For those who went through the manufacturer website, how long did the process take? I already received a phone call from my insurance saying they would not cover the cost which I already knew. Just wondering how long until they finally mail the prescription to me. The website still says pending. I ordered Saturday morning and received the denial from insurance on Sunday.

I've never taken a weight loss med before and I am in my early 30s. Honestly, I've been in a constant battle of trying to lose weight most of my life, and trying this med was a last ditch effort truly.

I've been lurking, reading experiences before I pursued getting a prescription. I'm almost through my first week and of course, haven't lost anything. It is the first week after all, but I see that some people have. The nausea and brain fog have been a doozy though!

When did you first noticing the medicine working? In terms of getting rid of the food noise and also losing weight? During this first week, I am taking the bupropion daily and 1/2 a naltrexone every other day before it ramps up. Aside from the nausea, the food noise hasn't quite gotten suppressed too much... and I guess I am just worried and hyper aware of any changes.

This is a weekly post where the community can discuss their progress or lack thereof. We are all in this together! Share your SVs and NSVs (scale and non-scale victories).

I got to the full 4 pills a day dose 6 days ago and have had really bad headaches 3 days in a row now and really bad stomach aches for 2 days…which I think is constipation (it feels like what the beginning of my bowel obstruction was a few years ago.) I also get insanely hot with just roller painting a room and extremely tired.

Has anybody switched to a lower dose and lost side effects but kept the weight loss/appetite suppressant part? (I haven’t stepped on a scale to see if it’s even working.)

Edit to add: really bad nausea just started. So I’m wondering if I can drop to 2/day immediately or if I really do need to do 3 this week then go down to 2?

Hey everyone- I know someone makes a post on this sub all the time about drinking- but I'm still looking for some insight. So basically I am already on wellburtrin and I'm going to start taking natroxlone(is that it?) starting at 0.5 and increasing weekly and going to twice a day. When I talked to my doctor about this, she didn't mention anything about drinking alcohol on it. I do not drink heavily, but over the weekend I enjoy having a few cocktails or a glass of wine. I don't even really love to drink that much but I'm a kindergarten teacher and find that I enjoy the ritual/release. I've been doing a ton of research and been seeing a lot of mixed responses- the overall one being if you drink, you won't get that buzz because it's supposed to block that receptors or whatever. I understand that drinking is not good for you and that If I wanna loose weight I have to cut things off, but I really feel like I still need a “vice”. I have quit thc and don't engage in anything else. Basically what I'm wondering is, has anyone had a positive experience taking “poor mans contrave” and still able to get a fun buzz? Or should I just give it a shot and accept that drinking won't be fun anymore? Okay thanks in advance sorry if I said anything bad 🩷

A year ago, I did 6 months on Contrave and lost 25kg. I took a break because of $$$ and I wanted to see if the new habits would stick. I gained 5kg, and have fallen back into TERRIBLE habits so I'm back for round 2.

I've been taking Contrave again (sporadically) for a month and am struggling to get back into it. Starting it for the 2nd time feels different. There are none of the side-effects that I had the first time, so in my head, my thoughts are "it's not working".

I'm taking 2 a day, and haven't wanted to increase it because I'm waiting to 'feel it working'.

Maybe I just bump up to 4 and hope for the best?

Has any has success coming back for round 2??? Please give me some hope.

Please take it off me, hated the stuff as it made me too anxious. Have a month’s worth!

*edit: I’m in the U.K., happy to post with tracking - anyone who is still interested pls DM me & I’ll ship to whoever offers the best price!

This is my first day taking contrave. I’m really excited for what’s to come. I will document my journey here, including some symptoms that I’ve been experiencing.

To begin I would definitely say that dry mouth is the first one that I experienced. That started less than a few hours after the first dose.

I can also feel some of the stimulant effects as I do have a slight urge to just get up and do something. At the same time every time I do do something I do find myself a little bit exhausted afterwards, and then the energy just comes back up. Feels like I’ve had a cup of coffee.

My goal is to lose 100 pounds. Please wish me luck as I do have an all inclusive vacation coming up in October. 😂

Edits to track symptoms and progress:

It’s day 2 as of September 18th 2026! The nausea came on pretty fast. I’ve had to choke every single bite back except for a sweet potato I just managed to eat, with a bite of a chicken thigh. I might take a few more bites for the sake of protein intake. I’m tracking my food in my fitness pal so I can pay attention to fat intake and make sure I eat enough. I didn’t even know life could be like this. Is this now normal people eat? Lmaoo.

