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Adderall and Weight Loss

Many people are interested in Adderall because it helps you lose weight. At least, that’s what everyone hears thanks to sensational journalism designed to grab headlines. But, does Adderall really help you lose weight? Should you be taking Adderall for anything other than an ADHD diagnosis?

Does Adderall burn more calories than Vyvanse?

How Many Calories Does Adderall Burn?

The truth about Adderall, and the other generic mixed amphetamine salts, is that it does not help you lose weight any more than drinking a bunch of coffee helps you lose weight. Sure, it revs up your system a little bit, but the amount of extra metabolism one gets from taking Adderall wouldn’t be enough to overcome a single Oreo cookie. Ephedrine burns off more fat by increasing your metabolism than Adderall does. The amount of calories Adderall burns is insignificant. Sorry.

Losing Weight With Adderall

For SOME PEOPLE, definitely not all people, Adderall suppresses your appetite. In other words, it makes it so you are less hungry. In fact, some days, when I forget to take my afternoon dose, I remember because all of the sudden I’m very hungry after having not eaten all day. Usually, I have to remind myself to eat lunch, so if I’m hungry in the afternoon I know something is up.

That means that if you have trouble losing weight because you find it hard to not eat too much when you are hungry, then Adderall can help you lose weight. Of course, that will only happen assuming you are one of the people who have their appetite suppressed by it.

But, if you have trouble losing weight because you eat things that you shouldn’t because they taste good, or because you go out with friends for lunch, or because you have a few beers each night, Adderall won’t help you lose weight at all. Another way to think about it is that if you are at a baseball game in the afternoon and you already ate lunch, so you really aren’t hungry, but you have a couple of hotdogs, some popcorn, and a few beers because you are at the ballpark and it’s part of the fun. Adderall isn’t going to help that at all. The same thing goes for eating because you are nervous, depressed, stressed, or because you drive past a Dairy Queen on your way home every night.

In other words, Adderall does not burn extra calories, stop your body from absorbing fat, or make a big enough difference in your metabolism to make you lose weight no matter how much you eat. It can only make you less hungry. So, if you only eat when you are hungry, the pounds will fall off, because you won’t be hungry while taking Adderall.

Otherwise, get the right meds for your ADD and find another way to lose weight.

Vyvanse Side Effects in Plain English

Written by ADDer 53 Comments

As you know, I started taking Vyvanse a few days ago instead of my usual Adderall (generic) prescription for ADD/ADHD. I am already hitting some of the Vyvanse side effects.

The generic name of Vyvanse is lisdexamfetamine, but the company still has a few years left on its patent, so there is no Vyvanse generic yet. The most common dosages are Vyvanse 30 mg, and Vyvanse 40 mg, but there are 70 mg capsules for those who are prescribed more. Obviously, you can also take two pills to achieve higher-doses of Vyvanse.

Curiously, Vyvanse is also used to treat Binge Eating Disorder, or BED. This is a side-effect of Vyvanse where it reduces your appetite. The theory is that if you are not hungry, then you won’t binge eat. I suppose that depends a lot on what triggers your binge eating… whether it is just hunger, or another stimulus like stress.

Vyvanse Side Effects In Male Adults

As an adult male with ADD, I like to know exactly what I am putting in my body. I don’t just take the recommendation of a doctor or therapist who may, or may not, have the same beliefs and concerns as I do regarding things like medication and their effects on my body. Therefore, I have been reading up on Vyvanse, including all of the government sanctioned warnings, and the company’s legal disclaimers and comments. Buried in all of this legalize is a list of vyvanse side effects.

Fortunately, complex analysis and reading detailed technical documents is what I do for a living, so I am able to wade through this mumbo-jumbo.

Unfortunately, not everyone is able or willing to do this. To help out parents of kids with ADHD, and adults who have ADHD themselves, I have put together a non-scientific, non-technical jargon filled, summary of what the various parts of medical information sheets and side effect warnings typically mean. Note that in the official materials there are no separate notices for the vyvanse side effects in females versus the vyvanse side effects in males. There are some different vyvanse side effect in child though, mostly the warnings that it may increase suicide in kids under 18-years old.

One piece of good news is that you don’t have to take Vyvanse with food, so you can just pop it in your mouth when you first wake up.

You can also check out my review of how Vyvanse works for adult ADD here.

Understanding Prescription Information and Medical Jargon

See your Medication Guide or talk to your doctor or pharmacist about any warnings or drug interaction precautions.

