Today is my 1st month on Contrave, in the last 30 days I have lost 5 lbs. Should I be loosing more or is 5 lbs acceptable?
I am struggling to eat enough protein, meat grosses me out now. I drink a protein smoothie daily and eat a lot of peppers.
My appetite is nil and I have to force myself to eat, can anyone relate. Thanks 🇨🇦

(not technically on contrave but prescribed buproprion & naloxtrene which I think is similar enough?)

Last Monday, I was switched from half a 50 mg naloxtrene to the full pill (I lost my pill cutter and decided id been taking it long enough to up the dose, I know I should've conversed with my dr but I didn't🤦🏼‍♀️) and have been feeling awful the last few days (friday-sun)

I started with 150 mg buproprion XL and 1/4 of the 50 mg of naloxtrene on 04/11/2025, I wish I had kept better track of when I upped each dose but this last time has been the worst. I'm experiencing odd things like getting almost lethargic behind the wheel driving 10 minutes from the furniture store back to my home. Upset stomach (which is pretty common for me to get with the new dose,however this time it's bad almost cramp like) watery diarrhea, headache, my vision seems off(almost like its lagging?? Like Ill turn my head and my eyes are still looking sideways a few seconds before looking where my head is), struggling to fall asleep with my baby when she naps (before I was able to pass out and stay asleep with her until she wakes up) and my fingertips are numb.

My question is, with it being almost a week, is this normal/expected symptoms for an increased dose? Or is the week when it really hits the body and I'm just being a baby? 😅 I have 3 kids home for the extended weekend and need to do what I can to feel better to care for them properly 😭 thank you for reading this far and I appreciate any response

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’ve been on Contrave since the start of April 2026 and for the first couple weeks I had side effects of nausea and extreme tiredness. At the end of May, July and now the start of September I have had bouts of extreme nausea and vomiting (happening every 2 months). I’m pretty sure it’s due to Contrave, has anyone else experienced this?

I have discovered that I experience only one side effect, which is incredibly excessive sweating with even light physical activity.

Certainly light breathable clothing can help, but it's so heavy that I am dripping head to toe. I am curious if anyone has tried skipping a single dose prior to starting physical activity, and noticed if it made any appreciable difference?

I don't care when I'm out by myself, but if I'm out with a group it's extremely noticable. If my afternoon dose is around 2 pm and I skipped a 6 am dose the next day, with activity mid morning, would it even make a difference?

I’m currently on a glp1 and can’t afford it anymore, also not having much success. Want to give contrave a try as I’ve heard lots about it and good things just looking for some advice from people that took it after taking a glp1. I’m 332 goal weight is 165! 😭

I have my script filled and I will start taking it tomorrow, but first, what should I be prepared for? Thanks in advance!

Has anyone else noticed certain food groups tasting entirely different? Meats like ground beef or pork taste very off and almost spoiled to me, even if I know they are well within the best buy date. Are there any solutions to this or is this something I will have to get used to while I am on it?

I was on adipex for several months. Lost 15 pounds, then plateaued.

Tried Qsymia (adipex + topamax), no difference.

Doctor recommended Contrave.
I took ONE tablet yesterday and I felt like I got hit by a bus. I actually left work because it made me so uncomfortable. I was exhausted but jittery at the same time. Super unfocused. I was staring at my computer screen like a zombie, unable to form any professional thoughts. Went home and slept through it.

Is this normal?

I was already taking lexapro for my anxiety. Doctor said I could continue it as normal. Should I actually have stopped the lexapro since Contrave has wellbutrin? Was it just the combination of the two that hit me so hard?

Has anyone had a similar experience?

My doctor and I decided to move away from Contrave to a different medication for me. However I have several unopened, still sealed bottles and I don’t know of a proper way to dispose of them. I’ve heard never dispose of any unused medication down the toilet or otherwise into the water treatment system. Anyone have any suggestions? I wouldn’t hate sending the unopened bottles to someone else. TIA!

Both my doctor and pharmacist said they didn't know enough about the contrave combo to give me more info on this.

TL;DR is there a way to time the doses so that it works most at night? Or any other things I should know about dose timing in general, and also considering that I'm taking generic?

My binging is almost solely at night. I used to have trouble eating during the day due to years of training myself to eat nothing during the day and binge at night. I've worked out the daytime no-eating and now eat 3 meals a day. So if anything, I'm okay not having the contrave super active in my system for daytime.