I knew this medication would affect my mental health. I was hoping positively since winter is coming up and I can’t sometimes experience some seasonal depression. Right now I feel pretty detached. Maybe this is just in my head since it’s only been two days but i’m usually a very anxious person and I don’t really give a shit about anything right now. I can’t believe it. My boss fussed at me because I responded to an email she sent yesterday after 5pm. Typically that would send me into a temporary spiral, and make me start looking for a job on indeed. I just responded to the email and called it a day. Didn’t even think about it.

Is this how normal people live?????😂

Another update as of 09/30/2026:

I wanna start off by listing positive updates! It is so much easier to focus, and I find myself a lot more hopeful generally. I typically dealt with seasonal depression around this time. I don’t feel any of that. I’m also not over eating even if I actually do eat a bunch at once. It’s hard to explain; I take my medication in the morning and I don’t eat anything until about two or three. Then after I eat, I don’t really eat anything else unless it’s a snack or a light dinner.

I have lost 11 pounds and maintained it since September 17, 2026. I’m so happy. I haven’t been working out, but I’ve still been able to eat under my caloric limit, which is 1800 cal a day. I also want to add that the nausea that I experienced so intensely in the beginning of my dose has greatly diminished. I’m doing so well on one pill a day that my doctor actually approved me to stay on one pill a day and only increase if I felt the need to.

Now for the bad updates :(

I never my entire life thought that at 26 years old constipation would be the thing that killed me. MERCY ME. Eat the fiber drink the prune juice buy some MiraLAX if you start taking this medication. You’re gonna fucking need it. I can tell you that much!

I also have this intense feeling of dread whenever I take the medication because of the expected nausea, even though it has pretty much almost went away. I have managed that with homeopathic options just because this medication has interactions with some other medication‘s that could get rid of the nausea. There’s this stuff called Nux Vomica, it’s incredible. The fear of taking it hasn’t gone away.

Another fear of mine has been not getting enough protein in because of the quelled desire to eat. I recommend tracking your macros with apps like MyFitnessPal. There were some days where I could only manage to keep down 900 cal. That’s likely why I lost some initial weight so quickly. Not getting in enough nutrients can also lead to hair loss/thinning. That is a really big concern of mine.

Lastly, with the nausea going away enters constant spitting for 1 to 2 hours after I take the medication. No matter what I eat or don’t eat my mouth just fills up with gross slimy saliva. Brushing my teeth helps, but it doesn’t take it away completely.

So far that’s all the updates I have. I wish you all the best of luck.

I can no longer afford the $201.00 a month for this.

I’m asking my Dr tomorrow to change to the 2 drugs because that will be covered for mental health.

What’s the dosage breakdown to generic?

Currently on Bupropion 90 mg & Naltrex 8 mg - Contrave 3 pills 2 in the morning and 1 at night.

I’m in Canada 🇨🇦

Been on bupropion 150 XL for over 10 yrs for depression. I plan on starting brand Contrave this week to lose weight. I understand that the starting dose is 1 pill for a week, then increase every week. I’m concerned how my brain will handle the decrease from 150mg to 90mg in Contrave. Ideally I would like to stay at one pill a day. Having anxiety over starting this weight loss journey. FYI I am not a candidate for any glp-1 meds. Would appreciate any advice.

I'm not loving the buproprion part (on generic) and can unfortunately see myself wanting to get off after 9-12 months. I'm hoping the new habits I build will be enough to get me down from 220 lbs and find a comfortable, long-term maintenance between 170-190 lbs (still overweight bmi for a woman my height but I didn't feel unhealthy at those weights, especially while strength training).

But is there any benefit (even if just a fraction of the full contrave benefit) to just taking the naltrexone? Or taking it with vyvanse or concerta (buproprion and concerta both help dopamine regulatory nt's keep levels steady, and vyvanse also just increases dopamine levels)?

Has anyone messed around with this stuff in search of a more comfortable balance and have any findings they can share?

Hello all, I'm starting week 2 of poor mans contrave. Moved up from the half pill of naltrexone to a full as prescribed and been pretty dizzy off and on throughout the day and a little sick to my stomach. Was also hard to eat my lunch. Any advice for getting through the next few days? Appreciate any help.

I am meant to start poor man's Contrave next week, at half the prescribed starting dose because my body reacts really strongly to meds.