Vyvanse Side Effects in Females

As is often the case with ADHD medication, there are no studies that separately account for how Vyvanse side effects in women will differ from those in men, other than referencing some women only issues regarding reproductive biology.

Vyvanse Side Effect Summary – Understandable Version

The information presented here is NOT medical advice.

This summary is intended to be used in conjunction with a doctor’s advice. Discuss all information with your doctor prior to making any changes in your medications or care.

Vyvanse is derived from some of the same components as Adderall. Just like Adderall, Vyvanse is a nervous system stimulant. As such, many of the Vyvanse side effects are similar to those of Adderall.

The most common side effects of Vyvanse are dry mouth, trouble sleeping, decreased appetite and nausea.

For some people Vyvanse causes weight loss, although like Adderall weight loss, Vyvanse weight loss isn’t really caused by the drug; it is caused by the decreased appetite side effect.

Vyvanse can make it so you don’t feel hungry, and therefore do not eat as often, or as much as you would normally.

Not eating so much is what makes you lose weight, not taking Vyvanse. In other words, if you eat just as much as you normally would while taking Vyvanse, you will not lose weight. Vyvanse does not speed up your metabolism.

The other common side effects listed on the medical information sheet are dizziness, diarrhea, irritability, and upper belly pain. These side effects are probably actually telling you something else, rather than being straight side effects.

Belly pain is probably a symptom that your stomach doesn’t handle medication well. Chances are you are also one of the unlucky people whose stomach is upset by aspirin or Tylenol. If that is the case, your only choice is to put up with it, or try something else.

Vyvanse makes you poop more for many people. Having to poop more often, or urgently, comes from stimulating the muscles that control your bowels.

For many people, the upset stomach comes from too much acid. You can try taking your medication with more water than usual, or perhaps with some milk, or with food, unless your doctor or pharmacist says otherwise.

Do not take your ADD-ADHD meds with orange juice. Orange juice speeds up the absorption of some medications including Vyvanse and Adderall making their distribution into your system uneven. You don’t want a sudden rush of Vyvanse pumped into yoru system.

Maybe You Don’t Have ADD ADHD

As always, consult with your doctor or other practitioner before making any decisions.

If your Vyvanse (or Adderall, or Ritalin) prescription makes you dizzy, lightheaded, buzzy, jumpy, agitated, or skittish, then perhaps your dosage is too high. Talk with your doctor, psychiatrist, or therapist about trying a lower dose.

If you are already taking a very lose dose, or even the minimum possible dose, there is another possibility you should consider. Maybe you don’t have ADD after all. Here is how to tell if you don’t have ADD ADHD.

GABA for ADD Related Depression and Anxiety

Written by ADDer 1 Comment

As you know, I don’t really write about different ADD medications, or ADHD treatments, on here without either some solid research I can reference, or if I have experienced myself. That being said, I got this information directly from my new doctor, so I thought I would pass it along and then follow up.

GABA ADHD Motivation

I think this article about GABA for ADD related motivation issues would benefit from some backstory.

I’m in my 40s. I had hernia surgery a few years ago, but other than that, I haven’t seen a doctor in 10+ years. I’m not one of those stubborn guys who won’t go to a doctor, I’ve just literally never been sick enough to see one–with the exception of the hernia thing. That being said, I am in my 40s now, and that is the age where things can start silently killing you if you don’t have regular checkups with a doctor. The health insurance I have offers this service where you get kind of a discount that works especially well with a high-deductible insurance plan and an HSA. For someone who hardly ever sees a doctor, this is perfect. To join, you pick a doctor online, and then you go in for a full physical, and from then on, you manage your own healthcare online, even scheduling appointments without having to call anyone!

That’s how I ended up with a new doctor here in Denver.

During the interview part of the exam, I was asked questions as part of a depression screen. I don’t know if this is new or not (it’s been a decade since I did this last), but it was a first for me. Of course, as someone who has been diagnosed as having depression, anxiety and attention deficit disorder, the questions were pretty familiar. By the end, the doctor was worried, so I gave her the run down on the old noodle.

I have the apathy kind of depression. It is fairly frequent, lasts a few days at time, to continuously. I do not feel sad or worthless, and I never have thoughts of hurting myself. If anything, I feel like I deserve more than I get, and I could have it too if my brain would just get out of my way and let me go work hard on all the things that I know could be great. Finally, I mentioned how my biggest problem is being able to start something, whether it is spontaneously, or if it was something I planned and committed to.

