On so many threads so many members complain about excessive or unwanted weight. Just recently a member was complining about the way she looked. She told us all about how she used to look and how she looks now. She was tring to convince us that the main cause of her weight gain is prednisone use. It is so nice and convenient to have a somewhat reasonable reason for weight gain. The only problem with that reasonable reason is, it isn't reasonable. Prednisone does cause hunger. Prednisone does not put the food into anybodies mouth. The member said that she can't stand the way she looks and she probably can't, and so she sits down, does nothing and has another twinkie. She is better off to stand, she will burn more calories. A person can only gain weight when they consume more calories than they burn. Look in the mirror constantly. If you don't have a full length mirror, buy one and use it constantly. The more the image in the mirror makes you want to turn away, the better chance of motivation to change the image. Pull your stomach in. Don't slouch, shoulders back, stand up straight. Every little bit of movement burns calories or energy. Even jiggling your leg burns calories. If you burn 250 extra calories everyday for a week and reduce your calorie intake everyday by 250 calories (250 calories is not much) you will lose 1 pound a week. If you burn an addition 250 calories everyday making the addition burn a total of 500 additional calorie burn per day, you can continue to eat as you do and still lose a pound a week. I know that one of the problems with that regimine is that it takes so long to get back down to where you want to be, right? If we think back to an appointment or a party two months ago, it seems like almost yesterday. It is easy to double your calorie burn and or calorie intake. Just getting up and walking around the house 5 or 6 more times a day is burning more calories than yeasterday. When sitting in the chair and you do 2-3 minutes of leg lifts or bicycling is burning calories. If you buy a set of 2 pound weights and you lift them while sitting in your chair, you are burning additional energy. Now buy some 2 pound weights to attach to your feet or legs or as a man would do, duct tape a couple of books to your legs and do extra leg lifts while sitting in your chair. Every human action burns energy, burns calories. Calorie burn uses fat (stored energy).
Please, do not think that i am ragging on you. I am not. I am a small person and never been fat until last year and i gained about 20-25 pounds and yes it was disgusting looking on my small frame to see such a bulge. My problem is now after losing the weight, that i have kind of a small streched skin pouch that I'm sure i'm stuck with, oh well. It wasn't a overnight loss. The first 10 pounds seemed very slow but i continued to look in the mirror, pull my stomach in, hold my shoulders back, and stand up straight. Pretty soon, the loss was very noticable and i started to look fairly good which then really motivated me to continue and of course i seemed to have extra energy. Now if i can just find a way to take my face back 20 or 30 years.
Again, I am not critisizing or ragging on you. Your joints want you to lose weight and you will have less pain in your joints if you lesson the weight that you put on them. Every little extra thing that you do today is burning extrat fat.
Another problem with being over weight is that now, companies and health insurers are moving more towards hiring and insuring only those people that fall with-in their catagory of healthy and healthy lifestyle individuals, even blue cross. Sad as it is we will all soon have to be not individuals, but a people conforming to the way "they" say we should be.
If you find this post and me to be offensive, that's okay, jump up and scream and pound your fists on the table, kick the chair, slap your husband, you'll feel better and have burned about a hundred calories.
LEV
I agree Lev. I only wish it were so easy. I was doing really well losing weight by cutting calories, I was down about 17 pounds. Than, they put me on zyprexa, worse than prednosine for food cravings. Now, I am on a week of high dose steroids for the scarcoidosis.Lev,
You bring up some very valuable points. You say many things that most of us don't want to hear. You might remember that many on the forum have Hypothyroidism. That has nothing to do with what you put in your mouth or how much exercise you get. Although extra food and no exercise don't help by any means, it is a thyroid disorder that can lead to weight gain.
Remember that many of the people on the forum are depressed.....that most often goes along with being in constant pain and having a chronic illness. Is that an excuse, no, not necessarily, but it does make a difference.
I think Phats fit club needs to return
Thanks Lev for starting a good topic. Phats Try this, Keep some instant quaker oat meals handy, they will fill your stomach and stop the crave. I also have lung capacity problems. When I first started becoming "active" again, i scared people around me gasping fo air. I asked my pulmonary DR. about the really more than gasping, he said that it won't hurt anything. Of course, i don't know about your lung problems but I certainly wish you luck on your weight loss crusade. Try to keep busy, you know, mind over matter. Your attitude is good so I'm pretty sure you will overcome the obstacles in your weight loss path. LEV N&T - I know exactly where you're coming from!!! I think my hubby would starve if I didn't cook!
I agree that oatmeal is a great filler! It also warms you up when you're cold.
