Weight Gain on Losartan!

Hi there, Thank you for your reply, much appreciated.  Yes I thought by taking the Losartan in the evening (around 9pm) would reduce the chance of me feeling side effects. I was convinced they were causing me weight gain although my doctor doesn't seem to think Losartan do this. I have never in my life been able to eat first thing in the morning but lately, I am waking up starving and have to eat.  I have a fast paced job in the city and get the opportunity to walk so am active all week. To change the habit of a lifetime made me think it must be the Losartan. I am sorry that they are not reducing your blood pressure, I do hope your doctor finds something that will help. I can relate to you feeling anxious of what the next medication will bring. Something's perhaps it's better the devil you know but then again, there are many alternatives so we could hope the perfect medication is out there somewhere.

 

I took amlopodine and Losarton for over a year.  My blood pressure was running very very high indeed.  Then my son, who has struggled with his weight at times and lost a lot, told me he couldn't spend his college vacatrion with ust in a house full of bread, butter, sugar and cheese.  Well, I simply stopped buying and eating any of these things.  I'd eat corn torillas that were zero percent sodium, I stopped having cakes and pastries and just had a little yogurt for calcium.  Also, although meat is not meant to be terribly good, my son insisted on a lot of beef in small quantities thinly sliced on his meals, so I went along with this.  Well, both his father and I lost weight, but the absolutely unbelievable thing is that my BP went down so much I don't (fingers crossed) need to take drugs.  I have been hospitalized twice for excessively high blood pressure and have had drips to bring it down.  The most they could bring it down to was 150/100.  That is as low down as my body naturally went at that time.  While my BP reads lower than that now I do use those figures as a gauge for good BP.  One problem is that doctors and the drug industry want to bring BP down much further.  But some people are elevated to 150/100 and thats okay.  I The systolic BP is extremely variable, think calm thoughts and it can go down 25 in a few minutes.  The diastolic, well, I think the best advice I had there was not doctors that thought in them 90s was bad, just one that said "We do like to keep that below a hundred"  So, diet change really worked with me and hope it will help others.  Also lots of walking, a couple of miles a day.  sometimes I takes a very little of a blood thinner called nattokinase which is also great and honestly those of Jewish, Norwegian and Polish descent who have a lot of herrings and all types of fish probably have low BP because of this.

Very well done on the weight loss, Emily, and how wonderful that it resulted in lowering your BP.  I'm sort of a bit in denial now and haven't taken a reading for a few months 'cos it gets so frustrating when you find it's still high in spite of taking two different drugs and putting up with their side effects.  I'm a bit of a difficult case because I have only one kidney, am into older age, and the high BP is fighting the reduced kidney function and vice versa.  The problem is that high blood pressure is anathema to kidney function.  How much weight did you lose by the way and how much do you weigh now?  Keep it up......I'm sure you must feel very grateful to your son!

Hi.

I have been on Losartan 100mg for 3 years now. It has lowered my BP but I have also had an uncontrollable weight gain. I had an emergency open heart surgery in April 2017 so need to keep my BP down to under 120.

I have consulted 2 doctors in my surgery and they have both said Losartan doesn't give you weight gain! I have looked on many forums on drugs websites and all of the people says it does.

I have now got my doctor to prescribe a different BP medicine but she's given me Candesartan 8mg increasing to 16mg if needed to keep my BP low enough. I have not changed to this yet, as to be honest, I was afraid to!!

Does anyone take this Candesartan did it stop the weight gain and were the side effects bad please.

thanks

Hi there, Thanks for your post. I will speak to my doctor about changing or a reduction in dose, as you have suggested. My job is not as stressful as it was last year so hopefully my BP has calmed down and there must be a med which suits me. Thanks again and have a good day. 

Hi Jerrycat, Thanks for your reply, I found it very interesting as you have described my problems perfectly. There is bad arthritis in the family so I had put it down to that, especially as I've been a bit stiff and painful for years. However, when, after an x-Ray, I was told I had no trace of arthiritis in my feet, I was completely baffled! Walking is very painful first thing in the morning and after I've been sitting down for a while. I bought an exercise DVD in an effort to shift some weight but my feet were agony the next day. This was very strange as I only did the warm up! I think I would have been bedridden had I completed the whole exercise. On top of that, I had practically starved myself and still felt bloated, almost blown up, with the extra weight. Something is not right and I agree, I am convinced the pills are to blame. If only there was something which would bring blood pressure down naturally. I do hope you find something which suits you better. Do let me know how you get on.

