Am i supposed to GAIN weight on cpap or lose it?

[OceanGoingGal]

I have been making a conscious effort to lose weight. As of this morning I have lost 17 lbs. I am not starving myself but am using a healthy approach. I use a website http://www.caloriecount.about.com I follow the simple rules here and it works. I am not starving myself, that does not work. I eat between 1800- 2700 calories a day according to my activity level. The website will help you figure out how much you can eat. The secret is not in how little I eat but in how healthy I eat. I refuse to go through life eating tasteless fat free foods. I make my choices and keep track of the calories. I even eat at fast fod places too. I choose fruits for snacks and get a proper amount of vegetables in my diet. I feel a lot better having only lost a small portion of what I need to lose. I weigh myself weekly and record it in my weight log. The website is there it is free and it works, at least for me. Good Luck.

Laura

[ChrisC]

I started my CPAP therapy at the end of March and just stepped on a scale for the first time since then. I've noticed my clothes are fitting a little bit more snug lately, but didn't think much of it. Well, I've gained 10-12 pounds in a little over a month! Nothing has changed other than starting to use a CPAP machine. I know the machine is with me for life now, but what gives? This really isn't the sort of result I was hoping for! I've read here that your body metabolizes carbs differently with more oxygen in the body. Is this true?

I just don't want to go on a fad diet to lose weight, knowing that it'll just be put back on as easy as I've put on this 10 pounds..

[scotty]

My weight's actually been up and down since starting CPAP, but that's because of changes in my diet and activity levels, not CPAP. I suspect that if my activity level and diet remained unchanged, then I would have gained some weight. However, I think I was actually more active, more on my feet, before CPAP just to keep alert. When I stopped or slowed down I'd quickly get tired. My doctor remarked at that, too, and it was evident when I went from awake to Stage 1 sleep in less than a minute despite being alert and not feeling sleepy before that.

When I did my sleep study my results showed that I never went into Stage 4 sleep and only went to State 3 for 1-2 minutes at a time about once every 2 hrs. What that meant, according to my doctor, was that my body never slept. My brain, heart, and other organs were about as active as when I was awake, never resting. I guess since my body never rested I probably burned more calories, so once I got on CPAP and started hitting Stages 3 and 4, I probably burned less calories. However, my doctor cautioned me that if my heart kept going at full speed 24/7 it could lead to sudden heart failure, so I'm complaining.