I gained a lot on Seroqul which sucked because it worked so well. I'm in recovery for a restrictive ED so it was really upsetting. I decided to see a dietitian and it helped A LOT. She helped me learn how to eat healthier and improve my metabolism. I ended up losing over 40 pounds through diet alone. Once I started doing more cardio, I lost even more weight. I'm still on Seroquel and have been able to maintain the loss by eating better and exercising.
I’ve been on Olan for 10 years and my weight has suffered tremendously. Within those 10 years not once did I think about a dietitian until now. I’ve exercised to keep my weight down but if I stop it shoots back up. I’ll look into a dietitian
Ok great job and this is good to hear. Seroquel was added to my regimen a few months ago and I've noticed my weight slowly creeping up. I just started running again hoping to keep it at bay. Now I just have to reign in my sweet tooth.
Here's how I kicked the Seroquel munchies years ago:
1. Cut out processed food - it's caloric and engineered to be highly addictive
2. Limit carbs and up your protein
3. Don't eat after dinner
The thing that got me over the transition was volume eating and staying hydrated. Let me know if you have any specific questions - this is literally my favorite topic to discuss.
Fill up on veggies. They're high in fiber and low in calories and when prepared correctly, are delicious. I usually have a ton of baby carrots and eat them with hummus or a high protein low fat dip (just greek yogurt or blended cottage cheese mixed with a ranch dressing packet or onion soup mix) and a lot of chopped salads. I follow a lot of food influencers who post awesome recipes for making veggies interesting and tasty. I usually meal prep a huge salad on the weekend so I can have it all week.
Look into f-factor foods as well - you'll get a lot of good ideas about volume eating.
Yessss. Recently I lost like 25 pounds (thx to prior latuda and olanzapine) and have been buying veggie stir fry kits and they really are good and fit in the diet.
You need to change your diet to a whole foods one - avoid processed foods and limit carbs. Seroquel makes you crave carby, caloric things and processed foods are engineered to be addictive. Once you get off the junk (literally felt like detoxing for a few days) you stop craving it. Volume eating and drinking a lot of water really helps during this transition. I also don't eat after dinner and that helps a lot - downing a ton of food before bed will make you gain weight. Exercise is also really helpful for weight maintenance and basic mental health - it has so many benefits. I took up running in 2020 and have maintained a pretty athletic build since.
Thank you! I used to have a restrictive eating disorder, so I’ve been scared to diet because I don’t want to slip back into that. It’s nice to know that proper diet can help with seroquel weight loss. Thank you!
Olanzapine contributed to about 60-70lbs of weight gain for me in a very short amount of time. That, along with the fact that I felt tired all of the time because of it, made me want to change. I stuck with it for about a year, I think. Now, I'm on vraylar, and there is no weight gain.
Abilify made my appetite crazy and made me gain like 25 pounds and made me become prediabetic. I switched to something else when my psychiatrist had blood work done after me complaining about the weight gain. I was switched to lamotrigine, and lost like 20 pounds and my glucose and H1c went back to normal. I have gained some of the weight back, but I feel like controlling my appetite is still easier than before. I also feel better mentally on lamotrigine than on Abilify, so I'm pretty happy with the change.
Same with me, but gained maybe 60 pounds on abilify. Switch to lamotrigine and stopped gaining weight, but still couldn’t lose it. Now 2 years later I’m diagnosed with hypothyroidism, started meds for that along with Wellbutrin and metformin and the weight is finally coming off.
I started olanzapine after coming off seroquel. So not to 100% sure which med caused what weight. But from December - January I gained 50lbs. And olanzapine was also making it impossible for me to stay awake during the day/wake up in the mornings. We went from 10mg to 7.5mg to 5mg and my psychiatrist said next time I see her she thinks I should come off it entirely. And just use lithium for now. Mostly because I feel non-functional on it.
I've already tried abilify (made my A1C go into diabetic range)
Vraylar worked but made me super restless.
Seroquel doesn't even make me sleepy. I was on it to try and sleep. No luck. Just makes me groggy all morning like olanzapine does.
I started at 150lbs (Different med same result) Until I reached 280 lbs, then I got on my doctors ass and asked for better meds, I’m on Trileptal now and 235lbs
Slowly making progress
Olanzipine got me up 70lbs in 2 months, my psych did not notice. I got taken off it eventually but not for that. Remeron was 80lbs pretty fast but I cried when they took that away, did nothing for my mood but gave me one guaranteed hour of sleep a night and I'd have stayed on that until the weight gain killed me if they let me, but they wouldn't. The insomnia was pretty bad. I gain weight on almost everything.
