Medication and Weight Gain

H

hanabi

New member
I'm on some new medication that supposedly causes weight gain.

So my question is: when weight gain is listed as a possible side effect, does it mean that the actual medicine will just cause you to gain weight?

Or does it mean that the medicine just increases your appetite or decreases awareness or something so people who aren't watching their intake would gain weight?

It's not like the medicine has calories in it, right? So I don't know how just a pill could cause weight gain. Unless there's something more complicated going on with the body that I don't know about....?

Thanks so much for any answers!! I'm very curious.
 
I always wondered this too.

From John Hopkins:

The reasons why some medications cause weight gain are not always clear, but in many cases a drug increases appetite or makes people crave certain foods. For example, the weight gain associated with the use of insulin is probably due to the fact that insulin can lead to periods of hypoglycemia, which stimulates appetite. Some drugs alter metabolism, causing the body to burn calories more slowly or to store fat. Some corticosteroids, for example, make the body less able to absorb blood glucose, and this can lead to fat deposits in the trunk and weight gain. Other medications produce fatigue or shortness of breath, making the person less active (the antihypertensive drugs known as beta-blockers are thought to have this effect), or can cause water retention (a side effect of antihypertensive calcium channel blockers).

Weight gain is so common that it’s not always possible to pinpoint a medication as the cause, especially because medication-related weight gain may take weeks, months, or even years to occur. “In some cases, a person will become ravenous an hour or two after taking a medication,” says Dr. Cheskin, “but usually the link is not that clear.” Dr. Cheskin also points out that just because a medication is associated with weight gain doesn’t mean that everyone taking it will experience weight gain."
Click to expand...


That's pretty much all of it, but full article here:
 
I was on 2 different meds that caused weight gain. they put about 30 pounds each on me in about 6 months. it levels out though. it doesnt continue to go up and up.

I had suspicions that it altered my metabolism but truth be told they made me more hungry and i was eating quite alot.

just wanted to add that being on these meds have not hindered me in any way concerning loosing weight.
 
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Well, I don't have an answer to your question. However, I think you first need to find out more about your medical condition. Let me use myself as an example.

I have thyroid problem. And only get to know that there are two types of thyroid. Hyperthyroidism and Hypothyroidism. For the first, one of the symptom is loose weight unknowingly whereas for the latter, it is gain weight unknowingly. The medication for these two types of thyroid will cause reverse effects. Those with Hyperthyroidism will end up ballooning up whereas the other, will tend to loose weight.

Lucky for me, I have the latter - hypothyroidism. There was a period of time that my weight can't seem to reduce no matter how I reduce my food intake. But after I was diagnosed the illness and started to take the medication, I started to loose weight.

That's my story. Your doctor should be able to answer your questions more accurately professionally. And you can also do some research about the medical condition as well as the medication name. By the way, do note that for the same medical condition, different doctors could be using different brands of medication and the side effects could be different. Perhaps, you will be able to get one that will not cause so much of weight gain. (just a thought).

Good luck!
 
Thanks for all the info, guys.

I went ahead and did some internet research on my own (which I suppose I should've in the beginning vv), and I guess I shouldn't really have a problem, because the medication I was concerned with was birth control, which seems to generally only affect weight by water retention, which is no problem.
 
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