Hi Jerrycat, That sounds wonderful! - so glad things are looking up. Yes fluid retention is what I suspect too, especially as my rings got too tight and I can't wear them at all now. I have gained more weight over the last few days and will try to make an appointment with my doctor to discuss going forward. Looking forward to a resolution. Thank you for sharing your story, it really has helped. Good luck.

Hi Nicola, 

Thanks for your post, I was very interested to hear you too had put on weight. My doctor thought the menopause and giving up smoking were to blame but I just know it's the Losartan. My legs are bigger than they have ever been and I can't wear any of my old rings as my fingers have got bigger! I do agree with you re patient concerns should be taken more seriously. I was so fed up with squeezing into tight clothes that I went back to my doctor to say I wanted to change to something else.mI said that my sons all agreed that I almost look like a different person since being on these tablets. He wasn't convinced but when he took my BP and saw the reading was 160/110 (the lowest out of 3 readings) he concluded that they weren't working for me. He changed me over to Doxasosin and the next day, I felt so ill! My neck was killing me, I felt sick and really unwell. I thought I would have to adjust to them but after the second day,mI had to stop taking them. I felt better initially but then came down with a virus which saw me off work for 9 days. I am now back on Losartan as they are running out of men's for me to try (the all seem to disagree with me!) but my BP is still high. They are 'monitoring me' by looking at my readings every 2 weeks when I go to do the self test. I really don't know what to do now. My weight is 11 stone,p so 

(Not sure what happened there...) I have put on around 2 stones. I used to stop the tabs for a few days here and there but my heart feels like it's going to jump out my chest so not keen on missing any doses again.

Hi Wendy,

It's hard to make them understand when you know your own body. Medication that is supposed to help you feel better is causing other issues. I too feel a high BP should be managed, as it can lead to other conditions which can be life threatening. At what cost? Depression because of weight gain, more drugs to combat this and diuretics to aid the swelling.

Hello All-

I've had similar experience with losartan and concluded that weight loss was the best way for me to get BP down.  I stopped taking losartan.  So far have lost 17 lbs.  and Bp down about 15 points.

Recently went into afib.  was also taking amlodipine, which I discovered has a side effect of causing heart arhythmias.  What?

None of these meds are any good.

Will continue with weight loss and hope the bp goes down further.

BTW, my doc said weight loss wont do it, you must take the drugs.

BS.  Will try another CV next week, hope it works.

My recipe for weight loss, and this is not easy, but it works.

No alcohol, no wheat of any kind, no salty snacks, no corn, no sugar.

This is a radical change.  For those who can do it, it works.  Also taking herbals for BP, but too lengthy to discuss here.

Good luck to all.

 

Yeah, I think I'm with you on this. I can't take ACE inhibitors like lisinopril due to cough. I can't take beta blockers because those things are far too sedating. It's like a drug to cause depression, and it made my circulation to my extremities far worse. Very cold hands and feet. I tried two (atenolol & metoprolol) and it's a no-go for me. I just got over hyperparathyroidism (with hypercalcemia), so I'm not sure calcium channel blockers are a great idea. So I was put on Losartan. 50 mg at first, but they wanted my pulse lower because I have an ascending aortic aneurysm. So it got upped to 100 mg.

I seemed okay at 50 mg. At 100 mg, I am gaining a tremendous amount of weight, and I was already fat. 20 pounds (1.4 stone) since the end of March (four months ago). Not acceptable. Like everyone else, doctor says it can't possibly be the Losartan. But I had kept my, admittedly high, weight steady for two years before that.

I dropped it back to 50 mg yesterday and plan on tapering off it and trying grape seed extract 300 mg. My BP only became intermittently high recently, anyway. And it looks like there may be endocrine/nephrology reasons for that. I am trying to suss those out. If I can solve the core issue, the BP may stabilize without meds or supplements.

The weight gain is all front abdominal and might well be fluid retention. But can you gain 20 lbs of fluid? My rings are all tighter. I really don't want to go up a bra band size. But I think some of it must be actual weight. And my general body aches, joint pain and foot issues are way worse. Interesting that others are experiencing that, too.

I'm trying to really clean up my diet, as opposed to my loosey-goosey thing I'd do to get my weight down when I went up a couple pounds. My normal ways of keeping my weight down are not working at all. I've cut out the sugar, my biggest bugaboo. I'm trying to focus on protein and veggies and keeping my calories under 1800. I'm thinking of trying intermittent fasting, too.