Feel better but weight gain for newbie

[akirish40]

I have been using my CPAP a little over 2 months. I felt better from the first night and have averaged about a 2 AHI but occasionally felt like I had to really breathe deeply to get enough air. I met with my dr after about 6 weeks and she adjusted the pressure from 5 to a 7. My concern is that I put on 5 lbs since starting this. I am someone who has been the same weight for many years and yes I'm getting older, but I don't gain or lose easily. My diet and activity is about the same as always, maybe a little less exercise but not like I stopped. I teach a fitness class twice a week at my gym so I'm someone who is in pretty good shape and active. It seems nuts and maybe I have just hit that point in life where I need to eat less but I thought I would throw it out there to see if anyone else had experienced a similar thing.

[Julie]

Happens to a lot of people at first... all that 02 seems to make people hungrier without their realizing it... or that's my guess. I actually would think your metabolism would speed up but maybe for some people there's a temporary opposite effect.

[TASmart]

The human body does not convert mass to energy nor energy to mass. It uses chemical bonds (essentially massless) to store and release energy. Mass is conserved in human metabolism. Also, the human utilization of energy and even the ability to derive energy from food is variable. SOme people make more waste than others. The KCalorie content of food is determined in a bomb calorimeter, which burns the sample in an excess oxygen atmosphere. Not exactly the way humans use food, we have a much slower oxidations rate, are even able to produce some energy anaerobically. It's not nearly as simple as some would make it out to be.

[chunkyfrog]

Stop buying food at the gym.
It is not good for you.
It is there to make MONEY.
Let the suckers buy it.

[AMK]

I read a theory that we burn more calories at night when our apnea is untreated. All that adrenaline and trying to breathe and jerking awake, etc. So then we get treated with cpap and suddenly we aren't burning as many calories and the same diet suddenly has us gaining weight. I say this as a person who also gained weight on cpap and was looking it up on the web. It's actually not uncommon. I had to modify my diet.

[Sleeping Ugly]

I am in exactly the same situation you are in. I am coming close to 30 days with my CPAP use and despite being on Weight Watchers and eating carefully and exercising, I have gained about 7 lbs in that 30 days! Two nights ago I woke up two pounds heavier that the day before! How could that even BE possible? I started WW back in March and lost 18 lbs and now I am starting to pack it back on. My medical doctor can't offer any explanation for it. The only thing that has changed in my life is the CPAP therapy. It is VERY frustrating to be on a weight loss program and lose weight so slowly only to have it come back on so fast!

[AMK]

Sleeping Ugly, I ran across reports like that when I was doing my research on weight gain. Some people who gained overnight, like you describe, would experiment with going off cpap and the weight would just drop off. It seems as if it is water weight, though why cpap would cause water weight nobody can say since no one takes this seriously enough to research it. I do not recommend going off cpap for this, obviously. Do you know if you eat a lot of salt? I retain water after too many carbs, too, due to glycogen storage, if my conclusions are correct. If I cut out the bread type carbs I can lose two pounds in a couple days.

[Sleeping Ugly]

Sleeping Ugly, I ran across reports like that when I was doing my research on weight gain. Some people who gained overnight, like you describe, would experiment with going off cpap and the weight would just drop off. It seems as if it is water weight, though why cpap would cause water weight nobody can say since no one takes this seriously enough to research it. I do not recommend going off cpap for this, obviously. Do you know if you eat a lot of salt? I retain water after too many carbs, too, due to glycogen storage, if my conclusions are correct. If I cut out the bread type carbs I can lose two pounds in a couple days.

I feel strongly it is water weight. My feet are really swollen and when I jiggle them, I can actually see fluid move under the skin! Back to the doctor again I go, because I think I need some help here!

[AMK]

I feel strongly it is water weight. My feet are really swollen and when I jiggle them, I can actually see fluid move under the skin! Back to the doctor again I go, because I think I need some help here!

That's not good. There are a number of issues that could cause feet and legs to be swollen with water and some are pretty serious. You need to have all possible causes of that kind of water ruled out before working on the assumption that it's the cpap, just to be safe.

This is the article I found about cpap and weight gain: http://doctorstevenpark.com/cpap-use-fo ... eight-gain
The comments section is interesting. There's at least one person who talks about water weight there.

[Sleeping Ugly]

I feel strongly it is water weight. My feet are really swollen and when I jiggle them, I can actually see fluid move under the skin! Back to the doctor again I go, because I think I need some help here!

That's not good. There are a number of issues that could cause feet and legs to be swollen with water and some are pretty serious. You need to have all possible causes of that kind of water ruled out before working on the assumption that it's the cpap, just to be safe.

This is the article I found about cpap and weight gain: http://doctorstevenpark.com/cpap-use-fo ... eight-gain
The comments section is interesting. There's at least one person who talks about water weight there.

