I have suddenly begun gaining weight, and I can't get it off...

I am a 21 year old female and I have gained almost 20 lbs in the last three months. A few things about me is I know that my birth-control Medroxyprogestrone (aka Depo Provera) can make me gain weight but I have been on it five years without a problem. I took the advice of another site, that if I were to eat 1200 calories or less a day (with reasonable excersize) that I would lose the weight. I don't eat fast food, I don't eat pizza... nothing bad. I stuck to my goal of 1200 calories a day and I continue to gain. I usually have a protein shake for breakfast, go to work where I do heavy lifting for 8.5 hours (I work at Sam's Club as a cashier... it is very fast paced with a LOT of heavy stuff) for lunch I usually eat special k or a salad and for dinner a Lean Cuisine meal of some sort. I have NEVER eaten badly but I am being particularly restrictive on calories as of late and I weigh more than I ever have in my life. Other excersize that I do includes cardio, I have a treadmill and I run about 5 miles three times a week when possible (sometimes if tight on time I run as little as 1 mile on certain days but I make sure to get atleast 45 minutes of cardio in)

I can't figure it out, it sounds vain... and awful, but I am now entering a horrible depression. I used to have an ideal body and I cannot stand to take of my clothes to take a shower (I turn out the lights)

As for hypothyroidism I have not been tested, however I cannot say I am surprised to be fatigued as I have also been suffering from insomnia... I have always had a low body temp and thusly I am not a big fan on the cold. My mother has it but didn't get it until her 40's... so I am afraid I might be fitting these symptoms to me rather than actually having them (if that makes sense)

I just want to know if this sounds like anyone here, maybe some answers or advice... I have become so depressed because of this weight gain I do not even want to see my friends...

Please help.

I don't know if I can provide any answers for you, but I can tell you I was on Depo for 11 years. I LOVED it; with the exception of the weight gain. I didn't notice it at first, but it just kept building up. I mean, I wasn't eating the healthiest either but I definitely think it was Depo. I switched birth control to Lybrel (because my fave thing about Depo was the cessation of menses) and on Lybrel I do not have a menstrual cycle either. However, I have found it is IMPOSSIBLE to lose the weight I gained from Depo! I lost nearly 20 pounds after I discovered this site, but am at a loooong plateau. Most of my weight is in my hip/thigh area, which happened to be my injection site too. I have stretch marks on my hips from where I gained so much weight! I truly don't know what to think about this phenomenon.....so I just wanted to share and let you know you are not alone in this.

I was on Depo as well for about 4-5 years, and I'd urge you to get off it again fairly soon, as it will eventually cause bone loss.  Most of that is reversed quickly, but my hair started thinning too.  I switched to an IUD (Mirena) and it's been really great ever since :).  My hair is nice and thick again, and the low-hormones of the IUD more or less keep my period from coming back - I haven't had one last more than a day in over a year since getting the IUD.

I gained about 20 lbs my first 2 years of Depo, and was able to reverse it, through diet only (I wasn't exercising much then).  I'm back to around 153 lbs, but I'm having trouble losing 'that last 10' or so.

Are you taking anything for the insomnia? altering your eating habits before bed? I've sometimes found that when I do have insomnia, a 5-htp caplet does the trick.  The couple of times i've taken a sleeping pill, I couldn't sleep, because my brain realized there was something weird going on, trying to make me sleep, if that makes any sense at all.

Best of luck.

(and I just read your post again and realized you said you switched to another BC. I found that pills were just not the best thing in the world for me, and the IUD keeps the hormones only exactly where they're supposed to be)

I would go talk to your OBGYN about your birth control concerns.  I had to try four different kinds before I found one that worked with my body.  The first I was having my period once every week and a half and the next I didn't have it at all (nothing to complain about but I knew that wasn't supposed to happen).  She can switch you to something else and then you can see if that solves your problem. Good luck!

You're eating too little.  Espescially since you're excersising.

eat more. like, at least 1700 calories a day. 1200 is too little for a) someone posting in the young calorie counters section and b) too little for someone who's exercising so much. if you eat too little, your metabolism gets wacked up.

Fluffydragon, I do take Tylenol PM for my sleeping but it is hit or miss but I DO understand what you mean. I am without insurance so I haven't been to the doctor since but she gave me Ambien and I just went through 8 hours of torture. WIDE AWAKE, feeling weird... my brain would not let me sleep. I am relatively certain I do not get REM sleep since I often am "think-dreaming" if you know what I mean...? where dreaming kind of interweaves itself into your thinking however at any point in time you can open your eyes and you can hear everything around you. It is frustrating... I heard not sleeping right can also make you gain weight so I have all sorts of things to look into. It is good (and bad) that other people can relate to Depo-Provera weight gain... I am actually still on my last month before my next shot but am dropping the Depo for sure. I am also getting my thyroid hormone checked out, I asked a friends mom and she said it sounded a lot like hypothyroidism and it is a relatively simple test... I doubt I have it, but the weight gain is so sudden I know someting is definetely off balance. I get hot flashes and confusion one minute and chills the next... My hormones are all out of whack, but yeah the being on depo for five years depletes the chance of pregnancy (and I even took a test)... thanks for all the good answers and support!

You are eating way too little. The minimum for very small, sedentary ycc'ers is 1500 a day. Your body is probably in starvation mode. Now, when you up your calories you might gain some initial weight/water weight, but it is better than a damaged metabolism, no? Use this site to see how many calories you need, and if you are trying to lose, subtract 500 from the number they give you.

 http://www.bcm.edu/cnrc/healthyeatingcalculat or/eatingCal.html