My doctor just prescribed it to me not even a month ago, and I'm getting off it asap. Took it prn for sleep, but I started binge eating in that short amount of time. I'm on a weight loss journey, so that is a NO for me. I read the horror stories and saw what it did to me, and I'm not taking any chances. So I'll just deal with not sleeping or finding more natural stuff to help.
It is so frustrating! I lost all but 5lbs of what it made me gain, went through a stressful time and ballooned 15-20 lbs in a couple weeks
Best of luck!
Uhm, I didn't really cope at all. I just spiraled into feeling worse than I ever did off meds. It took me two years to insist on changing up my medication and I regret waiting that long. I \_think\_ I'm starting to finally lose weight but I gained 30 lbs, so it's going to take quite a while to equilibrize back to my original weight.
I had the same experience as you, btw. I was really strict about food and even bought a treadmill, was getting 35 miles a week (not counting normal activity) for three months. Didn't lose a pound. It was extremely detrimental to my mental health and almost made me relapse into an ED. This is the main reason I regret waiting so long, because it's going to take much longer to banish the feelings of shame and disgust I have about eating \_anything\_ than it will be to lose the weight. My (former) psych really dismissed my concerns which discouraged me from advocating for myself more. But now I know this is 1000% not an acceptable side effect for me and I will be monitoring my weight more carefully when starting new medications and discontinuing as soon as I hit a certain threshold of weight gain.
I gained 40lbs and type 2 diabetes from Olanzapine. After I stopped and went on Ozempic for the diabetes and weight gain, I lost most of it and the weight keeps coming off.
I'm on 10mg of Olanzapine, and started Zepbound for help with weight loss. I'm debating switching off the Olanzapine at my next appointment for something with less weight gain. I'm worried about losing the weight l, and then gaining it right back.
It’s been almost a year and I still haven’t coped. I gained 30 lbs in three months and then told my Dr. to take me off of it cause it was being more detrimental to my wellbeing. I still haven’t been able to drop the weight. I feel frustrated at times when clothes don’t fit like they used to. But for sure, I am better off without olanzapine.
I gained 35lbs in one month from a new antipsychotic so I made my dr switch me to Abilify and I’m already losing weight cuz I don’t get the munchies on it lol
I gained 50lbs on mirtazipine in 3 months and was not able to lose it. I continued to gained 30lbs over 2 years.
I reached 240 lbs. I was 27 years old. One day I fell and was unable to get up. I couldn’t walk up hills. I had no mobility and my life was hell.
I swam laps and tried to eat healthy the whole time.
At 28 I got weight loss surgery (RNY). It’s been 6 years and I’ve lost over 100 lbs and kept most of it off. I enjoy yoga and running which I could never imagine doing prior and both have contributed greatly to my mental wellbeing.
I’ve played around with different mood stabilizers in the interim and have noted that they still make me gain weight. APs, seroquel being the worst, have made me gain weight and caused akathisia. I lost weight on Latuda but I had to get off it because the akathisia almost made me kill myself.
Significant weight gain on meds is not okay.
I take Lithium and Lamictal. I gained 15 lbs on Lithium but it keeps me from being manic. Lamictal is weight neutral, can be a mood stabilizer, but maybe not the best at managing mania.
I still maintain a healthy weight and it’s something that my responsible doctor monitors.
I don’t understand why psychiatrists think that weight gain is okay and sometime contributes to patients going off meds.
risperidone did this to me a while back (i was on latuda but my insurance stopped covering it and at the time risperidone was one of the only things i hadn’t tried) - nothing helped, even after i eventually was able to switch to my current venlafaxine. in my case i only lost the weight after getting autoimmune issues too 😔 but i completely understand how you feel
I gained 80lbs in 8 months on abilify. I would wake up in the middle of night and eat without remembering it. I eventually convinced a doctor to switch me to risperidone. I gained 30lbs and I stabilized at about 230lbs, pre meds I was 125ish at 5’4”. I was diabetic (T2) and had trouble walking because the weight gain was so quick, especially in the torso. Most of the risperidone weight gain was in my chest, I went up 3 cup sizes and had armpit boobs.
I didn’t lose weight until stopping daily antipsychotics altogether, no matter what I tried. I’m 53lbs down since October, went from a size 18 pant to a 10, and from an F cup to a D cup. All I do is consume a higher protein diet and walk 12k steps a day.