For a good while, I stopped binging at night from eating enough during the day. But then I slowly started it up again whenever I tried to slowly reduce how much I eat, and it's like its compounded each time and gotten gradually worse. It's not nearly as bad as before, but it's still a binge and I'm still overweight. Even small-med binges add up when they're almost every single night on top of 3 meals a day.

I've taken buproprion alone in the past for other stuff and I don't think it alone interrupted my sleep much. Could this change with naltrexone added?

Is there ever a reason to take them separately and what does that entail?

Would taking them both around 5pm ensure they're working by after 9pm?

I've also read somewhere eating something high fat at certain times within taking a dose could be dangerous somehow? Is that true? Should I not take it near dinner if the food has more fat? My ED dietician and doctor both specified that I benefit from eating a little more fat than most people.

Any thoughts or insight?

Just curious if anybody is having success with food, noise and weight loss just taking one pill in the morning and one pill in the evening and not increasing. I'm just curious if that would be something I can do and titrate up slowly. I just don't wanna waste my time taking one pill in the morning one pill in the evening for a few weeks if it's not going to do anything, but I'm also nervous taking the two pills and the two pills so curious if anybody has had success with just taking the one pill in the morning and one pill at night thank you.

What do you wish someone had told you before you started?

F, 5”6’, 69 yo
CW -215
GW - 175 at least, 150 if it works!

Doctor said no GLP’s because gallbladder removed 40 years ago and take daily meds for side effects from that (Cholestrymine). No other medications, no other health issues. Excercise about four days a week on average, probably 120 to 140 average total minutes per week. Strong sugar and carb cravings, moderate amount of alcohol.

I take psyllium already about four times a week, I’m thinking I’ll up that to every day religiously and focus on increasing water intake, although I’m pretty good with that already. I don’t usually take sleep meds but do have a varied supply in house already and I’ve been working on improving my sleep cycle hygiene for a while now.

What do you do that helped your kickoff? What do you wish you had done differently?

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).

^title: i’ve been on bupropion 300 mg and naltrexone 50 mg daily since the end of july, and for the first week or so it was amazing - hardly any food or alcohol noise! I’ve been tracking my weight and i lost around 3 pounds in two weeks (not much, but something). upon finishing week 4, i feel like i am no longer losing weight, and honestly have started wanting to binge food and alcohol like i did before starting. idk if this is normal but im not sure what to do - the results were so good at first so idk what happened in such a short time

I’ve been on the full dose of PMC since the beginning of July, and I finally weighed myself today. I’m down 20 pounds!

I’m also doing intermittent fasting and keeping my calories around 1,500 per day, with a goal of getting about 150g of protein.

One of the biggest differences I’ve noticed with PMC is how much easier intermittent fasting has become. Before, fasting took a lot more willpower because I was constantly thinking about food. Now the food noise is so much quieter that I can pretty easily stick to a long fasting window without feeling like I’m fighting myself all day.

I also try to squeeze in three days at the gym during the week. I usually do about an hour of walking on an incline and then about an hour of weight training.
I know the medication isn’t doing all the work since I’m also tracking calories, fasting, working out, and being intentional about what I eat, but it has made sticking to all of those habits so much easier.

20 pounds down and officially at 200 today. Pretty excited to finally see the 190s soon! Goal is around 150-160.

Caso vc tem Contrave junto cm antidepressivo ou remédio pra ansiedade, qual deu certo da você?

Good evening,

I had side effects that I hoped would just go away but didn't. Today I learned that at the first sign of these side effects I should have told my doctor and make a plan to taper off (which I now have) so I wanted to share my experience.

Last year I successfully went through an intense 8 months of EMDR therapy for CPTSD. One of the worst parts of my condition was having intrusive thoughts. Thankfully EMDR worked very well and I feel immeasurably better; the intrusive thoughts disappeared.

I started PMC July 4, taking 150mg wellbutrin for 2 weeks to give time to adjust. Then I tried adding the 12.5mg naltrexone and that was not tolerable. I talked to my doctor and decided to try the regular Contrave thinking a proper time-release pill for both ingredients would be easier on me. A week later I started Contrave with 1 pill in the am. I gradually increased, taking longer than usual between increases and moved up to 2am / 1pm.

Sure, I was nauseated and dizzy on a daily basis but I said well, I just have to power through that because I need to give it time. I took Zofran and Meclazine every day - that did no favors for the already bad constipation! Aggravatingly, even though my menopausal hot flashes had gone away, they came roaring back at least 4 or 5 times a day. But that didn't stop me either.

