Weight

[Claremont2023]

I’ve been on Prednisolone since end of January. At first my weight dropped due to lack of appetite, but this last week it has gone up quite a bit. When it didn’t happen at first I thought I’d be lucky & get away with no rise. Am I kidding myself? I know I haven’t been exercising as much as usual due to lethargy.

[SnazzyD]

I had the same, a brief loss at diagnosis then a tendency to put on weight just looking at a slice of toast. With Pred you do have to seriously cut carbs to avoid weight gain. Pred triggers the body to create more glucose from the liver’s stores. This makes the body produce lots of insulin to remove it from the blood where it doesn’t like it in high levels and make it into fat. This is before you eat anything that turns into glucose in the body. Healthy eating in the usual sense doesn’t tend to cut it so removal from your diet of simple carbs like pasta, potato, rice, maize, sugars and flours is needed. This also really help stop the development of diabetes. We do vary as to the amount of carb we have to cut and it can ease with dose. I had to be very severe and it didn’t get much better until very low doses of Pred.

Another issue is salt. Pred makes you hang onto sodium and that can cause fluid retention. Again, how much you need to cut out depends on you ; for some it has to be quite severe and others just removing added salt is enough.

[SheffieldJane]

I lost quite a bit of weight before diagnosis. I felt sick and in pain. Then came Pred and with it the inexplicable, voracious appetite, for all the wrong things. In my case, like a sugar monster. I gained weight and became borderline Diabetes type 2 with teetering blood sugar levels. You barely have time to acknowledge the disease. Had I been warned I would have acted immediately and cut out all sugary foods and carbs. I thought that the weight came inevitably with the drug, not what I was eating ( deep denial and comfort eating) Being much more sedentary didn’t help. Eventually when Pred got my pain and stiffness under control, I began to use a step counter and eventually managed 30,000 steps just pushing my grandson’s pram around our leafy streets. It saved me, caring for my little grandson with the incentive to plan things and eat better - he was never that keen on sweet things and was a picky eater. When my daughter and her husband decided to emigrate, to Australia, I went into a sort of grieving, slump and noticed weight gain from the steroids in my back and upper arms and of course the dreaded moon face and rounded belly. Steroids can make you change shape and put down fat deposits in these places. I might have avoided all this had I maintained my early discipline. Years on, I still don’t exercise enough because of an all pervasive, malaise, but eating small portions has been effective and as my steroid dose drops it becomes easier.

These are the pitfalls but members on here have managed to maintain a steady weight, but it takes a consistent iron will and a very low carb diet, walks on the flat, yoga, Pilates, gentle exercise in a pool, but don’t over do it. You do go off carbs and your body reacts badly to them - so don’t over ride those bloated feelings. Good luck. 🍀

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Even if you only gain a small amount at a time it does mount up before you really notice it. Cutting carbs will compensate for the lack of exercise but you may have to cut them drastically and be consistent - it isn't NO carb, but LOW carb and that does mean nothing is off limits BUT you can't eat unlimited amounts of even your favourite food.

I find this website has lots of good basic info and advice

dietdoctor.com/low-carb

There is no need to join anything or pay - loads of free advice online these days.

[Claremont2023]

Thank you for the advice, I’ll try to keep the carbs down & exercise more. I’ll get back into walking & push myself back into pilates too.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Claremont2023]

When you restart Pilatesm make sure you start from the bottom! No diving in to your previous level!