The Battle Continues

Well, my battle with weight continues. As I mentioned on a previous post, I seem to be getting older and larger. Ugh! I've been trying to watch what I eat and doing cardio at least 4 times a week, but it is not helping. I found this out when I went into the doctor for something minor and they asked me to step on the scale. I was actually excited, because I hadn't weighed myself in awhile and with the semi-diet and exercise, I was sure I lost some pounds. Wrong. I actually was up to 192. Holy Moly.

The shock was awful. To be working on something and have it not happen was so discouraging. What to do? I finally decided to face reality. It's not just me. It is the medication I'm on. For the last ten years I've been on Prozac for anxiety. In the beginning my weight was fine, but after all these years, and two more kids, I've reached a plateau. So,  I decided to do some research.

 

It was time for Google. I researched how to loose weight while on Prozac. Tons of articles and books popped up, and after awhile of reading, I realized they all said the same thing, basically that there was not much I could do. Yep, I was stuck.

Anti-depressant weight gain is well documented and doctors know all about it.  The problem is that there is no solution, besides going off your medicine. Some suggested trying to change to a different anti-depressant, but as I continued reading, even that didn't show great results. Research showed that small doses of anti-depressants could result in weight gain of 20-40 lbs. A larger dose, which is mine, can result in 60-100 lbs gained. Wow.

Many of the experts I researched said the same thing, the battle is in controlling the weight. The solutions mentioned included exercise (of course) and a different type of diet than the one I thought I should be on. The difference- I was told to eat carbs. Yep, the enemy. But, for those that are on anti-depressants, the medicines themselves can cause slow metabolisms, sugar cravings and late night carb (bad carb) cravings.

Evidently serotonin is highest in the morning and naturally degrades throughout the day. So, usually breakfast and lunch are fine, but those on anti-depressants have cravings in the late afternoon and evenings which cause binge eating. The articles I read suggested that you should eat proteins in the morning and at lunch, but for late afternoons and dinner you should eat healthy carbs like whole grain pastas and oatmeal. Why? Because cabs naturally boost your serotonin levels back up, reducing the chances of binge eating. Who knew?

Several of the articles I read mentioned this book- The Serotonin Power Diet by Judith J Wurtman and Nina T Fusztajer. I ordered it from Amazon and can't wait to read it. I'll do a follow up soon and let you know if things are working.