That can be very frustrating! I just have a few questions. Are you monitoring your calories per day? Usually, exercise combined with diet helps you lose weight. It's actually possible that you're consuming too few calories (especially as a vegetarian) for you, which would make weight loss as difficult as if you were consuming too many calories.

The following website has a free calorie counter. You just plug in your info, and it lets you know your maintenance calorie level. Then, you need to aim for about 500 calories below that level for weight loss: http://www.hpathy.com/healthtools/calories -need.asp

Hope this helps.

Hi,

Yeah, I eat plenty, about 1500-1800 cal a day. I'm a conscientious objector type vegetarian. It's not for health or diet really.

I'm 5'6" and a whopping 175 lbs. I'm pretty muscular (underneath the fat) because I play soccer and take a lot of spin classes, kick boxing, step etc. My pre-SSRI weight never topped 140 lbs and that was when I was seriously built and training for a triathlon.

The weight isn't really the problem though; it's the fat that's driving me crazy.

I never had a belly until about 5 months after I started the Lexapro and now I've got this fat pooch that just won't go away. I never put weight on around my middle before either. I was afraid I was hitting an early menopause or something (I'm 35, no kids) so I had my hormone levels checked and I'm "normal." My hair texture has changed from straight to wavy and I've got all this flubber that won't go away.

I need some encouraging success stories to light this fat-induced gloom.

Meowmix001,

I just read ur reply, above and it rang similar to what I read in the most recent publication of the Health Mag. I read in short, that middle age perimenopause ladies may be prone to getting more mass/fat around their belly/midsections. The article claimed that a strict exercise program emphasizing the core muscles could possibly minimize the belly fat look.
I know ur wrote this back in July but I'm wonderng what uv'e done since then? I'm 44 perimenopause and I do hard-core yoga 5x a week along with rollar blading 30-60 min 5x per week, 5ft and 105lbs. I seem to have the belly when I sit down or wear size 1 pants. I've had 4 kids tho.
I hope all is well and am interested to find out what u know since we both seem to be watching the calories and exercising like crazy...good times.