Weight Gain

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Hello everyone,

Figured I would come here an see if anyone has some ideas as to my recent rapid weight gain (or is it?). In any event, let me first start off by indicating I have MS and psoriatic arthritis. I also want to note that I ride a mountain bike about 6 days a week and put on roughly 100 miles a week trail riding. We are talking roughly 17 miles a day. If I spend time on my road bike, those 100 miles can balloon up to 200 easy (not huge into the road bike, but I occasionally spend some days on it). With that, my neurologist has been having me see all kind of specialists, rheumatologist, nephrologist, urologist, etc. My complaints over the last 6-8 months have been water retention and pain. The pain portion has been solved by the psoriatic arthritis issues. The water retention has yet to be explained. My doctors also cannot explain my extreme uncontrollable thirst which has gone into overdrive since January, 2018. My main concern is that when I saw my urologist on June 15, 2018 I weighed in at 164 lbs. On July 5th, I weighed in at 177 with my neurologist. My scale at home agrees. Any ideas as to what this is? I don't eat more than 2000 calories a day. There are days where I do kind of get a little off track, but nothing that would have me gain 13 pounds in 20ish days. The problem I have is that my doctors indicate I should increase water and salt. I am getting back on track with tracking my diet just to make sure nothing is out of sorts there, but everything is the same.
Thanks

Replies

  • NextRightThing714
    NextRightThing714 Posts: 355 Member
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    Is it caused by the water retention? So sorry you're having trouble, but this is a question best suited for a doctor.
  • stealtharsenal
    stealtharsenal Posts: 10 Member
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    I would agree with you in terms of speaking with a doctor. This is something I have already done and have gotten no where. Its one of those things where they don't want to be bothered.
  • NextRightThing714
    NextRightThing714 Posts: 355 Member
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    If you're certain that you're accurately measuring your intake, I would just wait and see if the water weight drops off. Are you using a food scale? An increase in sodium can also cause water retention.
  • janeo150
    janeo150 Posts: 11 Member
    edited July 2018
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    Are you on any new medications? Check side effects carefully. Some include rapid weight gain. This happened to me a few years ago. I put on a lot of weight very quickly. I was eating exactly the same and getting the same amount of exercise but gaining weight like a freight train. When I switched medications, the weight gain stopped.
  • mph323
    mph323 Posts: 3,565 Member
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    13 lbs in 20 days is going to be virtually all water weight if you haven't changed your exercise or eating patterns (keep in mind 1 lb of fat equals 3500 calories). That's an alarming amount if you haven't seen this type of retention before. I would certainly follow the doctor's direction regarding salt and water and see if that helps, but if you don't see improvement soon I would push on the doctor to investigate further. That's really not normal, and the doctor shouldn't dismiss it.
  • stealtharsenal
    stealtharsenal Posts: 10 Member
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    Hello,

    I am very certain on intake. In hours alone last evening I drank 2 liters. Only new medication is flomax (it should be noted that all of these predated that medication change. I also don't see any side effects that would cause this. In actuality, it should help with my water retention. . My urologist performed a bladder pressure test done a month or so ago to check things and that's when I was prescribed flomax.

    @mph323

    I agree with you that it is an alarming amount. I mean I have seen retention in the 6 maybe 7 pounds realm a few times, but nothing like that before. I did increase my salt intake some more, but I feel like that has just put this thirst issue into more overdrive. I woke up this morning and weight in at 176.5 so things are relatively the same. I did some accurate measuring of food intake yesterday just to fact check myself. My caloric intake was 1060. I put in a 2.25 hour mountain bike ride (20 miles) in trail. The trails here in North Jersey are nothing short of rock and hill climbs to give you perspective. Very vigorous right that I typically maintain a 10-12 mph average. Then about 5 hours or 20000 steps worth of yard work. This was mowing, cleaning out tons of metal around the house for trash, digging up underground sprinkler lines, etc. I obviously was drinking water during this time as well.

    I am an extremely active person which is why I am so stumped by this. A couple of other things I did try was stopping my water pills and not taking milk of magnesia for a few days (I have IBS but can control it).

    For a little additional insight. I eat a lot of salads, chicken, celery, carrots, dannon okios greek yogurt, strawberries, thomas light english muffins, coffee, green tee, plain selzer water, gatorade/powerade zero sugar, optimum nutrition (gold Stanadard) shakes (120 calories, 0 fat, 25g protein), cherries, oranges, bananas, low fat peanut butter, fat free milk, low sugar cereals (special k/cheerios). I do eat turkey hill sugar free ice cream once or twice a week but have done that for years.

    That's the bulk. I try not to eat anything high in fats and I try to limit carbs.

