Growing up, I was as skinny as a rail, my freshman year in high school I was 6′ tall and wrestled at the 126-pound weight class, I was really skinny. When I joined the Marine Corps at 19 and I registered at 145 pounds. That was at the very bottom of the scale of what the Marines wanted me to be, so all through boot camp, I was on double rations, meaning that I got twice the food as those not on doubles rations. I exited boot camp 20 pounds heavier, mostly with lean muscle. I served just over 10 years and left the Corps at around 175 pounds.

Since then I have slowly put on weight and by the time I started Gabapentin, I was around 235 pounds. Now let me confess that I packed on the weight over those 20 years, mostly due to good food and not as much exercise as I should be getting.

I have been on the Gabapentin for about six months now and I have managed to pack on close to another 20 pounds and still climbing. I can’t seem to slow it down. Then I started to do research and I discovered that Gabapentin has weight gain as one of the major side effects. Crap, so what do I do?

I have tried cutting back on what I eat, but I’m not eating that much as it is, I cut my meal portions by 30% or more, taking smaller portions and leaving food on my plate. I have stopped snacking after dinner and I have even cut way back on the soda that I drink (I drink soda instead of coffee for my caffeine). I have tried some mild exercising, but I get too fatigued and the rest of the day is shit because of the fatigue.

So do I stop the Gabapentin and just learn to deal with the pain? Trust me I have really given that a ton of thought and I just can’t bring myself to do it yet, but I can tell that time is coming really soon.