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Weight loss after weight gain from Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft,
Lexapro, Celexa and other SSRIs? Weight Gain and How to Lose It
Due to the request of a high percentage of our visitors, the information on this
page is being changed. Seems like the information got a little technical with
the science of why this weight loss program works, instead of what to do in
order to lose weight. Sorry!
If you have come to this page first, before reading the rest of the site, we
need to answer the question many of you have.
Who is The Road Back?
The Road Back is a step-by-step program used by the patient and prescribing
physician to taper off psychiatric medication safely. This program has been in
existence since 1999. Over 30,000 people have now used this program to taper off
psychiatric medication.
In 2002, The Road Back began researching to find the cause of medication induced
weight gain and hopefully to find a solution. As thousands of people completed
their taper off the medication, many success stories began to come in
about weight loss as well. Some of what we found was by research, but some was
by chance.
How to lose weight will be separated into two areas:
·
A few supplements will be mentioned as well and under each section we let you
know where these specific supplements can be found.
If You Are Still Taking Medication
Watch your diet changes. An all protein diet or a crash diet can create an
adverse reaction with the medication. The normal adverse reactions with the
wrong change of food intake will be anxiety, fatigue or insomnia.
You are somewhat limited with what type of diet or supplement program you can
use while taking psychiatric medication. This is why the options are limited
within this program.
What to Do
The following seems to work for about 35 percent of the population for weight
loss. If you are one of the 35 percent, expect excellent weight loss though. The
35% report; weight just falls off of them between week 4 and week 5.
Of note, of the 65% this weight loss program did not work for, a very high
percentage reported the weight gain at least stopped. So, if you are still
gaining weight and you have not found a way to stop the weight gain, the odds
are in your favor your weight gain will at least stop if you use these
procedures.
There are 4 supplements that needed:
These 4 products work as a team.
The CLA and Omega 3 work as a team on the cellular level to adjust your leptin
levels. Leptin is a hormone that is secreted by adipose tissue (adipose
tissue - a type of tissue that contains stored cellular fat) that acts to
regulate appetite and energy expenditure. This is where the cells are sent a
signal to hold on to the fat.
Vitamin E has a role to help breakdown the CLA and Omega 3. The
calcium/magnesium combination will help the nutrients move in and out of the
cells and promote weight loss within this combination.
Food Adjustment
If you feel you have the ability to only eat 3 meals each day and not have
snacks in between, snacks of any kind,
you can also change when you eat to improve your odds of weight loss.
You would follow this exactly:
·
Eat 3 meals only each day.
·
Wait at least 5 hours before your next meal.
·
Make your breakfast a high protein meal.
·
Eat dinner before 6 pm.
·
Do not eat anything after dinner.
Nothing.
Make sure you eat enough food with the 3 meals you will have. Don’t over
indulge, but eat enough.
Following the food steps above is more important than what foods you eat. Of
course, an all ice cream diet will not be the way to go. The point here is, you
do not have to really watch calories to an extreme or the foods you eat to an
extreme in order to lose weight.
You can still live life and have a life while you lose weight!
Add the food adjustment to the supplements recommended and you will have a
very good chance of losing the weight
that would not come off in the past, no matter what you might have tried.
What to Expect
Weight loss usually will not start until week number 3 or 4. You may very well
see size reduction during the first 3 weeks before the weight loss begins.
Adding 30 minutes of exercise each day, even a slow casual walk will promote
further weight loss.
Supplements
- The type of CLA, Omega 3 and calcium/magnesium used make all the difference
with this weight loss method. The CLA
and Omega 3 would be the two main items to not short cut with.
The brand of vitamin E is not important, but we do recommend you take an all
natural vitamin E.
How Much to Take Daily
Morning –
Three Ultimate Omega 3 softgels.
Noon
-
Three Ultimate Omega 3 softgels.
Bedtime
- One tablespoon of
calcium/magnesium mixed in water.
