christ-on-a-stick

I'm just curious as to whether anyone else has ever used drugs for weight loss (legal ones I mean).

I am currently taking a Phentermine/Prozac "cocktail". Phentermine is half of the old "Phen-Fen" combo (the other one being Fenfluramine, which was pulled off the market). To replace the Fenfluramine doctors are coupling the Phentermine with antidpressants, usually Prozac but sometimes Zoloft or Wellbutrin, to try to achieve the same effect.

Personally it is working great for me. I originally did the Phen-Fen and it literally worked wonders for me... the weight that I could not seem to lose to save my life (after a rapid gain - I was not overweight until about 21 and hit a high at 22) just seemed to FALL OFF. I didn't starve myself, but had virtually no cravings/interest in food so I had no trouble following an "ideal" healthy diet, and the extra energy gave me much-needed motivation to excercise (it is very speedy - at first it seems amazing that it's legal.) It also worked remarkably well as an antidepressant although that is not its primary function.

Anyhoo, I went off after I had maintained at my goal weight for a while ("weaned" off gradually over 1 month, you do build up tolerance and will have withdrawal if you stop taking it suddenly). That was a couple of years ago and for myriad reasons (I know exactly what they are but won't bore you with the details, suffice it to say a lot of emotional eating) I have gained quite a bit of the weight back. SO...back on it again and again it is working like a charm. The Phen/Pro is not as "powerful" as the Phen-Fen but it still seems to be working quite well.

Any one else out there? I am interested to hear other people's experience.

buddhagrrl

I lost a significant amount of weight on Phen-Fen about 5 years ago, but the side effect was that it made me absolutely psychotic. I've always been a pretty even-keeled person, but on P-F, I was a sleepless wreck, clocking in with roughly one nervous breakdown a week. And when I went off it (ironically, at my mother's request; she was the one who suggested I go on't in the first place), I was my normal self again.

I'm personally very anti- anything you have to spend money on to help you lose weight, but that's because I'm extremely cynical about the weight-loss industry and how it brings in barrells of money marketing unattainable physical ideals to people who just need the slightest excuse to feel badly about themselves.

The weight-loss plan I've enjoyed the most was my training for the Danskin Triathlon. I'm a big proponent of a homespun (and free!) plan of attack that includes regular exercise and mindfulness of portion control.

Automaton

Phentermine is interesting, it is basically amphetamine with another a-methyl group. Notice that they give stuff like this out like candy but when it comes to marijuana, held by many health authorities to be safer than tobacco and alcohol, it's "oh no, we have to protect themselves from themselves". Just one of the reasons I say "fuck the government".

Asha'man

The most powerful drug ever is the food you put into your body 3-5 times a day. Your entire metabolism is controlled by the composition of that food.

The real answer to weight gain is (and always will be) a sensible diet and reasonable regular exercise. And by diet I mean a way of eating that you can follow for your entire life, not just for a few months.

Pick up a book called The Zone by Dr Barry Sears. ( <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060391502/qid=1015076174/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/103-1953400-8701403" target="_blank">Amazon has it here</a>). I have been following this dietary plan for about 3 years now, and never plan to change. It is sensible, reasonable, livable, and worked well for me.

The one sentence summary: a moderate amount of low-fat meat and a lot of low-starch vegetables and fruits. (The important point is not to overload on carbohydrates, since they cause a spike in blood sugar and therefore a spike in insulin levels.) This is the diet humans followed for hundreds of thousands of years as hunter-gatherers, and therefore it is the one our systems have evolved to use optimally. Agriculture is a new invention, and we haven’t yet evolved to compensate for it.

Undercurrent

I don't really consider myself to have taken drugs to hav lost weight, but, since you mentioned antidepressents, I did lose quite a lot of weight after starting on a Zoloft regemin, although I prefer to think that the drug put me in a better frame of mind to have willpower.

I also, at the same time signed up at ediets.com which you might want to try. Some of the recipes they have were so filling that I had to force myself to eat the whole thing

It also helps to count calories. I try not to eat anything without one of those little "calories per serving" labels on it. While I doubt that they're very exact, its a lot harder to be deluded about how much you eat when you're remembering a strict, numerical value.

m.