Fibromyalgia is a neurological disease that is characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain. Often fibromyalgia can have additional side effects to pain such as fatigue, sleep issues, memory and processing issues as well as disruption of mood. Fibromyalgia can be brought on by stress or post-traumatic events. It is more common to be experienced by women, most people are diagnosed in their middle age however it can affect anyone at any age. Fibromyalgia is diagnosed by a medical professional and they should oversee your treatment plan and help you manage your health.
For myself, I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia a couple of years ago. When first diagnosed I was curious about the side effects, as well as if there would be any impact on my body weight with the limitations of physical movement at times due to widespread pain. This led me to begin researching more about fibromyalgia patients’ experiences with weight and their symptoms.
It’s recommended that you speak to a medical professional about your health, this article is not providing medical advice or replacement of medical treatment.
The Complex Relationship Between Fibromyalgia and Weight
I’m going, to be honest, the relationship between fibromyalgia and weight is not simple and is complex. There are 3 main factors that can contribute to weight and fibromyalgia’s connection. These are pain, fatigue, and medication interactions with appetite and diet. Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain condition, which means the pain is chronic (ongoing) and for most people is a lifelong disease they live with. This means that navigating these factors and your fibromyalgia symptoms can take some time, and should be managed and overseen by a medical profession.
​Impact on Movement
With fibromyalgia pain can be an impeding factor in participating in aerobic exercise, and maintaining and healthy weight with movement. While some days when the pain is more minimal, it can often be tough to continue with the momentum of a healthy lifestyle with physical exercises when higher pain days arise. The lack of exercise, or consistent exercise can lead to extra weight gain for some folks. If you’ve experienced this or are concerned about this please speak to a medical professional.
When it comes to fatigue, feeling tired and sluggish can impact daily movement significantly. Not to mention sleep disruption and poor sleep often don’t leave you much motivation for working out on a regular basis.
On days when there is a higher amount of pain or fatigue it can be helpful for fibromyalgia sufferers to engage in gentle stretches to help with increasing movement and working on reducing tight muscles. This can help break the vicious cycle of feeling not able to work out as usual and then proceeding to give up on physical activity altogether. So does fibromyalgia cause weight gain? Well, it can have an impact on movement and keep up with physical movement for a healthy lifestyle.
Impact on Appetite and Diet
Okay so does fibromyalgia cause weight gain? When it comes to appetite and diet, aspects of fibromyalgia can impact this. It’s important to speak to your healthcare provider, and not alter any treatments or medications you are without their consent and knowledge. Dietary changes can occur with fibromyalgia, this can affect your appetite and can impact food cravings.
As well fibromyalgia medications can have impacts as well that can lead to weight loss or weight gain. Although there is no specific diet for fibromyalgia, it’s recommended to eat an anti-inflammatory diet when possible to help with reducing inflammation. In some fibromyalgia patients, this has helped improve their quality of life and long-term pain.
Lack of sleep can also lend to reading to types of foods that are carb-heavy, sugary, and salty. This can impact your weight as well can impact inflammation of the chronic condition.
I know for me, being in pain often has me reaching for comfort food. With pain being a main symptom this can lend itself to show up more often than normal. This can impact weight as well with comfort foods often not being healthy meal options and often can be calorie-dense. Lastly, living with a chronic condition can bring about additional stress, mental health issues, depression, and anxiety. This can all influence eating patterns and it’s important to speak to a healthcare professional about your emotional health to learn treatment options for helping you manage stress and your mental health.
On the flip side of things, severe pain can impact one’s appetite and lead to weight loss. This may result in unintentional weight loss due to decreased food intake during high-pain days.
Medication Impacts
As mentioned above different medications to help with the treatments of fibromyalgia can impact your weight. Some medications may lead to weight gain and can impact your metabolism rate as well and can promote fluid retention.
It’s important to speak to your medical professional about medication side effects and understand the long-term effects of medication. With most medications, lifestyle changes such as eating a healthy diet and regular exercise can help mitigate the weight side effects.
If your fibromyalgia pain is preventing you from being able to make these lifestyle changes be sure to speak to a medical professional about how to control your weight.
Hormones
Hormones can be a factor in fibromyalgia weight gain and weight loss. Hormone imbalances are not uncommon with fibromyalgia sufferers, and they can lead to weight gain and excess weight. As fibromyalgia is affected and brought on by stress, cortisol plays a major factor in hormonal imbalance.
Women with fibromyalgia can experience severe premenstrual symptoms. As well, as heightened menopause symptoms as well due to hormonal imbalances brought on by the chronic illness of fibromyalgia.
Strategies for Managing Weight with Fibromyalgia
Okay, so now that we’ve discussed does fibromyalgia cause weight gain, let’s chat about some strategies for helping manage weight. It’s important to speak with your doctor about your health and specifically with weight management with your symptoms and medications. This is an important step as it allows your healthcare team to tailor a plan to your individual needs. They can speak with you specifically about how what you need to consider with control of your weight.
​Creating a Balanced Diet
Creating a balanced diet can be a simple way to help manage your weight with fibromyalgia flares. Focusing on foods that help reduce inflammation, and give you energy can help with combatting pain and chronic fatigue. Not to mental it can have significant improvements on your weight and help reduce some primary symptoms of fibromyalgia. Here are some suggestions for nutrient-rich foods to include in your fibromyalgia diet:
- Bananas
- Peppers
- Nuts
- Sweet Potatoes
- Leafy Greens
- Eggs
- Dark Chocolate
- Berries
Gentle Exercises and Movement
When it comes to moving your body it can feel like an uphill battle on high pain days. However, establishing an exercise routine that works for you and your pain is important to help with continuing to encourage movement and gentle exercise with your body. If you completely stop movement and live a sedentary lifestyle, it can be a difficult cycle to break to establish a routine of movement again which can also lead to loss of muscle strength.
Working with a personal trainer, or physical therapists on what movements and exercises will help your body without inflicting more pain can be helpful and can be the key to helping you achieve and maintain your normal weight. Low-impact exercises and gentle movement such as stretching, can be incorporated daily to help reduce pain sensitivity and encourage movement.
Low-impact activities can include tai chi, swimming, yoga, stretching, walking, and dancing. There are many benefits to staying active for both your physical and mental well-being. It can help improve your sleep patterns, help you feel lower pain levels, encourage reduce stress levels, and can help with this long-term condition of pain.
Stress Management
One of the most important things you can do for your health is prioritize your stress management. This helps improve your overall health and can help you feel less pain reducing stress, cortisol, and inflammation in the body.
In addition to daily physical activity to help with stress it’s important to engage in relaxation methods, mindfulness, and meditation. How does this help with weight management and fibromyalgia? It helps with reducing the vicious circle that can be created by daily habits of not taking care of yourself and leading to additional pain.
Reducing your stress helps with overall reducing the stress and taxation on your body which can flare tender points and pain. Find what stress relief activities work best for managing stress and chronic pain and be sure to make them a priority in your routines. This can also help lead to a more positive outlook on life which can help with a mindset for chronic pain and health. Here are 25 positive health affirmations to help start you off!
Conclusion
So does fibromyalgia cause weight gain or weight loss? Yes, it can affect your weight. It’s important to focus on stress management, a low-calorie diet that is based on nutrient-rich and anti-inflammatory foods. As well to incorporate gentle movement to help you with the treatment of fibromyalgia. It’s important to work with healthcare professionals to manage your weight effectively and criticize your overall well-being. While it’s a complex relationship between fibromyalgia and weight changes there are things you can do to help along the way.
Leave a Reply