Cramping?

[melhopkins02]

I just have begun my gluten-free diet on Monday...I'm so new to all of this! Anyway, I have noticed that my feet are cramping (charlie horse, I think they are called). Will this go away? Also, I have already lost 3 lbs in 3 days. Will this continue because I really don't need to lose much weight.

[Bonnie]

Hi Melhopkins,

I have been gluten-free for 3 months. I believe I had 'withdrawal symptoms' at the beginning. I also got cramps, then muscle pain in my arms and legs, swelling of the glands in my throat - all sorts of strange things.

BUT it all clears up after a while. I too lost weight the first few weeks but then I started picking up again - of course I was stuffing my face with sweets and chocolates to make up for not being able to have bread etc. Poor me! Think that's also a normal symptom.

I still have bad days but they are getting less frequent. I think its important at the beginning to just persevere and then look at the overall picture, not just a particular bad day.

You will start feeling a lot better soon so hang in there!

[rmmadden]

Mel,

I don't cramps but there are something like 200+ symptoms so I guess it's different for everyone. The one thing I can say to a "Newbie" is to try and not judge your day-to-day feeling/health too much. I had someone tell me when I was first starting out that it's better to judge a period of time (like a quarter) versus daily. You will look back and see the improvement where as daily can be very hard to spot much improvement.

Hang in There & Best of Luck!

Cleveland Bob

[aaascr]

You might want to see if you're getting enough potassium

in your diet - as well as other nutrients,

keeping in mind that you may not be absorbing

enough even if you are ingesting it.

Potassium will help eliminate the cramps.

I had the sit-down and cry cramps at first,

I kept a vitamin/potassium-rich drink with me to help out.