Weight loss pills etc

[CopperCyclist]

Generally, that's good advice, but you seem to have missed this rather important clarification by BOAB ...

I did indeed miss that part, my apologies!

 

[gb155]

CHECK YOUR THYROID.

Really.

My wife has been diagnosed with an under active one of these thingy's and it's taken a very very long time to get things better - doctors are clueless. Like many, she has digested the WEB, and know's more than the GP. Still not right, but it's going in the right direction. Your symptoms are typical though !

Mines under active, took about 5 years of medication to get it stable

It's still "slower" than normal but much better than it was and has levelled out

I cant say i recall how I used to feel as I everything was an effort a few years ago but if I make the mistake of missing a day or 2 of tables I soon know about it !

 

[Ghost Donkey]

If you're already on medication I would definitely avoid any weight loss medication. I suppose I would say to avoid this kind of thing anyway but combining medicines yourself is not a good idea. You should always play it on the safe side when it comes to matters of health. The are better ways to lose weight. If you took weight loss medicine, they worked and there were no negative side effects what next? Do you need to continue on the tablets to maintain your weight? If you return to your previous ways would you return to your previous weight? Then what?

 

[BigonaBianchi]

well the grenade arrived in th epost this morning...blimey ...it really is a grenade..looks like a ww2 bomb !

I read th einstructions and it says to just take one to start with to get used to it. I'm just back from a wintery ride so i'll leave it until the morning.

Yep I hear what you say above...GD..makes sense...only once i'm off the meds I'm guessing my metabolism will return to normal and then i'll stop the grenade...assuming I dont stop it after jus tone pill if it freaks me out tomorrow.

 

[ttcycle]

Reading your posts BOAB- have you checked with GP that there aren't any interactions with medicines?

Aside from that, If your body is withdrawing from the antidepressants then shoving a load of caffeine into your system doesn't necessarily address the issue.

I've been where you are but unfortunately just straight depression without the medication causing the effect. All I can say is I tried to force myself out on the bike and would end up knackering myself out and the depression would hit me the following day whilst I was exhausted and I'd be very low for the next three to five days. This was even the case for small low intensity rides - if your energy is low, caffeine doesn't give you more energy necessarily, it's the feeling of energy- somewhere you're still depleting your supplies.

Listen to your body, I know how important it is to get out and about and active to stave off the blues but if you're too fatigued to then do something less but outdoors. As you say, it's temporary whilst you sort medication so it's a matter of months when things should return to normal.

 

[swampyseifer]

Have you considered doing resistance training at a gym? The other day I did a really hard session (nearly an hour) and I had so many endorphines blowing through my veins that I then did another hour of cardio on top of that...

It made me feel great AND burnt a lot of calories!

 

[Becs]

well the grenade arrived in th epost this morning...blimey ...it really is a grenade..looks like a ww2 bomb !

I read th einstructions and it says to just take one to start with to get used to it. I'm just back from a wintery ride so i'll leave it until the morning.

Yep I hear what you say above...GD..makes sense...only once i'm off the meds I'm guessing my metabolism will return to normal and then i'll stop the grenade...assuming I dont stop it after jus tone pill if it freaks me out tomorrow.

225mg of caffeine per dose!!! That's 3 expressos in one, good luck with the shakes and tachycardia! I've had a quick look on pubmed for the so called "active-ingredients" of Grenade and not a single blinded placebo controlled trial or human pharmacokinetic study comes up. It is basically a couple of proplus with some other crap in it for which the safety data is missing. I think you are being incredibly foolish.

It sounds like you have a lot going on in your life in coming off the antidepressants - what does gaining few pounds matter in the grand scheme of things? You can always lose it later when you are feeling better. If exercise makes you tired this may well do the same. Drugs like this put untold stresses and strains on your heart and change levels of neurotransmitters in your brain and circulation (ever noticed how irritable caffeine addicts become when they don't get their coffee/diet coke/red bull?), but we don't know enough about them because the safety data isn't out there. The green tea extract it talks about can function as a potent anti-oxidant which may be good, in contrast there are papers out there that say that the muscles of people taking high levels of anti-oxidants don't adapt as well to exercise. Oxidative stress is an area I'm broadly covering in my PhD (in an area of muscle disease) and I have learnt that it's not something that should be taken lightly and messed about with! Many of the interventions that have been studied in the past actually make things worse when they were expected to make things better - this may be the case with grenade, but no one knows because people aren't required to look before these bullsh1t "neutraceuticals" hit the market.

You have been warned!

 

[Globalti]

I can recommend a simple weight-loss programme, which will work and will even save you money.

Wait for it:

Eat normally but cut out potatoes, bread, pasta and rice. Just stick to proteins (grilled meat and fish) and salads, vegetables and fruit. After your evening meal floss and clean your teeth, which will help you to avoid the temptation to snack.

Oh, and avoid anything with maltodextrin listed in the ingredients, that means cup-a-soup, pot noodles, instant gravy etc.

Also avoid anything made with hydrogenated vegetable oil; pies, pasties, cakes, biscuits, sausage rolls etc. as hydrogenated vegetable oil tends to cause fat to accumulate inside the body cavity.

Sorted.

 

[amaferanga]

I can recommend a simple weight-loss programme, which will work and will even save you money.

Wait for it:

Eat normally but cut out potatoes, bread, pasta and rice. Just stick to proteins (grilled meat and fish) and salads, vegetables and fruit. After your evening meal floss and clean your teeth, which will help you to avoid the temptation to snack.

Oh, and avoid anything with maltodextrin listed in the ingredients, that means cup-a-soup, pot noodles, instant gravy etc.

