Allopurinol and Weight Gain

[Gout Patient]

I’ve been on 300MG to lower UA levels (which were around 9) for about 6 months, and it seems to be working overall.

I have a question about weight gain — is this something that is possible due to this med? I am overweight to begin with, but I have not significantly altered my already healthy and gout-avoidant diet, and seem to notice a gain of several pounds.

My diet is primarily vegan and gluten free, any suggestions on Keto or other diet plans?

---

Does Allopurinol make you Gain Weight?

[nobody]

I don’t know whether weight gain is a common side-effect. But I do know that 300mg isn’t the ideal dose in many cases. What are your UA test results like on that dose?
“Several pounds” could just be water or simply your muscle mass being re-built if you’ve become more physically active as your gout improved.

Gout-wise, you aren’t out of the water yet as you’ve only been on the drug for 6 months. And gout sufferers have had trouble with keto and other crazy diets.
So I would recommend sticking with something reasonable, like increasing the amount of low-energy foods you eat. If you aren’t eating enough proteins, fixing that could also lower your appetite (but if you’re almost vegan, you can’t just look at the gross amount of protein you find on labels and such as vegan diets are often lacking in at least one particular protein).

[chris mousel]

Justin This may or may not help you.
For significant medical reasons I made eating habit changes. I purchased two books about Ending Diabetes. Over one year I have dropped 66 lbs. And my risk has been removed for being diagnosed with diabetes. The advice included No Sugar, No Oil, No Salt. No Dairy,
No Meat, No Fowl, No Fish.
Sounds utterly awful I know but slowly to start I got it right.
Fruit , Vegetables , Beans,
Nuts and seeds. I substituted Almond Milk for Dairy.
I roast my veggies with lemon juice.
I use Brown Rice Pasta as it’s a whole grain, can’t tell the difference. I use whole grain breads.
Nix the white flour empty calories.
Drink fruit flavored chilled herb tea. And my latest discovery is Powdered Peanut Butter. So much less fat than regular.
I found too many beans started my gout symptoms, so I hopped on here to start learning. I stay away from the known gout triggers.
Vegan diets don’t necessarily control fat, sugar, and salt intake but that might be something you can try.
Is it hard? No Not if like me I was afraid to have one more issue physically!Is it less tasty ? It can be but with the Internet at your fingers you can find items that perk up flavor. Also recipes galore for vegetables I had never indulged in.
Bottom line you don’t go hungry.
The secret is: going out to eat is my guilty pleasure. However I only eat out once or twice a month usually at lunch between Dr. visits. That’s when I choose food I want to eat never having Sugar! And never adding salt!
Keeping to whole grain bread choices.
Indulging in meat, fish, or chicken.
Sometimes eggs.That’s how I manage all the other days of the month eating at home as described above.
My food urges don’t exist anymore and the best thing is sugar is not my most desired item. Fresh and frozen fruit always available.
Vitamix invaluable for Almond Milk, peanut butter powder, cocoa, and frozen banana smoothies.
Again I’m no gout expert, at all And still learning but dropping the excess weight and discovering how to eat and keep the uric acid level down. Yes I’m doing this also to avoid any possibility of having to add medication. My Nephrologist ( kidney man) has just begun my gout symptom investigation but I’m prepared to get referred to Rheumatology. My Dad had Rhumatory Arthritis, so beside my father’s beautiful blue eyes I inherited a second genetic feature.
Best Wishes C.

[nobody]

Chris’ recommendations are also valid for people suffering from gout… except for avoiding dairy. Indeed, I’d say they they’re common sense recommendations (not that I follow every single one religiously).
Low-fat dairy products such as skimmed milk and yogurt made from skimmed milk is generally recommended to people who want to lower their uric acid. And since it is the fat in dairy that some diets want to steer you away from so I think there’s room for comprise on the dairy issue.

[chris mousel]

Agreed
C.

[Rebecca Nahid]

Please help me lose weight after starting allopurinol

I hope somebody can help me here I’m desperately trying to lose weight. Since starting allopurinol last year I have gained a stone (UK measurement = 14 lbs) within that time and I’ve not changed my eating habits. I’m following a sensible controlled diet and exercising and I’m not shifting £1.

I have thought about giving Atkins ago now before everybody shouts at me and says no I am vegan so it will be different. I will be eating lots of protein sources from tofu pea protein etc all of which I tolerate well and have not caused any gout flare ups. I just wondered if it would be sensible though as I know Atkins is linked to gout but the low carb is only really low in the very beginning few weeks and then you reintroduce higher amounts. I know people will probably tell me I need to just eat a balanced diet and that is what I have been doing but I’m not losing any weight and getting very depressed over it.

I have also looked into the 5:2 diet plan which has since been relax slightly to allow 800 calories instead of 500 2 days a week. No I know that fasting has been linked to raised uric acid levels but would 800 calories a day be classed as actual fasting because I would have thought fasting is when you have no calories or extremely low amount as in 200-300 etc per day?

