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Avoiding Weight Gain While Taking Antidepressants
Antidepressant medications can return a quality of life stolen by depression, but these medications are not without side effects. One such side effect weight gain affects about a quarter of patients who use antidepressants.
Although some antidepressant medications are less likely to cause weight gain, your doctor will likely want to try the medication that is most likely going to work well with the fewest overall side effects. Although weight gain is unpleasant, controlling depressive symptoms is rightly given first priority in any medication selection process.
Which Medications Cause Weight Gain?
Drugs from all major classes of antidepressants (MAOIs, tricyclic antidepressants and SSRIs) can cause weight gain. Weight gain is one of the more common side effects of this type of medication therapy. With SSRIs, weight gain may be more likely to occur after six months or more of consecutive use.
Why Do Antidepressants Cause Weight Gain?,
There are a number of reasons why antidepressants cause weight gain. Some people, who found that depression reduced appetite, find that with depressive symptoms remission comes a renewed appreciation and enjoyment of food. These people may regain weight lost during a period of active depression and, from a renewed zest for life, actually gain additional weight due to overeating.
Antidepressants can also result in the following, leading to weight gain:
Stimulated appetite
Reduced metabolic rate
Cravings for sugary or starchy foods
How to Maintain a Healthy Weight on Antidepressants
Although antidepressant medications commonly induce weight gain, there are steps that you can take to minimize or eliminate this occurrence, such as:
Asking your doctor whether a dose reduction is possible. Taking less of any medication can reduce the likelihood and severity of negative side effects.
Asking your doctor whether a change of medication is possible. If you find the side effects of any one antidepressant difficult to tolerate (including weight gain) you should discuss the possibility of switching to another medication. There are a variety of similar antidepressants and it can take some trial and error to match the right medication to any individual patient.
Incorporating exercise into your weekly routine as soon as you begin taking antidepressant medications. Exercise has been clinically proven to help buoy mood (working as well as antidepressants in some studies) and has benefits for those in recovery from depression that far exceed weight control. Regular vigorous sessions of exercise can help control appetite, increase metabolism and potentially reverse the weight gain effects of antidepressant medications.
Eat well, but sensibly. Realize that weight gain is a possibility and strive to eat nutritious foods within a total daily caloric intake that keeps you at a healthy weight. You dont need to wait for extra pounds to start eating better!
Realize that Mental Health Comes First
While it is frustrating for most people to gain weight as a side effect of medication, remember that your primary goal is to treat your depression. Once you have that under control, you will be able to return to your preferred weight with a little attention to proper diet and exercise.
Here are some things to keep in mind if you are taking antidepressants:
1. When taking an antidepressant, you may or may not experience weight gain. Significantly, most people do not.
2. If you find that your medication causes weight gain, take proactive and healthy steps to maintain a healthy weight.
3. Do your best, but dont despair about a few extra pounds. If the medication helps you to feel better, then 10 pounds here or there are the least of your worries. If you cant fight weight gain, concentrate on staying as healthy as you can and worry about losing that weight down the road.
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