Hello, I'm wondering if anyone knows of any good ways to lose weight with Fibromyalgia? I've gained 20kg in the past 2 years, and It's really making me feel more depressed :/ I also don't have much money to do certain things :/ Any ideas?
p.s I am on Endep, Lexapro, Norimin and Atenalol, but recently got taken off Seroquel
I am struggling with the same, I have gained two stone in last 5 years, I am a vegetarian and careful with what I eat but still gain weight. I have tried various exercises like pilate, gymn that does it for you, swimming etc all to no avail. Just end sessions in agony on a few occasions have had to get a daughter to pick me up as I could not walk after. I have even cut my calories down to under 1000 a day for a couple of months and still gained weight so I too am at a loss. Will be interested to see what others suggest.
Hi there Sophie im no expert in nutrition etc. but im and expert in diets I've been on them most my life and one thing about a diet is that they help you gain weight when they end. Of course this triggers your survivals to save like a squirrel. I don't want to confuse you with too much but when I was eating little bits I actually started putting on weight only like a pound a week but I did. I went back to slimming world way and I started to loose the weight. I found them to be good because they work on must haves and sins and of course free foods and super free foods.
Most veg and pastas potatoes all that kinda stuff are free so you can eat as much as you like and I mean that they encourage to drink litres and litres of water each day too as you can imanging its great for diabetics to in fact a doctor wrote in one of the magazines that she used the diet too.
As a vegetarian this would be fantastic cause its the meat and carbs that don't work to well together for weight loss. Of course this is all ok providing you don't have a thyroid problem and of course you doctors the only one to qualify to diagnose or illuminate that point. Well sophie really hope your feeling ok today taking it easy and being nice to yourself. But if your a comforter you can use the free foods for this. Only hope this helps xx
U can't lose weight with out consuming at least 1400 calories
Your body things it's starving so it turns what little u eat to fat
U need a Free T4 thyroid test
8-9 hours of sleep use every herbal help u can get to make that happen
Lack of sleep with fibromyalgia is at the root of weight gain
(Average is 32 lbs)
Hi
I am also in a similar position, age 65, weight 16 stone mostly due to joint problems and fibro. I was until recently walking 7-9 miles with Ramblers every week and watching what I ate and still the weight didn't shift at all. Now I am eating anything and it's staying the same. Grr...
There is no magic answer but I guess the thing I have realised is that the way to lose weight and keep it off (I lost 22lbs earlier this year) is to eat lots but only of the things that are healthy and are low in calories and else burn a lot of calories to digest. I used meal replacement sachets (online from Amazon £65 for 50) at times and also did the 5:2 diet for a week or two, having home-made mushroom or chicken soup on the very low calorie days. I felt really good and healthy during those months, but then saw an NHS dietician who started telling me HOW to diet and I felt disillusioned and gave up. I haven't regained the weight but am trying to re-find my motivation, at the moment I have the awful virus that is going around but once I feel better I will go back to my own style of sensible eating.
I think you have to find a way of taking in less calories over many weeks but that in order to retain the weight loss it has to be a style of eating that suits you and that you can sustain without feeling you are dieting - otherwise the tendency will be to yo-yo which is not good for your body but is even worse for your confidence.
Suex
Just a word of caution here, don't miss any meals out, we need to eat regularly to metabolise all the meds we take. I found this out from experience, I was quite poorly. xx
I think it is a bit of a merry go round with Fibro limiting our activity also problems with many of the meds.
As Sophie said she is vegetarian and very careful with what she eats. I was vegan for many years so I know where she is coming from.
As Royalspec said of Diets: "I've been on them most my life and one thing about a diet is that they help you gain weight when they end" This is a common problem!
I worked in a veterinary practice for many years and I learnt a thing or two while there!
A friends dog was having many problems a few years back, he was killing the poor creature with kindness and she was quite overweight. I managed to convince him to put her on a diet of half her normal amount and carrots for treats.
Her weight dropped from 32Kg to 26Kg over a 6mth period she was in much less pain and more mobile the vet was delighted. Then Fred asks me when he should put her back to her usual amounts of food. It took a bit of explaining to get him to understand that if her food goes back up then her weight goes back up.
The amount of food she was now on is the amount of food she needs to maintain her weight at 26Kg.
The difficulty with ourselves is that we have control of the fridge,, I include myself in this, and while I think I do not eat very much I really need to lose about two stone!
A diet is not a magic thing that do for a few months it is balancing the food going in with energy expended for all of our life,, essentialy about knowing how much we need and recognising that perhaps while we are still starving we are eating a bit more than we need.
Now after all that strenuous typing,, I'm away for a cup a tea and a we sticky bun me dears,, sure one will do me no harm!
Ray
wish I knew, went on 600 calories for a few months went from size 24 to 12 and guess what I still had fibro. started to eat and it and a lot has gone on, I am not at my heaviest but definitely heavier.
I was ready recently that some people have micro things in their stomach that make us more efficient at utilising calories and could eat the same as other people and get more calories from it. Otherwise we are doomed. Think I will join Ray with the bun.
That a girl Betty,,, I think we could start a bun club if we put our heads together!
I am fascinated to learn about those micro things in our stomach,,,, someone will probably be selling them soon at online auction sites, to scam us out of our bun money!
I have started on the pro-biotics. The scientist did say that you can't just kill off these bugs as they do not understand all that they do. Something about protecting us from cancer !
Betty, It's not very far off that antibiotics will be of no use what so ever.
As a society we have not done our immune systems much credit living in boxes sealed as much as possible from ventilation, then at every opertunity procuring a prescription for the slightest problem.