I am prepared to take the risk of a gout attack on here that sounds crazy but I just want to know for my own benefit if these will help me lose weight and avoid flare up because if that’s the case then I will of course follow them until I lose the weight I want to lose. If I don’t try them for fear of getting out I’m just going to be stuck in a rut and I really don’t want that. So I really would welcome any scientific evidence that links the plans I’m thinking of following to erased increase of getting out and not if that’s ok lectures about dieting and weather diets work. Incident in the last year I have also followed Weight Watchers for two months and that did not work either. I’m really not sure what else I can do.

Thanks in advance sorry about all the punctuation mistakes lol

[nobody]

Do you still have gout symptoms?
If you’ve finally gotten rid of them but are still taking allopurinol and your blood tests keep showing pretty low uric acid as a result, your risk of facing a gout attack should have become quite low by now.
Mild gout which is treatable without horrible side-effects shouldn’t dictate what you can and can’t eat for the rest of your life. You want to be especially careful during the initial phase of the therapy but hopefully that’s behind you now. So researching the potential impacts of dieting on completely different aspects of your health might be a better use of your time.
If you find a diet that works for you, you could get a blood test done to see what if anything it’s done to your uric acid. That’d be more useful than scientific evidence in a way because the evidence is about other people’s bodies. If you test fine, you’ll know you’re safe. If not, you could always take a bit more allopurinol to compensate. Don’t rush to do the test since any diet you’re trying may not work out for you over the long haul anyway.

There’s one easy thing you can do if you try a crazy diet to lower the risk a bit: drink lots of water (more than if you were eating normally). If your diet is really crazy, you’ll also need minerals with that water (especially salt). Dehydradation is especially bad for gout which is why drugs and additives which make you lose water are known to cause gout.

Since you obviously don’t have nearly enough fat on you to warrant surgery, the most straightforward way to lose weight would be, in addition to exercise and a balanced diet, to limit your calories to a reasonable number (not 800!) every single day. Of course, that’s easier said than done. Come to think of it, it might be even be easier to live with that extra stone…

[Rebecca Nahid]

Hello there thanks for your reply! I totally agree with you about not letting out dictate my life and I think I have done that sometimes. I do not drink alcohol, have been on allopurinol 100 mg for well over a year now. I’m due to get my uric acid tested next week but my last results have all been good. I have been reintroducing certain foods that I was avoiding to see what happens and all has been fine. I am currently trialling pea protein and I’ve given up the looking on Google because all I ever see is negative words associated with foods that I want to eat! I tried to put things in perspective and I’m sure that when advice says to avoid pea protein they are talking about excessive amounts not a 15g serving.

I’m going to give Atkins ago I have emailed the UK version and they have told me that I must go straight to face too which allows a higher carb amount because I’m vegan so I will follow that advice. I will also have a look at a reduced calorie diet perhaps I will try 800 calories if I cannot cope with it it’s no problem I will just stop. I know I do need to reduce my calories and I’m probably guilty of not counting them correctly. You can just become very stressful sometimes when you’re even counting lettuce leaves life’s too short lol! I’m also looking at Slimming World because although you are told what you can and can’t eat the foods that you can eat you can eat in abundance. I do know from past experience that when I try depriving myself it makes my eating disorder worse.

That is really good advice about drinking more water and perhaps up in the allopurinol. I’m not sure there is it is the allopurinol that has caused my weight gain there is no scientific evidence I’m just going on what I’ve noticed over the past year. Luckily I drink plenty of water anyway it’s pretty much the only drink I have apart from tea and coffee. I will report back here if I get any results as it will be interesting. There are times when I think I would love to have surgery I know that sounds insane as I am not big enough at 12 stone. I have to accept and I’ll admit it here that food is my obsession and always has been for some people it may be shopping for clothes I am always happiest when I’m in a supermarket. Food has always ruled by life and having gout unfortunately made me become very obsessive over worrying about whether what I eat was going to call gout I am getting better with that.

Thanks again for your great response

[nobody]

It makes sense not to count the calories in things such as lettuce.
It does not however make sense to aim for 800. That’s kind of crazy on a sustained basis, especially for a vegan. Some people get potentially deadly infections when dieting too hard for instance. I don’t know how your body works but if you’re pretty average, 1200 should be the bare minimum.
And you’d have to be very careful to get all the proteins you need if you’re undereating. Tofu is fine but since you’re vegan, pea protein shouldn’t be your main protein source. It’s far from the worst protein source and I’m not saying you should avoid it, only that taking a reasonable amount isn’t going to fully cover your needs.

[Rebecca Nahid]

Thanks no tofu and pea protein a definitely not my only sauces. I also eat beans and chickpeas and lentils. It is a myth about vegans and protein though because my B12 levels are perfect and a lot of people over eat on protein which is not good for you either. I love my food too much to be one of these vegans to ever get undernourished!

I will rethink the 800 calories a day it’s just that I’m getting to the stage but I will try anything and I will not pooh pooh a diet until I have tried it if that makes sense?

