Losing Weight and High Blood Pressure

  • Hello, I am new here. I am 30 years old, 5'8" and currently 243lbs. My weight loss journey began 09/2018 at 300lbs. In fact when I hit 300 that was the slap in the face to get my s**t together

    I've been on medication for high blood pressure since 2014. And one of my biggest goals with my weight loss has been to hopefully see a drop in my blood pressure, but much to my dismay... It has stayed the same.

    Any one else with HBP lose weight and see it drop? And if so, how much weight did you lose before you noticed the change?
  • Losing even 10 pounds can lower your blood pressure—and losing weight has the biggest effect on those who are overweight and already have hypertension. Overweight and obesity are also risk factors for heart disease.
    Dehydration and unusual thirst. Dehydration can sometimes cause blood pressure to drop. However, dehydration does not always cause low blood pressure. ... Even mild dehydration (a loss of as little as 1 percent to 2 percent of body weight) can cause weakness, dizziness and fatigue.
    If you're overweight, losing even 5 pounds (2.3 kilograms) can lower your blood pressure. As you slim down, it may be possible to reduce your dose of blood pressure medication — or stop taking your blood pressure medication completely
  • Hi Jengel! Welcome and congratulations for the amazing start to your journey. What an inspiration. Have you struggled with motivation at all? I'm currently 211 and having stayed the same for the past few weeks . Hoping for at least something off next week.

    My blood pressure has fluctuated a lot in the past (as has my weight), but at the moment I do have high blood pressure. I'm not on medication yet, but I really want to correct it.

    Good luck with everything, and if you'd like to stay in touch please let me know! I think it's so helpful having someone to talk through everything and cheer you on .

    Have a happy Friday!
  • High Blood Pressure
    Hi there. I have suffered with high blood pressure off and on for quite a few years now. I'm over 60 years old. I get even worse when I go to the doctor... I have that "white coat syndrome" thing. My BP is high in the morning and usually goes lower and even below normal later in the day. I've been eating vegan for almost two months now and thought my BP would go low and stay low. I'm not sure what the answer is, but there must be one! Hope you are hanging in there and continuing to be successful. I definitely have wanted to quit lately. Whole food, plant based eating is labor intense. I thought I would be feeling better and that my clothes would fit better, but alas, no big changes yet. I also walk or exercise 5x a week. Must be something we are missing or eating incorrectly that keeps our BP high. I am feeling your frustration!

    ChaChing!
  • I started at 267 a year ago and unmedicated BP of 160/105. They put me on 3 different meds and got it down to around 135/90ish. Two weeks ago at my checkup, I was down to 1/2 of one med, down 80 pounds and at 122/82. So still slightly elevated, but much better and with minimal meds. But it took 80 pounds to get to here. I've just moved from obese to overweight, so I'm hoping that the 30-40 pounds I have left to lose move me down into the healthy range without meds.

    My pressure didn't really change until I neared "overweight". So have hope and stick with it.
  • My blood pressure is impacted by a relatively small weight change. I'm under 140 now, but I have stage I hypertension. It's just a genetic predisposition. I don't maintain good blood pressure until I'm under 130.
  • Quote: I've been eating vegan for almost two months now and thought my BP would go low and stay low. I'm not sure what the answer is, but there must be one!
    Most people who switch to whole food vegan do improve their blood pressure, so it's possible that you're doing something wrong. Are you eating a balanced diet including vegetables, beans, fruits, nuts/seeds, and whole grains? Are you getting enough vitamin D and B12?

    You may want to start eating flaxseeds, if you don't already eat them. Flaxseeds have been shown to improve blood pressure: Potent antihypertensive action of dietary flaxseed in hypertensive patients
  • My blood pressure did improve and I am now off meds but it took some time after the actual weight loss and my doctor said the body takes time to adjust. .......what does your doctor think? Mine really did not go down until I lost the full amount of 130lbs and then it took an adiditonal 6 months after that to drop. Are you exercising? I think that helps more than anything
  • I have the opposite problem. I suspect I always had lower blood pressure, and when I lost weight, it really threw it into relief. I started feeling lightheaded when I stood up sometimes, to every time I stood up, to sometimes passing out when I stood up. Had no idea what was happening, went to donate blood after losing weight (OOPS), and passed out twice in the line at Wal-Mart an hour later. I was diagnosed soon after with orthostatic hypotension. The doctor tells me I should be drinking orange juice with a teaspoon of salt in it in the morning, haha. ...it's pretty gross.

    So, YES, losing weight has a big effect on your blood pressure! Now that I'm losing weight again, I'm trying to figure out how to handle the salt intake so I'm not encountering the same problem again, without having it affect my weight...

Tags

hbp, high blood pressure