Does Cymbalta hinder weight loss?

Hi Laura! It is helping with pain in my legs, which is a relief, since I'm active and work and do all kinds of things that make WALKING important! lol I am noticing more tiredness, unfortunately. I hope that wears off, as the nausea has.

What I mean by eating perfectly is that I'm off of sugar, am getting lots of healthy protein through lean meat and protein shakes for snacks. Low carb, good veggies, lots of water, etc. Usually when I do this, I'll lose several pounds a week. That's what is getting me...just going up and down the same pound for three weeks or so has been rather annoying!

I am glad it is helping your pain.

Stephanie,

You are further out than I am. What I have learned through the last ten years is that there are periods when I have regain.

If I accept the regain and don't start immediately dieting, then the regain stays. It is only when the panic button goes off that I stop gaining. It is only when I make a tremendous effort at dieting that the regain goes away.

For me dieting is at or under 800 calories a day. It does not matter where those 800 calories come from as long as total stays under 800, I will lose one pound a week. Some weeks it will be two pounds.

I use My Fitness Pal. I plan each meal and snack. I drink water by the gallon and get lots of exercise. I have tried every other method out there and only cutting calories works for me now.

Hey there! Yes, I'm like you, there are regain periods of life where I throw caution to the wind and start eating carbs again. As soon as I do, my weight jumps higher and higher. It's a lot easier to gain than it is to lose.

I'm using My Fitness Pal, too, and have been at around 1100 calories a day. Maybe I need to cut that down even more. Can't exercise as much since my Fibromyalgia has kicked in this summer. I can walk some, do yoga some, etc. But not as far and long as I used to.

Thanks for your reply!

Since you are working towards 160, 1100 calories a day should be perfect for you to drop a pound a week. My NUT did tell me to drop protein shakes the first time I had a regain and to never go back to them.

I multiply my goal by 10 to get my maintainance number. For me I want to maintain 130 and do 1300 to maintain and 800 to lose.

The only time I went back was a few years ago when I got too low and too little energy and I gained weight and energy quickly by substituting a protein shake for breakfast every morning. I know that it works for some to drink them to lose or maintain, but for me cutting them out helps with losing.

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Thank you so much! I appreciate you filling me in. It's so tricky to keep up with the changes our bodies make over the years. I will keep working on that amount of calories; that's helpful. :)

I believe that all anti-depressants can cause weight gain/weight loss resistance, but Cymbalta for me has been one that caused the least. I had a psychiatrist that once told me any issues can be circumvented by upping your activity level a bit.

One thing I do want to say about Cymbalta is RESEARCH it before you get too far down the path with it. I have been on Cymbalta for 10 years and now cannot get off of it due to severe physical withdraw symptoms. I've been able to go from 120mg to 30mg in the last two years, but have not been able to go down to the 20mg as I feel to ill when I do.

I just wish someone would have told me 10 years ago that I'd be on this medication forever if I started taking it. It has helped me, but now I would like to try going without medication for a while and see how I do and that doesn't seem to be an option.

Best of luck.

I had sheer hell getting off of it as well. I resorted to opening the capsules and counting the little balls. (Didn't help.)

After the fact, I was told by another doctor that they can transition you over to something like Prozac that is much easier to titrate off of. Don't know if that's an option for you, but thought I'd offer it.

Were You on it for fibromyalgia? I wonder what a better choice than Cymbalta would be? That's scary.

No, I was on it because at the time my PCP attributed all of my physical symptoms to depression, even though I wasn't showing any real signs of depression. She even tried to add Abilify at one point, and that was a horror show. After the Abilify nonsense, I was determined to get back to a baseline with as few meds as possible, hence getting off the Cymbalta.

After which I got a bunch of diagnoses... sleep apnea which was causing the majority of the problems PCP was attributing to depression... and then a few years later the auto-immune.

My rheumatologist had put me on Savella for fatigue while my psoriatic arthritis was getting so bad, and after that went into remission I weaned off of it only to have pretty significant pain start back up which is apparently fibromyalgia. The nurse who called me back about it after my bloodwork was negative for auto-immune flare started talking about Cymbalta and Gabapentin, and I mentioned that Dr. B had put me on Savella before to avoid Cymbalta because of the issues I had getting off of it. She brightened up and said that Savella is better anyway, and since I didn't have any issues with it, we'd just start it back up again.

For me, the Savella is doing a really good job. We've been ramping it up for about a month, and it's decreased my pain noticeably. I could probably deal with the pain at the dosage I'm at, but we have one more step to put me back on the dosage I was at for the fatigue, and I think that'll do the trick. I'll know in a couple of weeks. :)