CPAP Use and Weight Gain

Naneki56
Naneki56 Posts: 2 Member
edited November 2021 in Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
As recently as July, I had lost 35 pounds and while I still have weight to lose, I had kept that 35 pounds off for over a year. I began using a CPAP machine about 10 weeks ago. I have been very successful with the machine and my apnea events are now in the normal range. However, I am gaining weight at an alarming rate! I haven't changed anything else and I have gained back 18 pounds! I joined a CPAP Facebook group and while many others have experienced the same issue, no one has a solution. None of the things I did before to lose weight are working. Has anyone here experienced this? What have you done to lose weight while using a CPAP? My doctor is just telling me to keep eating well and exercising. Ideas?

Replies

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  • daniwilford
    daniwilford Posts: 1,030 Member
    I too use a CPAP. Started April 2014. I did not gain a significant amount of weight when I started using it. In March 2015, I started to eat less and move more, still using the CPAP and am down over 51 pounds. I agree that logging, tracking carefully and using a food scale is the best way to lose the weight. Since the CPAP doesn't add anything to your body but water vapor and you are likely not decreasing your activity with it's use, the only factors that could influence weight gain would be increased appetite or more awake time to be eating. Either way the solution has to come by way of eating fewer calories.
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,603 Member
    Weigh gain and loss is not something I've heard anyone complain about when it comes to BiPAP or CPAP. They say they have lots more energy, but don't generally put it to use by exercising, lol.

    If you're confident that you've done absolutely nothing differently, call the doctor about this unexplained weight gain. Start logging your food and exercise, too. You want to be sure that it isn't that you're overeating.
  • Naneki56
    Naneki56 Posts: 2 Member
    Thanks for your thoughts. I am logging food and exercise beginning today. I'm mostly concerned because I googled CPAP + weight gain and it seems very common. I love my CPAP and had heard it helped to lose weight, so I was shocked to find otherwise. I will keep at it and hope it will turn around.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    I read the opposite also. The sleep deprivation pre-CPAP results in raised cortisol levels and high blood pressure. I did not note a weight gain from CPAP, but I did when I moved to a higher elevation.
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  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    I don't understand how a machine that helps you sleep can cause weight gain. It doesn't involve any medication, right?
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  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    I was losing weight before getting a CPAP last dec and have continued to lose weight since. There is a difference between correlation "CPAP users gain weight," (and I'm not saying that's true) and causation "CPAP use causes people to gain weight." (Which is NOT TRUE). If there is a correlation then likely it's related to other lifestyle issues. Focus on accurate logging and getting more activity and see what happens. Glad the CPAP is helping your sleep.
  • moto450
    moto450 Posts: 334 Member
    All a cpap or bipap does is blow air into your airway to keep it from closing off when sleeping when you're esophageal muscles relax. It couldn't have anything to do with whether weight is gained or lost. Has to be something else.
  • pstegman888
    pstegman888 Posts: 286 Member
    I wonder if some CPAP users inadvertently eat a little more because they are more alert & active during their waking hours. Possibly especially breakfast ... I know when I haven't slept well, I will just slog around in a daze in the morning and have no appetite, but if I get a good night's sleep, my stomach is awake and ready to eat an early breakfast.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    pstegman888 wrote: »
    I wonder if some CPAP users inadvertently eat a little more because they are more alert & active during their waking hours. Possibly especially breakfast ... I know when I haven't slept well, I will just slog around in a daze in the morning and have no appetite, but if I get a good night's sleep, my stomach is awake and ready to eat an early breakfast.

    I'm the opposite.. If I've had a crappy sleep then I'm hungrier than normal the next day. It's like my body is craving extra energy from food.

  • shellyau2014
    shellyau2014 Posts: 1 Member
    I commenced on the CPAP in Nov 2014. Initially had so much more energy and was motivated to exercise - after being like a walking zombie for so long it felt amazing. resulted in small weight loss - mainly from the ability to exercise again..... now body just feels normal again, have lost that "zest" as body has become used to the "new normal". now having work hard to maintain motivation to exercise otherwise weight creeps straight back on again.
    I have found maintaining the logging and exercise the way to defeat it.
    Good Luck, glad the CPAP is helping you :)
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    pstegman888 wrote: »
    I wonder if some CPAP users inadvertently eat a little more because they are more alert & active during their waking hours. Possibly especially breakfast ... I know when I haven't slept well, I will just slog around in a daze in the morning and have no appetite, but if I get a good night's sleep, my stomach is awake and ready to eat an early breakfast.

    While I am personally hungrier when sleep deprived, I suspect that CPAP users who gain weight are indeed eating an extra meal or snack.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    Before I had my CPAP, I was more tired than I can even explain. It wasn't like "I have a baby who wakes me up three times a night tired." It was overwhelming bone weary physical and mental exhaustion. My weight loss effort started soon after getting it, but if I hadn't been trying on purpose to eat less, I can see where having a normal level of energy may have led me to eat more at that point.
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,603 Member
    A lot of people who use these machines are doing so because they're so fat that it interferes with their breathing while they sleep. So, since they were overeating before they started using the machines, it's no surprise that they're overeating after they get the machines, too.

    I'm not certain, but I think this weight gain when using a BiPAP or CPAP is more an issue of fat people getting fatter than it is an issue of the machine making people gain weight.
  • hekla90
    hekla90 Posts: 595 Member
    Cpap blows oxygen into your lungs not calories lol. It's coincidence, perhaps you have more energy to eat during the day.
  • allenpriest
    allenpriest Posts: 1,102 Member
    Kalikel wrote: »
    A lot of people who use these machines are doing so because they're so fat that it interferes with their breathing while they sleep. So, since they were overeating before they started using the machines, it's no surprise that they're overeating after they get the machines, too.

    I'm not certain, but I think this weight gain when using a BiPAP or CPAP is more an issue of fat people getting fatter than it is an issue of the machine making people gain weight.

    Well, no.

    There is a correlation for overweight and sleep apnea. But as expressed in another post, correlation is not causation. There is a genetic component to sleep apnea and there is a physical throat structure component. As my doc explained it is hard to keep weight down when you're so tired it is hard to exercise and when you are so tired you are eating sugar just to stay awake at work.

    After getting the CPAP I got rested, then I have had to break a lot of bad habits learned in order to keep myself awake and functioning while the sleep apnea was so bad. After learning a new lifestyle I've dropped 110 pounds +. But I still have sleep apnea.
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  • gothchiq
    gothchiq Posts: 4,590 Member
    Me too. 10 lb in 2 months. I am guessing that the CPAP somehow affected my appetite. I will be trying intermittent fasting to see if I can make this stop.
  • mjbnj0001
    mjbnj0001 Posts: 1,267 Member
    I've been on CPAP since 2000 (time flies! It was an unusual thing when I started). It did not cause weight gain. I *did* have weight gain in this period due to trauma (I was at WTC on 9-11), but I've taken a chunk of that off now using tools such as MFP which help track my eating and activities, and new activities such as cycling have been enabled due to my increased energy and focus.

    There are a number of CPAP users who experience bloating due to the air injection, but that resolves itself pretty quickly.

    When my sleeping was out of whack, so was my eating as a consequence. If anything, my experience of CPAP is that it is a help and a literal lifesaver.

    Good luck in your own journey.

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