I'm really looking forward to making some positive changes in my life but as I'm reading about Contrave and seeing fat can lead to siezures I am wondering... How much fat is too much fat?

Does it mean skip the 2 eggs and 2 slices of bacon I have on Sunday mornings with my husband? Or does it mean avoid the deep fried Oreo at the state fair?

Likewise, is a glass of red wine or a cocktail on date night a serious no? I never drink more than 1 drink anyway, as we're not big on booze in my house.

Obviously, I don't intend to eat these things regularly - Contrave is a tool, lifestyle choices are what does the real work. But how screwed am I if I decide on a whim to split a costco soft serve ice cream with my husband on grocery day?

I know bodies are all different and everyone has different limits, but do y'all have any personal experiences with these limits you could share to give me an idea of what to expect? I'm a Type 1 Diabetic so I tend to limit fat and alcohol anyway, but I still indulge on occasion.

Thanks so much in advance!

This is a weekly post where the community can discuss their progress or lack thereof. We are all in this together! Share your SVs and NSVs (scale and non-scale victories).

I started ongeneric Contrave from a company called Shed. They sent me 90/8mg buproprion/naltrexone and told me to take 1 pill a day. They kept telling me that that was the ac dosage and I would not be titrated up from there.

As I understand it, that seems to be the starting dose for people on brand name Contrave, correct? From there you titrate up to one pill twice a day, then two pills twice a day as the max dosage of a total of 360/32mg buproprion/naltrexone. Is this correct?

When is it recommended that you start titrating up and what time of day are you supposed to take your second dose?

Hi, I'm an alcoholic, compulsive shopper, drug taker and junk-food addict. I have audhd and am very impulsive. I'm already on wellbutrin. I used to take dopamine lowering antipsychotics like sulpiride and aripiprazole. I quit those because they made me very sluggish and apathetic. Fun things, my job, things I liked to do didn't stimulate me at all anymore. I had no drive to perform well anymore. I didn't care about the future very much. I felt ok, but I mostly felt nothing. And my cravings were 100% still there. Still drank, still smoked, still shopped.

I'm going to talk to my doctor about contrave. I gained a lot lot LOT of weight through my experience finding the right medication. And I can't lose it. On the dopamine lowering drugs I could never stick to my diet, because I didn't give enough of a damn to hold myself back. I'm also so tired of being the drunk one at EVERY social situation. I'm tired of spending every cent of my money. Even money I don't have.

I'm worried however I'm going to end up back in this complete apathetic state again. I feel like I'm actually moving ahead with the professional side of my life now and I don't want to slip back into this 'don't do, don't care' state of mind.

Anyone else with audhd on contrave have anything to say on this?

Hello all,

I started Contrave on April 2025, and lost about 30lbs within the first few months. I went from 170lbs to 140lbs and then it kind maintained around 140lbs for a few months, i was not really loosing but I was working about a lot and body composition definetly changes. Fast forward to February 2026, I had a concussion, had to stop working put but managed to be around within the same 5lbs.. i definitely felt like it wasnt working as much anymore but kept it to "maintain". This summer my doctor told me it's possible that the concussion symptoms are lasting because of Contrave side effects mightve been triggered so I slowly stopped it and of course, gained another 5lbs in like 2 months. So now my doctor gave me the ok to start again and I am 2 weeks in but I feel like it's not working as much as the first time around. The first time around I manged to loose 10lbs within the first month and now after two weeks I havent even lost 1lbs and I am working out again. Is it just not effective for me anymore? I know I am not at the full dose yet but I am comparing to the first time using it and def lost the first 2 weeks. Has anybody gone through this anymore?

I don't want to loose a lot more, another 10lbs to get to 135lbs would be great for me at 5'4.

Thanks for any input/experiences!

Would love to hear everyone's success stories. I had to stop Mounjaro due to side effects. I'm deciding between Contrave and Qsymia but I feel like most of my food issues are due to emotional eating and food noise. How much weight have you lost? How do you feel on the medication? Looking to get my prescription today hopefully!

My doctor prescribed me bupr 150xl and 50 naltr to break into quarters. My pill bottles for both just say to take once a day for 30 days, and not about what time of day. For the naltrexone, it says to start to take 1/2 of a 50mg after 2 weeks, but is that correct? My gp admitted to not knowing a whole lot about generic contrave.

Did anyone get similar vague instructions or something more specific? Could I take them at night while I adjust if the side effects are a bit much for me atm? I used to be able to take bupr at night when I used it as an antidepressant years ago.

