Newbie Here;using prednisone and working out.

Prednisone will definitely negatively effect your efforts in the gym. Long story short is that it is not good for those of us train at the gym. The corticosteroids tend to have a muscle-wasting, fat gaining effect ( partially due to decreased insulin sensitivity ). From my experience the best you can hope for while on pred is to keep the muscle you already have and to limit fat gain. Most increases in strength in people who are just beginning to train are to due CNS ( nervous system ) adaptations and not increases in muscle size. You can try to mitigate the fat gain by eating a super clean diet, but ultimately you're ingesting a very powerful hormone that is not your ally if your goals are to gain muscle and lose fat..... That being said you should still train several times per week ( but watch your intensity - intense training without adequate recovery is definitely not good for the gut / immune system - read that again, and then again - it cannot be stressed enough - DO NOT under any circumstances push yourself to extreme limits - you will only make things far worse from my experience ).

The main benefit you can get right now is the sense of accomplishment from completing a training session and the overall positive effects of exercise in general. You could also look at it this way..... You're laying a foundation for future gains in the gym when you finally do get the UC under control... And just a fyi I have certification from a nationally accredited certifying body ( NSCA-CPT ) and around 15 years of training experience. Best of luck.

No it will not completely prevent you from gaining muscle but you're fighting an uphill battle. 10mg per day is a reasonably low dose, but obviously from a muscle-gaining perspective you'd be better off taking none ( trust me I know that isn't an option as I'm on a pred taper right now myself - just saying in a perfect world nobody in their right mind would want to be on pred at any dose ). That's very good that your body fat is relatively low as it most likely means that you're relatively sensitive to insulin ( thats a good thing in the gym and for you overall health ). New trainee tend to experience what are called "newbie gains" in the first several months of training - it's an awesome feeling but it won't last so enjoy it while you gain. The most important parts of the muscles gaining equation are: Training with enough intensity to elicit an adaptive response from the body, adequate recovery ( sleep and rest days ), progressive overload ( making sure that you increase the intensity of your exercise once you have adapted to it to elicit new adaptations ie "gains" ), and most importantly your diet. 80 to 90% of your results will be from what you eat.

You must consume enough protein and total calories to allow for some of the excess energy to go towards growth and adaptation. You could have the best training program ever devised but if your nutrition is not adequate you will go nowhere or regress. Read that last sentence again, and then again, and then again. If you're trying to gain muscle and strength then you need to give your body the raw materials from your diet to do the job.

There is no way around it, and it is the root cause of failure for virtually everybody who fails to meet either their muscle gaining or fat loss goals. Any type of training will work....for awhile.... until you adapt to it then it's time to change things up. The nutrition aspect never stops. It has to be on 90% of the time for you to see great results.

I see a gastroenterology professor every 6 months. Last I saw him was in last July though, so it's been a while. I've never been able to stop using it altogether since whenever I dropped below 20 mgs, bleeding started again but I also didn't go above 20. My doctor is a good man and a good specialist but he didn't warn me about these mood swings. He just said I should be tested for osteoporosis which came back positive, and asked if I feel the need to use anti-depressants and I said no. Mood swings kinda started after my last appointment and for the most part it was extreme joy rather than sadness or agression. I was doing new and good things in my life, I was quite pleased with myself so it didn't occur to me that it was not normal up until the point that I got so depressed I couldn't do anything for 5 days straight. No one even warned me about this and since prednisone was always very quick to decrease my symptoms, I kept using it. "A little hairyness and hunger? No big deal, nothing irreversible" I thought since I was always good at not eating(I'm a hardcore gamer, it's easy when I have a good game I don't wanna stop playing). Now I learn that I was an idiot.

Salofalk and Imuran were the other meds he prescribed.

Post Edited (solitudent) : 5/1/2016 4:11:10 AM (GMT-6)

I'm not currenly using Imuran because I did not see it taking effect when I used it for a long time. I know it's supposed to show effects slowly but still, I used a really long time and whenever I tapered prednisone, symptoms started again. I've been using Salofalk as a rectal and oral medication recently. I started using the rectal med around a week ago, there has been some improvements but I don't know if it's the gluten-free diet or the meds. if I see any more improvements, I'll taper the prednisone to 5 mgs after talking to my doctor. Wish I could get rid of the urgency problem. Do you guys think I should start taking Imuran again?

I will try to stick to my Gluten-Free diet but it's really hard in here... There are no gluten-free sections in supermarkets in Turkey, some sell gluten-free products but the prices are excessive. Our cooks at the office keep preparing gluten-heavy meals, my workplace is in a bit of secluded place so it's hard to find anything else... on top of it, I also stopped eating processed foods which, combined with GF diet, makes it really hard for me to gain weight and I can't maximize the benefits of working out because of it... didn't wanna risk eating any fruits other than bananas either. So basically, all I mostly eat these days are, chicken & bananas. I drink a glass of optimum nutrition protein powder after working out but that's it. Dont know what else to eat :(

@ solitudent..... Do you tolerate nuts / seeds well? If so that may provide a great solution. They are very calorie dense, nutrient dense ( mineral content / decent amount of protein / healthy fats ), are definitely gluten free, usually affordable, and they tend to keep well and not spoil quickly. Almonds, cashews, sunflower seeds, etc. might be something for you to try. Would also recommend eating a lot of eggs if you tolerate them well. Very high quality protein, nutrient and calorie dense, and also dirt cheap.