Weight Gain

[trice125]

I've been salt/fluid loading and on meds for autonomic dysfunction since December and since then I've gained thirty pounds which makes me officially 40 pounds over weight. Currently my symptoms are too flared up for me to exercise at all and my GI symptoms are also flared up so I'm not even eating very much but I'm continuing to gain weight. Has anyone else experienced this or similar symptoms?

[angelloz]

I wish...I know it sounds bad but I cannot gain no matter how much I eat. I have lost a large amount of weight since this all began. I have heard it both ways though...weight gain and weight loss...... :(...wish we could all find a happy medium!

[blueskies]

I've gained a lot of weight. I was normal, healthy weight and very fit when my pots sympptoms hit hard (had symptoms many years before diagnosis but then they got very bad and it was obvious to docs there was something wrong with me --- not 'all in my head' -- but still I waited about 4 years before I was diagnosed with pots which not being terribly medical literate I had never heard of such a thing but then again neither had many docs back then). I gained quite a bit of weight when the symptoms hit hard -- I was big into exercise prior and going to lying/sitting most days and bored out of my brain ate way too much.

Then suddenly I lost a lot of weight and got really really skinny for a couple of years and could not eat very much at all. Then I started to gain weight and was about normal when I was diagnosed. Then I resumed exercise but my weight started to climb. This was due to a high fat, high sugar diet. I was, and still am, stuck on an elimination diet that helps with some of my symptoms but it is high fat and high sugar -- mainly because the only fruit I can tolerate is pear and the list of veges I can eat is very short and it bores me to death but also because any fibre type food tends to cause me a lot of gut pain.

I was okay weight -- a bit too much for my height but okay health wise -- when I ate the lower calorie version of the diet but eventually I just couldn't do it anymore and now tend to eat too much high fat dairy and sugar but not enough to explain my big weight gain. I do exercise on my good days -- walking (swimming when I can) but being rather sedentary and not being able to diet as my gut does not hurt as much eating dairy but also just don't have the iron will to put up with gut pain from vegetables and grains.

I'm currently cutting back on sugar but as sugar and salt and a little chives or parsley are the only 'flavourings' I can use it's pretty hard. I've also been drinking skim milk to help with try to lose weight but my weight has still been increasing. I've been researching this and there is some evidence to show that drinking full fat but less of it is a better way to lose weight.

I just realized that when I say 'high sugar diet' it's probably not as high as it sounds. I cook and prepare all the foods I eat so there are no hidden sugars in my diet but i do use sugar to sweeten things a bit.

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[Katybug]

I've gained 50 lbs as a function of beta blockers, a whirl with 2 types of steroids,depakote for my regular and abdominal migraines, and exercise intolerance. It all happened in about a year and a half. I'm afraid to stop the depakote since I don't know if we can find another med that will control the GI symptoms from the migraines. I'm stuck between a rock and a fat place. :-( And, the docs don't have any good advice and basically agree that the choice I have to make stinks. At least they offer sympathy. Sorry for everyone else going through this. I was at the other end of the spectrum too.....loosing 11 lbs at least one week each month when the abdominal migraines would flare.

[Joann]

Sorry, I don't have any advice. I have had the opposite problem with losing too much weight.

[blueskies]

oh I forgot 'fat meds'

hormone therapy for menopause -- put on about 30lbs and had to stop ht but never lost the weight -- lost some but never lost all the weight. courses of Prednisolone (cortisone) -- also put on weight and find it hard to lose - always seem to be left with just a little bit more weight.

psychiatric med -- I stop and start it and it causes weight gain and I don't lose it all when I'm off it. --

Cyproheptadine - an antihistamine which also helps a bit with migraine control (often they treat teens with it) but also stimulates appetite -- it's med they sometimes use to treat anorexia nervosa because it can make you very very hungry and it does make me very hungry and eating too little is not my problem. I'm starting it again because migraines are getting more painful again. It stopped working but can start working again after a 'holiday' from it.

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