Adderall and weight loss question

[Californiablonde]

So I went to psychiatrist last week to see if he could prescribe me something for my ADD. My first thought was to try Focalin since it works so well for easy child. psychiatrist agreed and he started me out on a low dose. I didn't like the way it made me feel. For about two hours I would be high and energetic and then it would wear off and I got anxiety because of it. I didn't like having to take it several times a day Just to ward off the bad feelings it gave me when the dosage would wear off. So I got switched to Adderall XR which lasts longer. So far it makes me have more energy and I feel more talkative. Can't really tell yet if it helps me focus cause I've just been on it one day. One good thing about it is that I have zero appetite on it. This is a definite bonus. I have been struggling to lose this Remeron weight and so far I have been very unsuccessful.

All the stress I have been under with moving and easy child going to his dad's didn't help. About a month ago my goal was to lose forty pounds. Well I cheated on my diet terribly and now I've gained even more weight. I don't know exactly how much but I feel like I must have gained an extra ten pounds. I went up a size and everything. I am disgusted with myself. I just can't seem to stick to my diet no matter how hard I try. Now that I'm on adderall I am hoping it will have an extra benefit of helping me lose weight. I am getting desperate as this is the fattest I have ever been in my life. I have been avoiding mirrors at all costs but I accidentally looked at myself in the mirror the other day after getting out of the shower and I couldn't even recognize myself. Just a year ago I was 125 pound and a size four. Now I'm probably fifty pounds heavier and I am plus sized. I am ashamed of myself. So I am hoping the adderall will help me take off this weight. I know it's not the intended side effect but right now I consider it a big plus. Does anybody have any experience with losing weight on ADHD medications? Either yourself or a family member? If it can help me focus plus make me lose weight it would be awesome.

 

[InsaneCdn]

I *WISH*... multiple years on methylphenidate and NO side effects at all - not even the (weight loss) one that I *wanted*.

Warning, though:
With appetite suppression, you MUST make sure that every calorie you DO get, is high in food value.
That means skip the really junky food - totally.
But you may be able to have... dried fruit, nuts, etc., that normally would not be part of a weight-loss diet.
The point is to get all the nutrients you need - which is critical.
You may have to make yourself eat.

(K2 has to deal with this...)

If you really want to lose that weight?
Try dropping wheat from your diet. 100% of wheat, 100% of the time... or go totally gluten-free.
THAT reduced my cravings, majorly... except for the craving for modern wheat (the most addictive stuff I've ever been on in my life!)

 

[DammitJanet]

Adderall was made as an appetite suppressant and they just found out it helped with ADD as a side effect. Years ago, and even now sometimes, you have to get a waiver to get insurance to approve the drug.

 

[LittleDudesMom]

Feeling more energy and more talkative sounds like you are having more of a "speed" effect than one that will help you with our adhd. When my son takes his adhd medications, they make him calm and focused/reflective not more hyper and energetic. Have you been diagnosis'd with adhd by a doctor? I don't see it listed on your sig.

Don't be so hard on yourself because of your weight gain. Dealing with the stress you've been under the last couple months can create havoc on your physical health. Stress is a difficult thing to deal with health-wise.

*Sharon

 

[busywend]

Well, } have taken Adderall before. It helped my brain tremendously. I got so focused and felt.....smarter on it. I did have that appetite supressing side effect. However, at night after it wore off....and even worse when I stopped taking it for good.....i got SUPER hungry...like obsessed hungry. I am convinced this is why my difficult child is so overweight...she no longer takes it since she is not in school. But she is 100 lbs overweight. I do think the medication has a lot to do with that.

 

[Californiablonde]

I have never been formerly diagnosed with ADD but I have been getting a lot of complaints this year at work that I am spacey and out of it. I am paranoid it is going to affect my job because several people have complained to my supervisor about me. The part I don't get is that For the last 40 years I have never had a problem. All the sudden this year, at 41, I am getting complaints left and right. So why now and not before? I have no idea why I have been at this job for seven years and never gotten any complaints about it till now. But my psychiatrist agreed to put me on something to see if it would help. The last thing I need is to have my job be in jeopardy. I love this job and would be devastated to lose it. So I am trying out adderall. I feel great on in for about eight hours then when it wears off I get irritable and anxious. So that's the bad part about it. When it's still in my system and working I have lots of energy and I get my work done much faster. Plus I don't feel like eating. So I am going to put up with the side effects for now in hopes that it will help me.