What will we turn to in a few years,, they say everything goes full circle,, the old favourite Turpentine perhaps,,, One American Dr recommends it for candida and claims great things,,, I wonder what it tastes like,, I know my great grandmother used to take it on a regular basis and she lived until she was 104,, in very good health, she was a little on the deaf side but I think that may have been selective and certaintly nothing an ear trumpet didn't sort.
Hi,
Last May I was 17st 2lb. I had been receiving CBT from a psychologist and I think she helped me realise I'd lost control of everything in my life - the fibromyalgia had stopped me working, going out, etc. Anyway, something clicked and I decided to take control of the one thing I could - basically, what I put in my mouth. I wanted to do it properly and safely (1 to 2lbs per week), because I knew I had a lot of weight to lose and would need to do this over many months and really, change my whole way of eating.
Due to my lack of energy and not being able to go out, I decided to do weight watchers online. I put the app on my iPad and began. For those who don't know, weight watchers uses a points based system. What is important is that you not only have to try to remain within your daily points limit, you also have to eat enough to use all your daily points too. As is mentioned above, not eating doesn't help at all.
With weight watchers you can eat whatever you want. However, you start to make better choices to stay within your daily points limit. For example, my current points allowance is 26. A slice of chocolate cake is 13 points, so... I don't have that any more. My choice. Also, I was shocked at how small my portion sizes should be - I was eating way too much!
Over the last 17 months I have lost 5st 8lb and have done it purely doing weight watchers as I am not able to do exercise. While people have said they wish they had my willpower, I have to say that I do not think that is purely what helped me do it. I didn't suddenly get willpower after 15 years of being overweight. I really think I realised it was the only way I could take control of some part of my life.
Anyway, it wasn't all plain sailing. There were some weeks I didn't lose and occasionally the odd pound put back on. I knew it wouldn't cure my fibromyalgia (though when some people see me now they assume because I look 'better', that I am miraculously cured - frustrating). However, I do have less pain in my hips (osteoarthritis) and knees and my ability to move around has improved hugely.
So, to end, I can't give an easy solution to lose weight, but I can say that it's possible. Weight watchers helped me to calculate how much to eat to lose weight at a healthy rate.
Sorry it's a long one. Good luck with whatever works for you.
Pip
Hi Keira
I am no expert, but I do know that if you are on a low income (ie benefits) and you have a bmi over (30 I think), your doc can give you free vouchers for weight watchers. I was given them a few years ago and it did help. I went the opposite way a couple of years ago and lost 7 stone in 6 months because I couldn't eat. Now I'm slowly getting bigger (been size 14/16 for a year now) but every time my pain increases I can't eat and nausea kicks in, so I yo-yo a lot.
Good luck with weight loss and definitely ask gp.
Jayne xxx
Depending on how ill you are and how painful it would be for you, I would suggest weight bearing classes. You stand in one place and you lift weights to tone & target each and every muscle in your body. The better toned your muscles are the more calories you will burn. If you don,t have money to spend on classes regularly I would suggest you go along to a couple just to get the technique then maybe buy a video to do at home to music. Council Gyms by us are great for such classes, but I would ask around where you live to find something that may suit you. I am not talking male muscles here, just the simple toning will make you look great and feel good about yourself and hopefully sphere you on to do more cardiovascular exercise. Weight training gives you a very strong core and improves your balance immensely, if possible try it, you won,t be sorry. There are a lot more woman of all ages doing this now. Its pretty impossible for anyone suffering from pain to start with cardio exercises so I recommend weights, but learn how to lift properly first, so you cannot injure yourself in anyway.
Hope this helps X
In my estimation. DIETS do not work long term, as the denying of certain foods gets too much for us to bear. I say if you can exercise do it and eat what you like within reason ie calorie reason that is.
I work on the theory now if I eat that cake will I be active enough in the next few hours to burn off those extra calories. If the answer is NO, step away from the cake tin.....
I only take Gabapintin at nite and naproxen twice a day
I gained 32 lbs out if know where when I got this 8 yrs ago
I had undergone hep c treatment with interferon. I've been told fibromyalgia can be a side affect
I've read if u get a Free T4 thyroid test
Not the T3 that most Drs use
Amour Thyroid prescription and
Acetyl-L-carnitine 1000mg for 4 months
It will help the sugar cravings u have to conquer
Take all herbal remedies to help u get 8-9 hrs of sleep as that is the root problem not enough restful sleep
Years ago they gave me Amatriptolean
Which I'm not spelling correctly but I was healed from all pain and horrible stiffness and slept 10 hours straight but the bad side effect I could barely get out of bed I was soooo drugged.
Hi, I know exactly how you feel. I used to be "the slim one" now I'm 4 stones heavier than before this stupid illness took hold. I started eating less & moving more as that used to work...ended up consuming 600 calories per day, jogging 2 miles & walking the dog 4 times & you know how horrible you feel after any kind of exercise but I was determined to beat it..I didn't beat it, I just got got bigger & bigger & nearly ended up with an eating disorder. I've found lots of people with the same problem but nowhere can I find a solution. In my view, it can't be medication, eating too little, or some of the other theories, not after 5 years & not that much weight. I've taken down all the mirrors in my house. If I catch sight of myself in a window, or the like I want to throw up. It's embarrassing. If I find anything useful, I'll let you know.
I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in 2006 I'm just wondering if now since it's been so many years if it would cause me to lose weight I have lost 29 pounds in a very short. I can't figure out why there seems to be no apparent reason
Weight Gain and Fibromyalgia
How to lose weight with fibromyalgia 
Trying to lose weight with fibromyalgia?
help with weight loss
