I Want To Stop Gaining Weight

[jaimi alderson]

I am gluten-free for 3.5 weeks now & have gained all of my lost weight back plus a pound. That was too fast! I was happy with the ten pounds I lost! Now I am freaking out that I have gained 11 pounds in 3 weeks! That must be off a little but still holy cow! I have this body type I have read others speaking of-larger belly with flat rear & skinny arms & ankles. I am tired of my big belly & I lost an inch off of it when I was sick but what do you know that inch is back right where it was. My son is 16 months old & I do not want this huge un-pregnant tummy to get any bigger! I guess I should start by eliminating Pamela's brownies? It is hard to get used to all the things I can not eat but I guess it is obvious I am not going to be able to eat all I want to of what we are allowed to. Any advice? No time to exercise with a 4yo & a 1yo & 2 businesses!!!!!!!

[Ursa Major]

Well, you sound like me. I cannot tolerate any grains, and ALL starches make me gain weight. I eat anything starchy only as an occasional treat (once a week max, usually less), as it makes me gain weight instantly. As long as I stay away from starches, I keep losing weight.

So, you might not be able to have all those tasty gluten free treats, that are substitutes for all the gluteny baked goods! As you said yourself, cut out those yummy brownies and stick to basic foods!

[plantime]

gluten-free flours are much higher in calories, so you just cannot eat as much if you don't want to gain weight. The yummy brownies would be a good place to start cutting back, since they do not have much nutritional value.

[VydorScope]

I am gluten-free for 3.5 weeks now & have gained all of my lost weight back plus a pound. That was too fast! I was happy with the ten pounds I lost! Now I am freaking out that I have gained 11 pounds in 3 weeks! That must be off a little but still holy cow! I have this body type I have read others speaking of-larger belly with flat rear & skinny arms & ankles. I am tired of my big belly & I lost an inch off of it when I was sick but what do you know that inch is back right where it was. My son is 16 months old & I do not want this huge un-pregnant tummy to get any bigger! I guess I should start by eliminating Pamela's brownies? It is hard to get used to all the things I can not eat but I guess it is obvious I am not going to be able to eat all I want to of what we are allowed to. Any advice? No time to exercise with a 4yo & a 1yo & 2 businesses!!!!!!!

OKay slooooooooooow down. Start with cutting out all "treats" (SHORT TERM), and reduce the size of your meals. Do not skip meals, just back of the porptions a bit. Repalce some of the treats with fruits and veggiest. Apples are great, while they are high in sugar, they also tend to have negative calories (meaning they take more colories to digest then they provide). What your trying to do here is find a "normal" level of eating for you. Back off till you start losing then slow add till your stable. Once you find that point and get used to it you will find occasionaly eating brownies wont hurt. Eating them 4 times a day prbly will.

[CMCM]

If you're like me, at first you were feeling sorry for yourself about having celiac and looking for all sorts of substitutions. Then I realized...WAIT....I didn't really eat all this stuff much before, why am I eating it now. Some of the great things I found....for example, the Kinnikinnick animal cookies which were great...the very first ingredient was SUGAR. So all these goodies are jam packed with sugar and a bunch of starches and alternate flours I'd never had before. Since I react strongly (huge insulin response) to sugar and starches, I basically don't eat them and I knew I had to avoid them for the last couple of years.

So the bottom line is, go back to healthful, moderate eating....lean meats, lots of veggies, good fruits, and make the baked goods a very very occasional indulgence, not an everyday thing to eat. And drink lots of water, stay away from the sodas. This is a better way for everyone to eat. Also, by avoiding the junky things your appetite isn't artificially boosted. Eating the good foods naturally limits how much you eat. Think about it: are you ever driven to over-eat a plate of chicken and veggies? Yet you could easily eat a thousand or more extra calories with cake, pies, donuts, brownies, etc.

It's one of the mean tricks of the universe that the sweets are bad for us and make us gain weight!

