Steroid dependent

Cranio97

Hi.I’m a 53 year old woman who is hypopituitary. So I’m steroid dependent. I’m having trouble losing weight. Any suggestions for reducing belly fat (aptly named “the cortisol roll”?

Cheesy567

I’m on long-term steroids too for medical reasons, and have been slowly losing weight, down about 95lbs now. It’s still comes down to a calorie deficit for us, but how we manage the cravings caused by steroids might be different than others. You might ask your endocrinologist if something like a low-carb diet would be safe of effective for you; that helped me when I was on 60mg of pred a day. Now that I’m on a lower dose and the cravings aren’t as bad, I don’t need to be as diligent about it and actually do better on a slightly more liberal carb limit, but still lower than the standard American diet. However, my primary medical condition doesn’t manage the electrolyte shifts of something as tight as a keto diet, although others with my disease do just fine on that. Everyone varies.

As far as spot-reducing belly fat, there’s no magic bullet. Reducing body fat overall will help. If you’re able to safely exercise and work on building muscle mass, that will help too; however, talk to your doctors as steroids affect your bones and muscles so they might have some advice with safe exercises to start with for you.