Posted by ramsea on January 22, 2004, at 18:13:52
In reply to Re: weight gain neurontin » jtevers, posted by ramsea on January 22, 2004, at 9:03:12
In the past few years I have had an amazing array of med trials. I guess it is most telling to look at my experience of Neurontin-only trials. When at my normal weight, which is as a middleaged adult 145 lbs at approx. 5'7, I immediately had about ten lbs water retention by the end of a week. My jeans wouldn't zip up where seven days previously they fit. That was taking 300 mgs. 3x daily. Over a period of three months on up to 2800 mgs daily I gained just over thirty pounds. This scared me and I dropped the Neurontin.
It didn't cause severe carbo cravings for me, as did Celexa and Lexapro---which for me was way OTT. But it did increase appetite. And I believe it also changed something in my normal weight regulating system. Insulin? Weight regulator changing its cue for normal? Who knows?
I can't blame unusual gluttony. I need fewer calories than most people do to survive. They say the average woman needs 2000 cals a day. Lucky average woman! More than 1700 cals and I gain. To lose, we are talking very low calorie, starvation level. Even when I was bulimic as a teenager I didn't binge--I just ate the normal meal and threw that up. So I am not even sure it counts as bulimia. I have a body which my husband describes as very efficient--what it takes in, it uses or keeps. He is very thin and eats a lot, and I figure some of that calorie intake just whooshes out of him. With me, it stays on loyally.
I said all of that to give you a picture of my individual body-type. What type are you? Were you a chubby baby/child? Have you gone on starvation diets and dieted a lot?
Without psychotropic meds, I eat and drink and exercise in such a way to keep my weight normal at around 140-150 lbs. I appear hearty and hale!! But really, the shape is healthy and womanly and though I might long for my bulimic teenage 115 lbs I really was rather ill with all that fashionable thinness. Nature designed me to be "voluptuous." But as soon as the antidepressants, et al, come into me, almost immediately I change. It becomes an arduous task to keep weight off.
The last time I used gabapentin I was on lithium too. I exercised three hours daily (yes, true), and kept calories to about 1500. I didn't lose or gain.
I know some people don't gain on gabapentin. You may be one of them. Without a doubt, keep a well-primed diet/exercise program going and that may be enough for you to keep off the bloat. Watch out for edema, which is common enough. hope I helped a little.
poster:ramsea
thread:301797
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040122/msgs/304337.html