Q: How can I lose belly fat while on seroquel?
Studies have found that the best way to lose weight while taking Seroquel is to keep a food diary. There are several inexpensive software programs that will help you do this - I use CalorieKing. Keeping track of calories and exercise throughout the day allows you to know, by dinnertime, just how much you can still eat without going over - or too far over - your goal.
Software that has a built-in food database really helps streamline the process, and you can add things that aren't in its database easily.
The studies that showed this approach working well were extremely positive. And I lost 25 pounds while taking Seroquel while using this method.
~Marcia
Elizabeth, I have no financial connection to CalorieKing whatsoever. There are many such programs out there, and I only gave it as an example because it is the one I use - and paid full price for.
The important thing about my answer was not which calorie counting program to use, but that keeping track of food intake has been proved in major medical studies (not funded by any calorie-counting program) to make a big difference in losing weight even while taking Seroquel.
See Monitoring and Managing Weight Gain in the Mentally Ill.
~Marcia Purse
Marcia,
I don't know who this study was funded by and how you in fact have been named an "expert" on the matter, but to suggest that people who are taking Seroquel can solve their weight problems by watching their food intake with a simple online calorie counter is disingenuous in the extreme.
There are many people with financial incentives to keep patients on Seroquel. It is an incredibly lucrative drug for Astra Zeneca and has one of the broadest off license usages in the industry.
Counting calories can't hurt of course, and it's probably a good idea for anyone regardless of the state of their mental health, but to say that it will solve the problem flies in the face of all anectdotal evidence (real people who take this drug) and other studies and pushes the problem back on to the patient, when in fact their metabolism and appetite mechanism have been altered by this drug.
Providing patients with the ability to make an informed decision about their health is the ethical way. Lying to and patronizing them is not.
Once again you are reading more into my answer than was there, Elizabeth. My statement was, "Studies have found that the best way to lose weight while taking Seroquel is to keep a food diary." I added that I myself lost 25 pounds by keeping track of both my food intake and my exercise. If you listen to the entire presentation and read the rigorous parameters of the studies, you will see that the difference between the control group and those who had behavioral intervention was quite striking.
I was not about to reply, "There is no way to lose belly fat while taking Seroquel," because this is not the case. And it would have been wholly irresponsible to have suggested that the questioner would have to stop taking Seroquel to lose weight. While atypical antipsychotics can and too often do cause significant weight gain, they are also often the difference between stabilization and psychosis.
I did not "suggest that people who are taking Seroquel can solve their weight problems by watching their food intake with a simple online calorie counter." I also did not feel it was necessary to write a treatise on the subject of Seroquel and weight gain.
I suggest that you could be of more assistance to the person who asked this question if you gave your own answer instead of twisting my words to further your own apparent crusade (and if I am reading more into your words than is true, I withdraw the term "crusade"). That said, I respectfully conclude my participation in this discussion.
~Marcia Purse
Well Marcia, since you've respectfully concluded your contribution to this discussion, why don't I have the last word?
I would NEVER suggest that someone come off of Seroquel if that was the drug that they needed to be on.
What I want to make very clear, however, is that Seroquel creates a metabolic situation whereby it becomes more than a calorie in and calorie out equation. It also interferes with appetite. Those are real side effects and blowing sunshine up people's rear ends with fancy calorie counting services isn't going to change that.
When drug companies and psychiatrists can be completely honest with patients about that, then it will be a level playing ground. Until then patients need to be advocates for each other.
Well, I've been on Seroquel for about a year and a half and I gained about 40 pounds. I went from 150 pounds to 190 pounds. About 3 months ago, around June 12th, I started using a calorie counting app such as Marcia suggested, but mine is totally free, and have lost 20 pounds in 3 months. I now weigh 161 as of today. Believe me that food journal/calorie counting app and exercising for 1 hour at least 4 times a week is why I've lost that weight. Yes we patients need to be advocates for eachother but she was only trying to help, and the software she talked about is actually extremely helpful.
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It is shameful to profit from people's problems in this way. Tell CalorieKing to pay for their own ads. Elizabeth