How to lose weight on Nardil??

I gained almost 40lbs on Nardil within 9 months. I also had a horrible craving for sweets and never felt satisfied. Weight gain was one of the reasons I stopped Nardil because it was causing edema in my legs and feet. I've been off of it for 5 months now and am almost back to my normal weight with diet and exercise. I had asked my doctor for a appetite suppressant but she just told me to exercise and eat better. Of course, this was very difficult to do. Exercising was hard because I was always so tired and felt dizzy when I got my heart rate up.

Anyways, I was really frustrated with the weight gain and felt like I was going to gain weight on Nardil even if I completely stopped eating. I know some of it was water retention, too, which my doctor gave me a diuretic for. That might help you out. I think you have to make sure you are getting enough potassium when you take a diuretic or you can have heart complications.

I plan on going back on Nardil this week and am going to try to eat right and exercise to counteract the weight gain this time. Hope it works because Nardil helped me in so many ways. I'd also like more suggestions on how to counteract weight gain!

I think most of the weight gain was from poor diet and just a few pounds from water retention. I guess the water retention causes bloating. You might want to try a diuretic and see if that helps. I had one prescribed but barely used it. I wish there was a tried and true way to reduce the Nardil bloat. I wonder if exercising two hours a day and restricting calories would help? Even restricting fluid intake? I wonder if a diabetic diet might help.. since diabetics are very limited on how much fluid they can take in per day or else they experience similar issues.

The weight gain from whatever source is frustrating for sure. There must be a way to counteract it. I started 15mg today so I plan to closely monitor my weight. I can't believe some users have reported losing weight on it. I am on a vegan diet now so maybe that will help. I know you're on a low-carb diet now but I found that plain steel cut or rolled oats mixed with a handful of chocolate chips and some PB2 (powdered peanut butter) is very filling and satisfying. I hope this gets me through any sweet cravings. I think the powdered is fine as far as Tyramine content but still use caution.

Weight aside, is it at least helping you with the reasons you started taking it?

I started taking it for social anxiety. It's really helped with anticipatory anxiety (anxiety over social things that will happen in the future) and with obsessive thoughts (which I didn't fully realize I still had, but now I'm glad they are gone). I'm still pretty shy, but a lot of it is a life time of avoiding social situations. It is EASIER to have conversations with strangers but not really EASY. I don't get physically anxious like I used to. So, while Nardil wasn't everything I hoped for, it's still the best drug I've ever taken by 1000%.

So I really don't want to stop taking it, so I have to get the weight gain under control. I had really bad cravings for candy, cookies, and cake initially and I really gave into it...but I know I wouldn't have gained this much without the Nardil. I've been eating my old normal diet lately and am still gaining. I still really crave carbs...and once I start eating them it's hard to stop. So that's why I'm trying a low carb diet. I've only been doing it for 2 days so far, so lets see how long I can keep it up. I'll eat mostly lean meats and vegetables, green smoothies, and a limited amount of fruits, nuts, and unflavored yogurt.

I moved up very slowly when I started taking Nardil. I'm pretty sure I did not have any weight gain until I reached 60mg. If necessary I'll move down to 45mg, as long as that has a decent treatment effect. There is no additional benefit for me between 60mg and higher doses like 90mg...just more weight gain.

Hi. I have been on Nardil for about 9 months and despite focussing on my diet and exercising approx 2.5 hours every day I have gone from a size 12 (aust) which I have always been I am now a size 18. Whilst the Nardil worked better than anything for the depression it has not helped my social anxiety as I now dread going out in public because of the way that I look. I don't experience sweets cravings because my doc gave me metformin so at least I don't have to struggle with those cravings. My appetite has not increased. I have also in the past kept a food diary to make sure I wasn't eating additional things that I would not usually eat. I have been on 60mg for 8 of the 9 months and in the first month I gained no weight but after that every month, or less even, I was growing out of my clothes. In the past four weeks I have been reducing the dosoage down as I thought if I halved the dose it would still have some therapeutic effects (my doc said some people can take as little as 15mg a day as a maintenance dose). I am so terrified of the depression coming back but at the moment I am a hermit and I literally hate the way I look. Something like clothes shopping that I used to enjoy is now a complete nightmare. I am tired of turning down invitations which I now feel like accepting because I am not depressed in the true sense of the word like I used to be, but I cannot bear for anyone who hasn't seen me for a few months to look at what I look like now. I am embarrassed and disgusted by the fat, in particular around my waist. I was hoping that maybe someone else on here could actually say yes I lowered my dose and I started losing weight. It would give me some hope...

Nardil really helped my SA but I didn't feel better tapering to a lower dose. It felt more like withdrawing when I went down one pill. I guess that's why I didn't try to go down in dosage to see if a lower dose was therapeutic. It's much harder for me to go down in dosage so that's why I'm hoping to just keep it lower this time and not go up to 90mg again.

I'm pretty sure the Nardil slows your metabolism way down so even if you try to lose weight on a low carb diet, it's not going to happen as fast as it would if you weren't on the medication. Obviously it is going to be a lot easier to maintain weight than lose it. Even if the calories are immediately stored as fat, you still can't go on living without some of those fat calories being converted to energy. I still feel exercise, even if it's a commitment of a few hours a day, will make a difference in weight. I don't know yet if that will turn out to be BS but that's my plan.

I'd try Metformin but I don't think my pdoc is going to prescribe it. I'm only on day two at 15mg and I think I'm already getting cravings. Maybe due to allowing only a 3 day washout out period between stopping Parnate and restarting Nardil.

Anyways.. just know losing the weight will be rough since your metabolism is slowed down. Weight gain does hurt confidence so if you feel the Nardil isn't working as well it might just be due to self-esteem. I know I went through that, too.

It seems Metformin ER might be a promising solution for weight loss while on Nardil. I read a post from a woman who gained so much weight on Nardil she didn't want to leave the house. She told her GP about the information she had found on the web about the efficacy of certain drugs to counteract the weight gain of antipsychotic meds. Her GP prescribed Metformin ER and apparently she was able to lose weight on 2000mg of Metformin and it took the food cravings away. She also had more energy and felt much happier.. which could be directly or indirectly related to the Metformin. Supposedly there is no contraindication for using Metformin with Nardil either.

I'll probably see if my GP will prescribe it after I've been on Nardil for a little while longer. I don't want to balloon from 130lbs to 170lbs again.