Gaining weight on Doxycycline/Prescribed drugs?

I've been on doxy hyclate 100mg for over 5 years. I take it for adult acne issues. I'm overweight and know it is because of food intake/not enough exercise. For the last 60 days I have eaten Whole30 (it's a no dairy, no sugar, no gluten, no corn, no legume, no soy, no processed food lifestyle) and worked out. I haven't lost any weight. I've gotten some info. from others that it may be hormonal based. Is Doxy making it hard for me to lose weight? Any thoughts?

elphie754 wrote: »

I was prescribed doxy for a bad viral infection. So many side affects! I'm pretty tanned, but burned within a day. Massive headaches especially the first 6 days! Nausea in the mornings. Yesterday was my last day. I took it for 10 days, twice a day. I've been done one day. I'm so bloated. It's all in my stomach. Anyone know how long it takes to go away? I'm not constipated, just bloated in lower abdomen area.

Antibiotics will not help VIRAL infections and if your doctor prescribed it for a virus I would find a new doctor ASAP.

Doxy isn't just an antibiotic. So there's that.

Generally yes antibiotics shouldn't be prescribed for viral infections... but Doxy kills all sorts of stuff in amazing ways, thus isn't strictly speaking "just an antibiotic"

To those who say you don't gain weight from Doxycycline, this from Journal Watch:


June 5, 2014

Weight Gain from Antibiotic Treatment: Not Just in Animals!

Thomas Glück, MD reviewing Angelakis E et al. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 2014 Jun .

One quarter of patients receiving long-term doxycycline and hydroxychloroquine treatment for Q-fever endocarditis showed abnormal weight gain associated with significant alterations of the intestinal flora.

Use of antibiotics such as chlortetracycline — even in subtherapeutic doses — promotes growth in livestock through increased food intake and weight gain. This effect is explained by alterations of the animals' gut microbiome and contributes to the abundant use of antibiotics in factory farming. Previous uncontrolled studies have suggested that weight gain secondary to antibiotic treatment also occurs in humans; now, researchers in France have investigated the issue more systematically.

The researchers followed 48 patients who received long-term therapy with doxycycline (100 mg twice daily) and hydroxychloroquine (600 mg daily) for treatment of Q fever endocarditis between 2008 and 2011. Thirty-four individuals consulting in an outpatient unit who had not received antibiotics during the preceding 12 months served as controls.

Eleven (23%) of the patients receiving antibiotics showed abnormal weight gain (4% to 18% increase in body-mass index [BMI]) — an effect not observed in any of the controls. In the antibiotic recipients, total fecal bacterial counts declined significantly and in proportion to duration of therapy; the effect was primarily attributable to doxycycline and not to hydroxychloroquine. Concentrations of firmicutes, bacteroidetes, and lactobacilli were all significantly lower in antibiotic recipients than in controls.

COMMENT
It appears that in humans, too, weight gain has to be acknowledged as a side effect of antibiotic therapy. Like researchers before them, the authors demonstrated an altered intestinal microbiome in patients receiving antibiotics; however, they did not correlate these findings with weight gain in individual patients. Further investigations are needed to clarify this point, to explain why an increase in BMI occurs in only some patients on long-term antibiotic treatment, and to determine whether the effect is reversible.

I gained 20lbs in 2wks and I workout hard 6dpw. I have weighed myself on 3 diff medical office and gym scales. How depressing!!! Medical journals and studies are now finding this is true but you will find conflicting info if you Google it and Dr.’s aren’t necessarily up to speed about it.

I am so pissed as I am not normally prescribed this but had to avoid pneumonia after 13 days of the plague going around. It also caused increased hunger and desire for sugar as well. I was down to my lowest weight in 4 years and this has ruined all that progress. Much of it showed up as belly fat too. I never gained weight like this from other 10 day prescribed antibiotics. I don’t take them unless absolutely necessary.

Apparently I have to take probiotics for 3 months to get my gut bacteria back to normal. I wonder what my sports nutritionist/dietician will say. She has a ton of degrees but not unlike the medical field they all have differing opinions.

I am proof of weight gain! I may keep you posted how long it takes to get rid of it and what measures I take. Feel free to friend me as well. I work fiercely in the gym and have a trainer. Bikini season is creeping fast and I was trying to lose 4-8lbs a week. I should take pix in my updates—yuck but will be visual proof and a reminder to refuse Doxy if ever prescribed again.

I just turned 18 and I’ve had problems with skin infections for like 4 years and my dermatologist put my on this medication and I used to weigh 130 and over 5 months I was at 160 because of it my infection was gone but I had gained all that weight but after I was off of it for about 2 months all the weight came off.Sad part is I have the same infection again so I am back on it and have been back on it for about 2 months and I have gained 10 pounds back already.Just know the weight comes off eventually.And I have always been very active and I counted calories while gaining weight and I burned way more and still gained and was only on that medication and I still gained weight so it has to be that.Please get back to me id like to hear more about other people on it.

I’m so grateful I found this thread. I’ve lost 33lbs in the last year. 20 in the last 6 months, I know how to manage my calories. I started Doxy 1.5 weeks ago and immediately saw the scale go up a flew lbs. I am now 5lbs heavier while eating 1550 calories a day and working out. I’ve stopped doxy (just for acne) and I’m hoping I can drop the weight quickly.