POZ Community Forums
Meds, Mind, Body & Benefits => Questions About Treatment & Side Effects => Topic started by: petsu on December 15, 2006, 11:53:46 pm
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Why have I passed the 200 mark? I was like 155 (5'11") when diagnosed 4 years ago and have been eating the same and just as active since. Now I need to "work" down to 175? Any ideas on this?
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I don't know if you are on meds or not, but my docs have told me that lipodystrophy can mean any adding of fat as well as loss of body fat. This can happen as a result of HIV only, not just from meds. As for the meds, I gained 30- count 'em 30 lbs in three months when I first started taking combivir and kaletra. It has come off again, but I still find my weight is subject to more sudden fluctuation now than before...up or down, regardless of any change (or lack thereof) in diet. Sometimes, I seem to bloat up for a few weeks for now discernable reason.
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I wish I had answers to this one myself. I was on the same cocktail for nearly five years, then my meds turned on me and I was hospitalized with rhabdomyolysis. This is that “rare but serious side effect” that you hear about on cholesterol drug commercials. This condition seemed to trigger the lipodystrophy and I ballooned up from 165 to 220 pounds! I didn't have a chance to go through different sizes of pants. I just went from 33” to 38” seemingly over night.
This happened to me in 2001, and shortly after I was put on a drug holiday for 15 months. My doctor warned me that the weight may not come off, and it didn't. I went through big bouts of depression since I watched my body morph into that of a stranger's and I took on physical characteristics that I found very unattractive. It's now been over 5 years and I have never been able to get below 200 pounds.
If there is anything positive to all of this, I have found that I now look at others with a far less critical eye. I don't ever expect to look the way I used to, but hey, I tested positive in 1985 and the doctor told me that I wouldn't live to see 40, and I'm now 54. LOL!
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Helpful... Thanks guys!
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I don't know if you are on meds or not, but my docs have told me that lipodystrophy can mean any adding of fat as well as loss of body fat. This can happen as a result of HIV only, not just from meds. As for the meds, I gained 30- count 'em 30 lbs in three months when I first started taking combivir and kaletra. It has come off again, but I still find my weight is subject to more sudden fluctuation now than before...up or down, regardless of any change (or lack thereof) in diet. Sometimes, I seem to bloat up for a few weeks for now discernable reason.
LOL, this has been one of my Biggest concerns. At first some of my body issues flew out the window and then I got involved in a relationship with a negative partner. Anyways, I gained like 30lbs. I was stunned when I peaked out at 190. I'm not on any of the HIV meds, but I think the fatigue I had and the lousy boyfriend were the primary factors to that weight gain. I hate working out, but I immediately took action and started a diet. I've changed my eating habits back to what they once were and I've lost 20lbs in about a month and a half with no exercise whatsoever. I am not starving myself, but I have cut out eating fast foods and incorporated tons of fresh and frozen vegtables in everything I cook.
I'm back to 170 and have my 30/31" waist back. I joke with people that I've recently lost 220lbs. 200 was the ex and the other 20 was my improved diet. I still want to loose another 10 so I have some leverage but I start looking a bit skinny at 160.
Seriously, I have heard some people claim weight gain or loss from various meds, but I know my energy level shot up when I ditched all the processed crap and lost that extra baggage. I do have a new view on how I see others as well because I know it's more difficult on others.
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God! Sometimes I feel like I am ballooning up like that blueberry eatin' girl from 'Willy Wonka'! Then again, people started to freak about me just this past summer when I dropped a good 20 lbs. with a quickness. Personally, I found the timing to be quite fortunate! ("HIV...Lose weight now! Ask me how!" Yeesh...)
I am on the upward turn again, dammit! Though I am not sure how much is HIV and how much is the:
Hog
Indulging
Visciously
...from Halloween right through this very day. Treats are left and right, so I am not sure if I can still play the side effect card. Better hold that hand for now.
Tim
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God! Sometimes I feel like I am ballooning up like that blueberry eatin' girl from 'Willy Wonka'! Then again, people started to freak about me just this past summer when I dropped a good 20 lbs. with a quickness. Personally, I found the timing to be quite fortunate! ("HIV...Lose weight now! Ask me how!" Yeesh...)
I am on the upward turn again, dammit! Though I am not sure how much is HIV and how much is the:
Hog
Indulging
Visciously
...from Halloween right through this very day. Treats are left and right, so I am not sure if I can still play the side effect card. Better hold that hand for now.
Tim
HA HA. Tim you're funny!
So many people seem to loose there sense of humor with this diagnosis and I have made a point of not being around them. I don't need anyone dragging me down with em.
If I'm at a holiday party I make sure to take something healthy so I don't have too many drinks and start eating all the carbs and crap everyone else does.
But I was horrified when I gained so much weight. I was like what the Hell? Having HIV and being chuncky for me is like the equivelant of being a fat crack ho ;) Luckily, I gain weight proportionately, but my cholesterol was leaning to borderline high as well as my blood pressure. I'm certain those levels have to be back to low now.
It does take some will power, but nothing like seeing your ex find all the pounds you lost to keep you going : )
But, I gotta say, you're a handsome devil so I'm certain a couple pounds here and there are not going to keep people from asking you out!
