Weight gain due to anxiety, Meds or quitting Smoking??

[Samjaner]

Hello all, I am new here and looking forward to connecting with people on their weight loss journey too. I have yoyo dieted my whole adulthood practically but I am hoping that this time will be different..that I can make this a lifestyle change.

I wanted to ask though, if anyone has suffered a big weight gain due to anti anxiety medication and/or quitting smoking. This is the position I have found myself in aswell as poor food choices..but I have found it impossible to lose weight despite doing what I thought was everything right for 3 months. It was very disheartening to not have lost hardly any weight..but now regrettably, I have put the little weight I lost back on. But I feel as if the Meds and quitting smoking caused the weight gain and have made it almost impossible to lose weight..was just wondering if anyone has experienced this problem?

Anyway, here's to starting again and hopefully being successful!

[Anon-E-Mouse]

Hello and welcome to the weight loss forum Samjaner

Sorry, I can't help you with your specific questions but wanted to welcome you.

If you haven't already, please read the Welcome Newbies post. It's in the Pinned Posts section, to the right of your screen, (bottom if you're on a mobile). It has a link to the NHS 12 week plan, which is a great place to start. It doesn't give a specific diet plan, but gives guidelines for healthy eating.

You may also like to check out how many calories you should have each day using the BMI checker.

Perhaps consider joining in our challenges, they're fun to do and help with motivation.

We also have a Monday group weigh-in posted by two of the Fab5ers, Lowcal and moreless. To give you some idea of what this is about, you can have a look at the latest thread in the events section, to the right of the home page. The weigh in is entirely voluntary, but I find it helps keep me accountable.

Good luck 😀

Mouse 🐭

[Samjaner in reply to Anon-E-Mouse]

Thank you so much for your help and advise x

[Anon-E-Mouse in reply to Samjaner]

You're welcome 😀

[victoriaplump]

Hi Sam Janet. I am gradually coming off an anti - anxiety medicine (Citalopram) and have gained about 1.5st whilst on it. Brilliant that you have given up smoking! So far I have found cutting out snacks between meals and not eating after 7pm have helped. And keeping as busy as possible. Good luck 🌞

[Samjaner in reply to victoriaplump]

Thank you, I will do That! Thank you for your reply and support x

[Hidden]

Hi samjaner

Firstly fantastic at quitting smoking. I feel it is far more important to do one thing at a time and you often see people trying to quit a habit and at the same time trying to do a healthy eating kick and both at once can be overwhelming and often leads to failure.

The only thing I can think of to now try and help you at shedding any excess weight that you want to get rid of is to try and take up a new hobby. Be it some form of exercise which is great both for the mind and body or something as simple as knitting. Anything that gets the hands doing something that it has been used to doing when you smoked.

You may find that you are susceptible to the odd chest infection as your body slowly gets rid of all the damage smoking has caused to the lungs but please bear with it as it is by far the best thing you can do for your body.

As for weight loss, the 12 week plan is a great way to kick off your weight loss.

Good luck and I hope that you post on here during both your up and down days.

[tiredwithanxiety]

I put on 22 lbs due to anxiety.....trying to lose it since last year......not successful. its very disheartening...

[Hidden]

Hi Samjaner,

Well done on making the first step by joining this forum, there's loads of support and advice on here I've got anxiety too (I'm also taking medication for it) and have always fallen back on comfort eating when it gets particularly bad, so trying to stop that and also manage anxiety can be extra tricky. And you've quit smoking too so that's even more impressive! I found that something clicked in my brain a month ago and I was just so fed up of being overweight that I decided to do something about it. I'm using the My Fitness Pal app to count calories, and it also counts your steps each day which is great if you follow the NHS 12 week plan. So far I've had a couple of days where I've fallen back into old comfort eating habits, but despite that, I've almost lost a stone. I think once you start to see positive changes, it really helps to keep you going. I'm trying to use mindfulness and relaxation methods for the times when my anxiety is high (instead of buying a ton of maltesers!) and going for a walk is great for anxiety, as well as losing weight. I think just try to take things a day at a time and congratulate yourself at the end of each day, even if you've had a few slips, it's still an achievement when we're living with anxiety all the time. I hope sharing my own experience has been a little helpful. I find it's comforting in itself just to know there are other people out there going through the same thing, so thanks for your post best of luck, let me know how you get on

Claire x

[Windswept1]

I quit smoking many years ago - well done, it is certainly the hardest thing I have ever done. I did put on weight and later even more. The 12 week plan and couch to 5k did it for me. If you can quit smoking you can do anything you put your mind to. Look at the 'welcome newbies pinned post to the right of the screen.

Good luck.