Topamax used by Dieting Centers in a Drug Cocktail

[fuzzybluelogic]

Topamax, Phentermine, Amino Acids Cocktail

I ran across this thread on Sparkpeople.com (a weightloss/fitness website)

I'm just shaking my head.

Text of the question post:

Hi everyone... I just went to a diet place this morning and am going to be starting on Topamax, Phentermine, and an Amino Acid regimen tomorrow. I was wodnering if anyone had tried this, been put on any of these... and if so what kind of feedback you may have?

It's called The Myrtle Beach Diet

W to the T to the F?

[Breeze]

I lost close to 20 pounds on Topamax. I didn't do this "combo diet plan" but I read a number of years ago that Topamax taken in conjunction with what I was oncould help me ditch the weight I had gained from meds. I exercise, I eat right, but the meds I was on made an un-fat person: fat.

I used to get all kinds of grief for talking about taking Topamax only for weight loss. But my p-doc gave it to me because I do all the right things, and I am following generations of "Breeze's" who died of heart dieseae. So extra weight is not a good thing.

So as a fad diet? No. That is never a good thing. But if something works for the right reasons? I am going to talk about it.

So there!

Bleeze

[Loon-A-TiK]

my pdoc gave it to me to help with mood stabilization and weight loss last year, after i gained 50lbs from Z. i was out of my mind about the weight gain and not eating because of it. i was going to the gym, having a very hard time eating due to psychological factors, and generally terrorizing myself. he upped my WB too.

i got really manic and didn't sleep more than 4 hrs straight for about a month, lost all kinds of weight (down to 110lbs) and generally felt like crap.

i got off the topa when he finally noticed that it wasn't helping. no duh.

but somehow, i think it did help with the weight loss. i wouldn't take it sheerly for vanity dieting, but it did work. it made me dumber than a pile of rocks too, but i was a thin pile of rocks.

[CrazyLee]

Hi everyone... I just went to a diet place this morning and am going to be starting on Topamax, Phentermine, and an Amino Acid regimen tomorrow. I was wodnering if anyone had tried this, been put on any of these... and if so what kind of feedback you may have?

Well it might be funny when they forget how to say "dumbell" at the gym. bad joke.

[anonymousguest]

It doesn't seem like a good idea. For one reason, Topamax doesn't cause weight loss for everyone who takes it. It didn't for me. It did stop the weight gain, finally. But hell that could have happened because I was finally off depakote and zyprexa.

The "dumbing down" effect doesn't happen to everyone either though--didn't happen to me at all (I take 200mg). Who knows what dose they're putting these people on at the diet centers. They may be putting them on such a low dose that those side effects may be minimal.

I still think it's a bad idea though. Who knows what might happen to "normal" folks who go on these drugs.

[Maddy]

I think everyone already knows my position on this.

I rely on Topamax to control my seizures. Even if doctors are prescribing it off-label for weight-loss, I don't want to lose one of the few AEDs that works for me just because someone's looking to lose weight.

Don't think that I'm not sympathetic to those that need to lose weight for health reasons. I am. My good friend's sister was very over-weight and after having tried for years to lose weight properly, she was still over 300 lbs over-weight. She was breaking the bones in her feet just walking.

She ended up getting lap-band surgery. It's worked for her. She's currently at a healthy weight, but it's taken almost two years and daily exercise to reach that healthy weight. Yes, the initial weight loss was dramatic, but it tapers off. But it really helps to lose all that weight initially because it helped her with her motivation and it helped her with her exercise plan.

Back to the Topamax for weight-loss thing...what many people and apparently doctors don't realize is that the weight-loss thing is a side-effect, not a feature. It doesn't happen for everyone. Some people actually gain weight. Not to mention the chance for kidney stones, over-heating, stupification, possibilities for seizures even in people who never before had them, etc. Also many have reported that if they stop taking Topamax and then get back on it, they don't ever get the weight loss effect again.

Almost makes the heart damage/death of the phen-fen combo look fun.

(Keep in mind my opinion is biased. I'm willing to admit that. I do take Topamax for seizure control and have for years and pay out the nose for it. It keeps me ALIVE.)

[LisaSCA]

my sister has been exercizing endlessly while i've been taking topamax. I've lost more than 50 lbs the past year, and she's lost less, spent more and had a personal trainer. That said, she swears she'd never take topamax for dieting. why? cuz she knows what I've gone thru taking it for my migraines. she's also watched me frantically try and stop the weight loss (by forcing myself to eat good sound food), because I have no idea when it will stop on its own and it's not healthy to lose so much. No one should take this for weight loss unless their health problems are worse than the possible risks (and that's bad, really bad).

my fear? these twits will prescribe it for weight loss, not monitor patients properly and some folks will die/get horribly sick. then they'll pull the one thing that's controlled my migraines off the market, leaving me suffering with blinding migraines every other day again.

in the meantime, I'm stuffing myself with powerbars, nutritional drinks and powders, eating a balanced meal even if I really want to gag, and still I'm losing weight. I've been poked, prodded, MRIed, CATscanned, had blood drawn, etc, all to make sure it isn't something else. apparently I'm healthy, it's just the topa. In about 20 lbs, I'll look gross.

they may lose weight, but they'll really suffer. I know it seems like a magic pill for some, but it's not. I was a fat person, so I know the "fun" of being fat. Knowing what I know now, no way would I take this med to lose weight, no way.