weight reduction on Prednisolone

Hi beev - I'd say don't waste your money! You didn't say which club it is but the majority work on a relatively high level of carbs, supposedly low glycaemic index, with low fat (and maybe selling their own products???). If it's the weight thingy people (better not mention a trademark here) the foods they sell are low in fat and have carbs added to make up the volume. Read the labels - I find it quite horrifying what is in them! (I have to read ALL labels as I'm allergic to wheat, and that appears all over the place).

If you are on steroids the best way to approach it is to keep your protein level up, moderate good fats (olive oil, small amount butter) and restrict carbs as far as possible. This is the best chance as taking steroids alters the way your body deals with carbohydrate (hence the diabetes risk problem). Best protein is obviously poultry but lean beef and pork are also good for you - whatever they might try to tell you. You need the stuff in beef and pork to make your body work!

On the other hand - if you lose weight you'll need to spend money on new clothes :roll: :lol:

all the best,

EileenH

Hi Eileen

Thanks for that - i will try to keep carbs down.

Its the Rosemary one with exercise too. Its sensible low fat, low GI so you feel fuller longer and portion control - none of their own products. It includes oily fish so is really sensible. I need to belong to a group or I cant be sensible - pathetic I know but thats me!

I have reached a desperate point where I feel the weight is increasing my health problems - such as reflux. If I can lose weight it might well help with that.

I think I must persevere and increase my exercise, but Im afraid to go for it too much incase I get a PMR flare-up.

Beev

Hi again Eileen

I have seen on here a mention about not taking calcium near Pred. Did that come from you? i cant find the post explaining it?

Beev

Hi Beev,

I think the general rule is to leave 4 hours after taking pred before taking calcium as it effects the absorption of the Pred--- ie Pred after breakfast, calcium at lunch and dinner.

Molly.

Beeve and Mollycoo

The calcium discussion is under

Palpitations and Steroid Reductions

Sometimes I wish we named the threads better - even I get lost at times.

But if you use the search experience at the top right hand side it can help.

Hello Beev, I found a slimming club helpful, not the one I think you mean but probably the one Eileen refers to. There wasn't any pressure to buy their stuff, in fact they didn't have much on offer anyway, neither did I bother with their magazine. I thought it was pretty balanced - fruit and veg. were \"free\" for instance. Sugar was a no-no definitely. I guess they preferred margarine over butter but that's probably debatable anyway. I am a vegetarian so I seem to get by without the chicken etc.

What was helpful was being weighed accurately each week and the discipline of going. I know all the facts about weight reduction and, in theory, could do it by myself at home -but it doesn't work that way for me I'm afarid. I guess it's finding what works for you and sticking with it.

I have had to find different sorts of exercise as I can't cope with the more vigorous ones: I gather even sitting twiddling ones thumbs loses a few calories!

Green granny.

Hi all!

Yes - I do have a lot to thank the Rosy-posy group for, it was that that got me exercising in the first place and I did lose weight to start with. But even with them it went back on and eventually I got cheesed with the stuff she came out with about \"feeling fat so I know how you feel\" when at the time she was about a size 12 (that was when she started the groups)! On a fat day! I was close friends with the group leader and she was being threatened with losing her job as there is a strict check kept on their weight. There was little note taken of the psychological aspects or the genetic disposition and the target weight they suggested for me was utterly daft - I'd never have got to it in a million years! So I continued paying full wack forever despite having done rather well in fact. They're a big business with one objective - take money from you to put in their bank account. If you ask your practice they almost certainly have a programme with the practice nurse and maybe a dietician which provides the \"control\" aspect you feel a need for. Free!

I also have a problem with the groups that reward you for the \"biggest weight loss of the week\" - the first few weeks are usually water loss and the faster you lose weight the more likely it is to go back on later. The bunnies who lose a pound a week every week for months never get applauded and they are the ones who will do best in the long run. They don't take the recognition away when the 3 pounds lost last week are back on this week either!

As far as exercise is concerned - have you got access to a gym that does aqua aerobics in a reasonably warm pool? And preferably aimed at our age group. I was able to manage that even before the PMR was diagnosed once the gym was impossible. You do need to start VERY warily though. Just because it doesn't FEEL hard work it is - everything in the water needs 7 times the effort that it does on land. So uses lots of calories and will help with muscle tone. We had a lady who has chronic fatigue syndrome and she was very careful and disciplined about what she did but said she was amazed at the difference it made over a year, she was able to do things she'd never dreamed of. If you find a group, speak to the instructor and explain the problem and that you might leave halway through for the first few weeks or not seem to be joining in as enthusiastically as others. If (s)he knows their stuff they'll understand. The main thing to be careful about is anything that has lots of repetitions - that's the prime problem in PMR, you have to let the muscle recover before doing more of the same.

Green Granny - I don't do marg, the chemical processes in making it are too horrifying for me to contemplate! It grows moulds too!