Drink plenty of water each day. If you do not drink water now, it is time to
start. You need the water to help move toxins out of the body. A general
scientific consensus is; ˝ of your body weight in ounces of water a day. If you
weigh 200 pounds, you would drink 100 ounces of water a day. Do the best you can
with this.
Remember to add in the ˝ hour of some type of exercise to your daily routine.
Do the above for 5 full weeks consistently.
Where to Find the Supplements Suggested
CLA and Ultimate Omega 3:
These are manufactured by TRB Health. Their online shopping cart is
www.trbhealth.com or you can order by telephone at 1-866-810-3809.
Their office hours are 8:30 am to 6 pm, Monday – Friday, Pacific Standard Time
zone.
On their shopping cart look for the package offered called:
TRB Health usually offers a discount with these packages.
Calcium/Magnesium:
The best calcium/magnesium made is produced by Peter Gillham Natural Vitality,
and called CalMag. The best price is from a Web Site called VitaCost.com.
You can find the calcium/magnesium on the VitaCost site easiest by doing a copy
and paste of these numbers, 183405000179 into their
product search box that is located near the top left of their home page or you
can type in the entire product name as given above.
You can order off their site at
www.vitacost.com or by
calling
1-800-381-0759, 24-hours a day.
Vitamin E:
If you do not currently have a vitamin E, TRB Health, mentioned for
the CLA and Ultimate Omega 3, carries a vitamin E as well. Taking 200 i.u. of
vitamin E a day is all that is needed.
What to Do if You Did Not Get Complete Results With the Above
If the program above did not create the weight loss, do not give up hope. We
need to find the right thing for your body. Your body needs to be able to adjust
further and the medication is probably holding something in place or keeping
something out of balance. It is probably with one of the hormones the medication
is affecting.
Add
a virgin coconut oil to your daily
intake. A total of 1 tablespoon each day of this oil. You can spread this out
during the day if you wish, you can take all of it at once, you can just put it
in your mouth and swallow, and you can put the oil on food, your choice.
Coconut oil helps balance one of the hormones antidepressants and antipsychotics
alter. This was found by reading a clinical trial with weight loss after a
person used an antipsychotic. In the trial found, the abortion drug RU486 was
used to see if it would reverse the drug induced weight gain, and it did.
It only took looking at the exact action the RU486 was doing with a hormone and
then doing a search for a natural product that would have the same effect on
that hormone and virgin coconut oil was found. Amazingly, there were several Web
Sites found that already promoted coconut oil for weight loss!
You can keep taking the CLA, Ultimate Omega 3, vitamin E and calcium/magnesium
along with the coconut oil if you feel they at least made you feel better, but
if you have not lost weight within 5 weeks with those products you probably will
not.
Virgin Coconut Oil
– Any virgin or extra virgin coconut oil will work as well as any other. If you
shop online,
Jarrow Formulas, Organic Coconut Oil Extra Virgin, is about the lowest price.
You can find the Jarrow Formulas, Organic Coconut Oil Extra Virgin, on the
VitaCost site easiest by doing a copy and paste of these numbers,
790011160335 into their product search box that is
located near the top left of their home page or you can type in the entire
product name as given above.
Click here to go to VitaCost.
If You are Already off the Medication Follow the program as exactly detailed for people that are still taking medication, but include one additional supplement.
You will be taking 100 mg of alpha lipoic acid. Lipoic acid will help speed up
the burning of energy and help regulate glucose.
Take the lipoic acid with the morning CLA and Ultimate Omega 3.
There is one additional supplement that may work for you, and if it does, it is
another one of those supplements that gives dramatic results. The amino acid,
Tyrosine, will enhance the metabolism, assist in burning carbohydrates and more.
The only Tyrosine we
have found to be effective at all is made and sold by GNC stores. Only
use their tablet form, not the capsule, and get the 500 mg tablet. Most of the
GNC stores visited only carry Tyrosine tablets in the 1,000 mg bottle. You can
break them in half or order the 500 mg tablet online.
