Prednisone question

[aggie]

Is it possible to lose weight while on prednisone or at least not to gain it? Anyone with experience who could answer this for me would be really really really appreciated! Really.

that is a tough question and the answer would be very dose dependent ... if you are taking a very short course of a low dose for a couple of days you should be fine stay the same wt..but if you are on it for a long period of time......yes pred is notorious for wt gain...and it gives you the appetite of a lion ..but if you keep your eating under control and continue to exercise ..even if you do gain you will take it off quickly when you are done with this treatment ...


I hope this helps ....please know this is not medical advice you should ask your doctor for that ...this is just observation and opinion

[2big4mysize]

yep it will depend on you and your dose. I didn't have aoppetite issues with in back in summer of 03 but I added pounds of fluid weight on it and didn't like seeing the scale going the wrong way one bit!

[aggie]

Oh thank you guys. Well as you say, i'll keep on exercising and hope the fluid loss will show up once I'm off it. thank you again for responding. Onwards we go eh?

[bjs1976]

Aggie,

I can tell you of a few experiences of mine, and some I hace observed. I take prednisone , well too much. I have MS so with that I will take a gram yes a gram 1000mg a day IV for 5 days. With flares. I also have severe allergies and asthma and take 40-80 mg for month or so with exaberations of that.

I do not get the appetite increase at all I get very upset stomach and loss of appetite. But still gained weight. Mostly all fluid and become very cushnoid, acne and all. I have gaine up to 50lbs on this. That is how I went from chronically underweight to overweight.

Let me add I have not been on steroids since starting this WOE. But, I do have good news in regards to low carb eating and prednisone. My bil is taking 80 mg a day for sarcoidosis, and has been for 6 months, at his last appt, he only gained 2#'s. That is incredible. He was upset, but honestly, only gaining 2#'S 6 MONTHS ON THAT DOSE is miraculous. His Dr was amazed. He has since been able to cut back to 40 mg and has lost 2#'s.

So, I really think even maintaing is a huge sucess with this med. It has some nasty side effects, but it has saved my vision and from intubation more then one time in my life.

SO, although I hope not to hae take it anytime soon, I am glad to see my bil su ces with the roids and low carbing. He does SBD, but I feel low carbing in general has helped with his weight stability.

[aggie]

That's really encouraging bjs! It's such a devastating thing to have to take but it sure does work miracles. Why haven't "they" come up with a better drug than this? I was screened for MS because of an episode of double vision last year not caused by diabetes or anything it would normally be caused by. They never did find out what it was. Now I have to go for an arterial biopsy for a suicide headache i had last year. They still want me to do this despite the fact that they kept postponing it to a point that its almost a year (and a half come to think of it) later. The only thing that fixed all the problems was prednisone so I'm taking the darn stuff without even knowing why I am except it gives me a life without pain... sigh... Thank you for responding and giving me some encouragement.

[Diva217.5]

My husband has had to take it for the last year as he has crohns disease and because his flare up wouldnt stop, they put him on 12 pills a day and deducted 1/2 pill each week.He blew up like a balloon, became nasty all the time and would fall asleep at 8pm on the couch every night.He hasnt gained too much weight on the scales, but physically he went up 2 pant sizes due to fluid gain and swelling.
It does go down very shortly after your off.Hes on his last round right now and has 2 weeks to finally wean off of it, as hes taking chemo shots right now to get him of of the drug.
Hang in there, and eat right.The weight will fall off once you get yourself off of it.Just dont get too upset about the weight gain or ballooing,cos this drug stops the pain and thats the main thing to remember.Good luck.

[aggie]

I'm really grateful for the responses to my prednisone question. Although I haven't gained weight I have managed to add inches to my waist which is a bit upsetting. I know I need to be grateful I haven't added any weight. I still want to know why they haven't invented something that is as good without the side effects. Anyway, thanks again to all of you. It feels good to know I'm not alone and that continuing this woe is a good thing.

[2big4mysize]

the answer is money! medicare and many insurance companies are not going to pay for an expensive drug new to the market when their is already prednisone out there that will do the same thing.

[aggie]

Oh 2big... I get so mad at the way the world is. I imagine with Nestle taking over Jenny Craig there will be huge advertising campaigns now for low fat food and additional attacks on the Atkins way of life. It is so hard to separate out the fact from the fiction out there. We can, in the end, only rely on each other and the results we get and how we feel. Thank you 2big. I was reading a post by you the other day talking about how stalls tend to happen in the 3rd week to the 8th I think which made me feel better. Thank you for being you.