[pinkpei77]

ill have to say for me that my first 9 months of being gluten-free i gained 36 lbs.

and i had lost 10 before that.. and i was sooo upset.. i didnt even feel like i was eating much more than pre-gluten-free ..sometimes even less.

then after the first year i stopped gaining weight and ive now lost 14 lbs .

the nutrionist i saw said that was normal from being sick before hand and then after going gluten-free my body was over-absorbing to make up from "starvation" mode my body was in before hand.

i was just beside myself wondering why i could fit in a pair of jeans one week and then not the next and couldnt figure it out and then it fianlly just stopped

so i hope its the same for you!!

[Nancym]

If you're like me, at first you were feeling sorry for yourself about having celiac and looking for all sorts of substitutions. Then I realized...WAIT....I didn't really eat all this stuff much before, why am I eating it now.

LOL! I did exactly the same thing. Then I found out I have a disease that requires me to have a low-starch diet in addition to gluten free. So now that I'm seriously eating meat, veggies and fruits, and little else, I'm losing weight.

[pturse]

I can totally sympathize. I've gained 15 lbs in 2 months and none of my clothes fit! I am usually one to not go by the scale and to judge by how my clothes fit . . . well now they don't.

I admit, I panicked and went off the diet for about 4-5 days. Don't know what I was expecting . . . maybe for the weight to magically "disappear."

It hasn't. I "feel" fine but my stomach did start the usual 5 month pregnancy bloat look.

I don't eat much "gluten free" foods and I am cutting down on sugar . . . but I sure hope everyone is right about the body eventually "settling" because I seriously can't afford (and don't want to buy) a whole new wardrobe!

[VegasCeliacBuckeye]

Your body will naturally gain some weight back as it is finally getting a healthy dose of calories again.

With regards to diet and weight gain, its pretty simple.

Your body type (height and weight) has a finite number of calories it can handle per day. If you exceed that amount, you will gain weight. If you do not reach that amount, you will lose weight (assuming you are not "starving" your body, which causes it to not lose weight).

Healthy exercise and a nutritional/balanced diet will always do the trick (exxcet for the 5% of people with "glndular issues").

I know you think you have "no time", but there has to be 20-30 minutes in there somewhere to ride the bike/jog/power walk/etc.

Nothing in your life is more important than your body/health. If you don't have that, you don't have the other things in life anyway.

My recommendation is to

1. Eat smaller portion size meals (3 meals and 2 snacks) -- When I say snack, I mean veggies, fruits, etc.

2. Find 20-30 minutes somewhere in your day to exercise (its unhealthy not to)

3. Give yourself a break (this stuff is hard, especially at first).

[elonwy]

Oh my goodness, digressing completely, but pturse your kitty looks EXACTLY like my cat Tulip. So cute!

I too, put on a bunch of weight right away, but mostly because I was pigging out on things like brownies and cookies, which I never really ate while eating gluten, but I got these mental cravings, not physical hunger, and tried every gluten free thing I could get my hands on and started to eat sooo much. Now I'm back to healthy foods and only have treats sometimes. I'm back to a "normal" weight and try to do my best not to eat for my moods. I get this thing where I start to feel like I can't have stuff so I eat gluten free junk foods to make up for my "need". Bad head space. I'm a big fan of tangerines as a snack right now. yummy, tiny and individually wrapped.

Elonwy

[pturse]

Yeah, he's my little "baby." His name is Jack. He's a Hemmingway cat . . . 6 toes on every single paw . . . but still he has absolutely no balance!

[Guest SusieQ]

I've been gluten free for about 3 and 1/2 months now. I had a weight problem before the dx. Just couldn't seem to get the weight down. I have a dx. of fibromyalgia and also hypothyroidism, and injured knee.

Now that I'm gluten free, the fibromyalgia pain is diminishing and my appetite has normalized. I've lost 8 lbs in the past three weeks. I am working at it, but I worked at it before and didn't lose anything!

