Blood Pressure Med Question

gods_gal

My doctor has eased me off my blood pressure medicine this month. I took half a pill for 3 weeks and then on June 1 I stopped taking any. This past Tuesday night at Weight Watchers I was up 4 pounds. I was baffled because I certainly had not eaten that many calories and had lots of exercise that week.

The more I got to thinking about it, the more I thought it may be related to dropping the meds. Perhaps it was a diuretic and I'm retaining water? Anyway, just wondering if anyone else has has this happen and if so, how long did it take your body to get adjusted with the water weight?

Thanks so much!

TeddyBear47

A lot of blood pressure meds can be diuretics. You answered your own question. Do you feel bloated, are retaining water?

wftiger

What was the name of the pill? Many do have diuretics in them. You can try some natural diuretics, tea being one. That might help you get rid of some extra water.

My Dr. cut mine about 2 months ago from full to half. I still do retain a bit of water mostly when I overindulge on sodium for the day or when I don't drink as much tea as usual. If you keep your sodium in check then you shouldn't retain as much.

MCproptart

I am on Triamterine, 1/2 tab a day, and when I forget to take it, especially for 2 days in a row, my weight will jump up 2-5 pounds. By remembering to take it, drinking cranberry juice, and drinking lots of water (plus watching sodium), it takes 2-3 days of 1-2 pounds a day to get back to where I was before I forgot to take my pills.

I searched for this topic today just to see if I was the only one on here with this experience.

WinnerVictorious

My doctor has eased me off my blood pressure medicine this month. I took half a pill for 3 weeks and then on June 1 I stopped taking any. This past Tuesday night at Weight Watchers I was up 4 pounds. I was baffled because I certainly had not eaten that many calories and had lots of exercise that week.

The more I got to thinking about it, the more I thought it may be related to dropping the meds. Perhaps it was a diuretic and I'm retaining water? Anyway, just wondering if anyone else has has this happen and if so, how long did it take your body to get adjusted with the water weight?

Thanks so much!

Lisinopril/HCTZ is a diuretic. was that the med?

NaomiJFoster

Yeah, what the others have already said...it was very likely a diuretic. I'm on 30 mg Lisinipril, and in the warnings it says that users should NOT use additional diuretics.

Also, big congratulations on getting off the medication! That's one of my hopes in losing weight.

bridgelene

Congratulations on getting off BP meds with your doctor's guidance! That's fantastic

And uhhhh.....what medication was it? And what was the dose? That makes a big difference....can't really say unless have that bit of info.

And heads up - Lisinopril is not a diuretic itself, but an ACE inhibitor. That being said, it isn't uncommon for it to be prescribed as a combo med with HCTZ (hydrochlorothiazide) which IS a thiazide diuretic.....

NaomiJFoster

You're right. Shoot. You just can't take diuretics when you're using it. It messes it up.

BrotherBill913

Bump

ska41

I just recently came off of Lisinopril/HCTZ after taking it for 3 years. My blood pressure problems resolved pretty quickly when I started exercising and losing weight. (Yea!). However, I gained 8 pounds in the first day, and 6 more the day after! After discussions with my doctor and lots of research into the latest studies, I learned that I was experiencing rebound water retention. Quite common after stopping a diuretic. The two most recent studies show that patients continue to retain water, even slowly increasing over the first three weeks, then gradually lose almost all of the retained water weight over the second three weeks, returning to close to their original baseline weight before they stopped the meds. Continuing to drink plenty of water and lowering sodium intake during the six weeks (common sense) seemed to help most patients minimize the rebound effect.

My experience seemed to track the studies fairly well. I peaked at about 2 1/2 weeks (couldn't even get my new boots on my feet!), but the water started dropping off after that, and I not only returned to my baseline weight, I continued to drop fairly quickly beyond that for a while because I had continued to diet during that time period - I just couldn't see the results on the scale.