Also avoid anything made with hydrogenated vegetable oil; pies, pasties, cakes, biscuits, sausage rolls etc. as hydrogenated vegetable oil tends to cause fat to accumulate inside the body cavity.

Sorted.

Great advice.... unless of course you want to fuel yourself to ride a bike and recover reasonably quickly.

 

[yello]

And they gave me a lecture on what caffiene can do to you if you overdo it. It caused tachy eurithmia for me. People dont realise how bad for us it is, I now drink decaff.

People have died from caffeine overdose. I recall reading last year of a lad who died after a couple of Red Bull type drinks on top of a teaspoon of caffeine powder (as many people have to mix sports drinks).

It generally surprises me how small a quantity is needed to significantly effect you. I remember my brother suffering very worrying palpitations after a couple of flat whites (kinda like a latte) - scared us both.

So, yes, you have to be careful.

 

[Ghost Donkey]

Great advice.... unless of course you want to fuel yourself to ride a bike and recover reasonably quickly.

You don't need carbs all day to fuel yourself for endurance sport. I manage fine as do a growing number of others I know. As always, the important bit is how you do it and what you eat when. I'd agree with a lot of what Globalti says. Each to their own of course. I've posted too many long posts about what I eat and why. I'd be happy to point anyone in the direction of good reading material *if* anyone's interested in my ramblings. I don't want to hijack another thread with my food choice rants . There is also the issue of the effects of the anti-depressants to consider in all of this.

 

[Becs]

You don't need carbs all day to fuel yourself for endurance sport. I manage fine as do a growing number of others I know. As always, the important bit is how you do it and what you eat when. I'd agree with a lot of what Globalti says. Each to their own of course. I've posted too many long posts about what I eat and why. I'd be happy to point anyone in the direction of good reading material *if* anyone's interested in my ramblings. I don't want to hijack another thread with my food choice rants . There is also the issue of the effects of the anti-depressants to consider in all of this.

Indeed - a guy on here was doing 100 milers every 3 or 4 weeks on the Dukan diet - he just allowed himself some carbs the night before and during the ride if I remember rightly. It takes a little while for the body to adjust (the first 20 mins of a ride might be tough) but running on fat rather than carbs is perfectly fine for low to moderate impact exercise, which lets face it most people's cycling is (unless you're racing etc). I'd never advocate a no carb diet (prolonged ketosis is not good for anyone) but low carb is perfectly fine!

 

[yello]

I'd like to add to the low carb debate.... but I won't, despite my interest in the subject! I think it's straying just a little too far from boab's questions which I feel are way more important than my musings on the subject.

 

[Becs]

Indeed:
"..so do any of you use or know of peeps that use these and if so which ones etc."

In summary most of us do not because we are not that stupid. They are useless at best and harmful at worst, therefore do some thing safer like cutting carbs and doing more exercise (+/- a cup of normal coffee beforehand). Don't beat yourself up if that's not possible, getting off the antidepressants should be the main aim and a few pounds can be sorted out later. Don't replace one (physiological) addiction with another. I think that about covers it.

 

[BigonaBianchi]

Don't replace one (physiological) addiction with another. I think that about covers it.

I think this is a wise statement..and believe me I'm ttoally dodne with addicitions so it is something i am aware of. I dont drink any alcohol (not for 5 years now) and I dont smoke or do any kind of other drugs at all. I dont think therefore that i have an addcitive 'nature'.

The gPs are clueless as always..(sweeping statement alert lol!)...but I am convinced there is another answer to these ssri's. Part, and only part , of that alternative is diet...and generally i do eat a healthy (ish ) diet...no takeaways, no junk food (except biscuits and the odd bit of cake ..much liek many on here I suspect). My blood pressure is optimum the gp says. So....as I exercise a lot for aguy of my 'maturity' (!) ...I am left thinking that it's not just my life circumstances (which i wont go into here but they have been somewhat 'uncertain' for the last 3 years really)..but that it could be heriditary (which i cannot change if it is)..or it's a diet thing perhaps. Apparently seratonin is not able to be produced in the body alone. It HAS to come from the food we eat. Not only that but it requires an amino acid called tryptophan .

Tryptophan is found in certain foods like turkey and whey protien, salmon and white fish. It is this amino acid that 'kick starts' the production of seratonin from the food we eat. So if it is absent or to low I guess it makes jack a dull boy.

Carbs give a more instant feel good feeling, and as such cutting them isnt a great plan...but I thik I am right in saying that it has to be the right type of carbs...complex carbs. So a simple sugar hit makes you feel better for a while then you get hit with fatigue. Maybe I'm eating the wrong carbs. I do have a bowl of podge each morning with muesli and wholemeal bread tuna sandwiches at lunchtime ...anyway I digress.

I found this article interesting:

http://www.angelfire.com/hi/TheSeer/seratonin.html

So ...Boabs plan for now is...

continue on the med reduction as per GP plan (sooner I am off this shoot the better)
Exercise more..this is where a temporary boost of energy (grenade) should help me fight through th efatigue enough to get some benefit...and then make sure I am eating the right foods that give me tryptophan so as to aid the natural production of seratonin as the pills reduce.

I think all that means...less pills...more bike...eat massive turkey sandwiches and drink whey protien shakes (as part of a sensible diet)...the grenade thing is simply a means to get me riding more by fighting through the current excessive fatigue which the doc said was most likely a side effect of the citalopram withdrawel.

Hmmm...I'm no gp though....but not on egp in many years has EVER even mentioned anything other than keep increasing the pills and keep cycling.





tryptophan