I went to my doctor about a two weeks ago and complained about the cpap machine causing me to gain weight, but she said it was unrelated and that it was "a normal fluctuation in weight." There is nothing normal (to me) about waking up 2 lbs heavier than you went to sleep! The doctor said that eating too much salt or drinking alcohol (I don't drink) could cause that. I do, admittedly, eat too much salt, but I did that before and I still managed to lose 18 pounds on Weight Watchers. Now I am seeing all that hard-lost weight pack right back on! She told me not to worry about weight loss right now, to take a break from the scale until I could get better results with the cpap therapy as far as a comfortable night's sleep. At that time I was still wearing my full face Amara View HORRIBLE mask and could not get a good night's sleep and felt foggy and groggy and insane. Since I visited her, I have switched to the Nuance nasal pillow mask and sleep great and have energy, a good mood and feel clear-headed, but I am STILL gaining a tremendous amount of weight!

I had a theory that I presented about water weight gain due to the fact that, with the cpap therapy, I was not urinating once every hour or once every two hours like I was before. With cpap therapy, I now only use the bathroom one time a night, two at the most. Where is the excess "water" that I was eliminating before? I realize that the excess urination before cpap therapy was because: (https://www.sleepapnea.org/learn/sleep- ... eep-apnea/)“Oxygen decreases, carbon dioxide increases, the blood become more acidic, the heart rate drops and blood vessels in the lung constrict. The body is alerted that something is very wrong. The sleeper must wake enough to reopen the airway. By this time, the heart is racing and experiences a false signal of fluid overload. The heart excretes a hormone-like protein that tells the body to get rid of sodium and water, resulting in nocturia.”

So, my question is--since I am not eliminating so much "water" now, couldn't that be a reason why I am gaining so much weight. She shook her head in the negative. She felt, at the time, that once I got my cpap therapy to work like it should, that my weight problems would even out. I am not convinced. I am going to go back to her very soon because now I DO have my therapy working and feel much better in so many ways except for this dang weight gain!

[AMK]

I'm not so much worried about the weight gain per se right now as your description of the fluid in your legs and feet. I would place emphasis on that.

Your frequency of bathroom trips ought to be balanced out by an increase in volume per trip. I don't think we actually retain fluid when we don't go to the bathroom as often. In my case, my bladder wouldn't allow it!

[WearyOne]

Sleeping Ugly, did your doctor not say or do anything related to your swollen feet and ankles? As AMK said, that is very worrisome. My endocrinologist check my feet, ankles and legs for swelling at each appointment. My regular doctor checks at my yearly physical. When I was heavier, I had problems with this, although it doesn't sound as bad as what you're describing. I will mention that I am on diuretic. Water retention can absolutely cause the numbers on the scale to go up.

Akrish, I never had weight gain when I started CPAP. The only thing I can think of is that you're eating more than you think. I'm in the process of losing weight and lowering my A-1C (pre-diabetic). I track everything I eat because I know there are very few things I can accurately estimate. It could be somehow related to CPAP therapy changing things that have increased your appetite. (Long shot here, as I'm just purely guessing.)

[Sleeping Ugly]

Sleeping Ugly, did your doctor not say or do anything related to your swollen feet and ankles? As AMK said, that is very worrisome. My endocrinologist check my feet, ankles and legs for swelling at each appointment. My regular doctor checks at my yearly physical. When I was heavier, I had problems with this, although it doesn't sound as bad as what you're describing. I will mention that I am on diuretic. Water retention can absolutely cause the numbers on the scale to go up.

That's when she said it was normal fluctuation due to eating a meal that had too much salt, etc. She does check my feet and ankles each time I visit.

[akirish]

WearyOne, that's exactly what I have been doing, analyzing exactly what I have changed in my diet/exercise since I started using my CPAP. I am a fitness instructor and probably on the underweight side of things. I have not changed eating habits other that summer vacations where I would have more alcohol and snack foods. I've really been watching everything the last 3 weeks and logging exercise and I feel like I gained a little more, all stomach and all that horrible bloating feeling. Unfortunately, I'm guessing the change may be due to metabolism, I just turned 60 and I may just be hitting that point where I need to eat less and do more to stay the same. It just puzzled me because other years I took vacations, had injuries and couldn't work out a lot, ate poorly at times and really good at others and it always balanced out, never gaining or losing more than a 1 or 2 and never had to go up a size in clothes as I have had to this summer.

Thanks for all of the replies everyone, I think I'm finally registered as a user so I'll be able to log in and keep up with everyone. I am still loving the energy I have during the day but I wish I didn't have that stupid nose mask print every morning !!!

[Dorhero]

Sleeping Ugly, I ran across reports like that when I was doing my research on weight gain. Some people who gained overnight, like you describe, would experiment with going off cpap and the weight would just drop off. It seems as if it is water weight, though why cpap would cause water weight nobody can say since no one takes this seriously enough to research it. I do not recommend going off cpap for this, obviously. Do you know if you eat a lot of salt? I retain water after too many carbs, too, due to glycogen storage, if my conclusions are correct. If I cut out the bread type carbs I can lose two pounds in a couple days.

I feel strongly it is water weight. My feet are really swollen and when I jiggle them, I can actually see fluid move under the skin! Back to the doctor again I go, because I think I need some help here!

I'm 2 1/2 months into my therapy. This is exactly what happened to me. The doctor gave me "water pills" and that has helped quite a bit. I definitely don't want to stop BiPap therapy.