Hi, am new here. Let me cut that crap and get to the real point.

I was recently diagnosed with ADHD. I have been taking adderal 10mg for past 6 days and I finally ate a piece of bread with omelete on the 6th day. I know its unhealthy but i just COULD NOT EAT.

I know loss of appetite is a side effect from adderall. I mean yeah i could lose couple of pounds...i really dont mind that but i am not taking adderall for weight loss. I really need it to focus in school and i am doing AWESOME. Its sad that i wish i had know about this year and i wouldnt have gotten kicked out of university for having bad grades. But am working on getting back in.

I have lost 11 pounds in 6 days and its all because i did not eat until the 6th day. Well i had an apple or so for 2 days but thats it. Now, my real question is will i end up gaining those pounds if i eat after this long. I mean yeah i want to eat but i use to eat way less even before the medicine so its not a new thing. I am not a food fanatic at all..i could survive on turkey sandwich for whole day.

I dont eat anything sweet. I have cut down my alcohol intake since i dont party much now so i drink maybe once a month. So am not even consuming 100 cal a day. Its horrible. I noticed i lost weight really fast the first 3 days and now its a pound a day. So, tell me if i eat ...would i still be able to lose weight? Remind you, I have really slow and bad metabolism. I didnt even eat more than once a day before the medicine and i never gained weight but didnt lose either.

I am thinking maybe i should just eat salad with fat free ranch. I dont cook food...i really dont have time. I dont even like cooking so i cant do the cooking at all. Salad sounds good?

Btw..you all can share your experiences.

funny thing...I am east indian (punjabi) lol and my mom wouldnt believe i have ADHD...lol her comment was "no, your stupid..indian people dont have ADHD" lol...funny lady

hi navi

i guess at this point i am somewhat of an adderall veteran. all i can say is that i believe it is imperative that you not take adderall on an empty stomach, and also eat before your second dose. The second dose will probably be tough, but really you just have to or else the weight loss can be terrible. i always thought i had a slow metabolism...until i started taking adderall. now even though im about two years off it, i am still below what i weighed when i first started.

bottom line:

you will lose a WHOLE LOT MORE than just a few pounds if you continue taking the drug like this! :)

hi navi

i guess at this point i am somewhat of an adderall veteran. all i can say is that i believe it is imperative that you not take adderall on an empty stomach, and also eat before your second dose. The second dose will probably be tough, but really you just have to or else the weight loss can be terrible. i always thought i had a slow metabolism...until i started taking adderall. now even though im about two years off it, i am still below what i weighed when i first started.

bottom line:

you will lose a WHOLE LOT MORE than just a few pounds if you continue taking the drug like this! :)

I dont have enough time in the morning to eat because i wake up and run to college since its so hard for me wake up in the morning.

But i think i can eat in the afternoon or whenever i take my second pill..so do you think if i eat salad during lunch is enough to cover and keep on losing weight?

The severity of the appetite suppression did, for me, decrease with time. That having been said, I spent the first two weeks I was taking Adderall on a liquid diet. SlimFast shakes, Carnation Instant Breakfast, Boost, fresh fruit-and-yogurt smoothies with soy protein powder and various other nutrients tossed in, etc. Getting solid food down, especially at first, can be really difficult but it doesn't mean your body can't get the nutrients it needs from other sources.

The other thing I've discovered is that, because I take several pills a day (regular, not XR), if I eat before taking a pill I'm more likely to be able to stomach a full meal.

The other thing to keep in mind is that consuming too few calories can not only be dangerous to your health but can also cause weight gain for some people. Essentially, your body goes into 'starvation mode' and slows your metabolism. It could be that, even before taking Adderall, you weren't eating enough to let your body know that you weren't going to starve.

I'm also a student, and the breakfast in the morning thing just Does Not Happen for me. I keep a case of some form of nutrient shake in my car and drink one on my way to campus (or during my first class, if I don't think to open it on the way). Eating in the morning can help to speed your metabolism because of the starvation mode thing. You're not eating when you're asleep, so when you wake up your body may go into starvation mode if it doesn't get calories first thing.

I've been trying to lose weight since April and have dropped about 40-50 pounds since then. I discovered that if I stop losing (or start gaining) weight it's because I've skipped some form of breakfast and haven't eaten enough during the rest of the day. In other words, when I don't put something in my stomach in the morning and/or eat fewer than 1200 calories a day, I actually *gain* weight whereas eating breakfast and eating about 1350-1500 calories a day means a stead weight loss at about 1.5 to 2 pounds per week.

Try to consume a weight gainer shake of some sort to compensate for the weight loss. It's easier than eating a lot more food and some flavours taste good too.

I haven't been on adderall long enough to answer your questions so I will just share my adderall experience as far as weight goes:


I have bounced up and down the scale my whole life due to yoyo dieting... so I thought my metabolism would be shot. I think adderall has increased my metabolism though. I started adderall at my highest weight so I was pretty overweight. My appetite hasn't really changed. I do not experience this overwhelming appetite decrease that everyone talks about. It sometimes helps me control my emotional eating though. I haven't been eating a lot since being on adderall but it is somewhat intentional on my part. I've been going through some things so I haven't felt like eating much. In about a month and a half I have lost around 30 pounds give or take...a little less maybe. This is with no exercise whatsoever. Back in the day I would be on an intense crash diet WITH exercise and I would only lose probably 15 pounds a month.

The only thing I can think of is my metabolism has increased somewhat. I switched from XR to IR a while back and I am not even on a high dose of IR currently(should be on a higher one soon). There have even been days I didn't take it at all. So I am not sure how long this will last or if it will even last but for being on a low dose it has done something to my metabolism.

Scientists say that the weight loss is caused mostly by lack of appetite, but I also believe that Adderall raises the metabolism as well.

No, you probably are not going to gain any weight on Adderall (unless you had a paradoxical reaction to it). So don't worry about gaining that weight back.

But once, of if, you stop taking it, your appetite will return with a vengeance.

It is very important to eat enough calories AND enough amino acids so that your body can create the dopamine that the Adderall is using, and thus, depleting. If you don't eat it won't matter how much meds you take, they won't work. You can only go on your own stores for so long before you'll crash. You need to keep the nutrients coming in, no matter what!

I know it's hard b/c I have absolutely no appetite on Adderall. But it is imperative to eat.

And also to get enough sleep. Without enough sleep and nutrients, the Adderall basically will keep you going for awhile with "false energy" until it depletes your dopamine stores and you crash big time. Not only with fatigue and exhaustion, but also anxiety and depression.

Every night that you sleep enough your body replenishes the dopamine, as long as you eat sufficiently enough to create it.