which removes a reason to overeat.

I use my fitness pal to track calories & nutrients too. I find it really helpful, but I do try to be careful to get enough calories in every day as well as enough protein, fat, vitamins & minerals. I often forget to enter in the exercise I do...which I know leads to not getting enough calories. The brain needs fuel to work well & I try to remind myself of that. Take good care of yourself & definitely try to meet your 1770 calorie target...it is so easy to get sick from not eating enough.

Of course I don't mind you asking - yes I did loose the weight that I gained on zoloft & I did it with diet/exercise, while I was still on zoloft.

When I first started Zoloft I was about 20lbs overweight. Unfortunately my worst sideffect on Zoloft was stomach trouble, which caused me to loose 60lbs really fast. For the first 20lbs, I was ok with it, but as I kept loosing, I got scared. That's when I started using MyFitnessPal to massively increase my calory intake. It worked & I slowly stopped losing and began gaining weight. It worked so well that I regained all 60lbs within about a year...then I continued gaining (slowly - it took about three months to gain an additional 10lbs) once I had exceeded my starting weight (which was already clinically overweight) I decided I should get back into the 'normal' weight range for my height.

I also have joint problems (inflamatory arthritis) so I really relate to how you feel with your knees & you are so right keeping weight down makes a huge difference to my pain & what I can do physically.

When I decided to loose the extra weight I was carrying, I did a bunch of research into metabolism and bodybuilding. I decided to keep my approach simple:

NUTRITION
- Using MyFitnessPal, I input my physical stats & then in the 'Set Nutritional Targets' window I adjusted the 'Macronutrient Target Ratio' to achieve a minimum amount of protein that is equal to my lean body mass (weight of all your bones, organs...) mine is 105 lbs, so I want to get a minimum of 105 grams of protein in every day(when you hit 'set' on the ratio panel the protein grams will adjust accordingly in the chart above.) As a general guideline you should aim for 35-40% protien - 25-35% fat - 25-40% carbohydrate (i try to choose whole foods for my carbs whenever I can).
- I try to get at least six smaller meals & snacks in during the day (not always possible, but I try) every meal/snack should contain ample protein & fat (they digest more slowly and will keep you feeling full longer). I don't weigh/measure anything, just estimate & after a few days you will get a good sense of weather you are getting your proportions close when you enter things into MyFitnessPal later. I try to have a protein shake as one of my snacks during the day (I use a brand called vega because it has good ingredients) if you are not vegan, you may not have trouble reaching your protein goal from just regular foods though!
- I always try to keep an eye on the vitamins/minerals panels so that I can supplement in areas where I never get enough (for instance I am vegan and I cannot get enough b-12 or iron unless I supplement. So I do, these are especially important deficiencies as both can cause neurological and blood cell problems...which can both mimic depression/anxiety symptoms!)
- One final point on nutrition: avoid under eating (the old understanding of calories-in/calories out math is outdated & wrong.) Under eating triggers a metabolic state that evolution meant to protect us from starvation where your body will try every biochemical trick it can to slow your metabolism and make you feel hungry when you are not...so try to meet your minimum calorie requirement & even add extra food to compensate for any exercise you do. This will keep you in the biochemical zone that allows you to burn body fat as fuel (at a healthy rate) and build new muscle.

EXERCISE
- I stick with resistance/light weight training (instead of pure 'cardio' which mostly involves running type activities thus making my ankles/knees/back way too painful). I started out slowly & once I got comfortable with the weight/resistance exercises I was doing, I worked out an interval training routine to do the exercises which takes 20 minutes a day and gets my heart rate up as well as traditional cardio ever did.
- To learn proper form for the exercises I mentioned I bought a book that has illustrations for each exercise which shows how the muscles connect to the bones of the joints involved in the exercise (this has really helped my pain because I have been able to slowly build better muscular support in my most painful areas). The book is "The Strength Training Anatomy Workout" by Fredric Delavier & Michael Gundill. I use only an exercise mat, 10 lb dumbells, a resistance band & my own body weight to work out with.
- I also get a bit of exercise doing house/yard work.
- Finally, I try to pair exercises with routine tasks whenever I can - I do squats/lunges while I brush my teeth...etc...

I hope some of that (huge post - sorry!) proves helpful. Best of luck - I hope you feel better on all fronts really soon.

You are welcome.

I agree knee pain seems to get worse for me when I am heavier. It is a constant struggle to balance pain & fitness goals. I use ibuprofen when it's really bad and try to apply hot/cold therapy after exercise.

I know what you mean about struggling to find cloths that fit. I am very tall...most sleeves/legs are too short. It is always annoying when my weight changes because I hate shopping...I just want to keep the same cloths I have because they fit & are soft from lots of washing...

Good luck with it all - I've got my fingers crossed for you!

Update: I've been on Zoloft for 28 days if I counted right because I started taking it on the 10th of September. My size 20 jeans are feeling a bit baggy and I keep having to pull them up.

I'm also not eating as much because I'm full most of the time and get hungry at least three or four times a day. My stomach usually bothers me to the point where I can't eat without feeling sick after I eat.

I hope you start feeling the good effects of the medication soon ( took about 3 months for me). Stick with it unless you get really bad or long lasting side-effects.

For me, the stomach side-effects changed over time. One thing that I found really important to understand and remember is that SSRIs increase the amount of serotonin in your enteric nervous system (nerves that control your stomach, intestines, etc...) this can cause changes in appetite, speed of digestion, coordination of the muscles around the digestive system...all of these changes can give you the hungry/not hungry feelings and the sick after eating feeling you described so well.

For me these feelings changed over time and over all they got better, but never went away completely.

When stomach aches after eating were bad, I stopped or reduced eating things that I found too acidic (juice, soda, citrus, coffee) and I tried to eat more frequent smaller mealsthat contained lots of nutrition(nuts, seeds, leafy things, whole grains...Protein powder worked really well for me - I use one called Vega, which never upsets my stomach)

Good luck with it - Just keep eating the healthiest foods you can whenever you can manage to (when my appetitie went nuts I set a timer in my phone to remind myself to eat...it worked really well!)

I've been on Zoloft for about 5 months now buying them from generic-meds-store.com, just 50 mg, and haven't gained or lost--however. I've gotten much healthier as I've become vegetarian and began running again. And as long as I'm healthy...in both body and mind...I'm happy. These meds work differently for each individual. I hope you'll be just fine!
Good luck!