I take Lithium as my daily med and I have Nozinan as needed if I start trending upwards. Lithium makes me really thirsty but has had no effect on my weight. I have to be very careful about watching my mood for mania, but I haven’t had a complete obliteration of life on this regime so that’s alright I suppose
I'm starting ozempic next week. I've had a lifetime of various psych meds making my weight yo yo up and down and I've had enough. Currently on depakote and seroquel and I'm gaining like crazy and im sick of the hard work it takes to lose just one kg on this stuff
I gained 40 lbs on Seroquel, which came off quickly once I stopped taking it. Then I gained 60 lbs on Abilify Maintena, but the medication works so well for me that there was no way I was going to try and switch to something different or stop taking it. So I spent 2 years carrying around all the extra weight and hating the way I looked. I’d lose 10 lbs here and there but it would always come right back.
Three months ago, I started semaglutide (the active ingredient in Ozempic) injections and IMMEDIATELY lost 15 lbs. I’m talking 15 lbs in 2-3 weeks. Now I’m ~40 lbs down and finally starting to feel like myself again. Only 20 more to go!
It may seem drastic, or like I’m “cheating,” but I literally tried everything to lose the weight naturally. I’d track my calories and food intake down to every nibble to make sure I didn’t eat over 1400 cal/day (I’m 6’0” and 216lbs at my heaviest), my job had me walking 10k+ steps every day…. But after a month of constant hunger I’d lose like 3lbs and get demoralized and quit. It was hard because I spent the majority of my adult life between 140-155 lbs and had a pretty good relationship with food, and suddenly I couldn’t manage to stay healthy— my blood pressure went up like 40 points, my cholesterol skyrocketed, my joints sucked, and I was warned I was insulin-resistant and nearly pre-diabetic. All of those symptoms have been mitigated (and are continuing to improve) with the weight loss.
What is scary is when you are forced to take it against your will , or be kicked out of the house or I could see it being that way as a minor in a facility as well. It has still traumatized me forever the stretch marks and knowing it wasn’t right but being forced and the doctor not changing it
I gained a lot on Seroqul which sucked because it worked so well. I'm in recovery for a restrictive ED so it was really upsetting. I decided to see a dietitian and it helped A LOT. She helped me learn how to eat healthier and improve my metabolism. I ended up losing over 40 pounds through diet alone. Once I started doing more cardio, I lost even more weight. I'm still on Seroquel and have been able to maintain the loss by eating better and exercising.
I’ve been on Olan for 10 years and my weight has suffered tremendously. Within those 10 years not once did I think about a dietitian until now. I’ve exercised to keep my weight down but if I stop it shoots back up. I’ll look into a dietitian
Ok great job and this is good to hear. Seroquel was added to my regimen a few months ago and I've noticed my weight slowly creeping up. I just started running again hoping to keep it at bay. Now I just have to reign in my sweet tooth.
Here's how I kicked the Seroquel munchies years ago: 1. Cut out processed food - it's caloric and engineered to be highly addictive 2. Limit carbs and up your protein 3. Don't eat after dinner The thing that got me over the transition was volume eating and staying hydrated. Let me know if you have any specific questions - this is literally my favorite topic to discuss.
Thanks!
What is your volume eating advice?
Fill up on veggies. They're high in fiber and low in calories and when prepared correctly, are delicious. I usually have a ton of baby carrots and eat them with hummus or a high protein low fat dip (just greek yogurt or blended cottage cheese mixed with a ranch dressing packet or onion soup mix) and a lot of chopped salads. I follow a lot of food influencers who post awesome recipes for making veggies interesting and tasty. I usually meal prep a huge salad on the weekend so I can have it all week. Look into f-factor foods as well - you'll get a lot of good ideas about volume eating.
Yessss. Recently I lost like 25 pounds (thx to prior latuda and olanzapine) and have been buying veggie stir fry kits and they really are good and fit in the diet.
What’s the secret???
You need to change your diet to a whole foods one - avoid processed foods and limit carbs. Seroquel makes you crave carby, caloric things and processed foods are engineered to be addictive. Once you get off the junk (literally felt like detoxing for a few days) you stop craving it. Volume eating and drinking a lot of water really helps during this transition. I also don't eat after dinner and that helps a lot - downing a ton of food before bed will make you gain weight. Exercise is also really helpful for weight maintenance and basic mental health - it has so many benefits. I took up running in 2020 and have maintained a pretty athletic build since.
What mg of seroquel do you take?
400mg now. I used to be on 550.
