Phen Pro. Is it safe?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is OP. I haven't checked in for a while and I apologize.

I had a significant health scare about a month ago (I'm ok, though, thank goodness, all much ado about nothing for now) that took up basically all of the time and attention not given to work and my toddler.

I'm a couple of weeks away from my taper down on the phen. I've lost 21 lbs in 10 weeks. I'm going to fall short of my 30 lb goal, but even I knew that was overly ambitious.

I've tried my best to follow Dr. Anchors. I still need a small snack at 4 pm, though. I could NOT hack it on keto.

What I typically eat in a day now:

Breakfast: Egg white/veggie omelet with fresh pico and 1/4 avocado (I sub in a real egg or a bit more avocado if I'm super hungry) and two slices of turkey bacon. If I'm in a rush, I get the spinach feta wrap at Starbucks and don't eat the wrap part. I drink a metric ton of green iced tea.

Lunch: Salad with some form of protein (I admit to using whatever comes to hand, including turkey pepperoni, rotisserie chicken, and skinless leftover turkey leg), fruit, and string cheese. I make my own salad dressing now to avoid the sugar. Also my own tomato sauce.

Dinner: A reasonable portion of whatever I made (split in half so I can have seconds). I do zoodles for myself if we're having pasta, cauliflower rice for rice, but I shrug at the corn and beans and just eat them. Too much effort to pick them out of a slow cooker dish.

Snack: I try to keep it to something like milk and berries, or veggies and hummus. But I'll admit to the occasional outshine bar. I drink tea at night. I only eat hummus and guacamole in single serving packets.

One day a week, it's more relaxed. I've also encouraged my husband to take our toddler for ice cream without me. I hate going along and eating nothing.

I've had a few slips this week, but overall, I seem to be in control. My weight followed a predictable pattern (there were two points in my cycle where I gained 0.4 and 1.4 lbs, respectively, every month). I need more water and more exercise, though.

Unexpected benefit: despite a higher fat diet, my cholesterol is down 30 points and my blood pressure is totally normal even on the phen.

Wow - great news all around. Why do you (or dr) think your cholesterol is down? Is your LDL down, or the overall cholesterol, or both? I am following the Paleo diet and my LDL has sky rocketed up.

[Anonymous]

It gave me severe anxiety

[Anonymous]

Wow - great news all around. Why do you (or dr) think your cholesterol is down? Is your LDL down, or the overall cholesterol, or both? I am following the Paleo diet and my LDL has sky rocketed up.

I had to look back at my labs.

Overall, down by 30 on the dot.
HDL is up about 10.
Triglycerides are down about 40.
LDL is down about 20.
VLDL is down about 8.

I'm hopeful that another 6 months will push the LDL down further. My genetic baseline is high, so I won't be able to avoid statins forever. At these levels, though, I've gone from "you need one now" to "well, we'll see if you can get to normal without them."

[Anonymous]

Wow - great news all around. Why do you (or dr) think your cholesterol is down? Is your LDL down, or the overall cholesterol, or both? I am following the Paleo diet and my LDL has sky rocketed up.

I had to look back at my labs.

Overall, down by 30 on the dot.
HDL is up about 10.
Triglycerides are down about 40.
LDL is down about 20.
VLDL is down about 8.

I'm hopeful that another 6 months will push the LDL down further. My genetic baseline is high, but at these levels, I've bought myself another year to work on my numbers.

As for *why* ... I guess the answer is the weight loss. And maybe less sugar? I eat a ton more fat than I used to (eggs, avocado, some cheese, cook with butter instead of margarine, etc.).

I went to Cava yesterday and got my old favorite -- beef meatballs, salad, and tomatoes, cucumbers, pickled onions, and cabbage. It tasted like Sweet N Low. I guess I eat less sugar.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know if anchors will proscribe more than one course?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know if anchors will proscribe more than one course?

Yes, but I imagine he will give you the whole spiel again about being trying to be too thin.