My daughter told me about a web site that she is using to track her calories and I love it. it is the slim fast web site. You can enter what you have eaten all day long and get back a total of calories, protein, carbohydrate, total fat, saturated fat and so on. It is keeping me focused. (anyone know of any similar web sites?) Also, at the end of the day when I come home from work, once i enter what I've eaten for the day, I can see how many calories I have left for dinner and one more snack. It is keeping me from over eating at night.

I haven't used any of the slim fast products, but think i probably will start using something once in a while just because I'm using their web site. A lot of their products have gluten in them, but they do have some gluten free products.

After entering your height and weight, they give you a target range. Mine is 1,500. Actually, I'm trying to stay at about 1,400 or so. I'm eating a lot of fish, vegetables, fruits, oatmeal. Fish and chicken without skin is only about 35 calories an oz. Just a generally healthy diet. There is a place for snacks to be recorded too, and I find that having something to eat between meals helps. So, I include low calorie items such as low fat yogurt or low fat popcorn.

This morning, I'm cheering because I've lost another pound. It is going to take me a long time to get the weight off that I've gained over the years when I'd been so sick from symptoms, and pain, fatigue, but now I know it is going to come off. I don't think I'd be getting this weight off if I was still eating gluten. Didn't seem to matter what I did before I went gluten free.

Also, my fibro pain is diminishing which is real exciting for me.

[TCA]

When I went gluten-free, I had just had a baby and I haven't lost ANYTHING since. I started trying to cut back on calories, and my milk production plummeted, so I decided I would diet after she is weaned. Now that my son is gluten-free, I try to cook higher fat meals for him since he had such a low wieght. He's a picky eater and I find myself cleaning up his leftovers because I hate to throw out those expensive foods!!! I guess I have a good dose of clean plate syndrome. For now I'm not worrying about weight, but see it as a big issue on the horizon!!!! when it was just me on the diet, I didn't buy the expensive replacements, but I'll do anything to just get him to eat. I hope I find a balance soon or I'll weigh more than both of us put together!

SusieQ - I saw that you're eating oats. I don't know if you realize it or not, but oats aren't necessarily good for celiacs. I know my daughter gets very ill with them. Just wanted to make sure you knew!

[smack]

ill have to say for me that my first 9 months of being gluten-free i gained 36 lbs.

and i had lost 10 before that.. and i was sooo upset.. i didnt even feel like i was eating much more than pre-gluten-free ..sometimes even less.

then after the first year i stopped gaining weight and ive now lost 14 lbs .

the nutrionist i saw said that was normal from being sick before hand and then after going gluten-free my body was over-absorbing to make up from "starvation" mode my body was in before hand.

i was just beside myself wondering why i could fit in a pair of jeans one week and then not the next and couldnt figure it out and then it fianlly just stopped

so i hope its the same for you!!

OMG that is eactly what happend to me! But it happened in six months!! In a six month period, I couldn't fit into any of my clothes, it caused me mild depression. I thought, Gee, I don't feel sick after eat anymore, my bloat is gone, I have more energy, now I'm just chunky - really chunky! People don't realize how much 35lbs is! After that I joined Weight Watchers and the gym (after my extreme celiac related lethargy diminished) lost it all and then some, I'm still on the program, but I use the core program now, meshes best with the gluten-free diet.

I don't eat gluten-free breads and keep gluten-free baked goods to a minimum, they are much higher in empty calories and usually contain a lot more fat to make them moister.

[Guest nikkisu83]

My body sucks now since I was diagnosed with Celiac this last October. They thought I had Crohns disease so they put me on steriods for 7 months and I gained a good 30 pounds. I was not getting any better so the doctor decided to do a blood test and I was positive. I was so excited to be eating what I thought would be healthy and now I am still heavy and even heavier. I cant starve myself but I was so happy before I was put on steriods. Lately I have wanted to start back on the "bad" food just so I could lose all this weight again and start all over maybe minus the steriods. I miss my body.... Its hard but... the dietician tries to keep my head up and in the mean time I get hospitalized. Whatever you do- do not go the diet pill way, our bodies cant handle it the way normal stomachs can. ( i learned the hard way!)

