Does warfarin cause weight gain

[millie117]

I'm 47 year old female on warfarin indefinitely because of DVT and PE. I'm finding challenges losing weight and because of the medication, I have to eat veggies in moderation. Also I'm a pescatarian (only eat fish). I feel my carb intake is too much and looking for any suggestions.

[linkfield]

I would ask to be changed to Rivaroxaban,which has less restrictions about your diet! I think that you could ask your health professionals about your intake of vegetables. I think if you eat a equal amount of vegetables daily there should be no problems with keeping your INR within your target.

I also put on a lot of weight when on warfarin,but since changing to rivaroxaban have managed to loose 15 kg.

Speak to your GP!

Good luck

[moo196]

Hi

I don't think weight gain is a side effect of warfarin.

I'm a (now 51 yrs old) vegetarian who had a cvst ( blood clot on the brain) two and half years ago, and took warfarin for two years after.

I challenged the "advice" wrt diet restrictions as most of the foods on the "banned" list were part of my every day diet - indeed I could quite happily make a nice salad with raw broccoli, chickpeas and avocado or spinach and chickpea burgers etc etc etc . I had at least three portions of "banned" veggies every day since and kept my INR fairly stable after 3 months or so. The medics were happy that I was eating healthy and kept a fairly stable amount of these items in my daily diet.

good luck !

K

[Rsw1fe]

Weight gain is pretty normal for women in their late forties, unfortunately! But you can limit it by the usual ways. I agree about a change to Rivaroxaban.

[moo196 in reply to Rsw1fe]

Personally I would not change to the newer drug unless a better reason. It is not reversible in event of any emergency/accident. Warfarin is.

[ClickerTicker]

Very early on in my warfarin experience I picked up the advice "Don't diet the dose, dose the diet". Warfarin dosage can be adjusted to suit most diets but it is important to BE CONSISTENT.

If you don't normally eat a lot of green things and your warfarin dose is based on that, suddenly eating half a kilo of spinach will definitely throw your INR out of kilter (low). I’m vegetarian and eat a lot of green things – sprouting my own seeds etc. - so my warfarin dose is relatively high to allow for that. The downside is that if I go on holiday and my diet changes to have significantly less green things - my INR shoots up.

Similar with alcohol - consistency is the important thing. My warfarin dose takes into account my relatively high (and doubtless unhealthy) alcohol intake and I drink to that level rather consistently. Probably not the best thing to follow if you want to lose weight...

Good luck!

[relkcam in reply to ClickerTicker]

Excellent response, most Doctors and nutritionists incorrectly guide warfarin users away from important vegetables. Download USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference Release for Vitamin K and be consistent in total K consumption daily to maintain a consistent INR. There is no data, to my knowledge, indicating any correclation between Warfarin and weight gain or loss.

[moo196 in reply to ClickerTicker]

good answer and reminder that consistency is the best route. I used to take 8mg warfarin on my veggie diet. Docs were happier that I was eating generally healthy diet including lots o spinach, broccoli etc ( though also blue cheese which contains vit K) . When travelling in China I self adjusted my dose according to how my diet had been over the past few days and how I thought it would be over the next few days. Not that I recommend doing that without medical advice of course