I told her that I had done some therapy, and that over the years I had tried numerous prescriptions including Adderall and Vyvanse, but that in the end, they didn’t really seem to make much of a difference in a way that mattered to me. That being said, I have been taking St. Johns Wort, and while it isn’t a booster in any way, I do feel as if it keeps me from hitting the no-motivation dumps as often. (Don’t mistake that from actually giving me energy and motivation, just that it keeps me from feeling like keeping my eyes open is too much effort.)

GABA Doctor Recommended for ADD and Motivation (and Depression)

Right about there is where your average health care professional bails out and figures at least I can keep going, so why bother with the extra effort.

This time, however, the doctor gave me some recommendations.

One was 5-HTP. I’ve tried this before, but not probably regularly enough to get the effect. Just like St. Johns Wort, it can take a while for the effect of 5-HTP to build up in your body and brain enough to actually help improve your serotonin levels. As an added bonus, it is supposed to help you sleep better, and we all know good sleep with ADD can be hard to come by, especially if you are taking ADHD medications that can be stimulating long after the effectiveness wears off.

I’ll keep you posted on the 5-HTP.

But, what I really wanted to focus on is called GABA. I have never heard of this before, and according to the bottle, this isn’t really up my alley. However, the doctor suggested it, particularly as something that might help with motivation

So, let’s jump in.

GABA and ADHD

So, GABA is short for gamma-Aminobutyric acid, which is a form of y-Aminobutric acid. Technically, that makes it an amino acid, but not in the way that people mean amino acid when they talk about nutrition and stuff, so forget about that.

GABA acts as an inhibitor in the brain. At first, this doesn’t really sound promising. In general, a lot of the research is about how GABA helps with anxiety. It is also supposed to help mood (although if you are less anxious, then your mood is probably better), and with PMS, if you might want some help with that as a side benefit.

The way it may work for ADD and motivation is this:

For me, motivation is a difficulty in getting started. It isn’t that I don’t WANT to do something, I just can’t get going. It is hard to explain because it isn’t that I really want to get started but something stops me, so much as when I sit down, I just start doing something else, and I don’t care that I’m doing something else, so much so that I can’t even make myself try to force myself to do something. Basically, I’m playing Candy Crush and fine with it, so that’s that. Trying to snap out of it causes me worry and anxiety mostly out of fear that I can’t and even if I do, I won’t like it.

How do you motivate when you can’t even care enough to try and motivate?

That is where the GABA comes in.

What if, I was feeling a little better (mood) and I had a little less resistance to getting started, then maybe, just maybe, I could find a way to get over the getting started hump before the resistance kicked.

Far fetched?

Maybe, but I’m willing to drop a 10-spot to find out.

As usual, with supplements like these the research is small and inconclusive, but if there is the potential for it to help with both ADD and anxiety and maybe help me be the more productive person I’ve always tried to be, them I’ll give it a shot.

Update: It’s only been 5 days, but so far, I’ve noticed no difference between taking St. Johns Wort on its own after adding in 5-HTP and GABA. I’ll finish the bottles, but so far, this isn’t fluttering my raincoat.

Winter Blahs and ADD ADHD

Written by ADDer Leave a Comment

Many people with ADD and ADHD have concurrent symptoms with other issues. That’s no surprise. If ADD is a non-traditional brain chemistry, then chances are good that there are other non-traditional issues going on as well.

For me, the transition to Fall is always problematic. There is a real disorder called Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD (nice) which causes depression-like symptoms or lack of motivation and lethargy in sufferers. It is caused by lack of daylight, more or less, which can be exacerbated when you work in an office with no windows and end up being one of those people that goes to work in the dark and leaves work in the dark too.

The official treatment is to get more light exposure. If you can get out for a walk at lunch or whatever, that can help. Of course, 30 minutes of sunlight isn’t necessarily enough for some people. They make special lightbulbs or boxes of light that are supposed to help as well. The idea is to essentially get your brain enough of the right light to keep it going in the right way.

For myself, I’ve stumbled upon a bit of a cocktail that seems to help me.

I take St. Johns Wort, which I take anyway as a way to help lift the edge off my inattentive / mild depression. Add to that some fish oil and a multivitamin and things seem to stay a little more stable. I take two fish oil capsules at a time, twice a day. They say it takes time for the Omega-3 and DHA stuff to build up in your brain, so you kind of have to keep taking it, not just pop it when you are feeling down.

As for the multivitamin, it can’t hurt, and you should probably be taking one anyway.

Try it out and see if it helps you.