Surely you are making fun. Men are more disciplined than women? We only use the bathroom because we have to. That certainly has to be another topic that you need to start and it will probably go from here till next year. I'm sure that most of the posts will be about how undisciplined men are and I really won't be able to honestly argue with the facts. Maybe you are married to the exception. Now & then, I really have no problem with overweight people.Many of my friends and relatives are overweight and are still such good enjoyable people and the reason I continue to bring it up on this forum is because being overweight with RA is so very damaging to our well being. Many people say that their joints hurt and therefore they can't execise and I still say that if you work those achey joints you will find that your body will send out more joint juice and your joints will feel better. Just try it. Get up and go. Go to Meijers or Wallmart constantly, grab a cart and walk the whole place, every isle, very slowly and give people a little smile as you look at them, you will be so surprised at their suprise and the smile back will help with some depression if some are depressed. My Mom is overweight and 86 years old and I have been ragging on her for the last 8 months and she has been losing weight. I was talking to her last Sunday and she was telling me about a friend of hers and her friend said that her children were mean to her. My Mom told her that "Larry yells at me all the time, I just let it go thru one ear and out the other." I told my mom that maybe I'm gonna have to start slapping her to get her attention. It's so hard to watch someone you love grow old because they seem to be getting closer to leaving and so I want my Mom to be in good shape and now that she is more active she claims to feel better. It's so nice to see an empty space in the back of her pants. LEV Darn it, Lev! Now I wanna twinkie! And I just turned some down the other day... was trying to not eat so much junk food since I am on this high dose of pred. I have done fairly good. I just do not feel like eating. One meal a day is all I need. What about when your excess fat is from weight you gained while being preggo? That is most of what mine is. Most of my weight is in my lower stomach area where I had my c-section, just above that. I have done sit ups, crunches and stomach exercises after having my son. But it did not do anything with that fat. I think my muscle did not heal all the way from being cut... my thoughts anyways. Because no matter how much I work that muscle it does not feel like it is being worked, I do not feel a "burn". Oh and the rest of my fat is in my butt, hips and thighs. I am a freaking pear
You know, burning an extra 250 calories a day and eating 250 less calories a day doesn't sound so hard. I've had to be creative in my exercise program, walking used to be my prime source and that's out for now until these heel spurs go away. Swimming is working for me. I wear a water belt that allows me to run in the water without my feet touching the bottom of the pool. I'm trying hard to eat only things that are good for me. I've never had trouble losing weight in my life until now. Of course, I'm 53 and my metabolism has slowed down but I'm bound and determined that I'm going to lose these extra pounds if it's the last thing I do. Thanks for the little push Larry, it was very encouraging. Good reminder Lev. Hormones also come into play either in the form of birth control pills or hormone replacement therapy. The post menopause estrogen didn't really make me gain weight, (the bakery did) but something made it near impossible to lose weight like I used to. Yeah, maybe it's that old metabolism thing, but many many women notice a weight gain when taking estrogen. True, not an excuse, but just another bit for the mix. The disease process has made me feel so lazy, that's another reason it's harder to lose weight. I never thought I was suffering from fatigue until the meds started to kick in and now I see the difference and remember what I used to be like. When you're exhausted and hurting, it's harder to move a lot and burn those calories, but you're very right, in the end it's the best thing for us. BTW, did you hear that in New Zealand they won't let you move there if you are over a certain BMI number? They're afraid of taxing their health care system. Can anyone imagine us trying to do that in the US? just a point about prednisone it's a steroid (any drug that ends in "one" is a steroid)....steroids cause changes in metabolism (which can equal weight gain), it also causes problems with your cortisone levels which can give signs of moonface (basically where your face looks bigger, kinda puffy)- it also increases your blood sugar levels and can also increase your cholesterol. I do agree its important to watch what you put in your mouth and work out but it is also important to know what your meds are doing to your body Well I'm blaming weight gain on Paxil.
Seriously I do think the Paxil has somewhat to do with my weight gain in the past year or so...that and very little will power.
Pip [QUOTE=Linncn]Joonie~ You can be strengthening you ab muscles and never see it if you have a layer of fat on your belly. You need to get some kind of cardio in to burn the fat. It doesn't have to be really hard, Lev gave some good examples of ways to burn a few extra calories.[/QUOTE] I will be sure to test out his suggestions. I read them. I just do not have much hope for this baby belly
Hey that is why I am so resistant to riding the electric carts. I see my walking around wal-mart as my form of exercise. I mean it does get my heart rate up, but that is from hurting LMAO!! Hey whatever works.
