Antibiotics and Weight Gain - How Long to Lose?

Nessaleesee

Like most people, I restarted my fitness plan right before the beginning of the year and I've been doing well. I lost about 4 pounds in 2-3 weeks, and maintained the -4 loss for about a week. Then I came down with a sinus infection this week. I didn't feel bad enough not to work out though (pressure rather than congestion), so I kept doing my daily thing at the gym and I've had a healthy deficit of 500-700 calories per day this week. However, on Wednesday, I started on Augmentin, Mucinex, and some steroidal nasal sprays - and in the two days since then, I've gained three pounds. Not happy.

I was completely dejected and baffled - then I read some posts about others' experiences on antibiotics and realized that it has to be water retention (right???). My question is for others who have experienced this before - was it really just water weight? How quickly did you lose it after you stopped taking antibiotics? Any tips for counteracting the effect or should I just keep going hard at the gym and maintaining my daily deficit? And how did you keep from being totally and completely disappointed when you weigh yourself? I don't want to stop weighing myself for a week because I feel like I'll be tempted to fall out of the habit - but it sure is depressing seeing the numbers go up when I've been working so hard every day.

jcorpern

Actually, it's likely that it's not the antibiotics that have affected you. It's far more likely to be the steroidal nasal spray. Corticosteroids are derived from the hormone cortisone. They cause water retention and alter the body's metabolism causing increased fat stores.