Toprol-XL and losing weight

I lost 30 pounds on Weight Watchers in 2005 - lost it in 6 weeks (on the proper diet) because of my insanely fast metabolism. Shortly after that, I was put on 25 mg of Toprol XL for PACs/PVCs. Upped that to 50 mg after I started getting migraines. Gained 55 pounds in the process, though I tore a hamstring in a couple of places and put a lot of the weight loss up to months of inactivity.

Then I started back on WW and tried to lose. Did everything just right--nothing. Added exercise and adjusted my points. Still nothing. Finally googled "toprol metabolism" and found tons of people complaining of the same types of problems.

I finally got down to 12.5 mg of Toprol and my body has adjusted to it, and in the last 2 weeks I've dropped 10 pounds. I'm debating going off it altogether, since there's nothing wrong with my blood pressure, and since lowering it clearly helps.

Note to anyone who tries this - every time I lower the dose I tend to gain a little weight (it's mostly water weight--I bloat up when I lower it for some reason) while my body adjusts, but it always comes off. So if you lower your dose (with doctor's permission, of course), don't be disheartened if you gain at first. You'll get there.

I am 36 and take 100 mg of generic Toprol a day. I was put on it due to many ( I mean 30 to 40) palps a day. I had been on Atenolol for about 5 years and the doctors told me it had simply quit working. I had an echo and a 24 hour holtor monitor and both came back negative, yet I felt like I was dying daily. My palps have diminished with the medicine, with a change in diet and running 5 or 6 days a week for about 3 miles. Caffeine and alcholol have almost been excluded. I do have cold hands and feet and have had much trouble losing weight. Stomach cramps and an upper right side cramps have been an issue. After reading your posts I think we need to get off this stuff

Wow. Thank god for this Bulletin! I was diagnosed with hypertension at age 28
and tried a variety of drugs with no control over the BP. So, about 2 1/2 - 3 years ago, I was prescribed 100MG of Toprol XL which seemed to control it well, but with debilitating long term illness. I had no idea until today that Toprol XL was causing similar grief to others. The horrible symptoms that I have been experiencing now for several years are Extreme Chronic Fatigue, Profuse Cold Clammy Sweating, Dizzy spells, weight gain, seeing specs of light and thousands of eye floaters, severe depression, muscle aches, headaches.

After reading about others with similar side effects, I am confident that it's from this medication. I have had all kinds of testing done including T3 & T4 Throid levels and a full array of blood work with NO LUCK! Regardless of the consequences, I am going to quit this damn medicine today because it appears to take 5 weeks or so to get it out of the body to notice a difference. I am so desperate for change. It is ruining my life because I can
't wake up, I'm always tired even though I get 10-14 hours of sleep. My wife and kids are bummed because I have no energy to do anything, EVER!

If you have any other suggestions or would like to comment about this.

Sincerely,

Sean

Hi, I'm a 51 y/o female nurse that started taking Toprol-XL for high blood pressure. I don't like taking meds because of side effects (other blood pressure meds have caused my hair to fall out, fatigue, depression, etc.) so I started out only taking half of the 50 mg tab. I recently upped it up to the whole tab to get my blood pressure a little lower and immediately started having severe headaches and joint pains. I'm going back down to a half tab and wean myself off this crap. I'm taking Magnesium, potassium, and L-Arginine, which all help relax the blood vessels. I was taking a higher dose of magnesium, which causes some diarrhea, when I decided to lower it and increase the dose of Toprol-XL to see how that worked. I'd rather have the diarrhea from the magnesium! At least then I wasn't crying from depression, having bad headaches and hurting all over! I'm losing weight on Weight Watchers, so hopefully I'll get this blood pressure under control. My blood pressure was pretty well under control with the lower dose of Toprol-XL, higher dose of magnesium, and the L-Arginine and potassium. I'm going back to what was working before. I'm also going to talk to my Health and Wellness doctor about a safer replacement for the Toprol-XL.

I have Grave's disease which effects your thyroid. I got radiation therapy for my hyperthyoidism.My numbers are still hyper and I'm taking Topral. I take 25 MG in the morning and 25 Mg at night. I have gained 8 lb's in 3 wk's.If you are familar with hyperthyroid, I should be losing weight.My face and ankles are puffy and my legs are crampy. I'm going to ck into other beta blockers until my thyroid gets regulated.

Off of Toprol
Re: Nov 26th entry: I visited my primary doctor after my cardiologist said my thryoid med was too high and that was the cause of my high BP. My cardio had put me on Toprol and I had some ugly side effects from it. Well, I gave my primary doc the hospital test results of my thyroid and he said, "But this is in the normal range. There's nothing wrong with your thyroid level." Ugh. Makes me question the cardiologist. I told my primary doc about the Toprol for heart palps, etc., and he took me off of it and onto Triamertine (sp?) which is not a beta blocker but a diurectic for high BP. I took 50 MG for a week, and visited my primary doc again. My BP was down to 100/something small. Can't remember. So he cut my dose of BP med in half. I'm still taking the lower dose of thyroid med until my primary doc can retest and get a handle on my true condition. Thyroid med takes up to 6 weeks to take affect, so it's too soon to test.
So now I don't really know what sent me to the ER with the high BP and arythmia - possibly a panic or anxiety attack. I have Xanax now for that, but have only taken it a couple of times. When I tried it, it pretty much made me sleep great, but don't want to become hooked on it.

So, I'm glad I'm off Toprol. I did not like it. I have a feeling my doc will eventually wean me off BP meds, as I'm losing weight, exercising, etc., to that end.

Oh, you definitely don't want to go off Toprol cold turkey. It can cause a heart attack, etc., is what I've read. I'm not a doctor!

weight gain and dificulty losing weight.

I took Toprol XL 25 mg for three months after my doc said my BP was really high one day. I experienced horrible side effects---too tired, lethargic, depressed, no desire to do normal tasks, sort of like a walking coma. My BP fell to the 110/65 range. I switched to 12.5 mg for four months, and that's when I developed debilitating BP spikes over 200/110 every month--I had never had a BP spike before in my life. They were caused by the lower dose of Toprol, I believe. Changing to 6.25 mg last week to get off was even worse with the surges, but I felt great and had some energy!!! My doctor put me on Clonidine for the spikes and things are going well. Some Internet posts say that even at tiny doses of Toprol, it can take 3 weeks to get the spikes to stop!! Such a nasty drug! Ask your doc if something else will work for you, and consider Clonidine for that period right after stopping it. After I detox from Toprol, I am not sure I will even need BP medication because it is so low and I am losing weight, eliminating salt, etc. Good luck!