[Anonymous]

This is a weird one, but has anyone experienced extreme forgetfulness while taking phentermine? I"m one of the posters from upthread taking qysimia and I swear I forget stuff all the time now. It's very noticeable.

[Anonymous]

Obviously, the point is to learn better eating habits and learn to consume less. And a small portion of folks will be uber diligent about it. And a small portion of folks who will do nothing and gain it all back. What about folks in the middle? How was the weight gain once you came off? Is this just a yo-yo experience?

[Anonymous]

OP again. Somehow there are rainbow cookies, strawberry pie, and homemade (I baked for an event tonight) brownie bites in my house. FML. It's definitely temptation city.

At least I can't touch the pie bc DH will notice.

I think I'm going to toss the rainbow cookies and blame it on the cat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
This is me. 3/17/17 at 163.2, now 151.6 as of this morning 4/5. Honestly no side effects from the pill at all. Feel great, wish I could stay on if forever. Had my period this week and usually there would be two days it felt like I couldn't eat enough, not this time. It did seem a little bit heavier, but that may be because I'm in my mid-40's and starting to get a little wacky.

Overall clothes are fitter looser, main loss in my stomach & waist (I have an hourglass figure). I had jeans that I could barely zip now require a belt to stay on. My neck & face showed the most change the first week, there was puffiness I hadn't realized was there. I do wish there was more change in my face & arms/upper back. No real change in my breasts, fine with me, I think they are great .

did make the mistake of thinking I could have a cup of regular coffee. Made it about 1/2 through it before heart started racing and eyes went a little loopy. Two or three days a week I do have about 2/3 of a cup of decafe at work.

I work out after dinner for 30-40 minutes 4-5 times a week. Nothing extreme. 1-2 miles on elliptical and some machines.

For me, weight loss has slowed down, from last post on 4/5 to 4/24, 145.8. Even had one week where the scale said I gained over a pound (honestly, I have a pretty crappy scale so not sure that was right) I have about 3 weeks left of pills and not sure he would give me both, maybe, maybe just the phen. but not even sure about that. I carry my weight very well so look like I weigh less than I actually do. I'd like to get to 125/130.

This is me. On both, Phentermine & prozac. As of today at 144. I feel much smaller so think I have been gaining muscle from exercising so the scale isn't giving the whole picture. All of my old pants & shorts slide off my body when buttoned & zipped, that is with a very hourglass figure. My shirts are like tunics now. Belts are too loose on the last hole.

For the most part, I still don't have much of an appetite, like I could easily eat only 500 calories (have to pay attention to NOT do that). Even missed two days of pills and didn't seem to make much difference. As far as cravings, I like when my body is headed so that might be what is squashing those cravings.

This is me. (I am also the one that responded about side effects)

Have been done to 143, but have been fluctuating between that and 144. As of 5/10, 144.

I have skipped a few days to see how my appetite acted (the phen stays active in at max 24 hours) So 3 days without the phenpro, didn't notice much of an increase in appetite, but did find myself having to squash craving a little more. Also, I was more tired and felt much more worn out as the day went on.

Always had an exaggerated hourglass figure. Now my waist is super tiny, I can start to see ab muscles, my butt is smaller, but do wish that hip/butt area circumference was smaller overall. Not much change in my breast size (fine with me!). My arms are slimmer, my watch slides down my forearm about an inch farther than before. My chest/shoulder/back area is smaller (still have more muscular arms than I'd like) my shirts slide around the neckline more so need to adjust bra straps to not show. Also, the arm holes on short/sleevelss shirts are much bigger and the sides of my bra are visible under my arms or at the back. Oh, and some of slip on shoes keep slipping off.

I brought this up so the last poster can see it. As of today, 5/14/2017, 141. There is nothing I would change about taking the pills. Now add in the skipped period and it is perfect. Over the last three weeks, I have gotten down to taking the pills about 4-5 times a week and not every day. The days I don't take them I am yawning and feel more worn out. But, I still made great food choices and don't eat more calorie-wise. use MyFitnessPal app to track now. In general though, I have been making an effort to eat more calories, started the MFP app about 3 weeks ago and realized I was only eating 600-800 calories a day.

This is me. June 1, 136.6 pounds. I have taken the pills once in maybe the last two weeks. Still losing weight. I have about 5 days worth left but am saving them for days that will have lots of temptation like vacation or parties.

I am diligent about using Myfitnesspal and do weigh myself every day. Pretty much stick to Dr. A's rules, no snacks, load up on protein & non-non-starchy vegs . Exercising 5 times a week.

I've gone from size 14/16 pants to 6 or 8. Size L/XL to Small. Look about 10 years younger and my skin has never looked better. So happy I did this!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm the belite PP from above. Down 11 lbs since 5/19. My preschooler baked a cake with DH this weekend and I didn't have any. And it wasn't really hard either. I used to love cake. It's weird...it's like my mind would try to slip into an old pattern of craving something and obsessing over it and then a switch would just turn off. I can't explain it. Like, meh, cake will still exist in the world if I ever really want it--don't care to trouble myself cutting a piece now.

I am very obese and have always had a fucked up relationship to food so this is really new to me.

Me again. Down 15 lbs since 5/19. I don't seem to need an afternoon dose of phentermine, so I haven't been taking it. I feel really, really good.

[Anonymous]

What is the process for tapering off the medication after the course is completed?

[Anonymous]

NP here, I just started it recently. I don't really think there is much of a taper off process. Anchors said it is not addictive so you should be able to just stop.

[Anonymous]

I'm so scared about the "pro" part of this equation. I've never been on an anti-depressant. But reading about the more common side effects... lack of sexual drive? weight GAIN? Is this going to have unintended consequences on my moods?

[Anonymous]

I lost about 20# using Phen-Pro over about 10 weeks. Chatted with Dr. Anchors about how it was going, etc. before he gave me another two months supply. (I use 1/2 dose and skip days, so that two months can likely last me four.)

The biggest pieces for me were portion control, no snacking, and killing the desire to binge. Also, having the freedom to eat "forbidden" foods (ones that usually caused bingeing episodes) and seeing that they don't lead to binges. That has been amazing, a total game-changer for me emotionally.

We talked a bit about how the drug combo may have done something to that bingeing desire. I poked around on PubMed and found that various drugs and drug cocktails do indeed have an effect on the urge to binge, including Phentermine. Because, as Dr. Anchors pointed out, it wasn't because I didn't have enough self-control or willpower. It really was something chemically driving me to binge. I had been beating myself up for 20 years over being fat and having no willpower -- and it was not only counterproductive, it wasn't true.

Because of travel, sick kids who passed on the joy, work, and the like I haven't taken Phen-Pro for a month so I can confirm I didn't experience any "withdrawal." During this time I find that I have learned to eat a LOT less than I used to prior to Dr. Anchors, don't snack, and still haven't had uncontrollable urges to binge. I gained about 3# during this time, which I see as not too bad given my wine consumption (which I need to dial back but that's another battle for another day).

The first few days of taking Phen-Pro, I felt a bit "strange." I have a hard time describing it. I don't know whether that was caffeine withdrawal or an expectation of feeling weird based on what I read about feeling speedy. I am a 4-espresso shots a day type of person and going cold turkey was awful. I have found that I can do my espresso in the morning if I only take 1/2 tablet of the phentermine and take it closer to noon than to 10:30. Because I just don't want to give up my coffee.

I started back on Phen-Pro Wednesday and am hoping to get down another #10-15. I am continuing to learn how to have a less emotionally laden relationship with food. I am grateful for DCUM in helping me find Dr. Anchors when I truly felt at the end of my rope, and for Dr. Anchors for helping me break this yo-yo cycle I have been living for the last 20 years. I would pay 10 times the amount I have paid thus far.