HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

Does anyone gain weight when flaring?

Support Forums
>
Crohn's Disease
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 5/18/2010 9:53 PM (GMT 0)
I know this sounds nuts but I seem to gain weight when I flare.  I had gained about 15 pounds right before I was diagnosed (through emergency surgery).  I think that is why I was never considered to have Crohn's until they saw my guts up close and personal.  I was always told it was IBS, lactose intolerence, blah, blah, blah tongue .   Well, I've been extremely tired lately, terrible joint pain,  more "d" and I'm sure I'm flaring again.   I've also been on a diet to lose weight and the last month I'm not losing anything but slowly gaining. 

Is it possible to gain weight instead of lose?  I use to think that the reason I was gaining was because I was mistaken gut pains for hunger pains and eating but that's not the case this time around.  I barely want to or do eat but still gain a pound or two a week.  I'm not a happy camper since my sisters and other family members are doing "The biggest loser" in our family.  I was winning at one time but not anymore.

Posted 5/18/2010 10:08 PM (GMT 0)
I gained weight because of the drugs I was taking (prednisone). Usually I lose a lot of weight quickly when I flare.
Posted 5/18/2010 10:16 PM (GMT 0)
I was actually thinking about posting a topic on this while I was at work. When I was first diagnosed with crohns before I had my surgery I just lost and lost and lost weight. after my surgery when I flare I seem to gain weight and then I can't lose it. It is sooo frustrating, but my doctor said it is because when i flare I dont get as many calories as i should and then my body saves everything I eat. its annoying.
Posted 5/19/2010 12:31 AM (GMT 0)
Yes...and, it's JMHO, but it seems to depend on where the inflammation is at the time...like when it is near the stomach and produces ulcers/acid reflux...you tend to eat a bit more, because you try and stop that burning pain...at least for me (I have crohn's in the stomach and am constantly on ppi's)
Hope this helps...
Posted 5/19/2010 12:36 PM (GMT 0)
I gained quite a bit when I first started having symptoms. Doctors refused to even see IBD as an option, despite everything pointing that way, because I hadn't lost any. Even when the tests came back positive, it wasn't enough to "look into" since I was overweight.

Every time I flare, I seem to gain about 5-10 pounds. When I start eating again, the weight comes back off almost immediately. This last flare was the only one I lost any weight through, and that was because I was throwing up every day for about 6 months.

I think it's probably normal to gain weight. I guess it just depends on your body and how it handles things. I wonder if there's some kind of caveman effect coming into play?
Posted 5/19/2010 1:02 PM (GMT 0)
Have you had your thyroid checked lately? Sometimes you can become hypothyroid and no matter what you do you will not lose weight, just gain. Just a thought!
Posted 5/19/2010 2:47 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks for everyone's reply. I've never been a big eater and that is probably my problem. For example yesterday I had a handful of blueberries, chicken breast for lunch and a salad for dinner. Oh, I did have a sugarfree klondike bar for an afternoon snack. The salad made me spend the evening in the restroom. I've hardly ever eat much for breakfast just because I don't like starting the day with stomach problems. Just a couple cups of coffee.

I've always been overweight and that is the frustrating part. It sucks that I have a chronic disease that causes people to lose weight and I'm one of few that seems to gain weight.

I really think that since I don't eat much that my body tells be to hold on to all extra calories.
Posted 5/19/2010 3:43 PM (GMT 0)
vicky...I have never been thin! You are not alone in the gaining weight issue. You say you never ate much for breakfast before. The best thing I have found is I eat 5 small meals aday and I can lose weihgt a little better. it also helps me feel more engergetic as my body gets refueled in vitamins etc more often.
I agree if you are not eating much, your body is looking to retain some of the calories to maintain and help you heal.
Posted 5/19/2010 4:51 PM (GMT 0)
I always lose weight when flaring.
Posted 5/19/2010 6:25 PM (GMT 0)
for me it depends... if i have alot of D and no appetite, then i lose weight... but other times my disease can make me very hungry!! i can almost always tell when im anaemic because my body craves sweet foods (i think it's probably cause my body is craving energy!) of course when this happens i gain weight!
Posted 5/19/2010 7:20 PM (GMT 0)
I have not lost any weight since I was diagnosed in May of 2008. I have only gained. I recently went to an endocronologist and he did several tests - all that came back normal. However I took a food diary of how much I ate and how many times I visted the bathroom and he was shocked and said there was not way to explain how I was not losing weight - let alone gaining. I always joke that it is my luck to get a disease and the one side effect I would like to have I don't get. Try to hang in there. I know how frustrating it is. Everything you eat goes right through you, you sometimes are in so much pain that making it through the day is too much - let alone working out. Don't get down on yourself. I posted a question similar to this a while back and was so upset when one of the responses I got was someone telling me I must not be that sick if I am gaining weight. I was devestated. Hang in there.
Posted 5/21/2010 1:57 PM (GMT 0)
I was never really "heavy" but not thin either...I was about 180 at 5'9 more muscular build until I the couple months before I was diagnosed w/cd. I gained 20 lbs! no meds, couldn't keep anything down, yet I gained. Anything that says you will "lose weight" I Gain. I have gained 114 lbs since I was diagnoses in 1993. I am the heaviest I have ever been in my life and I hate it! My first gastro made me beleive I was the only person he'd ever seen that gained weight with crohns. Honestly, I didn't know there were more out there until I found this site about 4 years ago. I gained the last 60 in the last few years. I can't get it off. I've been tested for everything and they find I am vitamin D defecient, iron deficient and my potassium runs on the low side of normal. I thought I was completely backwards, then last month the endocrinologist said there was a name for people who gain and react opposite to everything. Can't remember what he said it was called now, but I was shocked and glad that I wasn't crazy. Every dr I had been to in the past thought I was just talking, but everytime I get a flare, more weight finds me. I just don't understand it, but I keep working at losing it.
Posted 5/21/2010 4:10 PM (GMT 0)
PainNdaGut,

Did your endo give you any information as to anything that may help?
Posted 5/21/2010 4:28 PM (GMT 0)
oh my goodness yes...
Posted 5/21/2010 4:39 PM (GMT 0)
OH, wow! I was just thinking about posting a question about this topic... I have been DX since 1998 and I have never really lost weight... I too just keep adding on pounds... UGH... It is so frustrating, but I am SO glad to know that I am not alone...
PainNdaGut: Could you find out the term/name your Endo DR gave it???? Very curious...
Thanks!
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply