Piling on the pounds !!!

[KICKSTART]

Ok i promise you its not fluid !!! But after years of CAPD now APD and for the first time ,due to all the other stuff going on and slowing me right down to a halt , im piling on weight , actual body weight. Anyone else had this ? Is it possible to lose some of it ? If it is ..how?  Ive never been so heavy in my life and i hate it ( i am normally very slim) Diet wise im pretty good, but have spells of not eating rather than overeating , so im pretty sure its the dialysis fluid doing this , how do you allow for it ?

[peleroja]

The dialysate contains dextrose to assist in the removal of fluid.  Like you, I gained 50 pounds over 5 years before I put a stop to it.  I lost 60 pounds by riding my stationary bike 10 minutes at a time, 8 times a day.  Hope that helps.

[Hanify]

How much do you think you've gained?  This can happen when you change your dialysis because yoyu are healthier and therefore able to gain weight more easily.  Do you use a ambidextrous bag during the day (whatever it's called).  It is easier to control weight gain if you do cos you're using less sugar.  Can you exercise?  I would talk to the renal unit - and make sure it's not fluid before taking any radical steps.

[KICKSTART]

How much do you think you've gained?  This can happen when you change your dialysis because yoyu are healthier and therefore able to gain weight more easily.  Do you use a ambidextrous bag during the day (whatever it's called).  It is easier to control weight gain if you do cos you're using less sugar.  Can you exercise?  I would talk to the renal unit - and make sure it's not fluid before taking any radical steps.

Sorry but i dont think you have read my post properly or you would see all the questions you've asked me are answered there!  I think you also mean do i use extraneal during the day ..and yes i do .. i have used extraneal for years !

Peleroja .. yeah exercise bike might be a good way to start ..at least that way im at home if i need to rest . I love walking but cant do it right now (lack of energy)

[george40]

I packed on 15 kilos in 7 months. Mostly because I was using 4.25% alot. My diet is decent, stay away from junk, etc. The weight gain was directly related to the dextrose which packs on about 300 calories per bag. So, knowing your taking in that much makes it challenging to manage your sugar intake etc. This is one of the reasons the extraneal discussion came up with my drs. Okay fast forward...... I was doing manuals 4 bags per day, now Im trying to get this cycler working again (still having drain problems) and in a month on the cycler (using lower % dextrose) I have begun to shed pounds again. I am feeling much better with this weight coming off. Now, I have a bum knee so I am looking into getting an eliptical machine? I think this is the one they say is good if you have a bad knee. I plan on hitting this maybe 15 minutes per day.

[Hanify]

Sorry Kickstart but none of my questions were answered in your thread.  You don't mention how much weight you are talking about, I am unable to do exercise myself, so I asked if you were rather than assuming - and because you'd mentioned changing to APD I thought maybe the bags were different now or something. The sort of extraneal bags that I now use have only been available here in NZ for the last year so I'm sorry if they're old news to you.
I find your answer harsh - do you mean to me rude or does it just come out that way?

[Des]

Kickstart,

The "sugar" (dextrose) in some of the bags add calories to your daily intake and this can cause weight gain.You have to adjust your diet to add these calories into it.

By not eating small regular meals your body's metabolism is slowing down to "preserve" the food (energy) for a longer period of time. This means you will feel tired because the body is holding on to the socalled energy for later.

I would suggest you investigate the calories (energy) in your bags and have smaller more regular meals. This with an extra vitamin suppliment (cleared with your doc) should over a period of time restore your energy.... as soon as you have more energy you can start excercising and that will assist the weightloss.
 
Just a thought....

[joyfulmother]

I've gained weight too and I'm feeling miserable about it.  I was already overweight and I didn't need the extra at all!  I have thought about Peleroja's past posts many times adn it has given me hope.  I have an exercise bike and today I am going to get on it.  I doubt it will be 8 times today but once is a good start!

[KICKSTART]

I've gained weight too and I'm feeling miserable about it.  I was already overweight and I didn't need the extra at all!  I have thought about Peleroja's past posts many times adn it has given me hope.  I have an exercise bike and today I am going to get on it.  I doubt it will be 8 times today but once is a good start!

I thought the same .. 8 times a day!!! ..i will be lucky to manage one at the moment ! Even if you only do 5 mins , its 5 mins more than you did yesterday ! I would build up slowly , even if you only do an extra minute each time (a minute can seem a long time if you are worn out!) Im going to look at getting a bike as well , it seems the best option right now , at least if it gets too much youre already at home , which i think is the safest option to start with , rather than walking and getting stranded because your exhausted 

[swramsay]

How much do you think you've gained?  This can happen when you change your dialysis because yoyu are healthier and therefore able to gain weight more easily.  Do you use a ambidextrous bag during the day (whatever it's called).  It is easier to control weight gain if you do cos you're using less sugar.  Can you exercise?  I would talk to the renal unit - and make sure it's not fluid before taking any radical steps.

Sorry but i dont think you have read my post properly or you would see all the questions you've asked me are answered there!  I think you also mean do i use extraneal during the day ..and yes i do .. i have used extraneal for years !

[swramsay]

ggtsd

[paris]

Kickstart, I have no answers, but wanted you to know I was thinking about you.

Peleroga, I remember you posting before about your exercise bike.  I got one last week and started doing 5 minute sessions. That seemed like alot since I haven't had any energy lately. This week, 10 minutes 3 times a day.  I will just keep increasing as I feel like I can. So, you made me realize I could do 10 minutes at a time and that was so much more than I had been doing.  Thanks for the inspiration.   

[dwcrawford]

gwab

[jbeany]

I think building up slowly at any exercise is the trick.  I'm up to a mile a day on my treadmill, and I do intervals of walking, jogging, then running.  I can walk the mile easily now, compared to when I started.  I can manage to jog for a couple of minutes at a time, and the real flat out run, I can only handle for about a minute.  I keep at it, though, and I can jog and run a bit farther every time.

I think having the exercise equipment at home is a better idea than a gym or trying to go outside.  The weather is too much of an excuse to not go if you have to leave home.  If I have a blood sugar crash while running, I'm right next to the kitchen and a supply of sugar, too.

Little bits of exercise add up - try peleroja's mini-work-outs, kickstart, and I bet you see an improvement soon.

[Jie]

As everyone said here, exercise is the key. Also, make sure when it drains, it really drains all solution. I do APD at night and stay dry during day. On my sleep position, the machine always leaves about 200 to 500 ml after the drain. If I do not do manual drain on the morning, these leftover solution would be absorbed by the body during the day. After getting up on the morning, I sit up and do manual drain to drain out all of leftover solution.   

[KICKSTART]

Jie as i posted in another section , not everyone is dry during the day , i have 1800 extraneal in all day !!!

[Hanify]

and I have 2000 extraneal all day too.  Although, I like the sound of being empty during the day...

[loopywinks]

Hello there,

 
I am new here and my doctor is entertaining the idea of PT as an option for me.  She says I would be a good candidate for it. 

I am curently about 20 pounds heavier than I would like to be.  I am 5-4.  The thing that has made me most nervous about this is the potential weight gain.  I could accept it if I knew I could drop it quickly post transplant... but it sounds like that might not be the case. My body likes to hang on to weight anyhow (and I feel too lazy or tired to do anything about it most of the time).

When my brother started dialysis, he was thin and weak because he was so sick.  He was on hemo.. would go in and leave 10 pounds lighter. 

Question.. when PT removes toxins, does it remove fluid weight? 

I apologize for my newbieness and all.  I am just trying to figure it out

[Hanify]

PD removes toxins and fluid.  Depending how much fluid you need to remove you use different strength dialysis bags.  The higher the % the more fluid should come off.  Yes, there's an issue with all the sugar in the bags - doesn't effect me, so I'm lucky.  Lots of people struggle, and the best idea seems to be short bursts of exercise - like on a stationary bike for example.

[sico]

I heard that a 2lt manual exchange will give you similar calories to a can of soft drink,
I would like to gain weight but have been steady since starting PD, every day i'm between 64.5kg and 65.2kg (wet with 1lt dialysis solution).
Don't have a good appetite either.

[Restorer]

A 2 liter bag of PD solution has about the same amount of sugar as a can of soda (the 2.5% concentration, anyway), but you don't absorb it all. How much is absorbed varies by person - one of the tests you'll eventually do will be able to tell you how much sugar you absorb from the solution, but you'll have to ask the PD nurse or nephrologist to interpret it for you - it's not something that's given to you straight out.

It also depends on how long you go between exchanges. If, for some reason, you stop doing exchanges for a day or two, you'll absorb all that liquid and all the calories in it.

[Jie]

The PET results are not difficult to interpret. Just graph the four data points of % sugar loss (including zero hour data point) as a function of time. If your dwell time is 2 hours, then you can see what % loss at 2 hours.  If the dwell time is 4 hours, you can pick up the % loss form the curve too. And so on. The loss of sugar from the solution were mostly absorbed by the body.