IBS caused 20lb weight gain

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Wednesdae71
Wednesdae71 Posts: 5 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
IBS is a beast! Water retention, weight gain, and chronic bloating. Determined to win this battle! Exercise and diet!

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  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    IBS does not cause weight gain....excess calories do.
  • sixxpoint
    sixxpoint Posts: 3,529 Member
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    ^Correct. Stop blaming your condition for your weight gain.
  • gabrielleelliott90
    gabrielleelliott90 Posts: 854 Member
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    Think what OP means is it causes temporary weight gain.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    gabrielleelliott90 wrote: »
    Think what OP means is it causes temporary weight gain.

    That was covered under water retention...weight gain comes from one thing...excess calories...

    Agreed IBS can play games with your body but...that being said if you follow a reasonable deficit within your dietary guidelines there few issues....and weight gain isn't one of them...
  • Wednesdae71
    Wednesdae71 Posts: 5 Member
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    I've always enjoyed exercising and eating healthy. After two years of unexplained weight gain, gi discomfort, and several visits to doctors I finally was recently diagnosed. The bloating is so severe at times it causes limited mobility. I am determined to continue my quest of loosing the weight. I'm not the one to make weight gain excuses and now know how to approach my weight loss goal. Sometimes I feel like throwing in the towel at times.
  • hattie419
    hattie419 Posts: 10 Member
    edited May 2015
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    IBS is the worst, and it's brought on by stress - maybe it's the stress that's bringing down your weight loss efforts? I know that with IBS you should try to cut out any bread as much as possible, it really helps
  • cheshirecatastrophe
    cheshirecatastrophe Posts: 1,395 Member
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    hattie419 wrote: »
    IBS is the worst, and it's brought on by stress - maybe it's the stress that's bringing down your weight loss efforts? I know that with IBS you should try to cut out any bread as much as possible, it really helps

    Different things work for different people.

    If you want to work through FODMAPs/elimination diets, definitely do it with your doctor's guidance so you can do it properly.
  • sunnyside1213
    sunnyside1213 Posts: 1,205 Member
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    I thought I had IBS for 15 years. Could never be more than 20 feet from a bathroom. Then, I ran out of magnesium. I was cured the next day.
  • Wednesdae71
    Wednesdae71 Posts: 5 Member
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    My body was not processing nutrients properly. The condition impacted my metabolism and digestion. It was a very frustrating and depressing ordeal. I knew something was wrong when I reduced calories n continued to exercise and the weight kept increasing. I am happy now to have a medical regimen and wellness plan to effectively lose the weight. Some ibs suffers experience unexplained weight loss but that wasn't my case. Perhaps this isn't the platform for sharing my challenges and goals. I was seeking support and felt that this was a safe place to do so. I apparently made a terrible choice in sharing.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    Wednesdae71 wrote: »
    My body was not processing nutrients properly. The condition impacted my metabolism and digestion. It was a very frustrating and depressing ordeal. I knew something was wrong when I reduced calories n continued to exercise and the weight kept increasing. I am happy now to have a medical regimen and wellness plan to effectively lose the weight. Some ibs suffers experience unexplained weight loss but that wasn't my case. Perhaps this isn't the platform for sharing my challenges and goals. I was seeking support and felt that this was a safe place to do so. I apparently made a terrible choice in sharing.

    often times people are eating more than they think...due to poor estimation ability. Yes IBS can cause some weight gain but that is typically from water retention and constipation.

    There are boards here for specific medical conditions perhaps search for one of those would be better for you.

  • Wednesdae71
    Wednesdae71 Posts: 5 Member
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    Thanks Hattie419. I agree, stress is definitely a factor to IBS flares. Bread is not my friend. I appreciate the advice and understanding.
  • ihatetodietalways
    ihatetodietalways Posts: 180 Member
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    I had a lot of gastointestinal problems a couple of years back. I always had a lot of bloating and gas after eating vegetables, especially fresh salads. I cut out bread and starchy foods, for the most part. Then my symptoms went away. Seriously. I feel very lucky. As long as I keep to restricted starch, I am fine. However, weight loss takes time and effort.
  • mizzzc
    mizzzc Posts: 346 Member
    edited June 2015
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    I have the same problem. Back in november I was severely ill. Vomiting for 12 hours straight. Spent a week at home unable to eat/be a mother/work. since then I have had an "episode" about 1-2 times a month. My most recent episode was two weeks ago. When I visited my doctor he diagnosed me with IBS/Acid reflux. In that two weeks that have passed I have gained 6-7 pounds. I highly doubt my diet can cause that. I cant even button my pants up half the time because I am so damn bloated. I know the feeling and it is not a good motivator.

