Weight Gain Caused by Doxycycline
tkdkatie
Posts: 1 Member
I was put on doxycycline by my dermatologist in November of last year and I ended up gaining about 20 pounds because of it. I stopped usage in January and I haven't lost any of the weight. I admittedly haven't been eating and exercising as well as I should have, but I have been very careful about my eating and I am doing the T25 fitness program for about a month now and my weight has barely budged. Before I took the medication, I had a pretty good metabolism and would have lost the weight without much trouble. I looked online and saw many stories of people like me who had experienced weight gain, but I never found anything about them losing the weight. I was wondering if anyone has experienced the same thing and lost the weight they gained? Please help!
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Replies
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Yep...have gained ten pounds and it keeps coming. Have never had a weight issue until now. I prefer not using the drug5
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Only way medication cause weight gain is through water retention or increases appetite. It cannot cause direct fat gain.
Unless you have serious side effects like an oedema 20lbs isn't going to be water weight.
So most likely it is just causing increased appetite which you can combat the weight gain by watching portion sizes (food scale), logging food accurately and volume eating to combat the increased hunger.
If you just started the T25 program that could be masking any fat loss az your body retains water to repair muscles following new or more intense exercise.
Your food is where you need to focus though.20 -
Never heard of Doxycycline causing weight gain. I will have to research this.1
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Your metabolism likely hasn’t changed. Your increased appetite and perhaps some activity has changed. Many people on MFP have been medicated with “increased appetite and weight gain” as a side effect and still lost weight by holding themselves accountable by weighing and logging. Entirely up to you if the medication is worth it and you can be diligent about your CICO.8
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I've had to take doxycycline for months at a time working in countries where malaria is endemic (doxy is a malaria prophylaxis). It actually has the opposite effect with me, makes my stomach a bit janky and I lose a few pounds from not eating as much in order to avoid an upset stomach. u/msalicia07 is right, doxy isn't an excuse for not losing weight. Reexamine your logging if you aren't achieving the results you expect.4
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tinkerbellang83 wrote: »Only way medication cause weight gain is through water retention or increases appetite. It cannot cause direct fat gain.
Unless you have serious side effects like an oedema 20lbs isn't going to be water weight.
So most likely it is just causing increased appetite which you can combat the weight gain by watching portion sizes (food scale), logging food accurately and volume eating to combat the increased hunger.
If you just started the T25 program that could be masking any fat loss az your body retains water to repair muscles following new or more intense exercise.
Your food is where you need to focus though.
Agree meds don't normally cause random fat gain, but still think there's one more mechanism of action that should be on that list: Fatigue.
Some meds cause fatigue, subtle or dramatic. Unchecked fatigue tends to cause reduced daily life activity (NEAT) through resting more, doing less, maybe sleeping more. Doing less means lower calorie burn. If intake stays the same, weight gain - potentially fat gain - can result. This is not "reduced metabolism": It's reduced activity.
There can be a fatigue effect on exercise intensity, too, but I think the NEAT impact is the more often overlooked aspect.
Focus is still food - not disagreeing with your main point, just wanting to give folks another thing to look out for, and adjust for if needed (either by eating a little less, even; or by pushing through fatigue (which is hard)).11 -
tinkerbellang83 wrote: »Only way medication cause weight gain is through water retention or increases appetite. It cannot cause direct fat gain.
Unless you have serious side effects like an oedema 20lbs isn't going to be water weight.
So most likely it is just causing increased appetite which you can combat the weight gain by watching portion sizes (food scale), logging food accurately and volume eating to combat the increased hunger.
If you just started the T25 program that could be masking any fat loss az your body retains water to repair muscles following new or more intense exercise.
Your food is where you need to focus though.
Agree meds don't normally cause random fat gain, but still think there's one more mechanism of action that should be on that list: Fatigue.
Some meds cause fatigue, subtle or dramatic. Unchecked fatigue tends to cause reduced daily life activity (NEAT) through resting more, doing less, maybe sleeping more. Doing less means lower calorie burn. If intake stays the same, weight gain - potentially fat gain - can result. This is not "reduced metabolism": It's reduced activity.
There can be a fatigue effect on exercise intensity, too, but I think the NEAT impact is the more often overlooked aspect.
Focus is still food - not disagreeing with your main point, just wanting to give folks another thing to look out for, and adjust for if needed (either by eating a little less, even; or by pushing through fatigue (which is hard)).
Just playing off this. I have been on doxy for a little over a week, and have noticed not only bloating, but some wicked headaches. They make me want to exercise less because I feel like crap, so if I wasn't tracking my food but suddenly working out way less, I could see how weight gain would be possible. But it's just because of one of the known side effects.1 -
psychod787 wrote: »Never heard of Doxycycline causing weight gain. I will have to research this.
