As you begin to take SSRIs you will notice some changes to your body, but can Sertraline cause gain weight and what can you do to avoid any similar side effects? Weight gain is a concern for many people, and a healthy weight is associated with a healthy body. It is therefore expected that many users of SSRIs would have concerns over an improvement in mental health coming at the cost of physical health.
The decision to star antidepressants is a challenging one and you’re probably trying to weigh up the pros and cons one of the most common questions surrounds weight gain and whether antidepressants will cause unwanted changes in your body let’s talk about the probability of that happening the potential causes and what it is you can do to counter the effects hi my
Name is alex welcome back to a happy change if you don’t know this is a channel all about mental health and recovery it’s great to see you weight gain is a common concern for many people and in fact when we think of a healthy way we tend to associate that with a healthy body and likewise a healthy mind it’s therefore expected but anyone using an antidepressant such
As an ssri would have concerns that their improvement in mental health would come at the deficit of their physical health research does suggest that around 20% of people who take an antidepressant will experience some form of weight gain usually only a few pounds so whilst there is evidence to suggest you might feel this effect actually the majority of people are
Unlikely to have any significant weight gain caused by the antidepressant the latest research i’ve looked at suggests around a 5% body weight gain for that small minority of people who experience some form of weight gain whilst on antidepressants and actually that kind of really rings true for my own experience i gained around like 5 kilograms and whilst i can say
That kind of aligned with my taking of sertraline which is an ssri the definitely over factors at play here confusingly as with many of the side effects surrounding antidepressant there isn’t a clear consensus about why weight gain happens there are some key theories though so we’re gonna discuss those briefly metabolism it’s been suggested that ssris and other
Antidepressants can impact our metabolism making it less efficient at burning calories so you might not feel like you’re eating more maybe your body’s just got less efficient at burning those calories away and more of them again stored around your tummy carbohydrate cravings some uses of antidepressants have reported that they have an increased craving for foods
That heavy in carbs such as breads pastas cakes biscuits etcetera foods that are heavy in carbs lead to an increased blood sugar and eventually lead to more fat cells being stored by the body one more theory and this is one i can’t alike is that it’s eating for pleasure some experts actually believe that as our antidepressants start to work and the serotonin and
Dopamine in our brains becomes more regulated we start to experience emotions a more normal scale and pleasure is easier to find consequently when we’re tasting food we’re tasting it with more pleasure than previously and that actually can lead to us overeating certain foods that might be unhealthy for us so if we think maybe one in five of us is going to experience
Some sort of weight gain what is it we can do about it firstly think about this is a small amount of weight gain really that bad probably not i know from my experience the idea of being slightly heavier but happier i’m okay with that secondly my opinion is it’s easier to manage your weight on your own then it is to manage all the difficulties that arise from mental
Illness so i feel like i need more support managing my brain through my search raeleen then i do necessarily going out for a jog eating a little bit more healthy so a calorie surplus is still going to be the biggest reason for weight gain and that goes with an inactive lifestyle as well any changes that you can make to these areas it’s gonna have a positive and
Profound effect on your weight and your body’s overall health and this works for a secondary reason as well we know from years of research that exercise and a more nutritious diet can have massive positive effects on mental illness and that’s why when you first go speak to your gp perhaps about depression one of the things they’ll ask you surrounds how much exercise
You are getting but be happy the way that you are if weight gain is an issue for you then start to take those steps to move more and to manage your nutrition if a small amount of weight game isn’t a problem who cares you’re gonna be happier whilst weight gain can happen it’s entirely manageable especially by you you absolutely magnificent creature i’m alex this
Was a happy change i’m gonna see you next time cuz you’re gonna hit subscribe now and go thumbs up all of that good stuff and i’ll see you soon
Transcribed from video
Can Sertraline Cause Weight Gain? Will SSRIs Make me Fat? By Alex Robb