It was a bit demoralizing to lose all that ground so quickly, but I kept telling myself that it was just temporary and that it was all worth it to be off of medications. My trainer said that my energy would increase when I stopped taking blood pressure meds and he was right. Bonus!

janeybugs

Thank you so very much for posting this information. I got off of my meds two weeks ago and gained 7 pounds the first week. I was so depressed over the weight gain. I was trying everything to lose the weight. I tried a pure liquid diet for one day and still gained a pound (of course it was full of sodium because of the broth-big mistake). I spoke to a pharmacist about what to do and also to my doctor. Only my doctor said watch my sodium intake. Neither one of them gave me a time frame to work with. Then my husband saw how depressed I was about gaining weight and went looking on the internet for answers. He came across your post and read it to me. The information you shared REALLY helped me. I cut my sodium intake down to 300-600 (mg) per day and I'm drinking more water. At the moment my goal isn't to lose weight but to not gain any weight until my body adjusts to being off of my meds. From what you have said I have another week of bad water retention and then three more weeks after that to get the meds totally out of my system. Your post was just what I needed. I hate that my blood pressure has gone up a bit, my ankles and feet are swelling (as well as who knows what else is retaining water inside my body), weight is up and when the six weeks are over I'll be about 20 pounds behind where I want to be but as my husband said "you're off your meds."

redraidergirl2009

I feel like my bp med is making me retain water. I look very puffy and am always thirsty but don't go to the bathroom much for how much I drink. I am on linsinopril. I also have had zero luck losing weight on it for a year and before that, when I just but my cals a bit and exercise I lost weight normally. I am going to try and get off it and on something else or just off it completely because it defeats the purpose to taking it if my bp went up as my weight did over the years if I take some medicine that makes it impossible to lose weight then I'd never be off it.

janeybugs

I was on linsinopril for years and didn't try losing weight until the first part of February this year. I had no problems losing weight but I was also on a diuretic. I wouldn't recommend the diuretic though because when you stop taking it your body starts to retain water. What I did to start my weight lose while on my BP meds was to eat 1200 calories a day, never eat after 7pm and walk for 30min to an hour 5 X's per week. I lost enough weight that I started getting dizzy because my BP went to low. My doctor let me quit all of my meds at once (not a good idea. You should be weaned off of you meds in my opinion). I posted on May 10th about how depressed I was to have gained 7 pounds in a week. Well, it's 7 days later and I haven't put any more weight on in fact I'm now down the 7 pounds but I have fought to lose each pound! How I have done it is to keep my sodium intake to around 300 per day. If I hit the 300 I'm done eating for the day. I don't care if I still have some of my 1200 calories left. I don't eat after 6pm now but still drink water. I also increased my walking to 10,000 steps and some nights I do Dance Dance Revolution on my kids Playstation 2 or mow the lawn for more exercise. You can lose the weight being on linsinopril. Change what you are doing either food wise or exercise wise. Good luck. Don't give up.

redraidergirl2009

Less than 300 mg of salt a day? I am not sure that is possible or recommended. I am very particular about my exercise, walking doesn't cut it for me, I like to do cardio and recently started weights. I am going to try and he more consistent with it. I suck at working out in a schedule.

CkepiJinx

I was on lisiniprol for years, once I decided to lose weight itdid not inhibit me 68 lbs gone, after the first 40 my doctor cut my dose in half.
That being said different people have different side effects, talk to your doctor about your concerns, if you can show him/her you food diary from here, maybe they will see something else. Also drink plenty of water, when I don't drink enough water I retain fluid. Good luck!

My diary is open, I eat too much sodium daily but drinking water helps

janeybugs

It's hard to lose weight no matter what you do. Only doing 300mg of sodium has been tough. Sodium is in almost everything! Even fruits and veggies. I spoke to a cardiologist doctor friend about my sodium intake and he felt as long as I didn't stick with it for months that I would be fine. I'm only planning on staying low until June 6th. That will be the six week mark since getting off of my BP meds. I'm amazed at how much sodium is in things. Do talk to your doctor about how your body is reacting to the lisiniprol. Hopefully he can shed some light on it. CkepiJinx had a smart doctor that cut her dose in half. As you lose weight your BP will come back down and you can get off of the meds. I agree also to drink a lot of water. I'm trying to down at least 10 cups a day. I drink two cups before any meal and then I add more throughout the day.No matter what kind of exercise you do it has to be whatever you like. For me the more active I am the better my weight loss. I bought a fitbit to help track how much I walk/mow/dance per day. You can even combine it with myfitnesspal which is great. I no longer have to enter my exercise because it does it for me. Good luck. I hope your weight is now coming off.

