Pred weight question

Hi! I'm a bit short on time so I don't have that much time to introduce myself properly, I'll check all replies when I can. I'm a 22 year old male which could have some relevance to my question.

I recently took 5mg pred for about a month. Technically it was less than a month, around 25-26 days but more or less. I completed the course almost two weeks ago. In the short time I was on it I gained a noticeable amount of weight on my upper body, specifically the stomach, chest, hips and back. I don't think it's the fat hump below the neck, just all over the back. I did not overeat to the extent that I'd gain much at all.

If I had to guess, I'd say I visually gained ten pounds, maybe twelve. According to the scales, I've gained 24 pounds which is ridiculous. I understand alot of that may be water weight, but you can definitely notice how larger my stomach is, how my back is larger, and how clothes are tigher.

How long will it take me to lose this weight, both water weight and actual fat? As I say I was on the pred for about a month, I've seen people saying it took them three months or more to lose the weight, albeit they were on higher doses for longer amounts of time. This leads me to an equation I've heard of the longer you're on pred, the longer it will take to come off. Since I've come off pred, I've been avoiding salt, drinking water, cutting my calories down by 800 most days, yesterday I walked for an hour. It's very stubborn in that I've not seen any difference visually or on the scales since I've been doing that for almost two weeks. Surely a month's course shouldn't take that long to shed? Maybe a few more weeks? Being 22 could also play a part?

I gained a lot of weight. I have pretty much been off of it since August and lost about 8 of 30 lbs that I gained. But it's hard work and I'm not eating much and I'm waking and stuff.
Exercise and drink lots of water. Avoid large meals. Even if you still eat the same amount of calories eating smaller more frequent meals speeds up your metabolism. Get enough sleep. Not too much.

bananagirl said...
that is really weird. i cannot believe 5 mg pred made you gain almost 25 lbs. i've never heard of such a low dose giving anyone problems since our bodies produce around 7 mg of prednisone daily on it's own. anyway, you aren't holding water anymore if you've been off of it for two weeks. you will have to lose it the good old fashioned way.

my first time on pred, i gained 40 lbs in two days. i was on 40 mg a day. it was all water weight. as soon as i dropped to 35 mg, i dropped all 40 lbs in about 3 days through sweating and peeing NON-STOP. CONSTANT. it was insane and i was soaking wet. by the time i was off of prednisone, all the water weight was long gone.

It's impossible I've gained two stone-ish of just fat. I would've seen it. I did, in the last few months gain i'm guessing around half a stone back, possibly mostly muscle, from my original flair where I lost weight, and I didn't weigh myself during that time at all. I must've underestimated the amount of muscle I gained a few months ago and weighing myself for the first time in eight months shocked me. Still frustrating to have gained however many pounds of fat though recently from the steroid.

Post Edited (Laked9) : 10/19/2015 3:31:19 PM (GMT-6)

Also make sure you take your calcium and vitamin D because you don't want brittle bones.