They didn't tell me I'd get fat

Read Time:2 Minute, 45 Second

By Carly Jennings

In November 2016 I was put on a mixture of medications for my mental health. Sadly, my mind was extremely poorly, and I was suffering daily. Something needed to be done. What I never anticipated was the side effect of weight gain I experienced within 2 months of taking the medications. They didn’t tell me I’d get fat.

The medications made me get fat

I put on 25kg.

Now, as a personal trainer, this was soul-destroying. I wouldn’t leave the house through fear of being judged, and I certainly wouldn’t work in an offline setting.

I did EVERYTHING I could to lose weight, but it kept piling on. My partner even consulted with his coach Layne Norton to see if we needed to be doing anything special or different.

As I increased my deficit, my weight increased. What the hell? Having been successful with weight loss before, this was traumatising for me. No matter what I did, the weight kept piling on and on.

My anxiety was so high that I don’t know how I functioned

I cancelled on social events, wouldn’t get in pictures with my partner, didn’t work, and lived a miserable life. Something needed to change as I was becoming more unwell. You see, the medications were for my condition and whilst they were working for this, more problems were developing with the side effects of the dose.

They never warned me of this. They didn’t tell me I’d get fat. I cried. I cried some more. In fact, I cried so much I think my partner was really worrying about me at one point.

Finally, a combination that worked

There was nothing left for me to do than to review the medication and see if I could go onto something else. The transition wasn’t smooth. From one med, to another, to another, nothing was working for my weight. I was getting bigger and bigger.

Until finally we found a combination that worked. Roll on a few months, and I am just over 12kg down from this size and looking much more like the starting picture. Admittedly I do have a little more work to do, but the weight is shifting and my size is reducing.

Some say us personal trainers have it easy. Really? You call this easy?

Everything I knew to do wasn’t working, and the deficit I was in before we changed medications was so large that I was at risk of developing an eating disorder. I was desperate.

I’m sharing this today to raise awareness around mental illness and what we have to go through. If it isn’t enough to have a poorly mind, the medications can cause all sorts of side issues which can cause great anguish.

My journey to a balanced life

This post scares me.
It’s raw.
It’s painful.
And it’s true.
All I ask is that you be kind and supportive of this post.
It took a lot for me to share this, and I was debating putting it off through fear of being judged for the weight increase.
But sod it.
This was my journey to a balanced life which I am now leading.
It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t easy. It wasn’t smooth.
But it was mine.

Reproduced with permission, originally posted here