Weight gain

[SwimLyn]

Have been on Pregabalin since Sept 24 steadily increasing from 25mg to 125mg nightly to date & is giving me decent nights sleep so far .Unfortunately I seem to have put on quite a lot of weight during this period & wondered if this is a well known side effect of the medication or is it just me trying to find an excuse for not having to stop eating so much !!

My Dr has also halved the Arvostatin to 20mg after I informed her about them possibly exacerbating RL & the effects will be monitored on April .

Any feedback will be appreciated xx

[Madlegs1]

Many people have found that they put on weight with Pregabalin.

Perhaps keep portions small, and snack on fruits and carrots?

And hydrate with water loads.

[SueJohnson]

It is a known side effect for some. You might want to try switching to gabapentin. Although they are basically the same drug except you need to divide the doses, and the side effects are basically the same, some people find that the side effects that bother them on one don't bother them on the other. Multiply the pregabalin amount by 6 to get the correct dose. If you need more than 600 mg take the extra 4 hours before bedtime as it is not as well absorbed above 600 mg. If you need more than 1200 mg, take the extra 6 hours before bedtime. If you take magnesium, even in a multivitamin, don't take it within 3 hours of the gabapentin as it reduces the absorption of the gabapentin. If you take calcium don't take it within 2 hours for the same reason.

[Joolsg]

It's a well known side effect. It increases appetite and causes water retention.

[LanaCSR]

I started taking Pregabalin, and it almost immediately started helping my RLS. It was GREAT!! But then I started gaining weight, fast. But my legs and feet were also swelling up really bad, too. So my doctor said the Pregabalin was causing the swelling which then caused the weight gain. I was so happy with the improvement in my RLS that I didn't want to change anything, but the swelling got so bad that my doctor took me off of it. Then the swelling went down completely, but, unfortunately, my RLS came back. Ugh! I have heard of others who experience weight gain as a result of taking Pregabalin, unfortunately. I'm sorry. I wish I could give you more encouraging words. 😥

[SwimLyn in reply to LanaCSR]

Thankyou so much for letting me know about the swelling & touch wood I am not suffering that at least not yet but if it happens I'll know the reason & be able to speak to Dr's with some semblance of understanding !

[LanaCSR]

Good luck, my friend!! 🤞

[Lolly53]

for sure this is a side effect. I experienced weight gain also!

[davchar23]

Dear SwimLyn,

I experienced the same weight gain with pregabalin and I believe it is a common problem with this drug. I tried even higher doses than the 125mg/day that you take but it did not help my RLS augmentation. So if 125mg/day is blocking your RLS then that is a good sign. I doubt there is anyway to appease the increased appetite and so I can only suggest more exercise and I assume with a title such as Swimlyn you must be a swimmer (as I am)? The other problem I had with prebabalin was "balance" and this was a bad side effect at higher levels.

I also take 20mg/day of Atorvastatin and found it did not affect my RLS.