Has anyone lost weight coming off Pristiq/Effexor?

Happy for you. I am struggling after 10 years on Pristiq. No real impact on weight. Sleep is not good at all. I am fighting issues with having a very fogged head..very hard to describe feeling. But i noticed that it comes on around midday (right now as I type) and subsides later. Therefore, I am going to tough it out for now. I am a very active person ..runner, pickleball, HIIT workouts, etc. and am starting to journal in order to track these physical symptoms. I've been off a full dose for about a month.

I am a 68 year old male
Was on Effexor for 10 years
I have been completely off Effexor for 4 weeks after a 3 month taper
Still had brain sparks up till last week but noticed now(4th week) brain sparks have drastically diminished
Sleep is better too.
To early to see if weight loss occurs .....increase in metabolism would be great but at my age who knows.

I did notice a bit of twitching in my body. Just every once in awhile. Last night couldn’t sleep at all but other then that it was easy to get off. Now if only I could get off the thyroid pills.
🤞🏼 I’m 53btw 😉

I recently titrated off of 450mg of Effexor, along with a bunch of other meds. I’ve lost 35lbs,

In addition to stopping the meds I changed my diet, no refined sugar and no fast food, I eat 2000 calories a day, forty percent carbohydrates and thirty percent good fats and protein respectively.

I also exercise two hours a day every day. Two out of twenty four doesn’t seem like a lot for all the health benefits I get.

I was and am tired of being sick. My research has led me to the conclusion that the medications were, are, the problem. The science simply doesn’t support the way they’ve been used in my case. My life was great before the meds, a nightmare afterwards.

I am committed to do ing everything I can to stop taking medication that doesn’t test any better then a placebo in rigorous double blind studies.

Unfortunately, I believe my system is so screwed up from the meds that I will never fully recover.

A clean diet and vigorous exercise will never fail. The only side effects are improved health and wellness.

I am sixty years old and in better shape than I was at forty five, when this circus began.

May you live in peace.

WAY TO GO! You are taking responsibility for your health.....our bodies are systems that need to be attended to as such.

Take charge!
Like @dfb I am attending to my nutrition
I am using an app called "LoseIt"
Because I have to log all nutrient intake, I am forced to be more aware and not mindlessly eating.
Also joined the YMCA and am in a group that meets twice weekly with a trainer and once a month with a nutritionist
Sparks are greatly diminished, energy and outlook are up!

I appreciate your comments. I will be 70 in May and have been fit and happy while taking Pristiq for the last 10 years. I have been completely off the meds (went to 50%, then 25% before totally going off) for about 5 weeks. It has been very difficult. I go through periods of feeling great but usually around 11am I start to feel the fog roll in. I started journaling these cycles so I can track progress or decline. Usually, I feel clarity return in the evening. The best method of coping with the fog is to keep physically active. Please continue to post your experience. It is very helpful. I consider reading and responding to these posts as part of cognitive therapy. Thank you.

I will keep posting, you too. It is my experience that we can help each other at least as well as some of the medications we are prescribed.

Be well!

You WILL recover. Claim it. Our stories are similar. I took Exflexor for ten years for my fibromyalgia pain. It's been two years and three months since I stopped taking it. I lost 50 pounds, went into a clinical depression, had horrible sleep disturbances (it literally felt like I was being blasted awake with a gunshot each morning), memory issues, high blood pressure and other things I can't recall right now.
I am about 85percent better. I did self medicate for a while with THC. Then I went into withdrawals from that.
I am determined to fully recover. I wish you the best.

Thank you for your support. I continue to have terrible sleep problems and believe this is my core problem. I’m interested to know that you were “blasted awake”. That is exactly what happens to me between six and six thirty every morning.

I am convinced that Effexor/Venlafaxine is responsible for a significant number of my mental and physical health problems. It continues to plague me even though it is gone. It is time for a class action suit against the manufacturer.

I often feel like I have to fight against an industry focused on making money from a very vulnerable population. What a business model; sell drugs that make the ill sicker and then call them treatment-resistant, selling them more, for life.

This terrible injustice is changing. How much more suffering will we have to go through before it does change?

Doing something about it helps keep me going.

May you life in peace and good health.