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Topiramate and Weight Loss
Wed, 12/29/2010 - 01:23Comments
Re: Topiramate and Weight Loss
Submitted by MinKels on Sat, 2011-01-01 - 19:37
Hello Kat,
Definitely keep up with your active lifestyle...it will help with keeping your muscle mass built up (especially leash-training that 90 lb dog--yikes!) and will also help you feel better in general. I do a lot of walking, dance, and have started some upper body training (not as much fun as dancing and lower body training for me).
Well as you said, not everyone is going to react to a drug the same...sorry about your bad experience with the drug your psychiatrist gave you...I would say that you definitely had a bad reaction to it, but luckily you were taken off it. At least you, your Mom and friend were able to make some good out of it with the "Free the Rage" party afterwards...sounds like it was probably a lot of fun.
I started on Keppra as the first drug for my seizures at 1000 mg a day, and it made me kind of tired and not feel like eating anything...also made me a bit down and depressed. I didn't get the "Kepprage" that a lot of people discuss on here. The doctor upped it when I continued to have seizures to 3500 mg a day, which turned out to be a bit much for my body weight. I felt drunk, had vomiting, and was falling, tripping, and had trouble concentrating. He brought me back down to 1000 mg...then moved to North Carolina. The new neurologist doesn't think Keppra is a good drug for tonic-clonic seizures, so he is tapering me off the Keppra and is amping me up on Lamictal XR. I'm down to 500 mg of Keppra a day (one pill at night) and don't have any issues with it.
I am on the regular, generic Keppra--there is a newer extended release form called Keppra XR which I think you only have to take once a day, so it should be pretty easy to take. I have a 7-day pillbox as a reminder of when to take my pills and do my best to remember to take them on time...I don't want to have anymore tonic clonics and lose my ability to drive again!
Keppra can cause some people to have anger issues and so on--though I didn't have these issues. It can cause weight gain, though this varies from person to person. Of course, this might be a plus for you to help counteract the weight loss with the Topiramate. I do know that Keppra is a pretty popular choice for neurologists to prescribe, though Vimpat is also becoming pretty popular. Since you have a history of TBI, make sure your neurologist or doctor who is treating you for your seizures knows this when considering adding on another medicine if the Topiramate is not enough or you need an add-on to help control the seizures.
Well, hope you enjoyed your New Year's Eve and had some good quality time with friends and family!
Best wishes,
Jennifer
Hello Kat,
Definitely keep up with your active lifestyle...it will help with keeping your muscle mass built up (especially leash-training that 90 lb dog--yikes!) and will also help you feel better in general. I do a lot of walking, dance, and have started some upper body training (not as much fun as dancing and lower body training for me).
Well as you said, not everyone is going to react to a drug the same...sorry about your bad experience with the drug your psychiatrist gave you...I would say that you definitely had a bad reaction to it, but luckily you were taken off it. At least you, your Mom and friend were able to make some good out of it with the "Free the Rage" party afterwards...sounds like it was probably a lot of fun.
I started on Keppra as the first drug for my seizures at 1000 mg a day, and it made me kind of tired and not feel like eating anything...also made me a bit down and depressed. I didn't get the "Kepprage" that a lot of people discuss on here. The doctor upped it when I continued to have seizures to 3500 mg a day, which turned out to be a bit much for my body weight. I felt drunk, had vomiting, and was falling, tripping, and had trouble concentrating. He brought me back down to 1000 mg...then moved to North Carolina. The new neurologist doesn't think Keppra is a good drug for tonic-clonic seizures, so he is tapering me off the Keppra and is amping me up on Lamictal XR. I'm down to 500 mg of Keppra a day (one pill at night) and don't have any issues with it.
I am on the regular, generic Keppra--there is a newer extended release form called Keppra XR which I think you only have to take once a day, so it should be pretty easy to take. I have a 7-day pillbox as a reminder of when to take my pills and do my best to remember to take them on time...I don't want to have anymore tonic clonics and lose my ability to drive again!
Keppra can cause some people to have anger issues and so on--though I didn't have these issues. It can cause weight gain, though this varies from person to person. Of course, this might be a plus for you to help counteract the weight loss with the Topiramate. I do know that Keppra is a pretty popular choice for neurologists to prescribe, though Vimpat is also becoming pretty popular. Since you have a history of TBI, make sure your neurologist or doctor who is treating you for your seizures knows this when considering adding on another medicine if the Topiramate is not enough or you need an add-on to help control the seizures.
Well, hope you enjoyed your New Year's Eve and had some good quality time with friends and family!
Best wishes,
Jennifer
Re: Topiramate and Weight Loss
Submitted by Katianna on Sat, 2011-01-01 - 13:04
I love my curves. I think they make me look good. When I was in school I was in a lot of athletics and I got used to having an athletic build, and I have tried to keep it up since then. I like to have a little bit of build, and I still try to do a lot of outdoor activities like hiking, biking, and what I call cardio/weight-training (aka leash training my 90 pound dog). So when I lost this weight and my body started to change I was kind of shocked. I am not sure if my weight loss during the day was just a glich in my scale or the accuracy of their scale. I am thinking that it was more on my end with my scale. I have never quite understood how people lose weight while they are sleeping. One of my friends is morbidly obese and loses weight in her sleep, but that is because she takes a drug that helps her do so. Can't remember the name of it (imagine that... yay for memory loss)but it seems to happen in some cases. She's lost about 200 pounds because of it though, so I consider it a wonder drug. The Nutritionist and the representative at GNC told me that the stuff I bought is supposed to be the best stuff on the market for weight gain so I am crossing my fingers. My brother did some research on it and found nothing but good comments on it too. I started the prenatal vitamins too, so I am hoping they make a difference. Maybe my energy levels will increase. I am going to keep working with them to make sure my weight stays at a comfortable level. I am interested to find out what my blood levels are when they results come in. I'm particularly interested in seeing how low my iron and b-12 levels are. With Keppra, maybe you do have strange body chemistry, and that is the reason why you didn't have a mass weight gain. That would be the only thing I could think of. I had a similiar "body chemistry" reasoning given to me by a psych. He had given me a standard dosage and I had severe wicked mood swings for days ( 0 to ***** in 2 seconds). Someone would look at me and say something nice, and I would look back at them and tell them to go screw themselves (except not so polite). At one point I got so enraged I actually punched a hole in a bedroom wall. This was not me. This went on for about a week. Three days after the wall incident I had a grand-mal seizure, which landed me in the ER. After they released me from the hospital my friend and her mom flushed all the Ativan with me. We dubbed it a "Free the Rage" party lol. Later on, we found out that it wasn't my "body chemistry", it was my brain having a bad reaction to the drug, which I should have never been on to begin with considering my history of traumatic TBI. How are you doing on Keppra? Is it an easy drug for you to take and stay on? It is one of the possible drugs that I will possibly be going on in the near future. Thank you so much for you advice and input. Much luck in the new year! Regards, Kat