Posts: 45
1/28/09 4:34 P

I've been GF for 4 years and discovered that weight gain is not related to my healed intestines. It is a math-matter. Too many calories in and not enough out yields weight gain each and every time! I've increase exercise daily and reduced calories...the results have been consistently good and my body feels so much better!

Posts: 1
1/25/09 11:14 A

I just joined this site yesterday and first of all, I was extremely excited to see a gluten free group on here. One of the most frustrating things about diets is a lot of them suggest meals that I cannot eat due to my celiac disease.

In regards to having celiac disease and being overweight, there are two things I often hear. The first is that there are some people (like me) who have other auto-immune problems that contribute to weight gain. I happen to also have hypothyroidism so in fact, when I was diagnosed as celiac and hypo, I looked completely normal weight wise since they kind of canceled each other out.

The other thing I often hear is that as we eat GF and our small intestine repairs itself (I've been eating GF for 10 years) we absorb a lot more than we had been previously and therefore gain weight.

Not sure if either of these apply to you, especially since you are so new to the GF diet, but thought I'd throw what I've heard in.

Posts: 26
1/25/09 12:37 A

How funny that we all seem to have a little data/book fetish. Of course, I'm a voracious reader, and of course, I started collecting books when I was very young, but no one else in my family is like this, and I think they really don't understand books as a decorating medium. Ah, well, I also have friends who literally "oooooh" when they see the wall of books...

And my kids have grown into readers as well, so there's another plus.

I'll check out the GF living for dummies and get a copy asap.

Also, I'm told that it can take up to 6 months for a celic-damaged bowel to heal, so I'm thinking that it must take months for significant damage to occur. I plan to take it easy on my system for as long as I can.

I also seem to be losing weight much more effortlessly than I have in the past. I don't know if it's because I really don't want to eat the cake and bread, or if my system is handling food differently.

thanks for all the suggestions.

Posts: 783
1/24/09 5:20 P

I actually had this very same question because I was in the same situation as you. I have all of the symptoms except weight loss. Also, considering the activity level I have and the amount of calories that I consume I should theoretically be losing weight. So I have cut out all gluten in an attempt to lose weight. I already was 90% gluten free but found out that I was eating a lot of vinegar not realizing that, that could be a problem for me. So we will see how it goes. I plan to eat gluten again before I get the biopsy so that it is in my symptom but since I already know what it does to me I am going to wait until the absolute last minute so that the doc can see the reaction for himself.

If you google gluten-free diet, obesity a lot of articles pop up on the topic. about 30% celiacs are overweight.

Posts: 10,003
1/21/09 11:49 P

Kim - you may want to read GF Living for Dummies as soon as you can. It'll better help you decide your course of action (or inaction). There are over 250 symptoms with celiac ... if YOU have this? Think of all that research right there at your fingertips for those docs! We need you - lol. :) (And where do I sign up to do your job?)

Ferret - I just love the way you write. What a gift with words. They're like fluffy clouds puffing at me.


P.S. Re: librarian/books...paper?

Get this connection: I read in a book while at the health food store (I think one by Kathleen Desmaisons .. the author of Potatoes, Not Prozac), that people who are carb addicts like paper (don't know why) ... and I am a stationery freak and love(d) scrapbooking/rubber stamping/card making. I hoard books and paper.

In fact, I remember dumpster diving when I was 6 or 7 and finding a giftbox with a handle on it stuffed with old Christmas cards. I'd gone to heaven. It became my 'teacher' briefcase. I'd always wanted to be a teacher: I'd get to handle and correct more papers, AND write on the chalkboard.

(This was NOT my sister, btw, who did become a teacher!)

Okay, now I feel really weird. *slinks back into corner ...with books*


Maybe it's a weird form of "information pica" - lol.


Edited by: DOTSLADY at: 1/22/2009 (00:05)

2,671 Days since:  gluten

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Posts: 26
1/21/09 11:08 P

Well, the medical librarian job IS my dream job: I get to do medical research, find answers, and teach the doctors how to do it right! Not so great, though, when I'm feeling neurotic and ucky, when I can find a hundred syndromes and illnesses that match my symptoms.

I've eliminated gluten temporarily to see if the symptoms stay away and then start again when I start eating again. If they do, I guess I'll just try to limit my exposure until about a month before the appointment.

I don't have anything else going on right now, so now is a good time to try gluten free eating. I'm going away next weekend, so that might be my reintroduction. I won't have much control over many of my meal choices.

Posts: 425
1/21/09 10:35 P

to the GF

I used to weight 190 pounds but I think that was more a medication reaction than gluten. I discovered a medication that also had a contraindication with gluten that I had been taking for years. As soon as I stopped taking that, I did not have to fight my weight any more.

But, I got afraid to eat until the celiac diagnosis...now I stick my nutritional toes in the water. LOL

I am a data librarian...does that make sense? I love libraries. I wonder if there is a librarian-celiac connection?

current weight: 150.0

150 143.75 137.5 131.25

125

Posts: 10,003
1/21/09 2:07 P

Welcome! Well, I'm here to tell ya: I'm fat and celiac (biopsy, then blood positive). You gotta stay on gluten if you want any tests a gastro'd perform on you to be accurate.

Anorexic-like symptom is "old school" like IBS is. Whoever eats gluten can get this: we range in size, nationality (though Irish seems higher I've read), color, and obviously symptoms, etc.

(Oh, and I think I'd LOVE being a medical librarian! Scratch that: make it a celiac or autoimmune disease librarian - I'll specialize - lol)


Edited by: DOTSLADY at: 1/21/2009 (14:08)

2,671 Days since:  gluten

0 675 1350 2025

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Posts: 26
1/21/09 1:40 P

I'm new to this forum, and I don't have a celiac diagnosis, but I've been having "IBS" symptoms for about the past 8 years.

I am a medical librarian, and I guess the fact that this team exists answers one question for me: In my quick reading one of the most common diagnostic criteria is anorexia or weight loss.

I'm wondering how many people have firm celiac diagnoses, but have a problem with obesity. I'm about 70 pounds overweight, so I thought I couldn't be celiac. However, I went to a naturopath, and when I went on an elimination diet, my main symptom went away. When I reintroduced gluten, the symptoms came back with a vengeance. I'm off gluten again.

I have an appointment with a gastroenterologist in July.

Glad to have this group to "talk" with.