Weight Gain?

[lob6796]

I was just diagnosed with Celiac disease. Now that I am reading on the subject, I see all of this stuff saying people who are Celiac lose weight. As a child I was always significantly underweight. Now in the last 5 years I have become about 40-50lbs OVERWEIGHT. My daughter (who I suspect has Celiac) was vomiting 1-3 times a day, 5 days a week, and she was gaining weight. My mother (who I also suspect has Celiac), used to be chronically underweight. At age 45, she began gaining weight. Now at 53, she is approx 80lbs overweight. She can diet, etc and she doesnt lose a pound. I too have changed my eating habits over the last 6 months to cut out snacking, etc and I am gaining weight, not losing.

Has anyone had an experience like this? My daughters pediatrician was doing a weight check every two weeks for 2 months and he kept saying "Are you sure she is vomiting that much?" I started keeping a log of her episodes. Vomiting her entire stomach, would vomit at night and she would still be throwing up what she ate for breakfast. He tested her for celiac and said it came back negative (now I would like to see the actual numbers and what specific tests he did). Now that I have been diagnosed I want her to be retested.

I'm a little boggled.

[SunnyDyRain]

I was just diagnosed with Celiac disease. Now that I am reading on the subject, I see all of this stuff saying people who are Celiac lose weight. As a child I was always significantly underweight. Now in the last 5 years I have become about 40-50lbs OVERWEIGHT. My daughter (who I suspect has Celiac) was vomiting 1-3 times a day, 5 days a week, and she was gaining weight. My mother (who I also suspect has Celiac), used to be chronically underweight. At age 45, she began gaining weight. Now at 53, she is approx 80lbs overweight. She can diet, etc and she doesnt lose a pound. I too have changed my eating habits over the last 6 months to cut out snacking, etc and I am gaining weight, not losing.

Has anyone had an experience like this? My daughters pediatrician was doing a weight check every two weeks for 2 months and he kept saying "Are you sure she is vomiting that much?" I started keeping a log of her episodes. Vomiting her entire stomach, would vomit at night and she would still be throwing up what she ate for breakfast. He tested her for celiac and said it came back negative (now I would like to see the actual numbers and what specific tests he did). Now that I have been diagnosed I want her to be retested.

I'm a little boggled.

I thought about my Celiac as a "starvation" problem. My body wasn't getting all the nutrients and all that, so it started to store what ever it could get it's hands on, and not let go! Now i'm gluten-free it's still not letting go, but I have also started eating alot fattier and bad (chocolate!) foods.

Could be....

[SandyC]

Hi,

I'm like you, overweight. That's probably why my doctor refused to test me for celiac's initially. She associated celiacs with emaciation and rapid weight loss. I can't remember where I heard it but those with celiac disease are malnourished. Malnourished doesn't necessarily have to mean underweight. Someone who is overweight is also malnourished. The difference is our body has learned to overcompensate and holds onto whatever it can, particularly water and fat. You may find that once your body starts healing, and eliminating all the toxins that have built up over the many years , you'll easily start losing weight. The key is focusing on getting healthy and avoiding those foods that our bodies cannot tolerate and moderating the junk food!!!. (It goes the opposite for someone who is too thin, once their body stabilizes they start gaining until they reach an ideal weight for their body.) A close friend of mine who was diagnosed with Celiacs and very overweight, lost over 70 lbs in 5 months when she went gluten free. She was really scared but once she reached her ideal body weight everything slowed down. She looks so healthy! As long as she remains gluten free she is without symptoms. She knows if she has been glutenized when she sees dramatic changes in her weight. I hope this happens to me! I know in the short period of time that I have been gluten free, I have lost over 20 pounds and I am slowly feeling much better.

Hope this helps,

Sandy

[SandyC]

Try googling obesity and celiac's disease. You would be surprised what is out there. Some great explanations

Sandy

[angelbender]

I was overweight as an undiagnosed Celiac. Lost 20 lbs from March to May last year and 10 lbs this year. The first time I went gluten free, I swear I lost at least one pants size in less than a week due

to an amazing (bloated) tummy shrinkage. When I was a kid I was very skinny. I don't know if I

was underweight per se, as I don't have a Mom around to tell me. I expect that I will keep losing

weight now. And I had thought that I was gaining from overindulgence! And if I stay away from the sugar, I will lose even more (quickly).

[diapason05]

I thought about my Celiac as a "starvation" problem. My body wasn't getting all the nutrients and all that, so it started to store what ever it could get it's hands on, and not let go! Now i'm gluten-free it's still not letting go, but I have also started eating alot fattier and bad (chocolate!) foods.

Could be....

Have they checked your thyroid?? An underactive thyroid makes it damn near impossible to really lose weight.

[stephanie19]

Here is the link to an article I found on the site that's interesting and addresses your question:

https://www.celiac.com/st_prod.html?p_prodi...-02107336744.6a

I'm no expert, but as I have heard it explained, hunger drive is controlled by 2 major factors: the quantity of food consumed (how full the stomach is volume-wise) and the satisfaction of nutrient requirements. If you have damaged villi, your body's ability to absorb nutrients is diminished, so one of the satiation mechanisms is compromised. If this is the case, you could be eating more than your body needs in terms of calories because your body is trying to get you to eat more in a vain attempt to get the nutrients it so desperately needs. This could explain your weight gain.

As I said, this is just reasoned-out conjecture, but at least in my case, it makes sense to me. I have been gaining weight recently as well, and I know it's because I'm eating more than I used to, but even so, I always seem to be hungry. My Enterolab results showed some malabsorption, so maybe my body is telling me to keep eating because it needs certain nutrients that it's not absorbing enough of (although it may be getting enough calories). I just came up with this recently, so who knows if it's right. Whatever the actual reason, hopefully starting on a gluten-free diet, as I'm just doing now, will resolve this so I can get back to my normal weight.

Best,

Stephanie