To maintain weight I need to eat 1800 calories a day based on my current lifestyle so I’m going to drop 500 calories a day and just stick to 1300 but count everything and see what happens.

[nobody]

B12 isn’t a protein. You need very small amounts of B12 so it’s easy to get that from supplements or processed foods to which B12 has been added. On the other hand, you need more protein than can fit in a pill.
Protein deficiency has been measured in vegan populations. It’s not a routine mesaurement like B12 (or at least it’s not routine in many countries) so most people never have the test.
It’s not about eating enough protein or loving food. It’s about the protein mix in plant products. Anyone eating lots of plant protein needs to eat too much protein if they don’t get the protein balance right, which is nearly impossible. When you eat way more protein than you need, you naturally get enough of every type. But dieting makes it hard to eat so many proteins that the mix doesn’t matter. Tofu and other soy products are so popular because the protein mix is similar to typical animal products.
If you did get most of your protein from beans, chickpeas and lentils you would not get the type of protein deficiency most common in vegans. You would get other deficiencies instead. Since there are lots of protein in grains for instance, it is rare for people to actually get most of their protein from legumes. But people who are trying to cut calories may well cut grains and end up in trouble that way…

[Rebecca Nahid]

Yes I know the protein test you are talking about my doctor sent me for one because he always seems very dubious about vegan diets. My score came back within the normal range. My doctor has a huge stomach and is very unhealthy looking so I ignore a lot of his so-called nutritional advice which is actually very little.

I eat plenty of tofu so I never worry I know that I’m getting all the right nutrients at the moment.

Too much protein in the way that bodybuilders have it cannot be good for you as it also leaches calcium from the bones. I take a daily B12 supplement as it’s the only thing that I cannot get through food alone unless I was to drink massive amounts of fortified milk or nutritional yeast which I don’t eat. A lot of people don’t realise they have B12 deficiency even meat Eaters because of the way modern farming methods are and animals can’t always get it from the soil.

He always makes me laugh when people ask me if I am worried about getting enough omega-3 because I don’t eat fish. Fish get their omega-3 from algae so if I was really worried I can consume algae and get it Direct rather than from a secondary source.

Sometimes I do a kind of vegan bingo in my head because you can imagine I’ve heard so many contra actions to my lifestyle this is normally from people in my life who eats nothing but junk and drink every weekend but somehow become nutritionists once you tell them you don’t eat meat lol

[nobody]

I’m not aware of there being a synthetic score with a normal range for amino acids. But of course there are lots of things I’m not aware of…
In any case, having had the test done wouldn’t make drastic calorie restriction any safer.

I think I’ve got an inkling of what you’ve been through since I’ve been treated as vegan enough for concern by doctors and nutritionists. I’m also aware there is misinformation out there about the nurtritional value of some plants.
But that’s no reason to deny that there are potential pitfalls with any diet, including veganism. Making this some kind of “us versus them” contest and resorting to barguments (you can bet people who intent to profit from raising livestock are going to make sure their animals are getting more than enough B12 to grow!) isn’t the most prudent way to go…

[Rebecca Nahid]

What is true is that bacteria found in soil are the source of vitamin B12, and we get it by eating a little dirt on vegetables, or by eating animals who did the same thing. Because plants are more thoroughly washed now, we no longer get as much B12 from plants. Animals raised for human consumption don’t get as much dietary B12 as they used to either, because of changes in feeding methods, though animals have more B12 as a rule than thoroughly washed vegetables.

There is another reason why plants have reduced levels of many common nutrients: they have been bred to grow larger. The larger plants do not necessarily increase their nutrient uptake to compensate, leading to lower levels of nutrients. So it isn’t that soil is less nutritious, but that plants don’t absorb as many nutrients, and the missing nutrients must come from other sources. Animals are given supplements to compensate, and this is a major reason why animals tend to have higher B12 levels than washed plants.

I don’t think it’s about an us vs them argument when it comes to meat Eaters and vegans I just think that in general meat Eaters are given a lot less Flack than vegans. It is completely unfair to cross examine somebody over what they eat and that is why I’ve had for the last 7 years since going vegan. Also I don’t class my eating habits as a diet I am vegan that is my choice yes but it’s not a diet under any circumstances it’s a lifestyle and in fact a healthy lifestyle judging by all of my medical examinations so I know for a fact that there are no pitfalls in my diet if they were I would seek to rectify them.

Yes I do enjoy sugar and I do enjoy vegan cakes but I really am not going to worry about any potential pitfalls in my so-called diet the only thing I would like is to lose some weight which I suspect 70 or 80% of the population do as well.

[nobody]

Gut bacteria make B12 which is how B12 as well as deadly strains of bateria end up on the skin of unwashed plants. You know why ruminants are called that, right?
A major reason why animals contain more B12 than plants is that they’d be dead if they didn’t.

You might be healthy now but that doesn’t mean you’ll remain so after cutting your calorie intake.
Obviously meat eaters have also ended up in the ER because they wanted to lose weight. You just have an extra challenge.

[Author]

Posts