Curious if anyone else here is battling Fibro and/or RA

I gained a lot of weight on fibro drugs. (((hugs)))

I ended up being diagnosed with a sleep disorder after many years. I do have a lot of pain issues, but I think it's a low tolerance overall and a lack of restful sleep, not fibro. I went off all meds 18 months ago and am finally trying to get that weight off. It's hard to work out when every pain is magnified, but I am so tired of carrying around this extra weight I am trying to push through right now. I am really afraid of hitting the wall. But I tell myself to take it day by day.

Have you guys had your vitamin D levels checked? I had mine checked for the first time last year (for the first time which is strange since i have sle, but apparently this is a new thing and you should really ask your doctor to check your levels) and it was dangerously low. I was put on 50,000 IUs of vit d 3x a week for 6 months, and it helped a lot with my symptoms, esp with fatigue and body aches. i dont know if the vitamin D actually made a difference with this, but i think it also helped me lose weight and keep it off.

one thing that really helped me lose weight was being mindful of what i was putting into my body. i cut back on red meat drasticall. living in nyc, i was eating out/ordering out a lot so i limited that to once a week (if even that) and completely stopped all meal replacement bars/shakes. i added foods like greek yogurt with 6-7 chopped almonds in it (i prefer the vanilla non-fat flavor) and flax seed oil instead of olive oil. i also stopped drinking caffeine all together--no soda, not even ginger ale (even though it has no caffeine) and i stopped drinking juices since they are loaded with sugar.

its hard and the weight will come off slowly, but once it does your entire body will feel brand new and all the hard work and effort will be so worth it! just stick with it!!!!! you can do it, just stay positive!

I'm sorry that you must deal w/ fibro. I was diagnosed in early 1990's. Stress is a very high factor in fibro, so to keep it in remission I have to exercise, sleep well and eat well. I've never taken meds for it except aleve. I go to bed early and sleep as much as I can, eat well most days and walk even a little bit.
I started walking this time just around the block every day and now am walking 3-5 miles almost daily. (I also had a foot injury).

I lost 13 lbs while my fibro was bad, so it can be done w/o exercise. But now that I'm walking I feel better.

I have both RA and Fibromyalgia, both diagnosed within last 5 years, and I find it very hard to exercise due to the way it works on joints and muscles. However as Bookchick887 can testify, I find normal activities such as cleaning, shopping and washing clothes etc. just as effective and because you don't approach them with the mindset of 'I must exercise', it can burn calories without thinking.

That being said, overdoing it (as I have a habit of doing) can mean a few days after where I am inactive due to pain and/or swelling. It may be more difficult for us to shape up through exercise and activity, but by no means impossible. You know your own body's limits, so work out a simple activity plan that you can do at home.

I am on and off steroids all the time, and develop the classic moon face almost immediately, so have actually refused them recently just because of the side effects I suffer. I also have weekly injections of methotrexate but have found no obvious side effects so far. My doctors prescribed Gabapentin for the fibro, which very quickly increased to the highest dose in order to ease it, albeit slightly. I have started to drop a few pounds a week so far, so losing weight is definitely possible with conditions such as ours, it may just take a little longer.

Feel free to add me x