 

[Californiablonde]

Well the weight loss side effect didn't last long. It's been a week and I'm already immune to it. I still feel hungry now and I feel like eating all the time. Going to try and lose this weight on my own. I am even more determined now that my former best friend just bragged about being super skinny and being able to eat whatever she wants. She admitted to saying it on purpose to upset me because she knows how self concious I am and she wanted to get back at me. Well it worked. Feeling even more fat than usual and now I'm even more desperate to take this weight off.

 

[greenrene]

And you're talking to the ***** because??? That was low. Just because she's super skinny and can eat whatever she wants, doesn't mean she's HEALTHY. And HEALTHY is the goal.

 

[Californiablonde]

She is a former best friend who deleted and blocked me about a year ago due to a little disagreement. Recently she unblocked me for some unknown reason, and responded to me on a mutual friend's post. She went off on me saying a bunch of negative stuff about me. Said my kids were never really her godkids cause I never put it in writing. Told me both my kids were going to turn out to be drug addicts and my daughter was going to end up pregnant at sixteen. Threw my weight gain in my face. Said the most terrible things to me. And we had been best friends for twenty five years. Well her bragging is making me more determined than ever to lose this **** weight. I was already pretty **** desperate but what she said to me really hurt my feelings and now I want to lose this weight extra bad.

 

[1905]

CB- I am so sorry you are feeling this bad about your weight. It's not right, you're beautiful. Please......I don't know you but I know a lot about this issue. Love yourself, do nice things for yourself, keep a journal, draw, make time for you. Don't hang around anyone who makes you feel bad in any way. That person is certainly no friend of yours.

The weight is going to come off slowly, don't even get on your scale. Just do your best each day. Things don't happen overnight. Listen to your body. I had my own weight issues and wasted so much of my life obsessing over every calorie and it was torture. Don't go down that road, live your life, you know the right thing to do, love yourself. Don't compare yourself with others, there will always be someone skinnier than you...you have to fake it until you make it. ((HUGS))

 

[InsaneCdn]

Be like the farmer who got kicked by the donkey... just consider where it comes from.

From HER? comments are worth less than she is.

 

[Californiablonde]

It's just hard when I weighed 50 pounds less a year ago. I am not used to being this overweight. I maybe had twenty five or so pounds to lose after easy child was born but never as much as 50. And I was in my twenties when I had him so losing the weight back then was much easier than it is now. I know I need to lose the weight slowly to keep it off but I'm just really impatient!

 

[InsaneCdn]

Skip trying to "lose" weight.
Focus on doing what is healthy... healthy activities, healthy sleep habits, healthy eating habits - not just the calories going in, or even the quality of those calories, but the 5Ws of eating... what, where, when, why, and (with) who(m). Sometimes, "how" matters too.

Single biggest weight-gain trigger is not getting sufficient quantity of quality sleep - you MUST have both.
When my weight goes back up... it's because I'm not sleeping well.

 

[DDD]

Ditto, Insane. DDD

 

[nerfherder]

Absolutely on the "getting enough sleep." Giving someone advice on "how I lost 50 lbs in 5 years" is not going to help you _now._ So I'm just going to offer you my best wishes, and I know you'll put the energy you were putting into stress towards making yourself healthy by any path, not just numbers on a scale. Uh, did that make any sense?

 

[Californiablonde]

Well I used to sleep good with my Remeron but the Remeron is what made me gain the weight in the first place. I finally went off it and now I'm struggling to lose. I just got so used to eating so much on the Remeron that my eating habits have become really hard to change. Now I'm hungry all the time and I want to eat a bunch of stuff that's not good for me. Saphris knocks me out for a a few hours but then I wake up and can't get back to sleep for hours. So yeah I'm not sleeping good either but the only medication I've found to help me is what caused the weight gain. So I feel hopeless.

 

[InsaneCdn]

I just got so used to eating so much on the Remeron that my eating habits have become really hard to change.

Find ways to get the same "volume" and "weight" of food - with less calories.
I've been told - and for me it seems to be true - that our stomachs come with weigh scales...

Find ways to add filling low-calorie stuff to every meal - and make sure you get your protein and fat spread out over the day because those add weight.

 

[Californiablonde]

I am not much of a fruit person but I do like broccoli and green beans with my no calorie spray butter. So I think I will buy some veggies and eat those for late night snacks instead of the chips and dry cereal I have been eating. I need to do something ASAP before my weight continues to get out of hand.

 

[DammitJanet]

Have you ever tried edamame? I hadnt before the other week after I kept hearing about it on the food channel. I finally went out and bought some. You can get it either in the pod or out but I got it in the pod because it took more time to eat...lol. It sounds not so good if you actually think about what it is but it actually tastes pretty darned good! They sprinkle sea salt on it.

 

[Californiablonde]

Sounds good, Janet. I will ask for it at the store.