Does apnea change your food cravings?

[Dave2you]

I have noticed that since I have started my cpap, which was about a week and a half ago, my food cravings have drastically changed.

Where I used to crave candy, sugar, carbs and chocolate and soda all the time, almost desparalety need to have them.

I find now that extra sugar makes me feel like mud and I have given up most of my soda habit for plain old bottled water. Why, no idea, its not some odd quirk I started to get instantly healthy, it just sort of is, suddenly the sweets lost there pull.

I just went to the movies with my wife and son. Every flick I have seen for the last five years were watched while consuming a bag of recess pieces and usually some other candy. A whole bad of the little buggers.

But I opted for a small bag of popcorn instead.

I am doing this more and more, opting for other food and out with the sweets and caffeine.

Do you think apnea and carbs could be linked, like the body is using sugar to keep running, so I don't fall asleep.

I know that sounds weird.

[jennmary]

My doctor told me my food cravings might change. If you are not getting energy from sleep....your body will get it in whatever way it can. So you end up eating whatever your body needs to stay awake and function during the day. So it is not suprising that you no longer crave the sugar and soda....you no longer need them to stay awake.

[ScottK]

I agree that your eating habits will change. My RT had told me the same thing about how your body compensates for energy by craving carbs and sugars. I was always eating sweets and sodas, but didn't really realize it was from the lost energy because I wasn't getting good sleep.

[catbirdgirl]

yep. I dropped the caffeine.

[roster]

I am sure many of us were in some sort of "metabolic distress" while we were untreated. Since cpap, I no longer eat popcorn, pretzels and chips by the bushel. The craving to gorge on these items is greatly diminished.

I am six feet tall and weighed 179 lbs. (slim appearance) but lost 10 lbs. easily after starting cpap therapy.

[SisterShotgun]

I find all of this very interesting..Usually during the day I required at least 4 cups of coffee to keep my eyes open, and on top of that major amounts of food..For the past two days I have had 1/2 to one cup of coffee and my appetite has decreased, now all I want to do is drink more water and sugar-free cool aid.

[socknitster]

I believe it is well documented that sleep deprivation causes carb cravings. It has to do with the hormonal pathways of leptin and ghrelin. You don't make enough leptin when you don't sleep which is the hormone that makes you feel satisfied after eating a reaonable amount. Stress causes the increase in ghrehlin which causes food (especially carb) cravings. Hope I didn't get those two mixed up, but you get the gist. There is research into making a leptin pill going on right now to fight the obesity epidemic. If you want to learn more, search google for leptin or grehlin (I think I spelled them right!)

Jen

[topher]

I agree I traded my soda and candy for water and fruit, its crazy but I don't miss it, I also lost weight!!

[ozij]

Leptin and ghrelin levels in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea: effect of CPAP treatment

POSSIBLE ROLE OF SLEEP LOSS AND SLEEP FRAGMENTATION IN OSA-RELATED METABOLIC DISTURBANCES

[Sergey45]

Yes,
After I have started CPAP I am tot starving for candy-coffee-cake stuff any longer
Sergey.
http://www.sleepapneasymptom.medgrip.com/cpap_mask.html

[betty303]

This article may be of interest to you.....

http://www.apneanet.org/apss98/apss98_weightgain.htm

I am also trying to locate another resource that I found which reported findings that showed lack of sleep (from any cause) depleted two enzymes (at least I think they were enzymes,) one of which communicates with the brain that you are full and the other that communicates you are hungry - a double whammy for weight gain.

If I can find it, I will post.

[Edit] I was reading another thread and found the information in a post by Sharon1965....Looks like they are two hormones, not enzymes !! )

"....i read a few articles linking sleep apnea and weight gain-- due to the fact that osa (and sleep deprivation in general) causes you to under-secrete one hormone that tells you you're full, and over-secrete another that tells you to store food (leptin and grehlin, but i can never remember which does which) so no matter how little or how well you eat, you store everything (!),-- and also linking sleep deprivation with cravings for carbs and salt.."

[socknitster]

Thanks for posting those informative articles, ozij. Fascinating how this disorder can have such far-reaching and complicated consequences. It sure has a lot of secondary illnesses associated with it: weight gain, heart disease, gerd (and all of its associated problems including asthma, sinus and allergy problems), stroke risk--yikes! I'm glad I was diagnosed young! I am certain I packed on the pounds after the osa symptoms started, and the pounds only made it worse, I'm sure. I have definitely been eating less lately and craving less. It will be interesting if I will be able to break bad habits and lose some weight now.

Jen

[Stefernie]

I like this place already.

[Wulfman...]

I really didn't have any "cravings" before CPAP.....and I was wondering how little I could eat and still not lose weight (and stay alive). Now that my body seems to be metabolizing things better, I'm losing some weight on about the same consumption.

Den

[socknitster]

Wulfman said:

Now that my body seems to be metabolizing things better, I'm losing some weight on about the same consumption.

Fascinating! Compelling! Encouraging! Party-worthy!

Jen