Cut Calories

[Bill Richards]

Ive had 6 to 8 gout flares starting around 3 years ago, but got it under control as beer seemed to be the commin trigger. However, i started a strict super healthy diet 8 days ago. Calories 1600 or so.

Im. 45 year old male. Can a sudden calorie restrictive diet cause multiple gout flares? It was first mild on top of right foot now total consuming flare and pain in right ankle. Theres no way it is food, i dont think. I havent had many, if at all trigger foods or any of my past trigggers (alcohol, tuna, liver)

Does anyone have experience with this? There is very little info regarding it, but there is some. Will a sudden “crash” diet cause flareups? Do i continue on my course or will the gout continue or is it a 1 time hurdle to overcome ad my body is getting thru this change?

Any advice or insight would be greatly appreciated. I am sitting in pain as i write this hopping around my house for 2 days. Thanks.

[nobody]

Hi!

Yes, diets triggering gout is a commonly-discussed phenomenon. Your body will not somehow adapt to dehydration or to an otherwise dangerous diet. The main problem may not be the caloric reduction as such but I do not know of a safe way to reduce calories drastically, other than treating one’s gout properly.
That said, there are better and worse ways to reduce calories of course. In particular and assuming you have no cholesterol or other problem requiring you to be careful about the fats you consume, you shouldn’t overeat protein and you should get most of your protein from dairy or possibly eggs. If you don’t have an insulin problem (or indeed full-blown diabetes), you should also be eating a moderate amount of grains which you need to take into account in your protein budget. And of course you should always make sure your fluid intake is adequate! Eating less typically requires one to drink more and some people overlook this, to damaging effect.

You can not control gout by abstaining from beer or any other trigger.
If you keep avoiding treatment, your condition will likely get worse over time, possibly resulting in debilitating bone disease or other incurable joint problems.
But right now, you need to stop the inflammation which is causing faster damage than the excess of uric acid you were likely suffering from on a daily basis. I strongly recommend you consult with a doctor if you don’t know how to stop inflammation fast.

[Bill Richards]

Thanks for the reply.  It has been a well balanced diet, while grains, lean meats, fruits and vegetables.  Water consumption is high.  The only change has been logging calories at a much decreased level.  

Here i think i am doing everything right to lose weight and get healthy and a gout attack happens which is very perplexing.

But i agree i do need to see a dr rather than self treat.  Is this my body reacting to sudden low cal weight loss with excess uric acid production?

[nobody]

It’s hardly perplexing. Indeed it was quite predictable.
Unless you used to consume raw oil and/or sugar, it would be extremely challenging to reduce caloric intake without reducing your intake of other things as well.
I don’t know what’s going on but yes, it looks like weight loss might inherently involve increased uric acid production though I would always suspect excess protein consumption, hunger, inadequate mineral intake and dehydration even when people claim they’re eating right, drinking enough and so forth.

I guess another problem could also be that your system is unable to metabolize fat efficiently enough, especially if you used to consume little fat and reduced your caloric intake brutally instead of progressively. In that case, you might be burning your muscles rather than fat which would definitely involve the production of lots of uric acid. And that particular problem should improve quickly, else you’d end up in the ER before long.

People who have untreated gout should avoid consuming animal flesh, especially when losing weight.
Also mind the amount of fructose in these fruits.

[Author]

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