Birth Control Pills

So I've been taking microgestin for 3+ years and have never been able to lose any significant weight.

I stopped taking it for unrelated reasons and dropped weight consistently for about a month, then stopped. It was kind of amazing (till I realized none of my bras fit anymore!).

Has anyone else experienced this? Was my body retaining more water while I was on the pill? I lost 8 lbs. and haven't been able to drop any more.

 

!! The same thing happened to me - I have a medical condition that requires me to take birth control pills, but over the summer I stopped taking them and I dropped 5 pounds like magic.

I am going to have to start them again soon, but I am super worried - I don't want 3 months of hard work to go undone!

I was on one type for 5 years, and gained quite a bit of weight. I'd gone from a very very slim 120lbs at 5'10 to nearly 150lbs (also through College). Two months ago, though I'd started watching my food and upping my excersize several months before, I switched brands of pills, and dropped 7lbs in the first month. 

 

Of course, that happens to most women who use birth control, it has to do with hormones, your boobs get bigger when you start on it, and will get smaller if you discontinue use.

Right, but I don't think I lost 8 lbs in my left boob.

At least I hope not : )

 

I hate to tell all of you this but women get the short end of the stick again.  All birth control pills, shots, rings, etc. are all basically the same stuff they give beef cattle to make them get fat.  So it makes sense that stopping that would shave some pounds off you. 

ohmygod...this is so scary...i started the Pill almost a year ago to take care of a different condition....and i have only gained weight after that...i just lost 7 pounds in the last 8 weeks....i am going off the pill now...mostly becasue my other condition is resolved and i am too lazy to pop it...this sounds like an even better reason to go off...

Ok but please don't get pregnant and hold me responsible to raise your child

Good luck- it doesn't always work, but it certainly helped me get my ducks in a row.

I took Ortho Tri Cyclen Lo for years and had no problems losing (or gaining) weight.

I went on Yaz for 2 1/2 months.. I gained 12 pounds and couldn't get it off until I stopped taking Yaz.

I think it all comes down to what pill and how your body reacts to it.

Once the magical weight loss stops.. Drink water.. lots of it!

It will help start up the weight loss again.

Good Luck.

I'm having this same problem. I have been on the depo shot for over 2 years now and have gained significant weight and have not been able to easily take it off. I have been dieting and exercising since february, almost 6 months, counting calories faithfully, and I have only lost about 12 lbs, though the numbers say I should have lost AT LEAST twice that, more like 3 times that amount. I am coming off of it now. I am in the last 2 weeks of my last 3 month cycle. we shall see what happens in the next couple of months. If there is no significant change, I may get back on BC (not sexually active right now anyway) but if I do, it will be a different brand. Depo is nice bc you don't have periods and you don't even think about it at all...but if my main goal right now is weight loss, I feel I should cut out any outside source that could be holding me back.

when i started taking the pill (ortho tri cyclen) i was so worried i would gain weight, the last thing i neede was to gain weight, but i actually was able to lose 30 lbs. now i've been trying to lose another 40, but it's been difficult for me.

 

I just heard a person talking about this.  They said that birth control pills can really hinder weight loss.  I guess I was wondering for those of you that lost after going off the pill for a while - what happened when you went back on?  Did the weight come back or were you able to hold it off?  I am in the same boat as most of the others here.  I gained weight when I went on years ago and I have been able to lose about 12 of the pounds but I am stuck and no matter what kind of deficit I hold and how much exercise I do I cannot lose a single pound more. I was actually thinking of going off the pill for a few months just to see what would happen but if the weight comes right back after starting the pill again I better just keep trying the regular way.  

I have heard a lot of discussion about birth control and I know it can be discouraging.

But there is hope!  I literally started taking birth control (mircette) the same week I started calorie counting.  I lost about 2 pounds a week for a while.  I think perhaps it may slow down weight loss a little bit, but it does not stop completely.  I started out at 143 pounds, now I'm at 118, so obviously it didn't hinder it that much.

It's weird though, my friend suddenly stopped taking birth control and almost IMMEDIATELY lost 5 pounds.  So maybe it makes you retain water or something??  I don't know.

If you wanted to find out the best way to make people fat, who would you consult? One industry has spent millions and millions of dollars studying this question, and that's the livestock industry.

Why? Because for them, learning the quickest way to fatten livestock leads to the highest profits. So how do they do it? Do they feed their livestock diets high in fat? Do they put out tubs of butter and ice cream to get their animals nice and plump? No! The cattle industry knows that the quickest way to fatten livestock is to restrict their activity, not let them roam on the range (sort of like our couch potatoes), and feed them lots and lots of low fat, complex carbohydrates, in the form of grain.

Our own systems are not that much different than the ones for livestock. Just as the best way to fatten cattle is to feed them excessive amounts of low-fat grain, so too the best way to fatten yourself up is to eat lots of low-fat processed carbohydrates. Your genetic biochemical response to these carbohydrates is what makes you fat

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/7382 .php

Birth control is not the same thing given to cows to fatten them

while it's true that cattle are fattened with grain and a sedentary lifestyle, it's also tru that they are given hormones.

taken from this article:

http://www.phschool.com/science/science_news/ articles/hormones_beef.html

"Many cattle are fed the same muscle-building androgens—usually testosterone surrogates—that some athletes consume. Other animals receive estrogens, the primary female sex hormones, or progestins, semiandrogenic agents that shut down a female's estrus cycle. Progestins fuel meat-building by freeing up resources that would have gone into the reproductive cycle."

progestins are exactly what are in depo-provera.

Does anyone know how to avoid this?? I have to be back on birth control in a month or so, due to other reasons, but I really don't want to gain all that weight back.

Now that I think about it, I lost the majority of my weight off the Pill...hmm...and gained the majority of my weight on the Pill...

OMG!I hated it so much!!I  was on  it for like 6 months when I saw a picture of myself....it was  schocking!I looked like a huge baloon that is ready to pop!I was and am overweight but the way I looked back than was not a pretty sight,it was a kind of fat I did not know before....now I was in a binge period at the time so it could have been both,but I always had problems with my metabolism so giving such a hormone shot to me was like giving sugar to a diabetic person....needless to say that I quit as soon as that month was over and I never want to see any of those kind of birthcontrol supplies.It was a very bad experiance.