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Prednisone weight gain

Posted , 11 users are following.

renee39320
renee39320

I've had PMR since April 2015. Started with 20mg of prednisone, and now down to 8.5 mg. I've gained 18 pounds! I know that our bodies process carbs differently while on prednisone, and I'm trying to limit the carbs. At what point does the weight start to come off? How low a dose does it begin at? I've been able to be active, walking or playing tennis every day of the week. The weight is around my belly and my neck/chin! I really can't stand it, but it is better than the pain PMR causes!

2 likes, 24 replies

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  • LayneTX
    LayneTX renee39320

    Posted

    The doctors (primary and Rheumy) scared me into a very strict diet, so I didn't gain weight, only had the round face and hump back until tapered.

    no flour, no rice, no grains, no dairy, no sugar, no starches (potatoes), 

    basically only meats and veggies, some fruit, but I can't do fruit very often.

    I'm shocked I lost 22 lbs, now I'm skinny, too skinny actually.  I had to stop my wine drinking, so I really lost weight. 

    Flour or products really make us hungry, boo hoo, I miss them! Lately I've eaten some! But sure enough it makes me crave them more. Darn.

    maybe grains do same thing, complex carbs I guess. 

    Doctor said always protein, healthy fats like avacados, almonds. Lots of dark greens, spinach, salad greens, ...

    Good luck.

     

    • Elijo
      Elijo LayneTX

      Posted

      I decided to try your plan today--meat (I'm actually not a meat eater), veggies, some fruit. I'll try it for a whioe this week to see if it does have any effect on my weight.  (This means giving up some of the foods I love.  My poor husband, he's so cooperative, and he also cooks!)
  • reggie92967
    reggie92967 renee39320

    Posted

    I was diag. 07-2015 on 17.5 mg. prednisone & same thing lots stomach weight, bloat, weight gain in neck upper back & puffed up "moonface". As you I hate it too but feel much better. Hope some answers come through on how people lost weight & on how low of a dose before weight loss happens.
  • julian.
    julian. renee39320

    Posted

    changed from continuous travel and lean to sedentary at time of diagnosis. Baked lots of cakes and grazed when inactive. Added about 9kg. Felt uncomfortable. Eventually stopped cakes and bread and grazing (very hard) and reduced portion size - about half. Lost 200gm / week for 6 months. About 6.5kg. Extra exercise didn't increase rate of loss. Weighed every day - my weight can go up/down by 1kg in 24 hours - and watched the trend. I have an engineering mind so it made sense. How much pred didn't seem to make much difference, masked by change of lifestyle and inactivity, though the grazing was probably partly pred inspired as I've never been prone to that in the past.
  • cindy63197
    cindy63197 renee39320

    Posted

    I was unable to lose ANY weight until I totally got off the pred. Before that any attempts were fruitless for me. Now I am able to lose, but have to do the regular weight losing stuff of course.
  • maid_mariane
    maid_mariane renee39320

    Posted

    Hi there

    I started I September 20 MG and now 17.5 with a 7 week taper and that was tough will try a taper again in March after holidays.

    My question is how did you get down so fast.

    Mariane

    • renee39320
      renee39320 maid_mariane

      Posted

      I didn't think it was so fast! I usually stay at a dose for 3-4 weeks then go down .5 mg at a time. I had gotten down to 7 mg, but messed up my dose for a few days and started to get a flare, so I went back up.
    • maid_mariane
      maid_mariane renee39320

      Posted

      You are fortunate, it took from my initial dose 2 months plus for my body to stabilize on the initial dose and then I dropped from 20 to 17.5 over 7 weeks and then it was to fast. Mind you I've had a lot of stress during this time period so that is probably having a key factor. I got down to 17.5mg weeks before Xmas and we leave south for a month so I will wait till late February to try again.

      As for weight it's slow but as I said below and my Dr himself does it, we got rid of potatoes ,pasta, rice ,bread, sugar obviously most deserts and watch the fruits because most have high carbs.

      Both my husband and I have min 2 eggs a day don't worry about bacon cheese etc and his check up the other day his cholesterol went down. In the past I always ate this way but when hubby and I met I worked and he cooked (retired ) and we both put on way too much weight. He love bread pasta and deserts and I'm a food aholic so I gained weight. We don't count calories and I have cheese sauce on my veggies daily.

      We still get carbs you can't help it, we make great schnitzel and have it but we don't go out if our way and make pasta, I use spaghetti squash for noodles with my meat sauce and really like it.

      My chocolate treat for Christmas was a great sugar free diabetic chocolate bar with hazelnut. I didn't eat the crust but had the pumpkin pie. It is easy to follow and with exercise to will see a difference, although mine is slow just over 1lb a week.

      Good luck

  • maid_mariane
    maid_mariane renee39320

    Posted

    I have been slowly loosing weight which I needed to do prior but literally don't eat bread, rice, pasta, sugar, but not counting calories and swim 3-4 days a week.

    Started this just prior to diagnosis in Sept and list 23lbs and 23 to go.

    Good luck

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