STATINS AND SLUGGISH METABOLISM

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bonzo1962
bonzo1962 Posts: 4 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
anyone found weight loss harder whilst taking statins? i believe they suppress metabolism anyone find this the case?

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  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 9,969 Member
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    Why do you believe that?
  • bonzo1962
    bonzo1962 Posts: 4 Member
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    because i was doing well losing weight i then took them for a month and my weight loss stalled .this app suggested i would be under 19st in 5 weeks if i kept up the diet and exercise regime.however, i only lost 2lbs in almost a month.stopped taking them and have lost 8 pounds in 5 days.
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,172 Member
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    From what I've read, rather than slow (base) metabolism, they can lead to an increase in calorie intake (by increasing appetite and/or the psychological effect of taking it and thinking it's not as important to watch what you eat) and decrease activity level (from the side effect of muscle pain).
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 9,969 Member
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    it's not something that common or even a thing from what I can glean from the literature and statins have been researched to death. You never know though, it may have. Remove the statin factor and you have a complaint about weight loss that is pretty common.
  • MacLowCarbing
    MacLowCarbing Posts: 350 Member
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    I read some types of statins cause weight loss resistance. IDK from personal experience, I had already stopped taking them because thru my research I was unconvinced that they were actually helpful. I am losing weight more steadily now than I was when I was taking the statin but then I've changed my way of eating and have started exercising so I couldn't say if that had anything to do with it.
  • bonzo1962
    bonzo1962 Posts: 4 Member
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    i walked 125 miles in september and still didnt lose much
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,442 Member
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    bonzo1962 wrote: »
    because i was doing well losing weight i then took them for a month and my weight loss stalled .this app suggested i would be under 19st in 5 weeks if i kept up the diet and exercise regime.however, i only lost 2lbs in almost a month.stopped taking them and have lost 8 pounds in 5 days.

    2lbs is not a bad result as it's likely pure fat loss.

    But losing 8lbs of bodyfat in 5 days is just not possible. 8lbs of fat would come down to eating 8*3500 = 28000 calories less. Or 5600 calories less than your maintenance calories per day. That's... just not possibly unless you cut off an arm. Thus it's quite likely that your body simply had stored a lot of fluid that started to go out of the door at those 5 days. Did you pee more than usual, by any chance?

    Some of us are whooshers, that means we lose bodyfat, but at the same time the body stores more waterweight, and while the fat goes down the weight stays kind of the same until the water whooshes away. Usually characterized by nightly peeing (or generally more). I don't know whether statins cause more water being stored, but do keep and eye on this and discuss with your doctor if this happens again because storing so much excess water is not something to take lightly.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,442 Member
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    @bonzo1962

    Actually, some statins can indeed cause water retention, and this should definitely be discussed with your doctor!
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,969 Member
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    bonzo1962 wrote: »
    i walked 125 miles in september and still didnt lose much

    Congrats for all that walking!

    As said above, your lack of weight loss could have been from water retention, which could have been due to both the statin, and the walking, of that level of exercise was new.
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,161 Member
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    I don't know if they would mask weight loss, but they make me feel horrible.
  • bcjones4733
    bcjones4733 Posts: 9 Member
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    All I know is when I was taking Statins I was in a total funk and everything slowed down. After many months my doctor took me off them and in 2 weeks it was like the sun came out. The doctor said I was in a Lipitor fog. Tried Crestor also, same result. So now I do not take statins

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,429 Member
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    IMU, there are some indications (IMO not definitive proof yet) that statins may have some metabolic consequences, via things like leptin regulation and mitochondrial activity. I'm no expert, though, just an interested average person.

    Cognitive issues are a documented side effect for some statins. Reportedly, those cognitive side effects are temporary and reversible (by stopping the drugs).

    I didn't take the statins, but have taken other drugs that are associated with weight gain.

    For me, it has had practical benefits to break down the ways in which drugs can trigger weight gain (or slowed loss). "Metabolic consequences" sound mysterious, unavoidable, and unlikely to yield at all to personal action.

