EFFEXOR & WEIGHT GAIN
...soon after taking effexor XR I gained weight and was going bananas thinking that I was doing something wrong. Maybe my diet was off. Maybe I wasn't exercising quite enough? I don't think so.
I am a 6'4" male who has always been involved with sports and works out with weights and does cardio regularly. I have always had a fast metabolism and could usually eat whatever I wanted. I've always eaten well but never counted calories or worried about portion sizes and liked to indulge in dessert whenever I felt like it. My normal weight when I am active is approximately 215 lbs. After 6 months on effexor (with the same diet and exercise program) I gained 22 lbs!! That's alot for me but I have spoken to many other people who were alot shorter that I who gained alot more.
No matter what I did the weight never seemed to come off. As soon as I learned that many MANY other people experienced weight gain I felt relieved. It wasn't just me. Then I felt angry. Why weren't any of us told!! It is said (somewhere) that effexor does not cause weight gain compared to other SSRI's. Obviously whoever said that hasn't done enough homework. In 2004 I started my first weaning-off of effexor and decided to track my weight weekly. You can see the progress below ...
2004 Weight Stats
- January 25th - 237 lbs
- February 15th - 238 lbs --> Exercised little. Gained 1 lb
- February 29th - 242 lbs --> Exercised moderately. Why did I gain 4 lbs?
- April 4th - 235 lbs --> Exercised little in last 5 weeks and lost 7 lbs ???????
- April 11th - 232 lbs --> Exercised moderately. Lost 3 lbs.
- April 18th - 236 lbs --> Exercised Alot! Why did I gain 4 lbs?? Nothing seems to make sense?
- April 25th - 237 lbs --> Exercised moderately. Gained one more lb and after 3 months am back to starting weight!!
- May 1st - 231 lbs --> Exercised alot. Lost 6 lbs. Finally! But will it last?
- May 9th - 232 lbs --> Exercised alot & tightened up my diet. Result = gain a lb???????
- May 16th - 230 lbs --> Exercised moderately, no watching my diet. Result = lost 2 lbs????
- May 23rd - 234 lbs --> Exercised alot this week and gained 4lbs? I'm back to only 3 lbs off my starting point! FRUSTRATING!!!!
- June 13th - 234 --> Exercised moderately. Still no progress.
- July 18th - 228 lbs --> Exercised alot in past month but also ate ALOT!!?? Result = lost 6 lbs. maybe I should just eat alot from now on.
- August 15th - 228 lbs --> Did exactly the same as last month but no change. At least I didn't gain anything!
- August 29th - 223 lbs --> Exercised moderately, ate alot. Result = lost 5 lbs ???? Weird.
- October 30th - 220 lbs --> One month later. Exercised little (injury) ate alot. Result = lost 3 lbs???
- December 5th - 222 lbs --> 5 weeks later. Exercised little (injury - achilles tendonitis) ate alot. Result = gain 2 lbs.
*At this point I went back on effexor for the second time. You can see that I lost 17 lbs to come within 5 lbs of my regular weight. But between January and June I made no progress. It didn't matter what my diet and activity levels were like as there was no correlation. Only after 5 months did I start to permanently lose weight.
- Little exercise = 2 workouts per week.
- Moderate exercise = 4-5 workouts per week
- Alot of Exercise = 4-6 workouts per week with extended amounts of cardio and some hill training.
2007 Weight Stats
January 1st was my first day effexor-free. At this point my weight had gone up even higher that my first round with the drug. I was now at 249 lbs ( 12 lbs higher than last time for a total of 34 lbs higher than my normal weight) and fluctuated between 244 - 249 throughout most of the last half of 2006.
- January 1st - 249 lbs --> Not bad considering I gained only one pound after the holidays!
- January 8th - 256 lbs --> Huh! Gained 7 pounds since stopping and started back at the gym after the holidays??
- January 15th - 250 lbs --> Phew! Lost 6 lbs. Maybe there was an error with the scale last week.
- January 22nd - 258 lbs --> &%$#^&**** !!! Nothing really changed from last week? I don't understand and am depressed about it.
- January 29th - 258 lbs --> Really upped my exercise alot in past week for no results??
- February 5th - 258 lbs --> That's it. From here on I am tightening up my diet see * below. The dollar symbol ($) will represent this tight diet.
- February 12th - 259 lbs --> $ Gained one more lb after tightening my diet? Now am 44 lbs higher than my normal weight.
- February 19th - 254 lbs --> $ Good. Lost 5 lbs. Maybe the diet is working!
- March 5th - 248 lbs --> $ Didn't do much exercise at all as I had a cold but lost 6 lbs???
- March 12th - 252 lbs --> $ Back to exercising and gained 4 lbs?
- March 19th - 253 lbs --> $ Was good again this week and gained a pound.
- March 26th - 250 lbs --> $ Lost 3 lbs. Who knows why?
- April 2nd - 254 lbs --> $ Is my weight ever gonna go down? So far it's been 8 weeks on a disciplined tight diet for me and no real progress :(
- April 9th - 252 lbs --> Easter weekend and ate alot of good food and dessert. Result? Lose 2 lbs. Makes sense to me.
*At this point I decided I needed to consistently monitor and tighten up my diet so I wouldn't go nuts. I ate an egg and natural oatmeal for breakfast. Can of tuna with homemade bread and natural peanut butter with a slice of cheese for lunch. Salad or steamed vegetables with basmati rice and a good portion of chicken, beef or fish for supper and that's it! I would have one cheating day on Saturday's where I would eat pizza and a dessert. Normally I would eat that stuff (pizza) when I wanted to. This may seem like alot of food still for some people but remember 2 things: 1- I am a 6'4" male who works out regularly (4X week weights/cardio) and 2- this is a decrease of at least 500 calories/day. Normally I should be losing weight on this. ALOT of weight! (I should also tell you that in 2006 I went on vacation to a resort where I ate LOTS of buffet food morning, noon and night every day for 7 days straight and no exercise. When I came back I didn't gain a pound. My weight was stable at 248 lbs. Explain that!).
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