Whoa - Gained 5# In 4 Days!

[GreenEyedBlonde]

I have just started to change my diet (coming from a low-carb diet that trashed my TSH). For the past few days I have been drinking OJ, 2% milk, eating fruit, carrot, salt, sugar, a couple of scoops of hydrolyzed gelatin, cheese, and no starches. My belly is really bloated and I am wondering if it is from the hydrolyzed gelatin. I also feel like I am retaining a lot of water. I have Hashimoto's (on T4) w/normal labs. I'm eating approx. 1500 calories/day. The only thing that is new in my diet is the dairy (2 cups/day) and the collagen. I'm thinking it must be the collagen - has anyone else experienced this at the beginning? I am ready to give up already! I'm 5'2'' and now 141#. Yikes...

 

[keith]

I have just started to change my diet (coming from a low-carb diet that trashed my TSH). For the past few days I have been drinking OJ, 2% milk, eating fruit, carrot, salt, sugar, a couple of scoops of hydrolyzed gelatin, cheese, and no starches. My belly is really bloated and I am wondering if it is from the hydrolyzed gelatin. I also feel like I am retaining a lot of water. I have Hashimoto's (on T4) w/normal labs. I'm eating approx. 1500 calories/day. The only thing that is new in my diet is the dairy (2 cups/day) and the collagen. I'm thinking it must be the collagen - has anyone else experienced this at the beginning? I am ready to give up already! I'm 5'2'' and now 141#. Yikes...

I had some digestive difficulties with the gelatin and collagen hydrolysate when I first started taking them. It did go away eventually. I can't recall how long it took. If you aren't eating much muscle meat, it isn't as important, so it might be worth starting with less, and working your way up, or even cutting it out while you adjust to everything else, and slowly adding it back in afterwards.

Milk also seems to cause bloating for some, so if you increased your milk intake considerably, it might take some time to adjust to that too. Some people also struggle with commercial orange juice.

Bear in mind too that dramatically changing your diet will require an adjustment period as your body and intestinal flora adapt. Going from low carb to high sugar all at once may be a little stressful to the body. Gradual changes can be less stressful, although as someone who jumped right in myself, I can understand how hard it is to be patient when you want to get well.

I'm certainly no expert or authority, but my advice is that if you can tell something isn't working, cut it out, and you can always try it again later if you are so inclined. I have had some success with that. Sometimes I don't have luck with something the first time, but do later, maybe because my body has better adapted due to something else I was doing; I'm not sure. Don't do something that is obviously causing distress to your body (bloating is a good example) just because you think it is part of a "protocol". I think Dr Peat has avoided making too many general recommendations (i.e. everybody should do such and such) for exactly that reason. It isn't helpful to be dogmatic contrary to the facts.

Good luck and best wishes.

 

[Blossom]

- has anyone else experienced this at the beginning?

Yes, yes, yes! The transition from low carb was absolutely brutal for me. I didn't join here until about 3 months after I started making changes because I wasn't sure if it was going to work out. Hang in there.
Forum member Mittir posted before about some initial weight gain when coming from low carb as being due to replenishing muscle glycogen stores.

I had some digestive difficulties with the gelatin and collagen hydrolysate when I first started taking them. It did go away eventually. I can't recall how long it took. If you aren't eating much muscle meat, it isn't as important, so it might be worth starting with less, and working your way up, or even cutting it out while you adjust to everything else, and slowly adding it back in afterwards.

Milk also seems to cause bloating for some, so if you increased your milk intake considerably, it might take some time to adjust to that too. Some people also struggle with commercial orange juice.

Bear in mind too that dramatically changing your diet will require an adjustment period as your body and intestinal flora adapt. Going from low carb to high sugar all at once may be a little stressful to the body. Gradual changes can be less stressful, although as someone who jumped right in myself, I can understand how hard it is to be patient when you want to get well.

I'm certainly no expert or authority, but my advice is that if you can tell something isn't working, cut it out, and you can always try it again later if you are so inclined. I have had some success with that. Sometimes I don't have luck with something the first time, but do later, maybe because my body has better adapted due to something else I was doing; I'm not sure. Don't do something that is obviously causing distress to your body (bloating is a good example) just because you think it is part of a "protocol". I think Dr Peat has avoided making too many general recommendations (i.e. everybody should do such and such) for exactly that reason. It isn't helpful to be dogmatic contrary to the facts.

Good luck and best wishes.

 

[GreenEyedBlonde]

Thank you for your kind replies. Knowing this same thing has happened to others gives me the incentive to keep moving forward. I feel it is either the dairy or the gelatin that is causing me the problem, but I need both for the protein content. Otherwise I would not be getting enough protein - don't like red meat or organ meats and I know too much poultry & salmon (which were the mainstay of my low carb diet before) is not good. I will just have to go slow for a while and wait for my body to adjust. I guess being a 'little bit Peat' is somewhat better than 'no Peat'!

 

[DWR]

I gained about 8 pounds the 1st week on roughly 3000 cal/day ...so only about 5600 total cal differiential vs. my pervious norm. It did stabilize and now seems to be slowly going down. I attributed some of it to increased salt intake and more water weight. Reading RP it seems that cellular hydration/respiration keeps coming up (not sure I fully understand it all yet). My personal take is simply that this is a sign of how far off my cellular "balance" was. I lot like someone who all of a sudden drinks a lot of water every day after being in a semi dehydrated state.

Think of it as establishing a correct healthy weight metabolically then working to lower that weight. 5 pounds of caloric weight would be roughly 17,500calories so it's not fat your adding...

 

[tara]

Albina

Bear in mind too that dramatically changing your diet will require an adjustment period as your body and intestinal flora adapt. Going from low carb to high sugar all at once may be a little stressful to the body. Gradual changes can be less stressful, ...

+1
Albina, maybe it's taking your system a while to adjust to eating fruit fibre after avoiding it too, or some particular fruit is irritating your gut?

Forum member Mittir posted before about some initial weight gain when coming from low carb as being due to replenishing muscle glycogen stores.

+1

I'm eating approx. 1500 calories/day.

Is this similar to how much you were eating before changing to more carbs? It doesn't look like enough to run a healthy metabolism. If you've been undereating for a long time, there's a good chance you would initially gain weight (and fat) for a while when you start eating enough again.

I guess being a 'little bit Peat' is somewhat better than 'no Peat'!

I figure some of the most important points from Peat for most of us are minimising PUFA, getting reasonable amounts of protein and getting carbs with minerals somehow.
Personally, I think eating enough is also pretty important. And then there are a lot of things that make more or less difference to each of us as individuals.

 

[GreenEyedBlonde]

Yes, Tara, that's approx. the caloric intake I had while low carbing. My diet, in hindsight, was also low in protein as I was living mainly on veggies and seeds. I was trying to lose weight and was struggling for months. My energy tanked, hair started falling out, significant swelling, etc. so I had my thyroid labs repeated. My TSH was 20 even though I was taking the same dose of T4 for many years. My endo could not explain why my TSH sky rocketed in just 6 months. One of the FB groups I belong to mentioned Ray Peat. I did some reading and decided try some of his recommendations. I probably tried to make too many changes at once.

 

[whit]

Welcome Albina!
It does take time to transition back from low carb. It did for me anyway.
Weight can be in flux for a bit but small balanced meals/snacks can bring balance back.
Gelatin needs to be fully hydrated or it could cause some irritation/bloating.
Milk worked better for me if I had a bit of cottage cheese or keifir first.
Now just milk is well tolerated without. I still love cottage cheese though.