Unexplained weight lost

[elanaoali]

As well as the side effects of having the shakes in my hands from my inhaler (Fostair nexthaler 200/6 2 puffs twice a day). I have also notice I have been losing weight too. I was weighted 10 days ago at my asthma review and was surprised to be 9st 2. I had put on some weight at Christmas time. So much that my clothes felt really tight and resolve to do something about it.

So in the second week of January started watching what I ate. I didn't diet just cut down my portions. I began to lose weight because my clothes got loser and I was able to tighten my belt.

Forward two weeks later at the weigh in at my appointment my surprise at being this weight. I weighed myself today at the doctors and have lost another 1/2 kg in 10 days. I not been dieting but have had an increased appetite to eat things that are sugary.

Has any one experience weight lose like this? I am also a bit low on my iron stores so started iron tablets yesterday. Thoughts please?

[elanaoali]

I am not obsessed with my weight. I am just concerned at why I losing weight but still eating more than I should. I use a diet plate to make sure I keep my portions right for me. I weight my cereal portion to 30mg and eat a pieces of fruit with breakfast. Snacks are fruit. Lunch is a stand and fruit and tea is cooked from scratch every day. I love food! My husband is a very good cook and his portion sizes are very generous. Lasagna at the weekend he made was delicious.

I haven't been this weight in 14 years. Last year after having alot of courses of prednisolone I weighed 10kg heavier than I am now. I did then go on a diet using my diet plate. For a few months I haven't sorted since then. My trousers were so tight after Christmas that they dug into me. I could only wear one pair of trousers in my wardrobe. I thought I would have to buy a whole set of new clothes.

I don't have scales at home and never weight myself expect if the doctor do it. I go by my clothes and the holes on my belt.

I am genuinely puzzled by this sudden weight lost.

[Hidden in reply to elanaoali]

I assume/sincerely hope you mean 30g of cereal - although I have to say that even 30g doesn’t sound much. What cereal are you eating?

I have muesli for breakfast - of my own mix. 2 tablespoons of muesli base, 1.5 tblspns linseeds, 1 tblspn each of pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds, 1 tblspn of flaked almonds, 3 walnut halves chopped up and fresh fruit on top of (minimum 80g of the fruit). Total weight of the muesli/seed/nut mix alone comes to over 60g. That might sound quite a lot but with that inside me I don’t need to snack at all (although I will drink); it takes me all the way through to midday meal.

[Hidden]

Unexplained weight loss can be caused by a number of things. You mention cutting down portion sizes - unless you were already eating too much (in which case cutting down will stop weight gain) that is almost bound to result in weight loss.

9 stone 2 by itself is actually rather meaningless. Your BMI (which includes height, gender and, I think, age) is a better guide as to whether your weight is healthy or not. There are online calculators you can use.

Low on iron and craving sugary things. Are you also feeling a bit lethargic? If so, the cravings could be your body telling you it needs a quick energy boost - which might mean you’ve got the balance on your nutritional intake wrong. It’s not just about how much you eat - what you eat is just as important.

If you’re worried mention it to your GP.

[elanaoali in reply to Hidden]

While not giving away all my details including my age. I am 5ft 5in and a woman. My BMI is 21.3 which is very healthy for me. I still could probably lose 1/2 stone off my tum.

I never been this light in weigh since I was probably since my early twenties. and Iwas ten stone when I got married. My heaviness was 11 1/2 stone before I lost weight 14 years ago.

I eat for breakfast bran flakes with a little of shredded wheat and malties and a banana,apple or pear. Lunch is a sandwich or bolied egg and toast or scrambled egg and fruit. I can't eat yogurts. Tea is cooked by me red meat twice a week,fish, macorni cheese etc.

I think my diet is balance and healthy. I only eat biscuits,cake or crisps maybe once a week. I am like a hobbit I love my food!

I will mention what is going on with my weight when I see one of my Gps next week.

[Hidden in reply to elanaoali]

Well, you are taller than me (by just over an inch:-)) so perhaps unsurprisingly you also weigh more than me. The major difference is that I usually have my main meal at midday (my digestion, which can be a little temperamental, does seem to prefer it that way round). I don’t eat most yogurts, my stomach became very picky about most of them with the exception of full fat Fage yogurt which for some reason it would accept (though I don’t often have it). Portions aren’t huge for a main meal but I suspect I do have a larger secondary meal than you. I would normally expect to have finished this by 7.30pm latest, but ideally by 7pm, and I might have a smaller pasta dish, a small jacket potato with cheese and salad, a mini quiche if we can find them, again served with salad, a two egg omelette (again with bread and salad) that sort of thing. I have carbohydrates with every meal (though I try not to replicate in a day: so if I have pasta with my main meal, it will be bread, potato or rice with my tea) and I always have fruit to finish off a meal. I suppose I aim to have three roughly the same size meals a day: large breakfast, small main meal, large tea. My treats of the day are some white chocolate after my main meal (my system can’t cope with caffeine so I have to be careful with all other types of chocolate) and a ginger biscuit with my afternoon hot drink (hot milky water - system doesn’t like tea either). My weight is stable now (having experienced eight awful years when it most certainly wasn’t: during that period I did end up clinically underweight twice) and my digestion is improving. I can eat far more things now than I was able to a couple of years ago. Like you my weight is healthy.

I actually alternate a meat day with a vegetarian day, and even on a meat day it will be meat only in the main meal (it’s very rare for me to have meat twice in one day), and after an attack of gout last year (to everyone’s astonishment, GPs included) I have red meat every fourth day at the most.

By the way, can you eat seeds? If so, I believe Pumpkin seeds are quite good for iron.

[elanaoali in reply to Hidden]

Hi Maggie thanks for getting back to me. I have three teenage girls and a wonderful husband so I am use to feeding 5 people every night.

There are certain things I can't eat because of my other long term health condition. It makes me lead a healthy diet. No sausages,ham, no acid food eg. tomatoes no sweeter colours or presatives. No pop or chocolate can eat white.

I am doing supply work at the moment in nurseries and primary schools as a nursery nurse and TA. I hoping to get a job as a TA eventually. Enjoying the work very varied and challenging different place every day.

I can eat pumpkin seeds so thanks for the tip. I am just getting back to excerise get after having a shoulder injury. My aim is to swim once a week,aqua fit and Pilates.

I struggling with acid reflux and post nasal drip (caused by polytic). My asthma has been really good though and haven't caught any bugs from all the children I had worked with. Just one cold over Christmas.

Thankyou for taking the time to answer my post it is really much appreciated.

[LylaRose]

Hi. I was on Seretide 125, 2 puffs twice a day for about 9 months having switched from Clenil. That was late March. By November I'd lost over 10kg without trying. I put it down to other issues, such as anxiety, gastritis and a slight reduction of my ususal monstrous appetite.

However in January just gone i switched from Seretide to Flixotide (same steroid same dosage but minus the LABA). In 4 weeks, I've effortlessly put back on about 4kg and come back into the green section of the BMI result (I was in orange and had to scrape together a different set of trousers as had lost so much my usual ones were too big to even wear).

I suspect it *might* have been the Salmeterol in Seretide. The reasons for stopping it were to see if the jitters, cramps and palpitations stopped. They have much, much reduced now, some days I don't get any cramps, and the jitters are better.

Sorry for the long winded post but thought I'd put the Salmeterol issue in context of my weight loss as your post really rang a bell.