    Generally, IMU effects of drugs on body weight come from one or a combination of:

    1. Appetite or cravings
    2. Fatigue, subtle or obvious (including fatigue triggered by sleep issues). Most of the "metabolic" affects would fall here in the "subtle" category, I think - slowed down bodily processes.
    3. Water retention

    #1 will be fairly obvious to someone who's calorie counting consistently, I think.

    Results of #2 and #3 may show up over time with consistent logging, in the weight trend. #2 should correlate in some way with calorie history, #3 won't.

    Though it may be difficult (even impossible in some cases), we can potentially push back on #1 or #2.

    In one sense, #3 - if we could identify it - isn't much worth worrying about, unless it reaches a health-threatening level (edema), because it isn't body fat.

    The cognitive effects from statins were part of what triggered me to lose weight: I thought I'd already given up enough cognitive bandwidth to chemotherapy, didn't want to lose more. I'd tried changing what I ate, tried some supplements, and was already active.

    When none of that lead to meaningful improvement in cholesterol level, I finally committed to trying weight loss. FWIW, for me, that fortunately was enough to take cholesterol to normal, healthy levels. It actually reached the normal range part way through loss, when I was down to something in the overweight BMI range, maybe BMI 25-26ish. (Most recent Chol/HDL was 2.8, from a lab whose range for low CHD risk for women is anything under 3.6. BMI was/is around 21-22 at that point.)
    bonzo1962 wrote: »
    i walked 125 miles in september and still didnt lose much

    Exercise is great, and can be helpful . . . if higher than average exercise levels triggered weight loss with certainty, I would've been thin over a decade earlier.

    What you've seen on the scale sounds like a water weight effect, TBH: Either the drug was triggering higher water retention, or you're one of those "weight drops in whooshes" people, or there was water retention from new exercise (if the walking was new).

    P.S. MFP's "in 5 weeks" prediction is pretty unreliable. In part, that's because it's based on unrealistic assumptions ("if every day were like today"), partly that it's using population averages (you're an individual). It's never been accurate for me. It only comes close if I set my profile inaccurately. :D
  • DFW_Tom
    DFW_Tom Posts: 221 Member
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    bonzo1962 wrote: »
    anyone found weight loss harder whilst taking statins? i believe they suppress metabolism anyone find this the case?

    After decades of taking Atorvastatin, I went off statins from June of '22 until 6 weeks ago when my Cardiologist put me on Crestor (due to a high Calcium Score). My experience (yours will likely differ) is that statins likely caused some temporary weight gain through water retention and constipation. I have also noticed my hunger levels have increased a little but not enough to result in fat gain. Changes in metabolism are hard to quantify, but I've not noticed any change in energy levels. IMO, statins did not have any affect on my metabolism.

    Problem with trying to pin point a cause to a change is that changes don't usually happen in isolation. While I can say I've experienced increased muscle weakness and soreness (and resulting water retention) over the last 6 weeks that could be caused by taking a statin again, there have been other changes over the last 6 weeks that could be the culprit: stress, injuries, changes in what I eat, increased weight training as I started maintenance and so on. I'm not going to worry about the wild swings in my scale weight over the last few weeks and will instead continue to eat healthy and exercise because I know that works in the long term.

    BTW, excellent job on your walking program. 125 miles in one month is outstanding!
  • MadisonMolly2017
    MadisonMolly2017 Posts: 11,031 Member
    edited October 2023
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    Do talk to your doctor about leg pain etc.

    After a year of dealing with the leg pain, my doctor switched me from Atorvastatin to Rosuvastatin. Leg pain still an issue, so he cut that dosage in half & added another medication Zetia.

    No leg pain…happily on my way to getting my steps back up to the 10K that I used to do daily hiking.

    If it’s bad, let your doctor know.

    I will have to look back to when I began the Atorvastatin & see if that’s when my weight began a creep upwards…hmmm.

    Sure is tricky to navigate this. I suppose the only way is to adopt a really clean diet & do tons of exercise & try to get off the statin.

    Ok gonna try that! Even if it just reduces the dosage, it will be worth it!

    Thanks

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