Weight question

[blessed2bamommy]

At what point (how low was your prednisone, I guess) when you began to be able to lose weight? I feel so badly for my daughter. She's 5'6" tall. She weighed 120lbs when she got sick. She was so healthy, played soccer, very active etc.... Now she weighs 170ish. She just recently went down to 5mg of Prednisone. Will weight begin to come off now or do you have to be totally off of it before you see significant weight loss?

Also, how hard did you have to work to get the weight off? I know it will be different for children vs adults. I'm just looking for a general idea. Those of you that have children with WG, if you could chime in on this, that would be great.

[drz]

I have been at 5 mg for several months and have not lost any weight but stopped gaining more weight some where around 20 mg a day.

[Debbie C]

I gained the most about 20lbs since this whole mess started..I too have been on 5 mg. for some time now and am stuck at 117lbs was 102 since I can remember.It is very hard to get off but I'm sure your daughter is alot more active than most of us .

[Pete]

I'm now down to 8 mg/day of pred. My weight stabilized when I got down to 20. I'm 10-15 lbs above my normal weight of 170-175. I'm starting to lose, but very slowly. What is helping me is less sodium, less sugar, less simple carbs (refined flour, processed starches). My appetite has also lessened. I am also exercising more and with slowly increasing intensity. I walk 2-3 miles 4 days a week, and I am working toward a goal of swimming 1,500 yards twice a week. The walk takes 45-60 minutes, and I hope I can complete the swims in under 40 minutes non-stop. (I swam competitively in my long ago youth, and my current workout would have been just a warm-up then.)

If I continue my current rate of pred taper with no difficulty, I should be off it in about 4 months.

[TommyG]

When my pred. dose was high it did not matter what I did, I would just gain weight. I have now loss all my extra weight (45 pounds) in the last year while tapering slowly down on pred. I'm now at 5mg/day. Like Pete I watched my carbs. I continue to eat no sugar or refined flour. I also get on my elliptical every morning for atleast 20 minutes. Now, I'm focused on gaining back some of the muscle I lost. After a couple of injuries in the gym I've become more patience in my rehab. Best wishes

tommyg