prednisone belly

i am taking pred for the 3rd time in my life, and this time my belly is large (i look pregnant).  i am 40 years old and have always been slim.  my stomach has not stuck out like this previously when on pred.  i am thinking now that i am older, things won't bounce back as well.  i am scared that my belly will not go away after i get off of the prednisone.  has any one had any experience w/this?  did your belly go away after you got off the pred?  can you lose the belly, or does one have to get a tummy tuck?  i don't want to have to have surgery - i've had enough of doctors!  it scares me!

I had this and also gained 40 pounds but I all went away when I stopped taking pred.
don't worry about this.

and why on earth would you need a tummy tuck i your belly gets bigger?
it is not the worst thing in the world

When I was on prednisone, I found that avoiding salt/sodium helped a lot in reducing the puffiness and moonface, as there was a lot less water retention.

Also, being on prednisone can give you a false sense of security that all is now well and you can eat whatever you like, but I'd advise that you watch your diet even more when on prednisone, especially when you get the prednisone munchies.

I have to say it got harder and harder to lose the abdominal fat over the years.

Thanks for this thread. I didn't even think to ascribe my swollen belly to the darnable prednisone. I guess I can add that to my list of Nasty Things That Prednisone Has Done To My Body.

Currently I'm at 17.5mg and trying to get off it but my body isn't cooperating. I'm pretty much dependent now (been on since December) and not sure what to do. All I know is... I want off!

I've also been on Pred since about Jan, tapered a couple times but flare caused me to increase the dose. Currently at 5mg from 60mg, my face is less puffy but the belly is a little big. Could be the beer.

Now that I'm at 5mg I feel much better than when I was at higher doses. I didn't realize the prednisone was f*$(king my body and mind up as much as it did until I went to a low dosage. Wasn't so much the physical but the terrible mental state it put me in.

I hope I never have to go back on Pred..Remicade seems to be doing the trick. Crossing my fingers.

I had to join after reading this post....you all have brought tears to my eyes, remembering all the hell I went thru while on prednisone for about 18 months.

While on prednisone, I gained 52lbs. I came off prednisone in July 2008 and in about 6 months I lost aroud 30lbs. To date, I have lost a total of 60 (69 total, but I gained 9 back).

Every possible side affect that can come from prednisone, I had. I was MISERABLE and sat up many of nights, crying my eyes out and thinking I was going crazy. I developed Cushings Syndrome. Within a 10 month period, I was hospitalized 5 times, and for each visit I was on a high dosage of IV steroids. At one point I decided I had it with the side affects, stopped taking it, and went into adrenal crisis (WORD OF WARNING: NEVER, EVER DO THIS! IT CAN BE FATAL!). Prednisone is good for short term use if you have to use it, but thats about it.

I can tell you from my experience, the belly does go away. Just coming off of Prednisone made me lose weight, plus I started doing cleanses and TOTALLY changed what I now eat.

Keep the faith. It will all pass.

I look forward to reading and posting more here with you all

im off the pred now (thank god) but i seemed to have gained more weight the last few weeks (on 10 and 5mg of pred).
and moon face is still here. stopped the pred about 3 days ago.
no issues with symptoms. i am in remission (woohoo) ...

but im still puffy!
and not bloated puffy... like FAT and flabby puffy. omg its so weird to see after being so skinny.
make it go away.
will it go away or do i actually have to make my lazy ass work out?

My last experience, I was only on the pred for 1 month and in that month I gained 40 pounds. I am still a very big girl. I cry everytime I go to try on clothes. I was a size 4 for the past 10 years and just recently had to by size 12 clothes as I had only bought one pair of "FAT" pants. It's been two months since I have been off of it and I haven't lost any at all. I did get some water pills becuase I was swelling so much I was unable to walk but they didn't even work. I'm not sure if it is because with all of the medication I have been on but something damaged my liver. Ther had to do an ultrasound to find it. By belly is still huge and it's like jello or a waterbed it just jiggles. I am goin to join a gym on the first and see if that can make any difference. I am supposed to visit some friends in a couple weeks and I know what they are going to think when they look at me, I just hope that I can get it down a little more.