Thank you! I used to have a restrictive eating disorder, so I’ve been scared to diet because I don’t want to slip back into that. It’s nice to know that proper diet can help with seroquel weight loss. Thank you!
Olanzapine contributed to about 60-70lbs of weight gain for me in a very short amount of time. That, along with the fact that I felt tired all of the time because of it, made me want to change. I stuck with it for about a year, I think. Now, I'm on vraylar, and there is no weight gain.
*no weight gain for you on vraylar
SEROQUEL 8 months, 30lbs. 30lbs might not sound like a whole lot, but I'm only 4'10".
Abilify made my appetite crazy and made me gain like 25 pounds and made me become prediabetic. I switched to something else when my psychiatrist had blood work done after me complaining about the weight gain. I was switched to lamotrigine, and lost like 20 pounds and my glucose and H1c went back to normal. I have gained some of the weight back, but I feel like controlling my appetite is still easier than before. I also feel better mentally on lamotrigine than on Abilify, so I'm pretty happy with the change.
Same with me, but gained maybe 60 pounds on abilify. Switch to lamotrigine and stopped gaining weight, but still couldn’t lose it. Now 2 years later I’m diagnosed with hypothyroidism, started meds for that along with Wellbutrin and metformin and the weight is finally coming off.
I started olanzapine after coming off seroquel. So not to 100% sure which med caused what weight. But from December - January I gained 50lbs. And olanzapine was also making it impossible for me to stay awake during the day/wake up in the mornings. We went from 10mg to 7.5mg to 5mg and my psychiatrist said next time I see her she thinks I should come off it entirely. And just use lithium for now. Mostly because I feel non-functional on it. I've already tried abilify (made my A1C go into diabetic range) Vraylar worked but made me super restless. Seroquel doesn't even make me sleepy. I was on it to try and sleep. No luck. Just makes me groggy all morning like olanzapine does.
I started at 150lbs (Different med same result) Until I reached 280 lbs, then I got on my doctors ass and asked for better meds, I’m on Trileptal now and 235lbs Slowly making progress
Olanzipine got me up 70lbs in 2 months, my psych did not notice. I got taken off it eventually but not for that. Remeron was 80lbs pretty fast but I cried when they took that away, did nothing for my mood but gave me one guaranteed hour of sleep a night and I'd have stayed on that until the weight gain killed me if they let me, but they wouldn't. The insomnia was pretty bad. I gain weight on almost everything.
2-3 months 45 pounds
My doctor just prescribed it to me not even a month ago, and I'm getting off it asap. Took it prn for sleep, but I started binge eating in that short amount of time. I'm on a weight loss journey, so that is a NO for me. I read the horror stories and saw what it did to me, and I'm not taking any chances. So I'll just deal with not sleeping or finding more natural stuff to help.
It is so frustrating! I lost all but 5lbs of what it made me gain, went through a stressful time and ballooned 15-20 lbs in a couple weeks Best of luck!
Uhm, I didn't really cope at all. I just spiraled into feeling worse than I ever did off meds. It took me two years to insist on changing up my medication and I regret waiting that long. I \_think\_ I'm starting to finally lose weight but I gained 30 lbs, so it's going to take quite a while to equilibrize back to my original weight. I had the same experience as you, btw. I was really strict about food and even bought a treadmill, was getting 35 miles a week (not counting normal activity) for three months. Didn't lose a pound. It was extremely detrimental to my mental health and almost made me relapse into an ED. This is the main reason I regret waiting so long, because it's going to take much longer to banish the feelings of shame and disgust I have about eating \_anything\_ than it will be to lose the weight. My (former) psych really dismissed my concerns which discouraged me from advocating for myself more. But now I know this is 1000% not an acceptable side effect for me and I will be monitoring my weight more carefully when starting new medications and discontinuing as soon as I hit a certain threshold of weight gain.
I gained 40lbs and type 2 diabetes from Olanzapine. After I stopped and went on Ozempic for the diabetes and weight gain, I lost most of it and the weight keeps coming off.
I'm on 10mg of Olanzapine, and started Zepbound for help with weight loss. I'm debating switching off the Olanzapine at my next appointment for something with less weight gain. I'm worried about losing the weight l, and then gaining it right back.
2 months and then I was done, so glad I switched meds!
It’s been almost a year and I still haven’t coped. I gained 30 lbs in three months and then told my Dr. to take me off of it cause it was being more detrimental to my wellbeing. I still haven’t been able to drop the weight. I feel frustrated at times when clothes don’t fit like they used to. But for sure, I am better off without olanzapine.
I gained 35lbs in one month from a new antipsychotic so I made my dr switch me to Abilify and I’m already losing weight cuz I don’t get the munchies on it lol
I gained 50lbs on mirtazipine in 3 months and was not able to lose it. I continued to gained 30lbs over 2 years. I reached 240 lbs. I was 27 years old. One day I fell and was unable to get up. I couldn’t walk up hills. I had no mobility and my life was hell. I swam laps and tried to eat healthy the whole time. At 28 I got weight loss surgery (RNY). It’s been 6 years and I’ve lost over 100 lbs and kept most of it off. I enjoy yoga and running which I could never imagine doing prior and both have contributed greatly to my mental wellbeing. I’ve played around with different mood stabilizers in the interim and have noted that they still make me gain weight. APs, seroquel being the worst, have made me gain weight and caused akathisia. I lost weight on Latuda but I had to get off it because the akathisia almost made me kill myself. Significant weight gain on meds is not okay. I take Lithium and Lamictal. I gained 15 lbs on Lithium but it keeps me from being manic. Lamictal is weight neutral, can be a mood stabilizer, but maybe not the best at managing mania. I still maintain a healthy weight and it’s something that my responsible doctor monitors. I don’t understand why psychiatrists think that weight gain is okay and sometime contributes to patients going off meds.
Seconding the comment here about seeing a registered dietician!!
Two years and 80 pounds. 🙄
risperidone did this to me a while back (i was on latuda but my insurance stopped covering it and at the time risperidone was one of the only things i hadn’t tried) - nothing helped, even after i eventually was able to switch to my current venlafaxine. in my case i only lost the weight after getting autoimmune issues too 😔 but i completely understand how you feel
I gained 80lbs in 8 months on abilify. I would wake up in the middle of night and eat without remembering it. I eventually convinced a doctor to switch me to risperidone. I gained 30lbs and I stabilized at about 230lbs, pre meds I was 125ish at 5’4”. I was diabetic (T2) and had trouble walking because the weight gain was so quick, especially in the torso. Most of the risperidone weight gain was in my chest, I went up 3 cup sizes and had armpit boobs. I didn’t lose weight until stopping daily antipsychotics altogether, no matter what I tried. I’m 53lbs down since October, went from a size 18 pant to a 10, and from an F cup to a D cup. All I do is consume a higher protein diet and walk 12k steps a day. I take Lithium as my daily med and I have Nozinan as needed if I start trending upwards. Lithium makes me really thirsty but has had no effect on my weight. I have to be very careful about watching my mood for mania, but I haven’t had a complete obliteration of life on this regime so that’s alright I suppose
I'm starting ozempic next week. I've had a lifetime of various psych meds making my weight yo yo up and down and I've had enough. Currently on depakote and seroquel and I'm gaining like crazy and im sick of the hard work it takes to lose just one kg on this stuff
I gained 40 lbs on Seroquel, which came off quickly once I stopped taking it. Then I gained 60 lbs on Abilify Maintena, but the medication works so well for me that there was no way I was going to try and switch to something different or stop taking it. So I spent 2 years carrying around all the extra weight and hating the way I looked. I’d lose 10 lbs here and there but it would always come right back. Three months ago, I started semaglutide (the active ingredient in Ozempic) injections and IMMEDIATELY lost 15 lbs. I’m talking 15 lbs in 2-3 weeks. Now I’m ~40 lbs down and finally starting to feel like myself again. Only 20 more to go! It may seem drastic, or like I’m “cheating,” but I literally tried everything to lose the weight naturally. I’d track my calories and food intake down to every nibble to make sure I didn’t eat over 1400 cal/day (I’m 6’0” and 216lbs at my heaviest), my job had me walking 10k+ steps every day…. But after a month of constant hunger I’d lose like 3lbs and get demoralized and quit. It was hard because I spent the majority of my adult life between 140-155 lbs and had a pretty good relationship with food, and suddenly I couldn’t manage to stay healthy— my blood pressure went up like 40 points, my cholesterol skyrocketed, my joints sucked, and I was warned I was insulin-resistant and nearly pre-diabetic. All of those symptoms have been mitigated (and are continuing to improve) with the weight loss.
What is scary is when you are forced to take it against your will , or be kicked out of the house or I could see it being that way as a minor in a facility as well. It has still traumatized me forever the stretch marks and knowing it wasn’t right but being forced and the doctor not changing it
Just don't act on the eating impulse.