So hey all. Long time reddit user, infrequent poster.
My new weightloss catalyst was we finally bought our land in Hawaii and I have huge goals that won't happen unless I'm healthy.
I'm not sure what the general view in this sub is on pharma assistance, but binge eating is a mental health issue. I was normal weight, even under weight until my late 20's. Stress and aging caused me to gain through my 30's and 40s. I hovered around 200 late 30s early 40s (5'9). I had mixed degrees of success with things over the years like Atkins, Keto, CICO, but cheat days and binging always crept back in. I sort of accepted that bouncing between 180-210 via yo yo dieting was just me. When the pandemic hit (I'm an RN and work in clinical research) My binging spiralled badly and I went to a PCP appt to talk about pharma help and found myself at 246 lbs. WTF. So.... I got put on Qsymia induction dose for two weeks and am now on phentermine 15 mg in the morning and topirimate BID.
I'm not going to claim that these medications are easy on me, especially the phentermine. However, my cravings for food are absolutely crushed. Its so easy to stick to a routine. I have zero binges. I skip breakfast. Power bowl for lunch (most of these are 200-300 cals). No snacks. Dinner is usually some combo of lower carb veggies, proteins, soups, wraps, things like that. If I have a snack in the evening its a cheese stick, a half cup of cottage cheese, or a piece of fruit (not often fruit bc I generally count carbs). I actually struggle to get over 1200 calories. I have lost 20lbs in less than 6 weeks. I have not had a single piece of candy. No desserts or snack foods. Nothing. And it's fine, it was effortless from a cravings standpoint. So. Much. Water. The phentermine makes me drink upwards of 100oz per day. I get regular BP monitoring and bloodwork.
As I hit my goals I will have to incorporate more exercise (I'm 46 and I still hurt right now at 226- joint pain). I have come to terms with the fact that I will likely have to keep taking Topirimate QD for the rest of my life to help me treat my binge eating. The pause from the intrusive binge thoughts is allowing me to form new habits of counting up all calories and choosing this over that. I have long term goals and was on a slippery slope toward losing them. I won't let that happen.
I guess I'm saying to you that if you start to slip, consider seeing a weight loss clinic. Physicians are increasingly beginning to treat this like the mental disorder that it is and there are many tools to help. There are lots of folks that would scoff at that and have a bootstrap mentality (I've seen it in this sub some and its unfortunate) but obviously that is not working for many, and raw willpower only takes you so far.
There are other weight loss formulas out there as well like Contrave (buproprion and naltrexone) and glp-1 agonists (we've done a ton of clinical trials on these agents with amazing results).
Would love to hear other stories and encouragement from the community on the issue.
Would love to hear long term stories about how you incorporated pharmaceutical help into your lifetime success.
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