Newbie

[Davies1608]

Hi..... I've have just been diagnosed with Celiac's and have tried for the last month to cut out gluten so lots of salads........... However I have found out I am now piling on weight, please help

[Regalbirdy]

Hi Davies1608

Oh boy do I know what you're talking about! Firstly, very well done for cutting out gluten from your diet. Despite the weight gain that's the single best thing you can do for your long-term health.

If you are like me when I was first diagnosed with CD 14 months ago, I suspect you will be trying a range of new foods that are gluten-free replacements for food you've had to give up. Unfortunately these are often much more calorific than the gluten versions! So your calorie intake each day could have changed without you realising. The other thing you may have to account for and adjust in the longer term, is that you may not need as many calories as before - ie. you may not be able to eat quite as much as before. This is because you will be absorbing nutrients much better as your guts start to heal.

When I bemoaned putting on over 14 pounds to the dietician (and sadly still counting!) last year; she was not unduly concerned. In the shorter term she felt it was better for my overall health to get stabilised on the GF diet.

Also be aware that you may also have vitamin and mineral imbalances which may need to be checked out and corrected. It may take you a while to figure these things out and is a fairly common occurrence. A DEXA bone density scan is also a good idea to see if you have calcium issues. I have written in some detail many times before about all my vitamin issues (so I won't bore you here - for now!), but clicking on my name should bring up many of these previous postings - you are more than welcome to go and check them out. If you have issues with Brain fog and fatigue which fail to respond to being Gluten Free, then please DO go to argue the toss with your doctor about having further blood tests.

Good luck! Let us know how you get on.

[Davies1608]

Thanks so much for your advise, I'm still waiting for my appointment to see te dietian - I felt I was living on rabbit food and being really good but the wieght was just creeping on (this week I have resulted to my old tricks but being female the week before the "week" I crave sugar) so I have utterly messed up my routine and just eating any sugar I can find, even when eatting gluten I was the same .............. I am the heaviest I have always been and I'm a bit guttere to be honest because I thought gluten free - more healthier - more energy but at the mo I have less energy and wieght a lot more .............. Confused.com

[Hidden]

Hi Davies 1608, going gluten free is a shock at first as we do not know what we can eat and think about what we cannot eat, this will change with time. And in time you will focus on what you can eat as there are lots of naturally gluten free foods out there and there's one huge advantage to being a diagnosed coeliac and that is you know what is wrong with you and that the treatment is the avoidance of gluten, so when you villi recovers and you start to feel well then it all seems worth while.

As for putting on weight that's also because your villi has been collapsed so you were not absorbing nutrients and as Regalbirdy rightly says many gf substitute foods are very high in fat and calories.

On a positive note and I will be honest I wish that I could eat anything as do all coeliac, one big advantage of being a coeliac is we have the option for a very healthy diet based on fresh foods and look how unhealthy some peoples diets are and they can eat anything that they like!!!

So you have been diagnosed and now you have joined GFG so my advice is to take things one day and one step at a time. And any question/queries then you ask away as 'we' have all been newbies once and I wouldn't worry to much about a little weight gain in the first instance.

And good luck,

Jerry

[Penel]

Hi Davies

It's one heck of a change when you have to go gluten free, so well done for taking the first step. As Regalbirdy says, if you go for the supermarket gf foods you have a good chance of putting on weight. They may be gf but few of them are a healthy option.

Finding what you can eat and stay a healthy weight can take some time to work out. I have ended up going for a low carb option. Many dieticians seem very keen to tell you to eat carbs, so you will have to see what works for you.

authoritynutrition.com/low-...

Have you tried some very dark chocolate at 'that time of the month'. I found that helped and there was a limit to what I could eat!

[emmaatLLFL]

Hi I found that when I cut out gluten I put on weight too. I had lost a lot of weight previously and was starting to look underweight. I was poorly from the gluten and not absorbing any nutrients from the food I was passing so quickly so I was becoming malnourished. When cutting out gluten I stopped having so many bowel movements. This in turn helped me absorb what I was eating. On the plus side I feel so much healthier now and I have more energy to exercise to work alongside a good balanced diet with plenty of home cooking

[jh77]

Hi Davies1608,

I know exactly how you feel. I was diagnosed in October and had little trouble going gf but the weight crept on. I have not had any cakes, biscuits and very little bread since Christmas and have eaten very healthily but to my disappointment have lost not an ounce despite going to the gym! I have decided that my body is probably just enjoying being nourished and am trying not to to worry to much about the extra pounds although it is frustrating.

Good luck...let us know how you get on x

[DartmoorGuerrilla]

I completely understand where you're coming from and it's really tough. As others have said you may need to completely rethink your diet, as a "substitution" approach doesn't work for many of us.

I found what worked for me was a two pronged plan. Limb 1 is to cut out the "processed" GF foods and stick as far as possible to the "naturally" GF foods. Limb 2 is to view sugar in all its forms as very nearly as bad an enemy as gluten.

At home and at work (restaurants are different and more problematic) I now get virtually all my carbs from GF porridge, nuts and veggies. I have more than halved my intake of potatoes and the only fruit I eat is about 3 bananas a week, 2-3 prunes as a treat, and the odd avocado. No fruit juice, no smoothies, unsweetened yogurt.

Sounds grim? Yes, for a few weeks, then you feel so much better that you realise that a diet heavy in fat and protein naturally contains all the carbs your body nutritionally needs. You will feel better, you won't feel hungry between meals, you won't need to count calories, you will probably lose flab without trying.

Eventually you may feel quite queasy and repulsed at the thought of a bar of chocolate and think "I would rather have some brazil nuts instead". Cold turkey on the sugar... seriously. You have coeliac disease, you don't need type II diabetes on top.

