Bipolar Meds and wieght gain

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So my friend happens to be 204 Pounds at the moment and is somewhere between 5"4" and 5"6". She takes Medication for Bipolar and ADHD. I tried getting her mom to stop making take the darn things but this is all i get. "Its easier on me was she takes them." Or "Oh No, Not the way she gets."

Well honestly her mom has been brainwashed by the medication corporations. However whats the best way to lose weight on meds. Also would weighing this much count as obesity or just being 10-50 overweight. Note, She gets tired pretty easily on this things and she doesn't eat much.

A reasonable diet, and exercise, are the best way to be healthy in general. Sometimes they result in weight loss, sometimes they don't, but the goal should be health.

There are thin people who eat lots of terrible food all the time and don't exercise, and fat people who eat healthier and exercise, and the former are less healthy overall than the latter. There's no such thing as people who "get away with" eating a lot of crap and not exercising because they have a high metabolism. They don't "get away with" better health, just possible more social acceptance because fat people are judged poorly for eating stuff that's bad for you or not exercising, and skinny people are almost never judged as lazy gluttons who bring on their own health problems, even if they are far more lazy and gluttonous than most fat people. And the existence of people who can stay skinny on that amount of food shows that diet and exercise are not by any means the only factors, nor necessarily the main ones, in weight.

I have two friends, one much heavier than me, one very skinny. The one who is very skinny, used to eat more than the other two of us put together, and yet weighed less than half what I weighed. And the fattest one ate the least. I was in the middle. I'm told I mostly eat pretty healthy, but I have trouble exercising.

My physical therapist won't even let me over-exercise because she's seen me at the worst of when I've done that -- so I do light exercise varying according to how well I can function any given day, and she bugs me if I either do too much or too little for my abilities, so I know I'm not lazy. If anything I have tendencies to overdo exercise and then pay for it physically. So it's not a matter of simply "if you have arms and legs...". I know a lot of people with severe exercise-induced asthma, who get told "Oh you're asthmatic because you're fat" and they go, "Uh, no, I'm fat because I'm asthmatic." For them, breathing well has to come first and they can't do the super-vigorous exercise most other people can do. Same for people (like me) with stamina-affecting conditions, it's often as much as we can manage just to exercise enough to avoid losing more abilities.

Of course, these meds cause a lot of health problems far more serious than obesity itself (and so can the wrong kind of dieting -- including in many cases obesity is blamed for health problems that are actually the result of long-term weight fluctuations from dieting). I am, at any rate, far more frightened for my health based on the fact that some of my health conditions make it hard for me to exercises (like, at their worst, even minor things most people don't think of as exercise are impossible or cause severe problems), than I am based on being fat.

I think it probably would be considered obese medically, considering that I'm 5'2", 195 pounds, and considered obese medically. And 5'4" is only two inches taller.

Well, I mean, the only way you get fat stores in your body is by eating. And the only way you can really get rid of them besides surgery is to burn the fat off through exercise. I mean it's just physics, really. If you don't eat things that tend to be stored as fat, you won't get fat as fast. And if you exercise, the energy that is used by your muscles has to come from somewhere. If you exercise enough, it eventually has to come from fat.

I want someone to do an experiment: I want an obese person to go on a diet that is normal for his weight (and balanced and everything). Then I want that person to go into a dead sprint everywhere he goes and like... constantly lift little weights whenever idle. I guarantee that person's weight would just plummet.

A lot of the drugs for Bi-Polar are nasty. While they do work a good percentage of the time, they do have side effects. I know all about the weight gain, and it is a pain to deal with. While most of those type of drugs do work for those with a problem, if the Doc is wrong, there is a huge problem. (no pun intended)

I was called autistic by one Doc at a little over a year of age, but most of the doctors I had did not believe that I was autistic until I was much older. They tried me on many different drugs as a teen, and that led to the demise of my gall bladder. A man is not meant to eat three large pizzas and feel as if he is starving to death and hour later.

The drugs for Bi-Polar also mess with the amygdala (Sp?), that doo-hickey in the brain that controls appetite. For some reason, most of the drugs seem to cause a loss of control of appetite; and I have asked why and never been able to have a clear understanding of "why." From what I understand, the drugs interupt the brains ability to determine when enought food has been consumed, so people on them keep eating, trying to fill up. Most of the problem comes from not knowing what to eat. And that is the most important thing!

If your friend has access to a nutritionist or dietician, that would be the best bet, but if not, suggest a fiber rich diet. Only naturally occurring fiber is the best. Dark green leafy vegatables and legumes (beans, if you will) becasue they are difficult to break down in the digestive tract, and that is a good thing. Fiber is a friend, and your friend can eat as much as she wants if she picks the ones that are not calorie dense. Most of these even cook well, and can be prepared to taste better than most "bad-for-you" foods.

Also, I understand that your friend might be on a prescribed "cocktail" of meds. If she is too "stoned" to get some exercise, she should point this out to her doctor. I guess the only real suggestion I have is to be honest with the Doc. That can go a long way, well, depending on the Doc.

Yeah, exercise is a major one, and also - is the weight gain caused because the meds are increasing appetite, or is it just the meds acting on the metabolism or something? I remember when I was on an antidepressant, that it caused me to gain a huge appetite, but I didn't really notice the increase until my parents pointed it out.