Nichole

[Warrior Woman]

I am still waitng to be confirmed with or without celiac- I am on my third gastro-doctor.

But after my biopsies, the idiot (aka 2nd doctor) told me he was checking for celiac. I never thought that a possiblity. So when I checked into it- I thought 'yeah, this must be it- the reason for all this illness'. For two weeks I stopped eating gluten. In those two weeks I lost 6.5 pounds beside feeling fantastic. And I need to lose 50 pounds. What did I eat?

I ate fruits, veggies, nuts, beans and lean meat. I started following Dr Fuhrman's Eat to Live but added the lean meat as well.

I have since gained it back because the idiot didnt do any blood work to compare to the 'normal' biopsies so I had to eat gluten (and feel sick again) for the tests. This time I am going to a doctor that diagnosed it for someone I work with. He appears to be up on the latest medical knowledge.

After this appointment I will be back on that 'diet' as well as gluten-free. Everytime I have done it, I have felt so freaking healthy.

Some links:

for a website that also you can also track calorie count, vitman intake, execise and more (and it is free)

www.fitday.com

Dr Fuhrman's website

www.drfuhrman.com

his book: Eat to Live

Because of celiac, there are a lot of things that can not be eaten. But one of the most important factors that I have learned is that to eat for health is one of the best things I can do for myself that will make life so much better in the long run. Sure, splurge once in a while, but that doesnt mean on a daily basis or that you DESERVE it. You deserve the best health to live the best life first and foremost. On Mother's Day I will be gluten free, but along with that I will be eating healthy.

Also, move. You dont have to have a gym membership or a structured workout. Just move when you can. It would be better to fit in a few minutes in the morning, een if it is just 10 minutes- go up and down the staircase for 10 minutes and you will get a workout! Plus I always fell so much better during the day when I workout in the morning.

Weight lose needs to be attacked from different angles- nutrition, exercise (movement), sleep, mental fitness and soundness. But dont be had on yourself. Focus on one thing until you feel comfortable and move on to the next. Maybe try eating a serving of veggies at every meal (fruit w/ b-fast) and then maybe two servings. At some point when that feels natural to do, wake up 5 minutes earlier and just walk in place while you are watching the news waiting for the coffee to brew.

This is a ife long adventure. Find out what works for you and continue to move forward to the next step to better health and fitness. Dont beat yourself up for making a mistake- we all do it. Just learn the lesson and move on

[Guest nikkisu83]

Thanks for the advice its just so hard to be for sure of what you can eat and ESPECIALLY drink. I was just hospitalized for a week because of this disease and as far as I know I eat correctly. So that blows my mind. I used to work out two times a day and was to the point where I had barely any body fat... now thats all I see anymore. But I have been eating healthier... my stomach shrank from not being aloud to eat for 4 days... today I went to the fruit market and bought fruit vegies... and nuts... and you were the one to reassure me.

Can I ask you....If you accidently eat something or splurdge does it always hurt? I found out that the Bacardi Raz I was drinking is malt... well... it never makes me sick and every time I go to a baseball game that is my choice of drink. Doesnt that not make sence? And did your doctor/dietician tell you that it was ok to have carmel color... I am so confused by this thing.

I completely agree about having stupid doctors though! Mine diagnosed me with the wrong disease forever and then banned me from my gym causing weight gain and then finally after thousands of dollars later diagnosis me correctly and I still get irritated.... I could just go on and on... my mind has completely changed and I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I am fatter than I used to be I feel like I am not attractive and it makes me aggressive when it comes to people stepping on my toes. It just seems to be affecting EVERYTHING. I will go to the two websites and check out the book also....it sounds like it could help. At this point I think anything will help. I just need something to push me to go work out again... I have a membership that I dont use....

Again thanks for the advice and stay in touch please. I need some sort of encouraging news that someone else is dealing with the same thing!

Nichole