That's because it's more commonly associated with decreased appetite, nausea, vomiting, and in extreme/rare cases, anorexia like symptoms. There is NO underlying drug mechanism of action or physiology change from the drug that contributes to weight gain. It's easy for OP to blame a drug/inanimate object rather than admit self fault.
#necro post8 -
Yes OP wrote one post 5 years ago - highly unlikely she is still looking for answers to this
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As others have stated the only weight gain associated with this medication is water weight. Your metabolism is quite fixed and based largely upon mass.
Log your food. Modestly increase your activity and/or decrease your intake - check your weight periodically and see if this changes after 6 weeks.0 -
Keto_Vampire wrote: »psychod787 wrote: »Never heard of Doxycycline causing weight gain. I will have to research this.
That's because it's more commonly associated with decreased appetite, nausea, vomiting, and in extreme/rare cases, anorexia like symptoms. There is NO underlying drug mechanism of action or physiology change from the drug that contributes to weight gain. It's easy for OP to blame a drug/inanimate object rather than admit self fault.
#necro post
That's what I thought. SOME people I give it to tend to get N&V with diarrhea.1 -
I'm on Doxy now. It is kicking my tush. I am struggling to get anywhere near the calories I should be eating, and I'm failing miserably. It absolutely kills my appetite.
I was a bit nauseous last night from lack of calories that I had 2 Hawaiian Rolls. Did the trick.0 -
TheRambler wrote: »I'm on Doxy now. It is kicking my tush. I am struggling to get anywhere near the calories I should be eating, and I'm failing miserably. It absolutely kills my appetite.
I was a bit nauseous last night from lack of calories that I had 2 Hawaiian Rolls. Did the trick.
This is a major NECROPOST. But I'm replying because your issue seems to be exactly the OPPOSITE of the OP?0 -
I was put on doxycycline by my dermatologist in November of last year and I ended up gaining about 20 pounds because of it. I stopped usage in January and I haven't lost any of the weight. I admittedly haven't been eating and exercising as well as I should have, but I have been very careful about my eating and I am doing the T25 fitness program for about a month now and my weight has barely budged. Before I took the medication, I had a pretty good metabolism and would have lost the weight without much trouble. I looked online and saw many stories of people like me who had experienced weight gain, but I never found anything about them losing the weight. I was wondering if anyone has experienced the same thing and lost the weight they gained? Please help!
@tkdkatie this article below from the American Society for Microbiology may be of interest since it deals with the body changes that can occur over time when taking doxycycline.
Abnormal Weight Gain and Gut Microbiota Modifications Are Side Effects of Long-Term Doxycycline and Hydroxychloroquine Treatment
https://aac.asm.org/content/58/6/33420 -
Hi, I just found this thread whilst researching Doxycycline + weight gain. I've been on 100mg for a week, 5lbs up and no other factors involved, in fact, I have been walking more and IF. Interested to hear from others if the weight came off after use?0
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sparklyball wrote: »Hi, I just found this thread whilst researching Doxycycline + weight gain. I've been on 100mg for a week, 5lbs up and no other factors involved, in fact, I have been walking more and IF. Interested to hear from others if the weight came off after use?
5 lbs isn't that much, it could be water weight related to the medication or to something else, including why you were put on the doxycycline to begin with.
Sudden swings in weight up or down are typically going to be related to water retention, not fat gain or loss.
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Doxycycline is not known for causing weight gain. It is known for sometimes causing gastrointestinal side effects like diarrhea or nausea. I’m also curious why they put you on it. If it is for acne, I don’t recommend it. Long term antibiotic use leads to resistance, GI effects, and sometimes you can develop an allergy to a medication you weren’t previously allergic to. This happened to me but I was too young at the time to question my dermatologist at the time. But, everyone is different and maybe this antibiotic helps some people. You have to weigh the risks and benefits. It is unlikely to cause weight gain at the end of the day though.0
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sparklyball wrote: »Hi, I just found this thread whilst researching Doxycycline + weight gain. I've been on 100mg for a week, 5lbs up and no other factors involved, in fact, I have been walking more and IF. Interested to hear from others if the weight came off after use?
I was on Doxycycline for two weeks in May and didn't gain any weight.
Are you using a weight trending app? I use Happy Scale, and while there was some fluctuation because the illness for which I needed Doxycycline killed my appetite and I had lost 10# while sick, I expected to bounce back up a little when I started eating again, which I did, but the TREND line in Happy Scale showed no weight gain and it did even out over time.
In fact, I'm now down 10 more pounds since the highest weight I recorded while taking the antibiotic.0 -
I’m really shocked with the authority with which commenters here are offering false information. Doxycycline is an antibiotic and is known to alter the gut microbiome. Weight-gain as a side-effect has been studied since the 1950s. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4068504/#!po=41.89191
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