[Davies1608 in reply to DartmoorGuerrilla]

Did you follow a plan or anything ? I am quite a regimental type person and need to be told what time to eat - what to eat - how much I'm ex forces ............ I take a lot of time getting use to stuff .............. Thanks for the advise! Previous to Celiac's the only thing that made me lose weight (and I've tried everything from pills and potions to eating nothing but rice for a week) was eating a 5% fat diet so I would only eat thing with less than 5g of far per 100g of product - even being poorly with Celiac's didn't make me shed the wieght x

[DartmoorGuerrilla in reply to Davies1608]

I've just devised my own plan and I've found that I don't get hungry, so that makes it easier to stick with it. I never weigh or measure anything except for recipes, as that makes it miserable and a "diet".

Breakfast is usually porridge, made in the microwave with Sainsburys free from oats and milk. Sometimes with 3 chopped prunes in it or half a mashed banana, but usually plain or with a generous splash of double cream.

Lunch is usually either a small can of tuna, a chicken breast, a couple of eggs, a couple of slices of ham or a lump of cheese, with loads of green salad and maybe 5 cherry tomatoes. As much mayo or dressing as I fancy. Sometimes seeds or walnuts on top.

Followed by a generous handful of mixed unsalted nuts and some unsweetened live Greek yogurt.

Evening meal is as much meat or fish as I want, usually cooked in butter or olive oil or in casserole/curry form, with or without sauce/gravy, with unlimited green veg, pulses or peppers, but going easy on the root veggies. If having potatoes I have no more than a couple of pieces (by "piece" I mean a typical roast potato lump) or 4-5 baby potatoes - if having rice, just one big spoonful.

If I have a dessert (rare event) it is usually more unsweetened yogurt.

If we have a drink in the evening I will snack on olives or cheese but keep off the crisps.

My experience (works for me, would be one way of saying it) is that I am almost never hungry, I don't fancy sweet things any more and I don't have to stress over reading ingredients. I've been on this high-fat high-protein low-carb approach for maybe half the time I've been gluten free.

For me, it is miles easier than my original attempts to replace carb-heavy things with GF alternatives and without the disappointments of inadequate substitutions.

My first few months GF I lost some weight but that was largely through the restrictions imposed by the necessity of refusing things. Some element also, I think, of absorbing nutrients properly and so no longer craving things. I now realise I didn't really crave toast, I needed the vitamins I was putting on it in the form of Marmite!

Since going low carb I am losing weight without trying but it takes a while to get used to it. I've a feeling the porridge is vital to the plan as I miss it if I have to have something different e.g. in a hotel.

[Davies1608]

You guys are full of awsome advise thanks! So shall I try low carb intake for a bit????? I just feel fat and sluggish despite trying so hard ......... This week I have killed my guts with all the crap we aren't allowed because I was so frustrated that nothing was working so I'm paying for it now as tired as ever

[Penel in reply to Davies1608]

If you want to go low carb, do it gradually to give your body time to adjust.

[Jacks]

I am so pleased you have put on weight - this is such a POSITIVE thing, so don't hate what's happening - it shows you are getting well. Everyone is fat bashing these days and the TV is driving me mad with dieting and weight loss surgery.

I have malnutrition because my villi have not grown back despite my GF diet. I weigh less every time I return to the hospital. Statistics say that I am more likely to die from emaciation than cancer.

I have tried the supermarket high calorie gf stodge but they have so much junk in them and I feel worse for eating them. So maybe don't eat the rubbish on the shelves - one Mrs Crimbles has a ridiculous number of calories and probably enough sugar to put you in a coma!

[DartmoorGuerrilla]

Someone needs to go read some basic medical texts. Your colon wall is not coated in layers of toxins, that's a physical impossibility. It's about as plausible as homeopathy.

[Hidden]

This is a misleading claim that we can rid our our bodies of CD. The only cure for CD is a life long gluten free diet full stop.

Jerry.

[DartmoorGuerrilla]

You are talking nonsense, there is no cure. Snake oil salesmen and charlatans not welcome on this board.

[Irene Administrator in reply to DartmoorGuerrilla]

DartmoorGuerrilla we have messaged DETOXHOMEOPATHIC to set out the rules of this site and have edited posts that contain links and infer CD is 'curable'.

[Hidden]

"whoever you are you are poorly informed" is a bit rich from somebody who promotes homoeopathy.

[DartmoorGuerrilla in reply to Hidden]

Hear hear!

[DartmoorGuerrilla]

Can't you just block this nutter? Please?

[Irene Administrator in reply to DartmoorGuerrilla]

Blocked.

[DartmoorGuerrilla]

A heartfelt thank you

[Hidden in reply to DartmoorGuerrilla]

From me too.

[Wordhoard]

Do give yourself time to adjust to the diet. I found the first 3 months a bit of a rollercoaster emotionally, but as old habits of eating fall away, it's easier to start to tackle any weight issues. And the weight is a good sign that your body is learning to take on nutrients. After six months, I find I've got a new set of 'normal' meals breakfasts and lunches, and I've adapted dinners. I eat very little 'gluten-free' food, and I'm more at peace with it, but there have been tears along the way ... Now I'm watching what I eat with 'myfitnesspal' partly to track my iron consumption, but that's helping me tweak the bit of weight I've gained. Good luck.

[Venetia]

oh it was so nice to have some treats available that I did overdo it a bit at the beginning, and gluten free treats are loaded, ButI think because of previous malabsorption I was used to eating larger helpings than most non coeliacs, so I needed to get my portion size right, I now eat a "normal" healthy diet i.e. lots of vegetables , fruit some meat and fish etc. The Dietitian I see annually is a marvellous help, hope you get your appointment soon, The heart foundation has a good book on portion sizing.