Take (1), 500 mg tablet in the morning but make sure you do not have any food or
protein within 1 hour before taking it or 1 hour afterwards. Ideally you would
chew it up and swallow. Kind of a chalk taste though.
If you have not experienced weight loss by the end of 5 full weeks, discontinue
the CLA, but continue taking all other supplements and give this additional
time.
Don’t forget to drink plenty of water each day and get ˝ hour of exercise each
day to help increase the weight loss.
Where to Find the Supplements Suggested
CLA and Ultimate Omega 3:
These are manufactured by TRB Health. Their online shopping cart is
www.trbhealth.com or you can order by telephone at 1-866-810-3809.
Their office hours are 8:30 am to 6 pm, Monday – Friday, Pacific Standard Time
zone.
Calcium/Magnesium:
The best calcium/magnesium made is produced by Peter Gillham Natural Vitality,
and called CalMag. The best price is from a Web Site called VitaCost.com.
You can find the calcium/magnesium on the VitaCost site easiest by doing a copy
and paste of these numbers, 183405000179 into their
product search box that is located near the top left of their home page or you
can type in the entire product name as given above.
You can order off their site at
www.vitacost.com or by
calling
1-800-381-0759, 24-hours a day.
Vitamin E:
If you do not currently have a vitamin E, TRB Health, mentioned for
the CLA and Ultimate Omega 3, carries a vitamin E as well. Taking 200 i.u. of
vitamin E a day is all that is needed.
Lipoic Acid
–
Virgin Coconut Oil
– Any virgin or extra virgin coconut oil will work as well as any other. If you
shop online,
Jarrow Formulas, Organic Coconut Oil Extra Virgin, is about the lowest price.
You can find the Jarrow Formulas, Organic Coconut Oil Extra Virgin, on the
VitaCost site easiest by doing a copy and paste of these numbers,
790011160335 into their product search box that is
located near the top left of their home page or you can type in the entire
product name as given above.
Click here to go to VitaCost.
Other General Instructions: If you are Still Taking or You Have Stopped Taking
an Antidepressant or Antipsychotic
1.
Weigh yourself each day.
2.
Measure your waist, chest, and hips each day.
If you backslide on the type of foods you eat one day, don’t be too hard on
yourself. Just get back to it as fast as you can.
I know some people want weight loss fast and that perfect body. Well, if this
program only helps you lose 3 pounds each month, it may not seem like much, but
that is 36 pounds in one year. Where were you at 12 months ago? Would you take
those 36 pounds of weight loss now? One year is going to come around whether we
want it to or not so take advantage of that!
A Few Other Suggestions
The company that makes the CLA and Ultimate Omega 3, TRB Health, has a
few other products that are used in our taper program you may benefit from.
Essential Protein Formula
– This is an excellent product for a meal replacement and to help handle those
sugar cravings. People using it to help the cravings reported also how it was
the finishing touch to their daytime anxiety. So, if you have daytime anxiety,
you can use their Essential protein Formula for that as well.
Power Barley Formula
– If you have fatigue and you are tired all the time, Power Barley Formula will
work. It is barley, so if you have never had a barley drink before the taste
might be more than you can handle, but most people that hated the taste upfront
usually began to actually like it within a few days. My wife is one of those! My
9 year old still will not touch it.
Body Calm
– This is recommended in our taper program along with the Essential Protein
Formula to help with daytime anxiety and sleep. The links above for TRB Health will also take you to their shopping cart where the Essential Protein Formula, Power Barley Formula and Body Calm are located.
If You Want to Read the Technical Data
Antidepressants and anti-psychotics were created to alter an area of the brain
called the Hypothalamus Pituitary-Adrenal Axis (HPA). The HPA is a system of
hormones and glands. The hormones within the HPA regulate serotonin.
These medications are designed to increase the output of a hormone that is
believed to lower stress, depression and symptoms associated with mental
disorders.
This HPA system has a group of steroid hormones called Glucocorticoids, which
regulate carbohydrate, protein, and fat metabolism.
This HPA system needs to be in balance for the body to function properly.