JazmineYoli

Glad I found this post. I stopped taking my meds 2 weeks ago and gained 9lbs after loosing almost 50 since January. I was depressed at first, but realized it had to be because of the meds. I even did a triathlon on Saturday and it made no difference in my water retention. Usually I can sweat 3-4 lbs off.

lovemypooches

All of your postings have been helpful. I have been off of diuretics for 4 weeks and cut my sodium down to between 400-550 mg. a day ( I was doing 5x that amount). However, the rebound edema has not budged much at all except for a few pounds. I am very discouraged and my doctors are of no help. It would be helpful to hear any updates as to how long it took for all of the rebound edema weight you put on after stopping diuretics to come off. Some of you have said 6 weeks, but I can't imagine that in the next 2 weeks I am going to suddenly drop the 15 lbs. Did it happen like that for some of you? Did it take longer? Did it not come off and you had to go back on diuretics?
Thanks!
Dawn

meshashesha2012

if your pills contained hydrochlorothiazide then that's the one that helps with water retention.

definitely tell your doctor about it. it might just be a simple matter of getting more potassium

cking824

I just recently came off of Lisinopril/HCTZ after taking it for 3 years. My blood pressure problems resolved pretty quickly when I started exercising and losing weight. (Yea!). However, I gained 8 pounds in the first day, and 6 more the day after! After discussions with my doctor and lots of research into the latest studies, I learned that I was experiencing rebound water retention. Quite common after stopping a diuretic. The two most recent studies show that patients continue to retain water, even slowly increasing over the first three weeks, then gradually lose almost all of the retained water weight over the second three weeks, returning to close to their original baseline weight before they stopped the meds. Continuing to drink plenty of water and lowering sodium intake during the six weeks (common sense) seemed to help most patients minimize the rebound effect.

My experience seemed to track the studies fairly well. I peaked at about 2 1/2 weeks (couldn't even get my new boots on my feet!), but the water started dropping off after that, and I not only returned to my baseline weight, I continued to drop fairly quickly beyond that for a while because I had continued to diet during that time period - I just couldn't see the results on the scale.

It was a bit demoralizing to lose all that ground so quickly, but I kept telling myself that it was just temporary and that it was all worth it to be off of medications. My trainer said that my energy would increase when I stopped taking blood pressure meds and he was right. Bonus!

Thank you for this information. This has truely helped.
Thanks,
Carey

Conniez12

Thank you for posting this topic. I came off lisinopril a week ago and ave had a weight gain of a pound a day consistently. It doesn't matter what I eat or don't eat. Once the body adjusted did the weight come off with your normal exercise routine or did you have to increase your exercise routine?

sgriska

This topic is obviously long-dead, but I just wanted to express how thankful I am for all the great shared info in these forums, given what a relative dearth there seems to be elsewhere -- lots of articles/studies mention rebound edema as a thing that happens, but not much for the nuts and bolts of what to expect in terms of how quickly it might resolve.

I was taken off HCTZ three weeks ago and have gained weight and having trouble getting it to budge in spite of more than doubling the amount I've been walking every day (10,000 steps to ~22,000), being careful to avoid sodium, etc. But, it sounds from this thread like this should start turning around pretty soon for me, so I'm glad. So long as I know in a few more weeks things should start moving again, I'll be fine. It's so frustrating to be doing "everything right" and have nothing working out as it should!

cheryldumais

I experienced the same thing. Definately your body's way of responding to a change in medication. It will level off and start dropping eventually.