Calcium: if you take it within a couple of hours of the pred it interferes with the way the steroid is absorbed possibly leading to you getting a lower dose than you think. I just suggested the steroid for breakfast/calcium for lunch and dinner as a simple spreading of those items. Loads of you are taking other stuff as well which also have their predilictions - alendronic acid is the biggest pain but at least is only once a week (there is a once a month version too) - and in some cases it does matter. As I said - if you want whole grains with spinach and rhubarb you'll need to reprogramme the calcium tablet for that meal! :lol: However, there is no suggestion from any other company that you can't take calcium with food. The splitting the two tablets to take at different times is also to help more be absorbed and reduce the bulk taken at one time which some people find a problem. Maybe my gut is programmed to calcium carbonate - I grew up in a hard water area and the water here is also hard - and I like my calcichews!

good luck with the weight programme though,

EileenH

Hello Beev

Personally I think slimming clubs are far more sensible now and most of them promote fruit veg and protein and most of the products they sell are what most people would decribe as \"treats \" chocs bics crisps and they make them in a lower cal version so people can still have them if they want

I have put on a lot of weight with my steroids and I did with my first bout of PMR and it didnt seem to shift for perhaps a year after I had finished steroids When my Dr checked me with the start of this bout of PMR I was within my BMI and feeling very chuffed at a size 10 but now I am a good 14 but I have tucked all my clothes away and have bought myself a \"capsule wardrobe\" ( lots of mix and match ) as I do go out a lot

My weight gain did upset me but now I am grateful I am getiing down on the steroids (3.5) and even if I lose .5 of a pound a week it is an achievement My lesser activity has really not helped this year but i did start a nordic walking class yesterday and I am doing a muscle rehabilitation class also

I know I should really keep the carbs down but I love my porridge for breakfast and a sandwhich ( low cal bread for lunch ) but am going to try to do alternate days on more protein

Also remember that if you need the discipline of a slimming club go to one that is convenient to you but you dont have to follow their diet You can always buy all the various clubs magazines and see what suits you best dont give up you will get there in the end I did but now I have to do it all over again !!

I did read somewhere that steroids affect your weight in 3 ways Increased appetite , craving for carbs , and literally changes your bodies metabolism also ( and shape ) I know there are some people on here who have lost weight on steroids but I suppose it is the same as other people get side efeects I dont

Best wishes

Mrs G

[quote:7db6b83129]Sometimes I wish we named the threads better - even I get lost at times.

[/quote:7db6b83129]

I do so agree Mrs.K. Perhaps we should appoint an editor for our much used topic?

I expect most of us read everything that's posted and some days that covers many subjects I know sometimes I've thought of something I'd like to say and then read on and found something else and never be sure which relates to what. It probably doesn't matter too much because if, as I have said, we all read everything, we'll get through, anyway and certainly the search box will take us where we want to be especially if we put in several search words.

Funnily enough, it was BEFORE steroids that I craved carbs! Every afternoon, I didn't know what I wanted, just that I needed something! And all the carbs I can eat (the wheat-free sort) are so calorie-dense it isn't true. As soon as I started on pred I went back to 3 normal meals a day and being satisfied - no snacks between meals. I struggle to manage 5 portions of fruit/veg as I run out of meal space! I just wasn't hungry and my daughter is exactly the same when she needs pred for her asthma. But you are quite right - steroids can stimulate the appetite and they can change the way your body metabolises carbs which is the reason for the monitoring for diabetes. They also influence the body to store fat in certain places - mainly around the midriff and on the back of the neck leading to the \"hump\". A size 14 AFTER steroids - wow, I'm so jealous. I dream of that! And I'm a whole 5 foot nothing.

Porridge is one of the best carbs though - especially \"done proper\" (I speak as a Scot) made with water and salt on them (the oats) and dipped in cold milk! Yum! Lasts a long time - no dip in the middle of the morning! Really missed it in the south of Italy where breakfast is an expresso and a few sweet biscuits - luckily everything else was the true mediterranean diet which I was told is now recognised as a World Cultural Heritage thing.

EileenH

I seem to have done everything back-to-front with PMR. When I started on Prednisolone I completely went off my food and lost almost three quarters of a stone in weight. When I got to around 7mgs I suddenly got my appitite back and now have to be very careful what I eat. I did have a bit of a round face but not much. The thing I noticed more than anything was my bottom just vanished :yikes: Its actually uncomforable to sit on a hard chair its so bony. I've never been little (5ft 7ins tall, size 8 feet, usually weigh around 11 stone) and have always had a decent sized bottom. The bad news is my jeans don't fit, they're all baggy in the bottom but the thighs have taken over the load, things just seem to have slipped!!! I love Mrs G's 'capsule wardrobe' comment. My wardrobe has everything from a 10 to a 16 depending on what part of my body it has to accommodate (I forgot to mention, no bust either!!). Its deffinitely more difficult to lose weight while you're on steroids (at least I have found it so since hitting the 7mgs dose) but in the past have found the discipline of a good weight control club helped me. My thought would be that you're not eating enough, I couldn't survive on 1,200 calories, I'd be chewing the carpet by lunchtime! Good Luck Beev.

Lizzie Ellen

I think the steroid weight gain is my biggest fear, plus the dreaded 'moonface', and I an inclined to scrutinate my face and body in the mirror at times to look for the signs.

Don't think I have seen signs of weight increase any yet (fingers crossed). Been taking the Pred since mid November, so maybe I am a bit early for side effects I don't know.

As I have said in my other posts, I seem to feel very well on steroids, but I do have an increased appetite and a yearning for carbs, so I am very aware of this.

I wonder sometimes if I have put a little bit of weight on, but some have said that, and am trying to keep it in check.

However, some have suggested that I might have [i:7f165e0a4a]lost[/i:7f165e0a4a] a little bit of weight.

It's strange how differently medication affects us all.

The one thing I have never, ever understood is these women who want breast augmentation surgery! If I had breast cancer I would be asking for a double mastectomy and a rebuild to a B cup! Double F is NO fun - you can't lie on your front comfortably and whatever anything else is you still look fat when you have a bust like that. There isn't a bra made that is comfortable either - especially when you are only a 32, even 34 (as now with steroid cuddliness). No clothes are designed for that.

EileenH