Prednisone/Weight Questions:

[TOBEY32]

1. Was told by Prednisone-taker that reducing sugar could possibly reduce some of the weight gain?

2. That too much drinking water can add to the weight gain?

David

[andrew]

These are to me very interesting questions. I'll try and asnwer:

1. I think in most cases reducing sugar is a good thing whether you're taking Pred or not. You'd be surprised how many things you eat and drink have sugar in them. A reduction in sugar can lead to weight loss but if you're on Pred it's a crap shoot anyway but if you have an excess of sugar in your diet it can't hurt. The body processes sugar just fine in normal quantities (and if you don't have diabetes) but once you have an excess of sugar intake it's very quickly stored as fat - hence weight gain and the global fast-food-led obesity epidemic.

2. I'm pretty sure one of prednisone's side-effects is water retention which could definitely cause weight gain. I'm in no way recommending a reduction in water intake ESPECIALLY if you're on Cytoxan (Cyclophosphamide) as well. If you believe you have water retention then I suggest seeing your doc about the possibility of diuretics or some other therapy which will help eliminate excess water. Oh - assuming it's water retention you're talking about then a reduction in salt intake might help too - again IF and only if you have an excess intake.

Wow not sure if I answered your questions well enough or just raised more :)

Basically the thing to remember is that Pred will cause your body to morph into weired shapes unless you're a freak :) It did mine but now I'm on such a low dose my face has snapped back to normal and I'd be losing weight if I didn't eat so much :)

[MCC]

I think the reason you gain weight on prednisone is it increases your appetite isn't it? (and water retention, but you shouldn't cut down on water!) that's how I understood it.

How i tried to stop the weight gain is that I tried to accept that NO amount of food would fill me up so I had to get used to the feeling of constant hunger it brings. I wanted to eat all the time of course so I ate sensible healthy meals and then between meals I tried to eat low fat things like carrot sticks - I'd literally have a whole plate if i wanted it. I made sure I didnt even have fatty things around as an option.

I'm not saying this worked massively because I still over ate and gained weight, but in total it was only about 10-12 pounds I think which is not really that much. I was on prednisone nearly two years, and on 60mg for the first few months/weeks. When it dropped to 20mg it got much more bearable.