Afib and weight loss

seeahill · January 12

Last August, I was diagnosed with Afib. Everyone's different, but the way it affected me was that my heart beat way too fast for minor effort. At the top of a flight of stairs, I'd be bent over, hands on my knees, chest heaving as if I'd just run a fast 100-yard dash. This was not how I wanted to live the rest of my life. I did some research --- legit PubMed sources --- and found that an overweight person, like myself, had a good chance to ameliorate or even cure Afib if he lost 10% of his body weight. I am 6 feet tall and weighed 235.
I began logging my food on FP. In five months, I've lost 30 pounds. That's about 13%.
And I no longer have Afib. It's gone.,

Adventurista · January 12

Wow! That's just great.

crazyhorse8 · January 13

Hi!
I am so glad to hear that your weight loss took care of it! Unfortunately that doesn't always work for everyone like myself. I had lost a little over 20% of my body weight and it was still giving me problems. Mine started in June of 2020 and was brought on by extreme stress and being over weight. I have since lost about 53 lbs. I finally tried a drug a year ago called Flecainide and I used that along with Metoprolol and that has worked wonders for me to keep it at bay for the most part. If you have sleep apnea, it can be a contributing factor as well. I feel for anyone that has this, as it is so unpleasant and disruptive to everyday life. Thank you for posting your experience, as it may help others.

jqwade · January 13

That is great! I originally went into afib after losing 150 lbs. I joked with my cardiologist about the change and result. I too had the flutter type of afib with high HR. I was ablated and was doing well. Started adding weight and was again back in afib. Now I am like you stated, unable to exercise and have put on weight with the holidays and lack of exercise. Back here to lose weight. Having "Touch up ablation on Valentine's day. Dr said without weight loss there is only so much he can do.I must do my part. Wish me luck.

Adventurista · January 13

@jqwade Luck!

AnnPT77 · January 18

That's wonderful, @seeahill. While not everyone with afib may see that result, I feel like everyone gets some great improvements from losing a big chunk of weight. The things like improving a health condition, being able to reduce medications, etc., are especially excellent, though, IMO.

Nice work!

seeahill · January 18

Thanks for the kind words, and good luck to others dealing with AFib. I've found that it affects different people differently. In addition to weight loss, I took the drug prescribed (Metropolol) and drastically cut back on alcohol.

Corina1143 · January 24

I'm really glad you posted. I was diagnosed with the same type. I've lost a lot of weight since then. Maybe mine is gone, too.
I didn't know anything was wrong before the ecg, so I still don't know.

Afib and weight loss

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