However, in that case it couldn't be managed by willpower, since when I DIDN'T overeat, then I was not able to concentrate or anything, and we had finals week at school, so I had to eat a lot too much just to be present in class. But, if it's caused by an increasing appetite, she could write down everything she's eating each day, and monitor calories and stuff, since a med-induced appetite can be difficult to manage.

But yeah, exercise is very important.

I was on Paxil for two weeks, and even just that caused SUBSTANTIAL weight gain.

Weight gain on such medications is not natural, and often can't be alleviated through normal exercise (I wasn't eating much more or exercising much less during that time).


But obese people who are constantly eating junk food and sipping sodas... I don't have much sympathy for them.

I had a friend who claimed to be bipolar, she went off the meds, turned into a callous egomanic and lost no weight. bye bye.

Yeah, the meds suck, but sometimes they're necessary.
My brother's bipolar and schizophrenic, the meds made him put on eighty pounds. But at least he no longer thinks we're all demons trying to kill him, and can have a conversation without breaking down because the voices are screaming at him.
So now he's dieting and exercising regularly. It's working.
I'd try to find a better med though, one with less side effects.

Please don't recommend to a bipolar to stop their meds. It's hard enough to keep a bipolar on there meds.

Bipolar disorder is a serious condition that needs to treated by medication. A person with bipolar disorder needs support to manage their disorder. Without meds they can become manic or suffer from mixed episodes. One is characterized by euphoria, sexual promiscuity, rapid speech, delusions of grandeur and the other by violet anger, irritation amongst others. Both cause in inability to think rationally and clearly. During an upswing the person may also suffer from a psychotic break or be schizo-effective. During those episodes there is permanent damage done to the brain which also causes meds to stop working next time they go on them.

Of course after a manic phase comes sever depression. I think most people know enough about that.

Yes weight is a problem on many medications. The question is this...is their quality of life better on their meds? Are they more rational, reasonable and able to accomplish things? Can they hold down a job, enjoy stable relationships or go to school?

We stigmatize excess weight, but I wouldn't give up my meds and go back to untreated bipolarism for the world. Yes, I am overweight, but I have a job and a marriage that is worth all of that.

There are different meds out there, she can try talking to her doctor about them. But please don't recommend she go off them. It would be irresponsible of you to do that. My best day bipolar isn't as good as my worst day on my meds. Please support your friend.

Well said and there is even more to be said, it can get complicated and that's why the docs are there.

"Of course after a manic phase comes sever depression. I think most people know enough about that."

Not always. We're all different. There is a thing called unipolar too. And you can have swings within swings. And the list goes on.
Having said that there are times when searching for meds, and it can go on for many years trying to find one or more that works, you can be over medicated to the point that you need to get back to just the hell of being bipolar. Do it with the Doc and never ever let them try to convince you you should feel a certain way because the label on the pill says it should. Been there too. Sometimes the attempted fixes are worse then the BP. Be careful of generalizations. But again you are correct it is hard to keep a lot of those with BP on the meds to begin with. They tend to miss the "highs", which I never had but rarely to begin with. Obsessions? You betcha and that's why BP didn't totally fit, among other things.

And yes, there is no such thing as perfect with any med for this. And you are often left with the choices, weigh the pros against the cons.
If the med had actually worked with the weight gain I would have been left with weighing the pros with the cons.

As to the person I think you've directed this at, they've been on an anti bipolar tirade for a good long while here.

One good reason to change medication is "unacceptable side effects". Weight gain may be one of these--not because of the weight, directly, but because of why she's gaining weight. And it being easier on the parents is NEVER a good reason to medicate a kid--we all know that!

When you gain weight on meds, it's usually because they are making your metabolism slow down. That means they make it harder to use the energy you have stored, the energy you take in from your food, etc. That's what a slow metabolism is--it means you use less energy.

Trying to exercise while you are doped up on medication is very difficult because you simply do not have the reserves needed to keep up any sort of effective pace. You get tired quickly; you stay exhausted longer afterwards. You probably can't build muscle as well, either, because your body wants to conserve the energy it would use to maintain them.

All in all, it's a bad state of affairs. Forcing yourself to exercise could help you lose weight--but more realistically, it might simply make you more tired the rest of the time, keeping your weight the same.

Oh, and you know one of the best ways to prevent depression? Exercise. If you're physically active, for some reason the lethargy of depression has a harder time taking hold. This is very important if you're bipolar; but if your medication is making you so tired that exercise is difficult, you might not be able to take advantage of it.

A milder version of this effect occurs with people who are overweight. If you are overweight and constantly tired, and you're not on medication, you may be able to speed up your metabolism a little by exercising, forcing your body to use energy; but realistically, this won't really reduce weight by much because your appetite will increase along with it. That doesn't mean exercise is useless--that increased metabolism still means you have more energy and better general health. Be prepared to have to eat more to sustain it, though.

If you want to lose weight, you have to starve. Literally. This will also slow your metabolism. If you exercise AND diet, your energy levels will go way down as your body tries to get you to conserve energy because you're not taking in enough to balance output. It may be ineffective, if you slow down drastically enough; or it may be temporarily effective, at least until you can no longer fight your brain's demands that you eat, at which point you will go back to your former weight.

Percentage of diets successful: About 1%, and it's no wonder.

I do, of course, recommend diet and exercise--just not the sort that forces you to starve. If you are overweight and you want to live just as long as your healthy, skinny friends, you don't have to lose weight; you just have to increase your level of fitness and take in the proper nutrients.