does anyone else battle with weight gain

Hi all

Feeling really fed up and dont feel like anyone understands, so thought i would have a rant on here, ive gain so much weight over the last few years, only got diagnosed with ms last year after looseing my sight , but previous to this ive suffered terrible fatuige which stops me being as active as i used to be and am proberly not as active as other 35 year olds.

Well ive tryed a few slimming clubs tryed slimming world failed to loose any weight even tho ive followed the plan, so now am trying weight watchers, followed the diet and stuck to it all week and not losted a ounce, so fed up, does any other ms people have problems looseing weight

hi suzie

i was dx with rrms last thurs after 16months with dx of tmā€¦anyway been on loads of pills and put on just over a stone and a halfā€¦havent tried losing it yet though but do some excersise a week so time will tell

baz

Hi Suzie,

Youā€™re not on your own Iā€™ve put on so much weight I feel like an elephant, (donā€™t look like one though)

Iā€™ve tried losing weight but all the different drugs I take each leaflet says the same:-

ā€œCan cause weight gainā€ I think the maufacturers do it for fun!

Donā€™t give up, try to eat properly, give up all those lovely cakes, sweets, all the things we love and exercise. Iā€™ve tried it all and still the pounds keep piling on so Iā€™m sure itā€™s the drugs.

Janet x

Hi all Just a quick question and I donā€™t know if anyone knows this. Do the drugs themselves cause weight gain or is it that we are all more sedentary with MS or do the drugs make us hungrier? Anyway, I was just interested to know. Teresa xx

I tend to be the opposite. When Iā€™m relapsing or when the fatigue is really bad I canā€™t pluck up the energy to eat so I lose weight. Iā€™m like a stick anyway so it shows really quickly. Not many 37 year old mumā€™s of 3 that weigh less than 8 stone (Iā€™m 5ft5). I also have tremendous will power so will not snack if Iā€™m taking steroids, sometimes I think its the gastric irritation that causes the hunger, so I up the dose of the gut protectors to twice a day. No wonder Iā€™m osteopenic

Hi Suzie,

Yes, Iā€™ve gained a lot over the past few years. I suppose itā€™s partly my age (45), but diminished activity due to feeling ill all the time can hardly have helped.

Iā€™m still not dramatically overweight, but at the upper end of ā€œnormalā€, for my age and height, so still heavier than Iā€™d like to be, and Iā€™m not overly impressed when I look in the mirror.

In the past three months, Iā€™ve made a concerted effort, and drastically increased my activity levels, but Iā€™ve still not shifted a pound! Iā€™m not one for diets, but have been keeping an eye on the calorie content of foods lately, and Iā€™m sure Iā€™m not putting in an excessive number of calories.

Iā€™m wondering if a lot of itā€™s water retention, because when I weighed myself this morning, I had ostensibly gained a pound - yes, a whole pound - since yesterday! I donā€™t see how itā€™s possible to gain a pound in 24 hours - not if it was fat, anyway - so I can only assume itā€™s water.

I didnā€™t go on an insane eating binge yesterday, and I was quite active, walking over 2 miles at lunchtime. How can I be 1lb heavier?

I am fitter overall, since I began exercising, and more shapely. But as to actual weight loss? Nada!

Frustrating, isnā€™t it?

Tina

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I woke up 12 months after dx to having a body suit on AND now it slowly increases from initially 1 stone to 2 stone depressing but hey, I still manage to get aroundā€¦Take care, M The drugs mess with our brain chemistryā€¦

Oh to be back to my pre-marriage weight (1964!) when I was 6st 4lb.

Six months later I was half a stone heavier - I want to know why signing a piece of paper puts on weight.

Now, after 3 children and signing another marriage certificate (2nd husband) I feel like a balloon and weigh 12st 11lb.

Getting rid of the weight by exercise doesnā€™t work because of the fatigue of MS and the fact that I struggle to walk at all thanx to a stupid left leg that has become a passenger not a worker.

The fact that I stuggle to do anything tires me out but doesnā€™t loose me any weight!!!

I am beggining to think the only answer to my growing bulk could be the ā€˜bacon slicerā€™.

Good luck to all our fellow weight watchers out there - it appears the only thing we can do is watch it grow!!!

Ann

Yes I imagine we all do, if you have trouble walking either because of fatigue or balance you will naturally spend less time moving about. Your eating habits wonā€™t change and naturally you will burn less calories as a result.

I am over a stone heavier then I was last year and last year I was about half a stone heavier then the year beforeā€¦Iā€™ve decided to cut down eating so much but while I am trying, itā€™s going to be a slow battle given the lack of prolonged exercise I can do.

Eat smaller meals, skip snacks, donā€™t skip breakfast, thatā€™s my plan.

Teresa, Thatā€™s a very good question, shame we donā€™t know the answer, although I was never as big when I wasnā€™t on these blinking drugs.

Iā€™m with FrostPaw on this unless something better comes up.

Suzie what will you be doing?

Janet x

Hi, Iā€™m in the same boat and itā€™s so frustrating. I eat healthy food only, have one vice which is couple glasses wine every evening and I effectors as much as poss. Am walking at least a mile a day , two to three on good days. I know itā€™s a combination of periods of less activity and some meds we have to take but itā€™s very DEPRESSING when you canā€™t lose weight no matter what you do! I really struggle with this and hate it more than ms itself, if you find an answer Please let me know. Good luck and donā€™t give up trying, I havenā€™t.

ā€¦David, you do realise that 4 and a half years has passed between your post and the one previous to yours ??

Dom

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I went to my GP and said my meds are making me fat. He said ā€˜No Pam, you are making you fatā€™. I had a very strict telling off and a warning not to even deviate for a moment so no bread, I donā€™t tend to eat it anyway, no booze, few fats, still have a packet of chocolate buttons or a small cake everyday but no crisps really, lots of rice, boiled things, steamed things, roast once a week, roast veg once a week and lots of green crunchy things and fruit.

He told me that as winter approaches, I cannot and must not give in to any naughty things as gaining weight will just increase my chances of being more ill and getting more things. In a nutshell he said as he was pointing his finger at me, every day must be a conscious eating day. I had thought and still think to a degree that gabapentin messes with your weight a little but I am quite strict now, his warning rings in my ears everyday so if I have a naughty day, I eat a lot less the next day and eat pure. I allow one over ready meal a week and if I want a butty I go down the shop and buy one bread roll because I think if I bought a packet of 6 I would probably eat six! I never buy in bulk, I get in what I need and if I feel myself really hungry whatever time day or night I do eat, just a little.

I have been known to have pudding for breakfast which is about 11 ish but then only eat salad or veg at tea time and it is a spur to do some exercise even if it is leg lifts in bed or stretching. A good trick, able or not for me is to not feel bad but put either a youtube health video on like relaxation and meditation (sounding a bit hippy here but it helps), or Adriene from America who does this amazing yoga thing. Sometimes if I canā€™t get up, I put her yoga in 30 days on and do whatever I can in bed such as interpreting her able body yoga to whatever the heck I can do on that day. I also do it on good days if I can be arsed in the front room with various pieces of furniture to help me bend a bit or stretch.

Also, as a girl from the 70s, laxatives are essential I think if you take painkillers which bung you up like a big flippin cork. No messing about in my house, donā€™t want to be sitting around waiting for something to happen. Get them laxies out if the painkillers are around. It is all upsetting but by heck, if there are ways of keeping the weight at bay I will find them. Just been caravaning for two days, the mirrors in caravans are really cruel so today for tea I have boiled rice and peas and a small piece of smoked fish and naff all else. Be stubborb people, donā€™t let it win!!

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My lovely daughter Emma asked me when we were at the seaside last week what I wanted for my birthday, I said liposuction ha ha and while Iā€™m there they can do something about my inherited neck ho ho, laugh a little today people, itā€™s not freezing or piddling it down yet, we will have something to frown about when the weather comes. Bobble hats, long socks, thermals! My well wishes to everyone who is on here today, I am enjoying life from my bed and in a bit when the bunging up pain killers kick in I might enjoy 10 minutes in the garden in my nightie then tuck in to my delicious rice and peas yuk. Then I might even decide to get dressed - or not and save on washing.

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Hi Teresa,

The answer is ā€œYesā€, many drugs can cause weight gain. Every packet contains a list of possible side effects.

A common one that I take actually says ā€œCan cause weight loss or gainā€. Which is really covering their backs.

Anthony.

You sound like my sort of woman.

What are you doing tomorrow night?

A.

You are a very bad man Mr Durer.

Sue

Personally I feel that Iā€™m as fat as a house (as the saying goes). In actual fact Iā€™m within the normal range for my height, maybe the top end of the range these days but still fairly normal.

Its not the weight thatā€™s the problem, itā€™s the distribution of wobbly bits. And thatā€™s got little to do with medication or anything else except my lack of mobility, and the fact that I love to eat / live to eat and enjoy lovely wine and have a husband whoā€™s improved his cooking skills enormously over the past few years, ever since he retired from work.

I keep saying ā€œwe must do something about our gourmet lifestyleā€ but crikey thatā€™s hard.

So ultimately, so long as my clothes fit and Iā€™m not absolutely out of control diet wise, I believe Iā€™m staying at the heavy end of normal. So the question about battling with weight gain, at the moment the battle is at a ceasefire. Maybe in January Iā€™ll rethink that, but probably not, since after the Quality Street fest that is Christmas, we enter the countdown to birthday season (me and OH at the end of January) so perhaps February? Thatā€™s what I did this year, it lasted a good two months.

Sue

Sue and I became diet buddies, initially, nowadays we message each other almost daily or even more than once a day sometimes.

Weve supported each other through lots of personal things. Were good mates now.

Have we lost weight, ? Nah! There`s always tomorrow!

pollx

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Now weā€™re donā€™t give a bugger about weight buddies.

Sue xx