Wesley
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Can I make a confession? When I first started on the old Kaletra, there was this little devil part of me that shrieked inside:
"Hot Diggity Damn! Fried chicken wings & cheesburgers, tater tots, with a chocolate chip cookie dough shake to wash it down!"
(burp fart scratch burp again)
Hell, I was so laid out from that med stuff that I needed to wash myself with a rag on a stick anyway...so I took the concept of comfort food to a whole, new level. It was also the only way to stave off the nausea- by staying full as a tick 'bout to fall off the dawg.
The formulation has since changed. The nausea is long gone. There's really no excuse but gluttony now.
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Useful reading
i-Base: lipodystrophy overview (http://www.i-base.info/guides/side/lipodystrophy.html)
Plus 5 more pages:
Fat loss (lipatrophy) (http://www.i-base.info/guides/side/loss.html)
Fat accumulation (http://www.i-base.info/guides/side/gain.html)
Cholesterol and triglycerides (http://www.i-base.info/guides/side/triglycerides.html) <<< most important
Increased blood-sugar levels and risk of type-2 diabetes (http://www.i-base.info/guides/side/sugar.html)
Heart disease (http://www.i-base.info/guides/side/heart.html)
- matt
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Wesley, thanks for the compliment!
Speaking of handsome devils...Hi, Newt!
Hmmm...newt's avatar says, "Now in widescreen."
I'm still hoping to hold out for 3-D.
Newt, meet Wesley...another handsome devil.
(Hey! Would ya look at me? Speaking of things getting suddenly fatter...!)
~+
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I quit smoking when I was diagnosed pos, and ballooned up to 190, and I have never, ever been a gym rat...always thin, and toned, and the weight went right to my stomach.
So I am not sure if to blame the meds or the non-smoking, but I am currently at 173, and feel better..I just stopped the soda (or pop for us midwest guys) and stopped the snacking, and cut back on candy at work.
Basicslly watch what I eat.
Well good luck and happy Holidays to all!
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I was stunned- STUNNED by how fast those first pounds landed on me! I have never ballooned that fast before or since! Even my sweatpants were getting tight on me then. Seriously, it felt like Mu-Mu time was fast appoaching.
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I quit smoking when I was diagnosed pos, and ballooned up to 190, and I have never, ever been a gym rat...always thin, and toned, and the weight went right to my stomach.
So I am not sure if to blame the meds or the non-smoking, but I am currently at 173, and feel better..I just stopped the soda (or pop for us midwest guys) and stopped the snacking, and cut back on candy at work.
Basicslly watch what I eat.
Well good luck and happy Holidays to all!
LOL, I have not quit smoking for fear of this weight gain. Maybe I should lop off another 20lbs to be prepared for that : )
Tim, you make a cute cow! ;)
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Moo. :)
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Hunter, I agree,when on PI's eating food was often the only way to keep nausea at a mininum. I had to keep my stomach full. Then you find out you can't eat food,cause instead of getting fat in the usual places it goes to your neck or back.
I am on prezista,truvada,norvir now and for some reason there is no nausea. Waiting for it to start. Fuck it,went to cheesecake factory last night and had an orgy with some coconut cream cheescake. at my age its better than sex or should I say having sex with me.
A dietician told me several years ago that PI's inhibit the bodys ability to break down carbs by as much as 30%.
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Hello Petsu,
After my 30 pound weight drop ( from late 2002-2003--170lbs down to 140lbs.) It came back very fast after starting on meds. It also was distrributed fairly evenly. The highest weight( since starting meds) was 182 pounds, but I have been stabilized now at 172 pounds. Still over what I would like to be, but I will gladly hang on to this weight for now. Plus, the excess, it's all mostly in the gut right now.
Ray
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HIV buggers your fat metabolism and makes you use more calories. Starting treatment restores a certain balance to your need for energy but also changes the way the virus affects how your body deals with fats. Plus the meds themselves influence fats. Often this means weight gain, and, as is well known, for some people clinical lypodystrophy.
- matt
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any extra weight ya got lying round send it my way! what got me to the doc for a test was going from 165lbs to 119lbs in a year w/ no changes in diet. people were whispering behind my back how bad i looked. when i started meds i gained ten pounds like zap and i was like thank god. now for some reason reason i cant get over 140lbs and i can gain or lose 5lbs in 2 days. have u ever noticed when they have hiv people on t.v. making a comment about this or that there overweight?
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Gads! I'm about to go weigh myself in a few minutes, and I'm halfway scared to do so! And like I said, I know deep down that I can't totally blame anything on meds this go around...cuz I have been the very definition of a holiday hog! My goodness, the staggering amount of good vittles (that's hick for food) that have been at arm's reach for weeks on end now. I do notice, though, that periodically I can just ''tell'' that my body is not metabolizing the same way and I am bloating a bit. It comes in waves, with a return to skinny minny coming back around within a few weeks / a month or so.
I got the double whammy this time, though...cuz even though I could tell I wasn't metabolizing fast, I did not let that bothersome fact stop me from gorging. My base weight is about 160...plus or minus 5 lbs. I suspect I am teetering in the 170-175 range at the moment. We shall see...yipes!
The good news is that my gain/lose cycle has corresponded well so far with the seasons. A little more around the middle for winter, followed by a nice drop in time for swimsuit season. Let's hope that trend continues in the new year...
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I think I hit the "mu-mu" stage but am working to "un-mu" myself. I too found myself plumping up at a alarming rate.