    Don't listen to people who try to blame you/your diet for the weight gain! Sometime when there actually is a real illness at play people on this forum jump to conclusions too soon. It is most likely water retention but when the water retention doesn't go away it is hard to keep your head up. When I am bloated now I eat a very plain diet (oatmeal, rice, potatoes, bananas, chicken.) It really helps.

    I hope you are able to get this under control. Good luck.
  • MimiMayRR
    MimiMayRR Posts: 19 Member
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    Look into the low FODMAPs diet. It was designed for IBS and also has helped some IBD sufferers (myself included)! I'm currently working on losing weight while following a low FODMAP diet.
  • ketorach
    ketorach Posts: 430 Member
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    I have IBS. I have found that fruit and gluten exacerbate my GI distress, so I don't eat those things. An elimination diet, under the supervision of a gastroenterologist or dietician, will probably benefit you. Finding out what made me feel lousy was a godsend. Good luck, OP.
  • lunamare
    lunamare Posts: 569 Member
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    Wednesdae71 wrote: »
    My body was not processing nutrients properly. The condition impacted my metabolism and digestion. It was a very frustrating and depressing ordeal. I knew something was wrong when I reduced calories n continued to exercise and the weight kept increasing. I am happy now to have a medical regimen and wellness plan to effectively lose the weight. Some ibs suffers experience unexplained weight loss but that wasn't my case. Perhaps this isn't the platform for sharing my challenges and goals. I was seeking support and felt that this was a safe place to do so. I apparently made a terrible choice in sharing.

    I've found that unfortunately there are a large number of unhelpful people on the boards lately. All they do is bash every single thread that is out there. I feel your pain. I was diagnosed with IBS and given misinformation by the first two doctors I dealt with that only made it worse. Through elimination I learned what my triggers were, but in the meanwhile, I gained weight because I was depressed and wasn't eating low fat or working out regularly. It's a difficult battle to balance the two when every weightloss advice article you read tells you to eat something that makes you sick. The nutritionist I worked with suggested the FODMAP diet which helped me. It's not 100% do this and you'll be fine. There are many things listed as "bad" in FODMAP that don't trigger my symptoms. It's very personal and you need to work your way through it. I wish you lots of luck!

  • tomatoey
    tomatoey Posts: 5,446 Member
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    cheshirecatastrophe wrote: »
    hattie419 wrote: »
    IBS is the worst, and it's brought on by stress - maybe it's the stress that's bringing down your weight loss efforts? I know that with IBS you should try to cut out any bread as much as possible, it really helps

    Different things work for different people.

    If you want to work through FODMAPs/elimination diets, definitely do it with your doctor's guidance so you can do it properly.

    That's ideal, but if your doctor isn't so helpful (like mine, whose advice was limited to "more fiber" - yeah ok, guess what, some fiber makes things worse), you can still learn at least a little about your triggers on your own.

    It only took a couple of weeks loosely following this elimination diet (for my type of IBS - here's another diet for another kind of IBS) to work out that some fruits, pasta and bread definitely make things worse.
  • firstsip
    firstsip Posts: 8,399 Member
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    Wednesdae71 wrote: »
    My body was not processing nutrients properly. The condition impacted my metabolism and digestion. It was a very frustrating and depressing ordeal. I knew something was wrong when I reduced calories n continued to exercise and the weight kept increasing. I am happy now to have a medical regimen and wellness plan to effectively lose the weight. Some ibs suffers experience unexplained weight loss but that wasn't my case. Perhaps this isn't the platform for sharing my challenges and goals. I was seeking support and felt that this was a safe place to do so. I apparently made a terrible choice in sharing.

    So, the first part of your statement is absolutely correct -- certain conditions absolutely can not process nutrients correctly, IBS being one of them, certain hormonal conditions, allergies, intolerances, etc.

    The issue here is that, these conditions result in malnutrition, or lack of nutrients -- that could certainly cause water retention (IBS with constipation being a big cause of that), not a miraculous gain of fat. I'm definitely in the boat of aberrations when it comes to metabolic processes, and tend to avoid these types of threads because you have so many people who (with good reason) don't know the intricacies of certain medical conditions and how they impact weight. Yours just doesn't make sense, though, even with that -- your weight could be impacted because your metabolism has slowed and you didn't compensate, you're retaining a great deal of water (which can definitely happen -- I don't think people realize how much water one can retain due to medical conditions, which reflects in how you look and what the scale says) and in both those cases, constipation would play a huge rule. But in terms of "processing nutrients" properly, you'd gain (fat) weight if you were OVER processing them, not under processing them.

    In terms of "safe space," are you looking for places where your word and scientific claims will be accepted completely without question? That doesn't sound like a "safe space"-- it sounds like a "yes" man group.

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