Metformin, any one else on this?

[Jenmichele]

My doctor just put me on Metformin for high insulin levels and me being paranoid about meds, just started it. Is any one else using it? It helps me not to feel as hungry as I was feeling before. The doctor said it will help get the weight off with my diet.

[kaplods]

I'm also on Metformin. My doctor also told me it might help with a little bit of weight loss (but not to expect miracles).

For me, that about sums it up. It does seem to help prevent the wild blood sugar spikes and plummets I was prone to before the metformin. Before the metformin, if I didn't eat every 2-3 hours, I'd get headaches and moodswings and light-headedness. Now it takes 6 or more hours to reach that level of hunger.

The appetite-suppressing effects didn't last terribly long though. Just a few months until I got used to the medication. So it helped me get a few pounds off, and I think the blood sugar regulation does help in controlling "crazy hunger" from sudden blood sugar drops.

The effects are subtle, so it's tempting to think it's not really helping. That's what I thought when a while back, I ran out of my metformin prescription before payday. I thought "no big deal, it's not as if it helps that much anyway."

I was wrong. Being without it for a week showed me how much it had been helping. Being without the met was almost like TOM hunger.

[mhill0823]

I was on it for a few weeks but I can't take it It makes my stomach cramp up like to the point of not moving.. and keeps me awake

[dogdaysofdiets]

I've been on metformin for over ten years. I've tried many different supplements (chromium and then cinnamon and then both) but nothing has controlled my symptoms as well as the metformin. I switched over to the extended release version five years ago and had some improvement with the stomach symptoms.

It has definitely helped with my hunger and weight loss. One thing I've noticed is that it helps me maintain weight losses when I'm being lazy about my carb intake. I lost 70 pounds about six years ago and its taken about five years of lazy habits to gain back 20 of those 70 pounds. Had I not been on the metformin, I'd have gained back all 70 in a matter of months.

It's a challenging drug to stick with sometimes when I'm having a bad IBS day because of it, but for me the reduction of my PCOS symptoms outweighs the side affects.

[astrophe]

Me, for PCOS. Can stop weight "creep" but weight loss is up to me, really.

I think all people respond differently to it. But I concur with switching to extended release if you have trouble with regular. This time I'm on Fortament rather than Glucophage. Glutmetza was tried too. I'm not too sure of the logic -- I have to ask my endoc again. She said different formulas get digested/absorbed in different areas but I wasn't taking it all in.

HTH!

A.