Hi all,

My doctor recently recommended I try contrave to lose some weight and I spent some time researching it before I decided that it was worth a shot. I couldn’t find much on here about it, so I thought it might be helpful to share my experience with you.

In Australia, contrave is about $240 for 112 tablets. You start off taking 1 tablet once a day for a week and slowly increasing to 2 tablets, twice a day after 4 weeks of increasing the dose by 1 tablet a week e.g. week 1: 1 tablet in am, week 2: 2 tablets, 1 in am and 1 in pm, week 3: 3 tablets, 2 in am and 1 in pm, week 4: (full dose) 2 in am and 2 in pm.

The first week I felt slightly nauseated and headachey, but I could function at work and go about my day as usual.

One of the biggest things that impacted me was I realised that I ‘self-medicated’ through food. I used food the help lift my mood. These tablets take this feeling away (dull the ‘rewards centre’ in your brain) so food is nutrition rather than an influx of “happy emotions”. It’s taken me a couple of weeks to deal with this and look for things that bring me happiness in other areas of my life.

One thing to note is, if you don’t change your lifestyle these pills might work alittle but you won’t reap the major benefits of them, & I think if you’re spending this much money on some tablets - why not make sure it’s as successful as possible. I’m currently eating 1500 calories p/day and exercising a few times a week. On average I’m losing between 1-1.5kgs a week.

I still feel somewhat hungry at appropriate times, however the pills sort of take the ‘edge’ off the intense hunger feelings and cravings which means it’s easier to avoid foods that aren’t as good for me.

If you’re thinking about doing this, I highly recommended contacting a nutritionist/dietician as well to learn about appropriate portions and ensuring you’re still getting the correct nutrients, otherwise, you’ll potentially lose weight on the pills and gain it back when you’re off them. If you think of the tablets as just one of the many tools you need to create a lifestyle change, you’re more likely to succeed.

I hope if you’re considering this option, you find this post helpful x