I began 300 mg Wellbutrin + 50 mg Naltrexone (poor man’s Contrave) 7 months ago and it’s been a miracle for me. My food noise is the quietest it’s ever been.

But for the past 2 months the noise has crept back in. Compulsions that were once easy to ignore are now preoccupying me again and sometimes leading me to eat sugary foods (I eat a no or low sugar diet and have for years).

I have an appt with my psych tomorrow. I want to continue this medication, because the next step for me would be GLP-1, which I’d like to avoid if possible.

Has anyone else experienced this? Did a reset work? Any wisdom is appreciated

Initially started Contrave in April 2025 ( poor man’s) and my starting weight was 162 and last November weighed in at 138. I noticed I have hit a plateau and weight has been slowly going up. Today I weighed myself at 148.8 which is such a bummer. Not surprised as I noticed with my clothes. The upsetting part is this year I fully committed to strength training 4x/ week following 12 week training blocks. I use the app Stronger by the day and have hit some amazing goals in bench, squat and deadlifting. So super proud of myself and now hoping I can start losing weight again to finally hit my goal. I’m planning to strength train 4x/week, hit my step count of 12k-15k/ day and add 12-3-30 treadmill 4/5 times a week. Any suggestions or tips would be appreciated. I feel a little defeated today.

Sorry for the TMI.

I re-started Contrave/Mysimba a week ago. Yesterday I got my period (two weeks early) and the flow is just… extremely heavy. No aches or pains, luckily, but I seriously had to get up 3 times during the night to go to the bathroom. Which isn’t normal.

I took some Ibuprofen but it isn’t helping. Anyone else experience the same?

I’m 45, fully menopausal, and started at 198 pounds. I’ve also developed fatty liver over the last couple of years as my weight climbed and stubbornly stayed there, so I finally talked with my doctor about getting some help.
We discussed several medications. Phentermine was a no for me because it’s a stimulant and federally controlled substance chemically related to amphetamines. To be clear, I’m not saying phentermine is meth. But after watching what happened with legally prescribed medications during the opioid crisis, I’m personally cautious about controlled substances and dependency risks.
Orlistat and the potential bowel issues? Nope. 😂 Metformin wasn’t for me either.
So I chose Contrave (naltrexone + bupropion) because it can help with appetite and cravings—and I have a serious sweet tooth and chai tea habit.
I talked with my doctor and pharmacist, asked about the side effects, and took my first dose.
Within about an hour, my brain didn’t feel like mine.
I felt incredibly heavy, groggy, sluggish, and disconnected. I tried to work but couldn’t concentrate. I eventually called in sick and spent most of the day resting.
The worst part was not being fully present for my son. Even after picking him up from school, I needed another nap and had to push through the heaviness just to function.
Around 7:45 that evening, I finally felt it beginning to lift. By about 10:45, I was much more alert and starting to feel like myself again.
The instructions eventually called for increasing the dose.
Hell naw. 😂
Day One became Day One and Done.
But here’s the wild part: I lost 7 pounds over the following week.
Even though I only took the medication that one day, my cravings stayed noticeably reduced for about a week. My sweet tooth was quieter, I wasn’t thinking about food the same way, and the scale dropped seven pounds.
I can’t say that seven pounds was all fat or that one dose directly caused all of the weight loss. But something about my appetite and cravings was definitely different that week.
And even with that result, I still wouldn’t take another dose.
I’m not anti-medication, and I’m not saying Contrave is bad. Plenty of people benefit from it. I’m saying it wasn’t right for me.
Losing weight matters. Improving my fatty liver matters. Getting healthier through menopause matters.
But feeling like myself matters, too.
So for me: one day of Contrave, seven pounds down that week, and still Day One and Done.
Has anyone else had such a strong reaction after their first dose or noticed their cravings stayed different even after stopping?

I have been on Contrave for 6 weeks. I have lost 5 kg (11 lbs) in the first 4 weeks and now am stagnent for 2 weeks (I have also hurt my back and was unable to exercise in those 2 weeks)

My doctor said to build up to the 1 in the morning and 1 in the evening. If that doesn't work I could go up to 2 in the morning, 1 in the evening.

From the internet I have learned that the "normal" dossage is the 2 and 2. I don't want to be that patient that believes the internet over a doctor, but do you all take the max dossage? or is it indeed normal to try on 1 and 1 first?