How long can you take Phentermine???

texaswoos · 06-26-2006, 06:51 PM

Hey yall! I would like to know how many weeks you can take Phentermine before you should stop taking them?? I have heard 12 weeks but what if you go past your 12 weeks but are only taking like 2-3 a week? Do you think that is unsafe?

Thanks for any info you can give me!!

**rebeleagle1965** · 06-27-2006, 06:33 AM

Hopefully top-dawg sees this and can give you the right answer/specifics, but I think the 12 week limit is for the purpose of being careful about chemical dependence (addiction), not because of any other physical danger.
Because phentermine is a drug that your body eventually becomes tolerant of, it's a good idea to take a break from them anyway. I know of several people who got refills immediately after their 3 months supply, so doctors do, atleast occasionally, prescribe them for longer than that.

If you are only taking 2-3 a week, I don't see that causing either of those problems, anyway...

Just out of curiosity, why do you only take them that often? Are you still losing weight? I wish I could make mine last like that!

texaswoos · 06-28-2006, 10:02 PM

Thanks for your reply. I am only taking them 2 to 3 times a week because I want to get off of them but don't want to stop cold turkey. I started March 31 at 135 lbs. and am now down to 108 lbs. I exercise 4 times a week as well to help keep the weight off. I'm just so sick of everyone I know telling me how bad Phentermine is for me and how it's going to kill me (they say this with a beer in their hand or a cigarette hanging out of their mouth) and how I'm too skinny. I'm not too skinny. I'm happy with myself and my body and I'm right where I was 7 years ago before I got pregnant for the first time. I am going to be 33 in 3 weeks and I look and feel like I'm 21. I think this makes my family and friends around me a little jealous because they choose NOT to do something about it. I was told that taking them for longer than 12 weeks will mess up my heart or clog my lungs, stuff like that and I just don't know what to believe. They honestly don't supress my appetite anymore like they did before but they do continue to give me great energy which I need chasing kids around all day and working full time and keeping house and all the other activities we do. I only get 5-6 hours of sleep each night and Phentermine keeps me awake during the day.
Anyway, sorry to ramble, just wondering if continuing to take them after 12 weeks is really going to kill me like my friends and family are telling me. I'm sure my skinny ass will be looking over their casket from their death of lung cancer from smoking before Phentermine kills me.
Thanks for reading and good luck to each of you!!
If I can lose weight ANYONE CAN!!

April

**Jessiegirl** · 06-28-2006, 10:48 PM

OMG 108lbs??

How tall are you? I'm just curious :smt026

**rebeleagle1965** · 06-29-2006, 03:34 AM

April-
I got curious myself, so I did some research online...check out what wikipedia has to say about it-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phentermine

to make a long story short, the 12 weeks IS due to concerns about addiction. It states that studies have been done with longer usage, and that it has not been proven that it is harmful or ineffective in usage even as long as 36 weeks.

That being said.....
I think that you have done a great job with your weight loss, but I would lay off the phen for a while, not because the medication would become dangerous for you, but that becoming underweight would be. There are just as many health risks for being too thin as there are for being overweight, and while I don't believe phentermine has the habit of giving people heart attacks or killing them, I'm concerned that continuing to lose weight at this point COULD possibly cause some health problems for you.
I personally would kill to be at the weight you STARTED at, I'M jealous

!

nicoli · 06-30-2006, 03:02 PM

Hey, 108 isn't bad at all. Not too skinny if you are only about 5 feet tall or so. I am 5 foot 0 inches and weighed 107 throughout my 20's and I was not skinny, just average looking. I would love to be 108 instead of my current 198!

**rebeleagle1965** · 07-02-2006, 03:18 AM

Don't get me wrong-I'm not saying 108 is an unhealthy weight-But even if you are 5 feet tall, 108 is probably not a weight at which you need to be taking a prescription for weight loss-it's definitely not overweight. I firmly believe that phen is a safe and effective way to lose weight, and that it's given a bad rap sometimes by the naysayers. I'm just tossing in a word of caution here, because taking a prescription unnecessarily can pose problems no matter how safe we believe it to be. Pain medication is safe to take-but not if you aren't in pain. I'm 5 foot 3, and at my lightest I weighed about 110, and I looked like death warmed over, because I'm curvy. I know "normal" is different for everybody. Different builds, different frames....J-Lo wouldn't look near as good as she does if she lost 30 pounds, but right now I'm looking alot more like Je-llo, so believe me I'm not trying to lecture anyone here

. I, too, would love to be back at my pre-motherhood weight!

**susanpesek** · 07-02-2006, 03:29 PM

:eek: I was surprised to read this, too, at Wikipedia:
Clinical use
Generally, it is recommended by the FDA that phentermine should be used short-term (usually interpreted as 'up to 12 weeks'), while following nonpharmacological approaches to weight loss such as healthy dieting and exercise. However, recommendations limiting its use for short-term treatment may be controversial. One reason given behind limiting its use to 12 weeks is drug tolerance, whereby phentermine loses its appetite-suppressing effects after the body adjusts to the drug. On the contrary, it has been shown that phentermine did not lose effectiveness in a 36-week trial (PMID 11054601). Due to the risk of insomnia, it is generally recommended that the drug be taken either before breakfast or 1-2 hours after breakfast.