It's amazing what we all are going through with the illnesses, the medication and all of their side effects, not to mention the mental stress that we all endure. So I declaire all of us superheros (capes will be shipped at a later date), we fight deadly infections with our powerful gaseous explosions, say "take that" to our unsupporting families (one hour of locking ourselves in the bathroom while they do the pee pee dance and beg to be let in, oh and when they do feel satisfied in knowing that their eyes are watering, nose hairs are frying and of course the nothing tastes right for the rest of the day because those smell particles flew into their mouths as tey were screaming, UHHHH WAS THAT YOU????), and don't forget our most powerful weapon (the "yes, yes you are going to drive for me, and don't think that we are going to get there early because I, yes, I have the power to make you stop at every rest stop, Mc Donalds, Burger King, gas station, row of bushes or any other location that is on our "clean bathroom" list, just because I can. mwaaaa haaa haa). So stand up tall and powerful for we have powers that no weapon can touch us, no one can get in our way (especially when we are running for the bathroom), who needs regular superheros when we are the poopie heros.

Hi everyone, New to this forum
I understand your frustrations. I have been on and off unfortunately more on that off prednisone for the last approx 5 years for asthma and COPD. Unfortunately my body has developed a addiction to it as I hear many others have had to deal with. I have tried to get off of it numerous times over the last year and get to a certain point where my body gets an infection either starting from an allergy or stress or ?? and I am right back on the cycle of having to take an antibiotic and you got it...prednisone again.
The breathing part is what is so scary. Many of you understand what it is like when you cannot breath...in or out and then of course you stress which makes it even worse.
I am currently tapering under Dr.s care and down to 8.5 dropping 2.5 weekly

Looking like I am 7 mos pregnant ( not possibal 62 yrs old) horribal fat roll around my stomach the moon face etc. I am normally a fairly thin small boned woman weight about 125 now I feel horribally bloted and cannot stand this hoping it goes away soon? Got real bad this last time I had to increase because of flair up again....I hate this drug

Good luck to all of you who suffer with this life altering drug. It certainly has changed my life the only good thing is that it allows me to breath. However i am scared to death of some of the side effects such as potential diabeties, chrones, heart attack etc etc.

Prednisone is known to redistribute fat from the extremities to the core. The only way to undo that appearance is through persistent responsible eating and moderate exercise over time. Unfortunately, it's not a side-effect that goes away in-time on it's own. The undesired effect, is pred spikes our blood sugar by turning fat and muscle stored in our extremities into sugar. When that sugar isn't used, it forms as fat in the core (tummy, upper back, etc). Took me 3-4 months to get back to my usual shape, going to the gym and eating healthy.

Did the lasix help you? How long after u finished did you see yourself come back to normal?
The first round I had from July-October I saw the weight literally drop off once I finished. Restarted again December to janurary now this weight just doesn't want to leave me 😩

IntestinalWasps said...
It's usually water weight. My doctors gave me Lasix to help combat it. HOWEVER! I turned into a snack werewolf. I never had such cravings in my entire life than I have while on Prednisone.

My fiance was bringing me steak and candy and fritos. That's all I wanted. So yeah I'm sure some of the 40lbs I gained while in the hospital was from the cravings, while some being from the water weight.

But since I've been off of it I've lost 20lbs. The Lasix helped a lot. It takes a while to normalize after coming off of Prednisone. So don't beat yourself up.

I had moon face, I had the weird hump back lump, I had it all. And I lost it all without doing much.

It's been about 6 weeks on prednisone for me and "snack werewolf" is the perfect descriptor. I haven't had cravings like this ever -- not even when I get my period. All I want is beef, potatoes, and chocolate (specifically peanut M&Ms). I have gained ~10lbs (and I recently lost 25 intentionally prior to being diagnosed with UC), and any sort of vigorous exercise to help combat it is a no-go because it just shakes everything up and makes me run for the toilet. I also have moon face. I wasn't sure, but I ordered new glasses a few weeks ago and they fit fine, and then I picked them up, and now they look too small for my face. I know that'll go away but, ugh. Hopefully the Humira I start today will let me ditch the prednisone soon.