Working Out and Medication

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I started working out hardcore two weeks ago and have discovered that I have been getting more depressed as of late. I take medication for both my depression and Bipolar, but it seems like they aren't working as well ever since I started. A buddy of mine pulled a good point out: possibly since my metabolism has risen from the exercising, it might have an effect on my meds to where my body burns through it faster. Is this possible, or do I need to ask my doctor to up the dose, or maybe even both?

Hm, interesting...yeah, anytime you've began working out but despite the endorphins and even depression medication, feel MORE depressed, something's not right and I'd definitely suggest seeing a psychiatrist or doctor. I know that, when I started working out, I gained about five to ten pounds of muscle over month and a half to two months (noob gains! Now I only put one a pound or two per month :/) and because of that, my thyroid medication actually had to be adjusted up again...as far as medications that affect brain chemistry, I have no idea but could be. If you've significantly altered your diet to accommodate working out, that could affect the food content in your stomach when you take the medication which could dilute its efficacy. I probably could have summarized this whole post as, I have no idea and you should see a doctor to have things adjusted upwards if need be because working out is fantastic. Best of luck and I hope you pull through it quick!

Thanks for the tips windtreeman. Sorry for the late respone. I'm not very responisble around here. >_<

I have changed the way I eat to accomodate the Insanity Program and so far I've lost a pants size in two weeks (woots!) I've been eating nothing but healthy varieties at places like Subway and Moes, which is lots of greens and chicken, and have been drinking water like a fish. Maybe it's the diet or my mind likes to torture me. I will be calling my doctor this week to see if I can get a higher dose or find something else to stop my depression.

And again, thank you very much. You are a gentleman and a scholar.

I've been on lots of medication for mood/depression and only once did one stop working spontaneously. It can happen, but it's not the most likely thing. That insanity program sounds rigorous and if it is, my first guess would be that you may be putting too much stress on your body. If you were habitually less active or inactive before starting this, the onset of depression might be your body's way of saying you're putting too much stress on it. You might want to try something a little lighter for a while and see if that makes a difference?

You mentioned you take medication for bipolar disorder... Another possibility is that your natural predisposition to mood shifts might also be affecting how your body handles endorphins. Where someone who can return to their baseline slowly would experience an 'up' from exercising that slowly goes away (and thus, is pleasant), you may be experiencing an 'up' that goes away sharply, which (if you know mood shifts) will feel much like a quick onset of depression by comparison. I've had this happen with mood shifts, myself. My advice with this is to see how less vigorous exercise for longer feels in comparison to extreme exercise for maybe half that amount of time. Also, try to observe when you're depressed. Jot it down on your phone or something and try to list what happened before it came on -- did you eat? Exercise? Was the exercise extreme? What did you eat? It could be anything from a mood shift because of the endorphins to a strange food allergy (it can happen). Writing it down will give you and your doctor a better idea of what it could be.

Try what you can as long as the depression isn't too severe. If you can't figure out what it is or if, at any time, the depression gets severe, call your doctor and get some help for it. I really hope you figure this out! I know from experience how tough this mood stuff can be, so all the best of luck on this!

Well, most people when dieting will feel more depressed, because you're running a calorie deficit and it's hard to burn stored fat for energy, especially for your brain as it prefers glucose for fuel. This is basically why losing weight is hard. The other thing is your fat cells store toxins, so by getting rid of fat cells, the body has to deal with any toxins and eliminating them from the bloodstream, thus making you feel like crap. So, you could adjust medication, but it's more just something that comes with the territory of losing weight. Once you get back to a place where you're not running negative calories, you'll probably feel better, but you won't be able to lose weight.

In the mean time, fruits might make you feel better just because they'll give the brain sugar, and raw foods work good for weight loss because your body can only absorb like half the calories from raw food.

My take, anyway.