weight loss on prednisolne

Hi I am new here. I have been on prednisolone for many years that has been going up and down. Been up to 40mg for 4th time this year can!t get down past 15mg before my asthma plays up. My weight has gone up yet I have treid lots of diets has anyone lost weight on prednisolone?

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I'm sorry to say, pred itself does not make an individual gain weight. It makes people hungry. So, if your calories you are consuming, are less than what you are expending, you can and will lose weight. I have been on continuous daily high doses of pred for six months at a time and my weight has not fluctuated by more than a couple of pounds. This is because I have exactly the same amount of calories every day as I am tube fed. So regardless of pred making me hungrier, my calorie intake didn't change, and my weight didn't increase.

I know plenty of folk that have lost weight on pred, the secret is to recognise that the basic equation is still the same - you need to eat less calories than you are using. And not eat 'on demand' when hungry from the pred.

It may not be rocket science, unfortunately it's just something folk find difficult and requires long term determination and changes to eating habits rather than a 'diet'.

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if its any comfort I have gotten so used to being so hungry all the time, and very rarely eating on high doses of pred, that as soon as i get to 20mg or lower i simply forget to eat. I usually have at least one day a week where i simply dont eat anything (or certainly have no actual meals - i may steal a crisp or a sweet of a mate - but i guess thatsmuch less memorable) and just didnt notice as one days worth of hunger is less hunger than i get on pred! I also find that as im not so desperatey hungry i dont care what i actually eat, and get bored of eating halfway through a meal - so weight falls off me at a pretty rapid rate - it stresses my GP out something chronic and i cant imagine its particularily healthy but its not like im doing it on purpose!!!

Failing that you could just get whatever bug i've had for the last three days you'll have no interest in eating - i assume you! Sigh!

Sadly not an awful lot I can suggest, and chances are that even if you did lose weight, yu'd still *look* reasonably big coz of how pred makes you retain water and the way it makes you deposit the weight. I know someone who is significantly underweight (enough that her cons is panicking that she might not be able to keep enough weight on to be eligable for transplant) but she doesnt look anywhere near underweight coz of the steroids. And unfortunaltely she only started loosing weight when she pretty much stopped eating or keeping food down!

The best thing to do is keep the house full of little healthy nibbles. cucumber, celery, carrot, peppers, and dips are a good option! Also i try to do 'one healthier' so if you are desperately craving takeaway pizza and instead eat a bowl of lettuce. You're still going to be lying awake thinking about the pizza - and if you're like me eventually you'd get cross and order it anyway. So what i do instead is think 'ok, i want a takeaway, but thats really bad, so ill have an oven pizza - its not great, but its better than takeaway' and whatever i want go one healthier, i did lose weight doing that when i was on lower doses of pred!