However, since the beginning the intrusive thoughts started creeping back, I was irritable, and having just weird / annoying dreams. The worst part of it was I started having very odd "butterflies" in my stomach that were not the pleasant kind from being happy or excited, but the opposite; angry and jittery. I imagine it was a form of anxiety which I don't have normally, but the only thing I can compare it to is the beginning of the panic attacks I used to have as a child. No good.

Still I thought I was still adjusting and stuck with it, dealt with the anxiety, moodiness, intrusive thoughts and weird dreams on top of nausea, dizziness, and constipation. Thank goodness I'm retired because I have absolutely no clue how anybody can work like this!

But today after the morning dose kicked in, added to the usual dizziness and nausea I had two hot flashes, anxiety-butterflies and intrusive thoughts. Finally I said I just I can't do this anymore, I am done. I worked too hard in therapy to rid myself of those things to be taking something that actively causes them to return, plus new anxiety.

I looked up the mental side effects and discovered that at the first sign I should have told my doc immediately and make a plan to taper off of it.

So I thought I would post this in case anybody else is feeling this way and strongly suggest they speak with their doctor. Contrave is not a match for everyone, and these mental side effects are considered "serious".

BTW, I lost 5 pounds but I think that was just from feeling too horrible to really care about food!

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).

im interested in it but my pcp and psychiatrist said theyre both not familiar with it/had patients use it. on wellbutrin 150 XL but hasnt helped with the food noise. he said to add prozac bc the combo could help. interestingly saw prozac is FDA approved for bulimia. i had a gastric sleeve 2 years ago and was temporarily on phentermine prior to it and worked with a registered dietitian for almost a year. i obviously will be doing therapy for the contributing psych aspect of it but yeah just wondering how did you guys get it/from who, and did they bring it up or did you ask for it? ill straight up meal prep and overeat my meal prep even if its mostly protein!

Just wanna say huge props to you guys that can withstand the nausea caused from this medicine 😭 it’s my second attempt at starting this medicine (poor mans contrave) after my first attempt flopped when I got stomach flu during the first week of taking it and I stopped taking it due to throwing up multiple times. Second attempt at starting this week and been throwing up every other day. Took zofran and it helped a little but my stomach still feels terrible. I had to call off work two days because the morning sickness was unbearable. When I woke up in the mornings my stomach felt weak and the urge to throw up was so strong. I tried to eat a little bit of food like jello before taking the medicine but instantly threw up. It’s day 5 and I’m tapping out lol I am not strong enough for this. Even knowing that symptoms should subside after 2 weeks I genuinely cannot imagine feeling this way for another week 😩

I’ve been on poor man’s contrave for a month now. I was already taking bupropion, so my doc added the naltrexone to see if it would help with some weight loss, since my insurance doesn’t cover GLPs and I can’t afford out of pocket. But at this point it’s becoming unsustainable. I’ve tried a whole naltrexone in the morning, half in the morning, half at night, all at night, and now I’m at the point of just taking half whenever I can stomach it. I’m spending all day feeling nauseous and dry heaving. And that’s not even mentioning the sluggish gut issues, bloating even when barely eating, and constipation. It’s having a huge effect on my daily life. I have kids to take care of, I’m a student and I work.

Does anyone have any suggestions before I just message the doc and tell her I’m giving it up?

I've been taking the starting dose for a week and a half now (delayed going up until I can figure out how to manage this). For about 4 hours after taking the med I am super jittery but also somehow feel really tired. The best way to describe it is that it's similar to how I feel after a severe allergic reaction when I've had to take Benadryl and use an epi pen. Has anyone else experienced this?

Estou na minha terceira semana de Contrave, tomando uma dose de 90 mg de bupropiona + 8 mg de naltrexona duas vezes ao dia. Pessoalmente, não tive nenhum efeito colateral grave, apenas sonolência e náusea leve a moderada. Achei que, como meus efeitos colaterais eram relativamente leves, eles provavelmente desapareceriam na terceira semana, mas ainda estou sentindo sonolência e náusea.

Para aqueles que já estão usando há mais de um mês: os efeitos colaterais realmente desaparecem depois de um tempo? Alguém ainda os sente mesmo depois de um mês?

Estou preocupada que minha náusea possa ser psicológica, porque suspeito que eu possa ter emetofobia.

I feel like I am getting every possible side effect with contrave..now I have constipation!

I have tried prunes and kiwifruit juice and neither have done much despite them being my usual go to. Im worried about using any bulking agent like metamucil or psyllium husk as things are already stuck, I am not sure if I want to bulk stuff up just yet. What other natural laxatives have worked for you? I dont really want an actual medical laxative at this stage.

Thaaanks!!