    Hopefully, I have been able to shed a little more light on this. I wanted to be as detailed as I could for perspective.
  • RAinWA
    RAinWA Posts: 1,980 Member
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    You stopped your water pills and increased your sodium intake? I'm no expert but I would expect a fair amount of water retention in that case also.

    Is 1060 calories your normal intake? That is under-eating in a big way. As a male you shouldn't be going below 1500.

    Sounds like you have a lot of issues going on. Keep going with your doctors - no advice here is going to be able to replace medical advice.

    Best of luck in getting it all figured out.
  • stealtharsenal
    stealtharsenal Posts: 10 Member
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    I suppose I wasn't exactly clear. Your 1st statement would be correct if that is how you read what I posted. I stopped my water pills prior to increasing my sodium intake. I am taking my water pills again and have dropped sodium intake back down. I hate salts as it is.

    As far as intake, I can go low or I can go higher. I would say on average I am around 1500-1600. Yesterday just happened to be a day where I was able to satisfy my hunger with celery sticks and some strawberries throughout the day. I just happened to be extremely thirst driven yesterday.

    I advocate for myself and have self diagnosed most of my issues thus far. I think my doctors consider me a PIA because I make them test for things and low and behold we find something. I am 100% sure there is thyroid involvement and to some extent, pituitary. Blood tests keep coming back fine, but we need to catch it in the act.

    What I am looking for is another thought, theory, idea, etc. As I said, this is just being dismissed and it's really pissing me off now.

    Medical advise is only as good as the professional who is welling to dive outside the box and outside their specialty. Saying I only specialize in the brain does me no good. When one doctor says see doctor x and then doctor x says go see doctor y (the doctor who referred me to x) there is an issue.
  • L1zardQueen
    L1zardQueen Posts: 8,754 Member
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    Self-diagnosing? Looking for things that are not there? Maybe your doctors are right.

    What are your stats? Are you trying to lose weight? How accurate is your calorie counting? Do you use a food scale? How do you calculate your calorie burns? Do you eat back those calories?
  • Maxematics
    Maxematics Posts: 2,287 Member
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    Hello,

    My caloric intake was 1060. I put in a 2.25 hour mountain bike ride (20 miles) in trail. The trails here in North Jersey are nothing short of rock and hill climbs to give you perspective. Very vigorous right that I typically maintain a 10-12 mph average. Then about 5 hours or 20000 steps worth of yard work. This was mowing, cleaning out tons of metal around the house for trash, digging up underground sprinkler lines, etc. I obviously was drinking water during this time as well.

    You did all of that and only ate 1060 calories? I know you said your average intake is 1500 to 1600, but that's quite odd. How are your hunger levels today? I'd assume given all of the activity you've done and how very little eating you did, you should become ravenous within a few days.
  • stealtharsenal
    stealtharsenal Posts: 10 Member
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    Hey guys, sorry I hadn't responded back. I got very busy meeting a deadline for work. Honestly, I have times when I am hungry, but a large majority of the time I am good. After I dropped 120 pounds 6 or so years ago, I kind of lost my appetite for food. I eat little things throughout the day though to counter any hunger. Lots of carrots and celery just to name a couple of things and oh yea, that ravenous thirst I have.

    @L1zardQueen - I don't have to self diagnose to know there is a problem. I have been doing the same thing for 9 years. I got a diagnosis of MS in 2015 and still nothing changed. I might not have worked out as strenuous as I am back to now, but I maintained a 155lb frame up until about 8 months ago when things started going a bit south for no apparent reason. Water intake increase dramatically (and as I mentioned above, food intake did not. I should also clarify that the water intake really started July, 2017 but I was able to just do my workouts and drop 4.5,6 pounds of water weight like it was nothing). Now that I have a diagnosis of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis I don't know how that plays a roll. The numerous specialists that my neuro suggested all resulted in well we don't know. Now that I am advocating for myself again and having blood testing done, its funny to find out how somethings are out of whack. Listen, I don't have to be a doctor to know when something isn't right.

    With that said, I am not trying to do anything other than return to where I was. Maybe just cut the 23 pound swing from December to now in half and sit back at 164 pounds or so just so I don't look sick because of how thin I was.

    I weight all my foods with a food scale that I purchased some years ago. For calorie burns, I can only use averages. There is not a caloric burn number out there that will accurately take into account the type of riding I do. This isn't your roll down a walkway or a park. This is major elevation gain, rock garden laden enduro trails. I also ride a lot of raw trails that require serious strength and balance to ride. I think I addressed the eating calories back question to death.
  • L1zardQueen
    L1zardQueen Posts: 8,754 Member
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    How do you calculate your calorie burns?