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Will My Body Ever Realize That I'm Not Starving Anymore?

gfjayhawk

By gfjayhawk
in Related Issues & Disorders

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gfjayhawk Rookie
gfjayhawk
Posted

I had severe malabsorption issues for many years before diagnosis. Despite having the celiac belly, I was still quite thin. Since I have gone gluten-free (about 10 months ago) I've gained quite a bit of weight. I'm not eating more, but my body seems to be wringing the most out of every single calorie. Has anyone else had this issue, and did your body ever settle down?

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Mother of Jibril Enthusiast
Mother of Jibril
Posted

I have three thoughts...

1. What is your current BMI? Aside from the issue of malabsorption, were you underweight before you stopped eating gluten?

2. What is your diet like? Are you eating lots of fruits and vegetables, proteins, and healthy fats? Avoiding heavily processed foods? Not all gluten-free foods are healthy or good for the waistline.

3. Have you ever had your thyroid checked? Hypothyroidism often clusters with celiac and it can make you gain weight (or make it difficult to lose weight no matter how good your diet is).

Personally, I'm not sure what my "normal" weight is supposed to be. I'm six feet tall, but I stopped growing when I was twelve years old. I was skinny for a long time (with a thick waist), but at my worst point I was around 200 pounds. I was eating a lot of processed foods and dairy products... stressed out from graduate school. Right now I'm 170 and I'm satisfied with that. My BMI is in the midrange of "normal."

ShayFL Enthusiast
ShayFL
Posted

I agree with having your thyroid checked. I was severely hypo and skinny. Doctors would not dx me because I was thin and had D all of the time. I just didnt fit the textbook picture of hypothyroid. When my labs finally got bad enough and I took a copy of the new TSH ranges, I got dx and properly treated. It was the best thing that had ever happened to me healthwise. I improved greatly.

Ask for:

TSH (3rd generation)

Free T4

Free T3

Both antibodies for thyroid

Ferritin

B12

Vitamin D

While you are at it.....

gfjayhawk Rookie
gfjayhawk
Posted
  • Author

Thanks for the replies! I have had my thyroid checked, and everything came back normal. My BMI used to run around 19, while it's currently 24.5. I'm eating a healthy diet, though I could probably eat more vegetables. I'm trying to limit refined carbs and focus more on protein, fruits and vegetables. I can tell that I am a bit more muscular than before, but I'm sure that most of this weight is not muscle. <_<

ShayFL Enthusiast
ShayFL
Posted

Can you post your labs for thyroid. I was told I was "normal" for 12 years when I was severely hypo. None of my doctors knew and the labs didnt have the NEW TSH ranges. The new ranges are from .3 - 3. I just saw recent labs yesterday from someone whose lab was still using 6 as the upper range for TSH!! :huh:

gfjayhawk Rookie
gfjayhawk
Posted
  • Author
Can you post your labs for thyroid. I was told I was "normal" for 12 years when I was severely hypo. None of my doctors knew and the labs didnt have the NEW TSH ranges. The new ranges are from .3 - 3. I just saw recent labs yesterday from someone whose lab was still using 6 as the upper range for TSH!! :huh:

I don't have the labs right now ... will have to ask the doctor. How likely is it that I suddenly developed thyroid issues at the same time I went gluten-free?

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    • knitty kitty
      Son's legs shaking

