Contraception and weight loss

Hi all!

This is just a quickie to see what other people have experienced.

I have been on an oral contraceptive for 3 months now (Cileste) and before I started  taking it, I was losing about 2lbs a week. Since going on the pill, I have not gained weight, but my weightloss has become almost non-existant! I have only lost 1.6lbs in 3 months! This is making me so depressed! I have not changed my diet, or my exercise routine, and I just don;t know what to do. I have had plateaux before with my weight loss, but nothing quite like this.

Any thoughts would be great! Thank you!

You might need to change up your exercise routine.  It's a common thing to try when you hit a plateau in your weight loss.  When I started taking a contraceptive, I gained some weight and it generally does make it harder to lose weight.  Try incorporating weight training in with your cardio, and don't do the same cardio activities every workout.  Try jogging one day, swimming the next, elliptical the next, etc.  Mix it up and experience with different things week by week to see what helps you lose weight.

I've been on and off oral contraceptives for 20 years now, and it never affected my weight either way.  In fact, I've lost more weight in the times I was on the pill than when I was off it.  From what I've read, some varieties cause you to be more suceptible to retaining water.  If you find that you have a consistent issue with one kind of the pill, ask your doctor about trying other kinds.  There are so many varieties out there, and it sometimes takes a while to find the right kind for you.

I had no problems with the pill for years and then the side effects began creeping up on me. One of the main ones was the inability to lose weight. If you think about it female hormones are the opposite of steroids, so it follows that it might be harder to lose fat and gain lean body mass. I have been able to lose steadily since I went off the pill a couple of months ago. I was also experiencing emotional side effects(moodiness), but it happened slowly, so it took a while to notice.

Some people lose, some people gain. I, like you, didn't really gain, but couldn't lose no matter how much effort I exerted. I went off it, and lost 5 lbs of water weight in 2 weeks. 

Anecdotally, I've been told it gets better after a few months. Do with that what you will. 

When I was on the pill (3 different types of TriCyclen), I found it easier to lose weight.  I was a wee more moody than normal, but it was easier to maintain weight or lose it for me.  I went off the pill a bit of a year ago and I mean, it was like a balloon exploded inside of me.  Ok, there were other factors to my weight gain, but I'm sure not having the hormones to balance me out (apparently I was unbalanced before, who knew?) played a role.

I went back on a hormonal contraceptive about 6 months ago and it's been a bit easier again.  The scale says I haven't lost weight, but my clothes fit better and my husband says i look better [and that's apparently what matters to him :)].

Everybody is different.  If you were perfectly hormonally balanced before the pill, I'm sure your body is in the "what the H---!" stage right now.  Like it's been said, give it a few months.  Change up the routine.  Give yourself some sort of boost to kickstart your body into the "Ok, I can deal with this..." stage :)

when you start taking the pill some people release more cortisol, which makes you want to munch out more often.

cortisol also encourages your body to store fat in your belly.