n Sort of funny: I baked 4 pumpkin pies for tomorrow to take out to the beach party and I HAAVE already eaten 3/4 of one of them!! That's one reason i don't do dieting well!! Hummmm, Lynda
So true Buckey, People don't realize that if you starve your body it will actually harvest and store more energy in the way of fat. It was shown that in earlier times women were fatter because of the food cycle. In summer and fall food was plentiful but the body was used to the food seasons and stored fat for the slim months. oday is one of the most fattening things you can consume and of couse you know that carbon dioxide does bad things to the oxygen and a few other things, afterall, you don't see athletes dinking soda, do you? There is a good performance reason that they don't drink soda. Has anybody bought some 2 pound weights? Don't forget, don't get ones too heavy, you won't want to use them. It's better to get some too "soft", you will enjoy sitting and lifting. With winter here I am going to have to find other ways of keeping busy. It is so easy in Michigan to just kinda hibernate the winter away, as so many do. Lynda, that's funny but sounds like something i would do and i would and have emptied a can of Reddywhip, real whip cream in the process of eating that pie, mmmm. I still say that men are not more disciplined or motivated. If it weren't for women, we'd still be in caves I mean really, have you ever heard a man come home from work and say, "You know honey, I think we should change the living room." We'd still be in caves. LEV Hi wish I knew the answer to this wight loss. I eat well, get lots of exercise, but the pumpkin pie thing is typical. I've done it all just right and then WHAM!, I gobble , down something to torpedo the whole day!!! Someday, I'll get it. I feel really tired when I don't eat? So starving doesn't work! Lynda
If I lived alone it would be a breeze to lose weight, but hubby will eat 3 full course meals a day if I prepare them and he never gains weight. He also requires dessert with every meal. And, by the way, he can't boil water so I am the chief cook and bottle washer. Frustrating? You bet!
Wills, do you have a spare pillow? LOL (taken from another thread)
Lev, I guess we all have a reason, but I think that I have a good one...don't I?
Lev is right on the mark here. We all make the ultimate choice to put that
twinkie in our mouth. There are such good substitutions out there. A lot
of what makes me eat poorly, is not having healthy food choices at hand
so I tend to grab something that is not as good for me. Now, I try not to
keep unhealthy food in the house and that helps. I also have a husband
who supports me 100 percent in my weight loss efforts. A one pound
loss a week is the most healthy way to lose the weight, no more than that.
The longer you take to lose it, the more chance that it will stay off. And
while medical conditions, such as hypothyriodism, depression and steriod
dependence can lead to weight gain, it does not have to. When we have
an obese patient in the hospital, and we are controlling their caloric
intake, they will lose weight. It can and does happen. Weigh has been a
life long struggle of mine but I take 100 percent responsibilty for my
weight issues. I have no one or nothing to blame but the choices I have
made with regards to my food intake and activity. And Lev is right,
insurance companies are coming down hard on obesity, as they should.
One more reason for us to get ourselves in tip top shape. The health
benefits are tremendous, even with a 30 lb loss.
bad thing. If she does get sick at this point in her life, she will have more
weight to help her through that. They just published a study that says being
25 lbs overweight is actually beneficial.There are some drugs that do seem to just mess with metabolism... zyprexa is one. It also causes marked increases in fasting cholesterol and triglyceride levels, as well as potentially fatal blood sugar reactions.
This is from the Zyprexa prescribing information:
Weight Gain — Potential consequences of weight gain should be considered prior to starting olanzapine. Patients receiving olanzapine should receive regular monitoring of weight.
Olanzapine Monotherapy in Adults — In an analysis of 13 placebo-controlled olanzapine monotherapy studies, olanzapine-treated patients gained an average of 2.6 kg, which was statistically significantly different compared to an average 0.3 kg weight loss in placebo-treated patients with a median exposure of 6 weeks; 22.2% of olanzapine-treated patients gained at least 7% of their baseline weight, which was statistically significantly different compared to 3% of placebo-treated patients, with a median exposure of 8 weeks; 4.2% of olanzapine-treated patients gained at least 15% of their baseline weight, which was statistically significantly different compared to 0.3% of placebo-treated patients, with a median exposure of 12 weeks. Clinically significant weight gain was observed across all baseline Body Mass Index (BMI) categories. Discontinuation due to weight gain occurred in 0.2% of olanzapine-treated patients and in zero placebo-treated patients.
During long-term continuation therapy with olanzapine (238 median days of exposure), 56% of olanzapine patients met the criterion for having gained greater than 7% of their baseline weight. Average weight gain during long-term therapy was 5.4 kg.
This is not just due to increased appetite... some drugs seem to cause fundamental changes in metabolism. I was put on zyprexa and a few other drugs for a few months during a particularly difficult depressive episode. I went from 120 pounds to 150 pounds in a couple of months. My fasting blood sugar went from the high 80's up to 200. That's not from simple overeating. I may have eaten more than normal (though I can't remember exactly what or how much), but I wasn't eating two dinners at once, or vats of candy/cookies, etc.
Conversely, in college I went on Prozac for several months, and I lost 10 pounds. Again, I don't think I was eating any less than usual, though I can't confirm or deny.
I've never had a weight problem in my life, and I've seen first-hand how some drugs can definitely cause marked changes in weight in a short amount of time. Should people use this as an excuse? No. But doctors need to be upfront about weight gain/loss as a very real risk of these therapies.
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