The human brain will usually make up 2% of our overall body mass. However, our
brain will use up 50% of glucose in the body. The brain depends on our glucose
for energy.
Activity within this system generates messages of “energy on demand” and “energy
on request.”
The activation of the adrenal system inhibits glucose uptake by tissue by
inhibiting insulin release. This process produces insulin resistance but
increases hepatic glucose production.
With inadequate “energy on request,” a condition called neuroglycopenia (a
shortage of glucose in the brain, also hypoglycemia.)
Symptoms associated with this condition:
A decrease in brain glucose will activate other portions of the brain that
release proteins, which stimulate food intake.
When this happens, an increase in body weight is inevitable at this point.
The increase in fat mass will generate a feedback signal to other
hormones and insulin.
These phenomena can also take place with prolonged stress, starvation, and
continued heavy exercise, drugs or by certain chemicals.
This results in the permanent activation of the feedback signal, which results
in continued insulin resistance, hypertension and metabolic syndrome.
This is why individuals that are predisposed to diabetes are 2 to 3 times more
likely to become diabetic if they use an antidepressant or anti-psychotic
medication.
Another key hormone regulating weight that is also altered by glucocorticoid is
leptin.
There are two types of leptin, brain leptin and plasma leptin.
Glucocorticoids increase both appetite as well as brain leptin secretion. Plasma
leptin will store unwanted fats.
The brain is the controlling factor in this system. The brain knows it needs an
ample supply of glucose to survive. With this balanced system being altered with
drug induced over stimulation of glucocorticoid, the brain sends a signal to
increase plasma leptin for fat and glucose storage. This insures the brain of
the needed glucose for survival.
This increased plasma leptin works for the brain effectively in the short-term
but ultimately leads to the destruction of the body. Obesity, diabetes, and a
hormone – gland system that becomes too fatigued to function, is the final
outcome.
The human brain is remarkable and highly complex. But when it is threatened with
survival, the automatic reaction is self-destructive.
References:
·
"These studies suggest that the fat-cell derived
hormone Leptin might play an important role. Leptin signals to the brain the
size of the adipose tissue and is probably the most important peripheral signal
for the long-term regulation of weight."
Neurol Psychiatry
·
"Leptin, a hormone secreted from adipose tissue, was
originally discovered to regulate body weight. The localization of the leptin
receptor in limbic structures suggests a potential role for leptin in emotional
processes. Here, we show that rats exposed to chronic unpredictable stress and
chronic social defeat exhibit low leptin levels in plasma. Systemic leptin
treatment reversed the hedonic-like deficit induced by chronic unpredictable
stress and improved behavioral despair dose-dependently in the forced swim test
(FST), a model widely used for screening potential antidepressant efficacy. The
behavioral effects of leptin in the FST were accompanied by increased neuronal
activation in limbic structures, particularly in the hippocampus.
Intrahippocampal infusion of leptin produced a similar
antidepressant-like effect in the FST as its systemic
administration. By contrast, infusion of leptin into the hypothalamus decreased
body weight but had no effect on FST behavior. These findings suggest that: (i)
impaired leptin production and secretion may contribute to chronic
stress-induced depression-like phenotypes, (ii) the hippocampus is a brain site
mediating leptin's antidepressant-like activity, and (iii) elevating leptin
signaling in brain may represent a novel approach for the treatment of
depressive disorders." January 31, 2006 the Department of Pharmacology,
University of Texas Health Science Center
· Massachusetts General
Hospital, Clinical Psychopharmacology Unit, Boston 02114, USA.
· The Journal of the
American Medical Association - JAMA - Recombinant Leptin for Weight Loss in
Obese and Lean Adults A Randomized, Controlled, Dose-Escalation Trial
·
Neurol Psychiatry 2001
· Department of
Neuroscience, College of Medicine, University of Florida, McKnight Brain
Institute, Gainesville, Florida
·
EFA Sciences LLC, Norwood, Massachusetts
·
Additional References:
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