Some ways to prevent Weight Gain on Antidepressants

Some people have already gained weight before taking antidepressants and this means that they are even in a worse situation if the drugs cause more weight gain.
Look at the literature under weight gain and psychotropic drugs, you will see the results of many studies indicating weight gain on anti-depressants, mood stabilizers and anti-psychotics. However this doesn’t mean that it has to happen.

Weight gain as a side effect of antidepressants is very ordinary and distressing. Sufferers might even stop their medicine for the reason that they have gained so much weight. Nobody has a good explanation for how these medicines increase eating. Nevertheless, people tell never feeling satisfied after a meal and constantly craving carbohydrates. They find themselves binging sometimes.

Our research at MIT, and at a Harvard University hospital weight-management center, helped us build up an effective way of preventing or reversing this weight gain. We know that serotonin, the chemical in the human brain that regulates mood, also regulates appetite. Antidepressants work only on the mood function of serotonin and may in a few way interfere with the appetite function. The answer to this, based on our research, is to increase the ability of serotonin to turn off the need to eat.

Here are simple tips that will work to stop antidepressant weight gain. Before you take the medication, learn about the drug and how much weight people typically gain on it. If the medication suggested by your physician is connected with substantial weight gain, ask if you can choose to another one. This looks clear but your doctor may not be thinking of the weight gain side effect when prescribing the drug.

1. Before beginning on the medication, get weighed and tell the number to your physician. Most psychiatrists do not have scales in their offices. Be sure your weight is recorded so while you return for follow-up visits and claim that you have gained weight, there is no dispute.

2. Learn to tell the difference between being hungry and having an appetite. Hunger is when you must eat immediately and just about any food will satisfy you. Appetite is when you feel like eating but without the urgency of hunger. Your medication will increase your appetite and leave you with the nagging feeling that you need to eat more but won’t really make you hungry. A good examination of the difference between hunger and appetite is whether you are willing to eat something you really don’t like that much. If the answer is yes, you are hungry. If the answer is no, then it is your appetite calling to you. My examination food is a protein bar. When I am really hungry, I will gobble it down. When I only have an appetite, I won’t even nibble on one.

3. Does the medicine cause your stomach to produce too much acid? Many medications will do this and the feeling is similar to being hungry. A simple examination is to take Tums, or many other over-the-counter preparation, to reduce belly acidity. If the hungry feeling goes away, then you will know it is a side effect of the medicine on your belly. Speak to your physician about long-term treatment of this.


4. Create more serotonin. This will instantly turn off your appetite, conquer your cravings and leave you feeling satisfied. The emotion is similar to having your thirst vanish after you drink enough water.

5. Serotonin is prepared after you eat some carbohydrate except the sugar in berry (fructose). When a starchy or sweet food is digested, the brain receives tryptophan, an amino acid that is used by the brain to make serotonin. Eat about 29 grams of a sweet or starchy food such breakfast cereal, pretzels, popcorn, rice or soy crackers, graham crackers or Twizzlers.


6. Eat the carbohydrate on an unfilled belly or at least two hours after you have eaten protein. Protein meals like turkey, chicken, beef, fish, cheese, yogurt and eggs interfere with the ability of tryptophan to get into the brain. If you combine protein foods with carbohydrate, as in a turkey sandwich, no serotonin will be made.

7. Switch carbohydrates that hold very little fat. Fat slows digestion and adds needless calories. Chocolate, cookies, ice cream, cake, pie crust, French fries, and chips are not good serotonin-producing snacks.

8. Avoid eating protein at dinner time if your drugs make you snack all night. By eating only a starchy carbohydrate, like pasta or a large baked potato along with vegetables for dinner, your brain will make enough serotonin to keep you satisfied and full until bedtime.

9. Do not, under any situation, go on a high protein, low carbohydrate diet. This is a diet for disaster as it stops serotonin from being made and will only increase your urge to eat and maybe binge.

10. Do exercises. The increase in serotonin brought about through eating serotonin-producing carbohydrates will increase your power. Take advantage of this and increase your physical movement, even by a few minutes every day. The combination of no more feeling a need to eat and the exercise will let you to lose weight easily or prevent you from gaining it at all.

In a word, following a diet which will increase the ability of serotonin to turn off the appetite just by inserting carbohydrate snacks into the diet should help control that nagging feeling of wanting to eat more. And once the weight starts coming off and the mood is improved, exercise is easier.