      By knitty kitty · Posted

      Blood tests for thiamine are unreliable.  The nutrients from your food get absorbed into the bloodstream and travel around the body.  So, a steak dinner can falsely raise thiamine blood levels in the following days.  Besides, thiamine is utilized inside cells where stores of thiamine are impossible to measure. A better test to ask for is the Erythrocyte Transketolace Activity test.  But even that test has been questioned as to accuracy.  It is expensive and takes time to do.   Because of the discrepancies with thiamine tests and urgency with correcting thiamine deficiency, the World Health Organization recommends giving thiamine for several weeks and looking for health improvement.  Thiamine is water soluble, safe and nontoxic even in high doses.   Many doctors are not given sufficient education in nutrition and deficiency symptoms, and may not be familiar with how often they occur in Celiac disease.  B12 and Vitamin D can be stored for as long as a year in the liver, so not having deficiencies in these two vitamins is not a good indicator of the status of the other seven water soluble B vitamins.  It is possible to have deficiency symptoms BEFORE there's changes in the blood levels.   Ask your doctor about Benfotiamine, a form of thiamine that is better absorbed than Thiamine Mononitrate.  Thiamine Mononitrate is used in many vitamins because it is shelf-stable, a form of thiamine that won't break down sitting around on a store shelf.  This form is difficult for the body to turn into a usable form.  Only thirty percent is absorbed in the intestine, and less is actually used.   Thiamine interacts with all of the other B vitamins, so they should all be supplemented together.  Magnesium is needed to make life sustaining enzymes with thiamine, so a magnesium supplement should be added if magnesium levels are low.   Thiamine is water soluble, safe and nontoxic even in high doses.  There's no harm in trying.
    • lizzie42
      Son's legs shaking

      By lizzie42 · Posted

      Neither of them were anemic 6 months after the Celiac diagnosis. His other vitamin levels (d, B12) were never low. My daughters levels were normal after the first 6 months. Is the thiamine test just called thiamine? 
    • knitty kitty
      Son's legs shaking

      By knitty kitty · Posted

      Yes, I do think they need a Thiamine supplement at least. Especially since they eat red meat only occasionally. Most fruits and vegetables are not good sources of Thiamine.  Legumes (beans) do contain thiamine.  Fruits and veggies do have some of the other B vitamins, but thiamine B 1 and  Cobalamine B12 are mostly found in meats.  Meat, especially organ meats like liver, are the best sources of Thiamine, B12, and the six other B vitamins and important minerals like iron.   Thiamine has antibacterial and antiviral properties.  Thiamine is important to our immune systems.  We need more thiamine when we're physically ill or injured, when we're under stress emotionally, and when we exercise, especially outside in hot weather.  We need thiamine and other B vitamins like Niacin B 3 to keep our gastrointestinal tract healthy.  We can't store thiamine for very long.  We can get low in thiamine within three days.  Symptoms can appear suddenly when a high carbohydrate diet is consumed.  (Rice and beans are high in carbohydrates.)  A twenty percent increase in dietary thiamine causes an eighty percent increase in brain function, so symptoms can wax and wane depending on what one eats.  The earliest symptoms like fatigue and anxiety are easily contributed to other things or life events and dismissed.   Correcting nutritional deficiencies needs to be done quickly, especially in children, so their growth isn't stunted.  Nutritional deficiencies can affect intelligence.  Vitamin D deficiency can cause short stature and poor bone formation.   Is your son taking anything for the anemia?  Is the anemia caused by B12 or iron deficiency?  
    • lizzie42
      Son's legs shaking

      By lizzie42 · Posted

      Thank you! That's helpful. My kids eat very little processed food. Tons of fruit, vegetables, cheese, eggs and occasional red meat. We do a lot of rice and bean bowls, stir fry, etc.  Do you think with all the fruits and vegetables they need a vitamin supplement? I feel like their diet is pretty healthy and balanced with very limited processed food. The only processed food they eat regularly is a bowl of Cheerios here and there.  Could shaking legs be a symptom of just a one-time gluten exposure? I guess there's no way to know for sure if they're getting absolutely zero exposure because they do go to school a couple times a week. We do homeschool but my son does a shared school 2x a week and my daughter does a morning Pre-K 3 x a week.  At home our entire house is strictly gluten free and it is extremely rare for us to eat out. If we eat at someone else's house I usually just bring their food. When we have play dates we bring all the snacks, etc. I try to be really careful since they're still growing. They also, of course, catch kids viruses all the time so I  want to make sure I know whether they're just sick or they've had gluten. It can be pretty confusing when they're pretty young to even be explaining their symptoms! 
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