So I'm awaiting test results for a possible gluten allergy. I've done some research on it, but I'm wondering how having to eat gluten-free has effected your weight loss goals, and how you have overcome it?

I don't have a gluten problem but my very good friend does.

If you are a big bread lover, I think you'll find that you will lose weight just be giving up the bread. My friend cannot find a decent loaf of gluten free bread so does without most of the time.

I just joined this forum, so apologize for resurrecting a sleeping thread...

What did your test results show? Going gluten-free is a great way to lose weight if you're diligent. Reading ingredient lists is a high priority, and will instantly make you more aware of what you're eating. Don't try to substitute gluten-free products for the real ones unless you just HAVE to have something. Most of the time, you'll be eating fresh foods prepared by you and without all the unnecessary additives found in most pre-packaged foods. When you're at a restaurant, order items that are fresh and uncomplicated. Salad and steak. Baked potato. Grilled chicken. Polenta. Risotto (as long as it doesn't have any weird sauce on it). Vegetables for appetizers. You'll discover a whole new way to enjoy eating! And, you WILL lose weight and most importantly feel so much better!

1kwords.....I am trying to go gluten free......have you lost weight doing this? about a month ago I was really strict for a week and was losing weight.....i lost about 5 pounds in a few days. I am pretty sure I have an intolerance to gluten and feel better when I don't eat it...that is why I am avoiding breads, cereals, etc. I've done a lot of research on gluten and its amazing what foods contain gluten. You definitely have to read those labels. It seems they put wheat in everything as "fillers" and also gluten is in preservatives. Best to go with fresh foods ....veggies and lean meats....what we should all be eating anyway

I have some problems with wheat - whether it's wheat or gluten, I'm not sure. I borrowed some celiac and wheat allergy cookbooks, because I'm dying to have a piece of bread once in a while, and thought maybe I could make a loaf (now I understand why the no-wheat bread is so darned expensive. I've bought a couple gluten-free flours, but most of the recipes call for three to five different flours. Apparently there's not a single flour (except wheat) that can make a decent bread.

I haven't had a slice of wheat bread in months. I did have a bite of rye toast several months ago (which would contain wheat), and I had a tablespoon or so of bread-stuffing on Thanksgiving. By Thanksgiving evening my face was red and itchy). On friday, I had a noodle dish, completely forgetting to ask if the noodles were wheat (it was a thai dish, so it could have been rice, but I doubt it). I've also had a few foods that contained at least a little wheat, and sometimes skate by with no apparent symptoms, but if it's more than a bite I usually end up with at the very least, an itchy, red face rash.

I do best on a lower carb diet, anyway but it would be nice to have a sandwhich once in a blue moon (I've been craving a blt sandwhich like mad - which I've always been able to keep diet-friendly in the past - very low calorie by using super thin slices of toasted diet bread or a toasted tortilla, light on the bacon and mayo and heavy on the lettuce).

We bought a gluten-free bread a couple weeks ago. It was horrible, cost $6 for half a loaf (on sale, the cheapest I could find), and molded within three days.

It was so horrible that I've been afraid to try any other store-bought gluten-free bread. The gluten-free pastas are better. I've had rice pasta (some that you couldn't tell from white wheat pasta) and corn (which was excellent hot, but was a bit gritty and more corn-flavored in a cold pasta salad), and an excellent potato/tapioca noodle I found in an oriental grocery store (lots of good rice and other non-wheat noodles in the asian stores - but you've still got to read the labels).

You've also got to learn all the other names for wheat and all the ingredients that might contain wheat.

I haven't been super careful, and I've already noticed the difference. Problem is I don't know how careful I have to be (and even the experts seem to have different opinions on that).

I've thought about being tested, but I'd have to go back to eating wheat regularly before the test (there's a genetic test, but it's unlikely that Medicare would pay for it).

Hi blissclaire !!
Yes ma'am- I do have Celiac Disease. I was diagnosed with it July 2008 & went thru the awful ordeal of having to eliminate ALL GLUTEN! It is in TONS of stuff!! By November I had lost 35 pounds just from cutting out Gluten. It took me months to get it right though, I still slip up every once in a while & it's especially hard going out to eat. If there is anything specific you would like to know shoot me a message! Good luck! -Kristy

Hi meowee:::
I have the same problem finding decent GF bread. Tell your friend that I order all kinds of homemade gluten-free goodies from this website SinfullyGlutenFree(dot)com. Their bread is really good (it actually tastes like real bread, I swear) & the cookies are fantastic!! -K

kaplods.....I feel the same way about being tested. From what I have researched, the testing isn't accurate. Some people with celiac do test positive but some people can test positive even if they don't have celiac. Also, some people WITH celiac will test negative. And the biopsies...well....if they aren't done in the right spot of the small intestines that has been affected then they will show negative too. After all that, the only treatment is to avoid gluten...so I just decided I would do that. I may consider getting testing sometime later but for now...I'm just gonna avoid gluten. I dont really miss bread cause I feel better without it. You can always wrap your turkey or whatever in a piece of romaine lettuce and also you can have corn torillas you can wrap them in.

Gluten can even be in instant coffee or condiments. Reading labels has become crucial for me :P

Kaplods...if a little bit of wheat can cause you to have a red, itchy rash then a lot of wheat might be dangerous for you. I would certainly avoid it if I were you.

I agree. The longer I go without it, the more severe the reaction and the smaller the amount that seems to trigger symptoms. Since there's no telling how severe the reaction could become, I have to assume a zero threshold.

The noodle incident was a huge mistake. I was so excited to see our favorite restaurant add a dish that had been a favorite I hadn't had in years, I forgot completely that noodles usually = wheat. I'm surprised that hubby didn't remind me, but he thought I was choosing to take the risk. We then talked about it, and I asked him to remind me whether it seems obvious or not. I'm not saying it's his responsibility to police what I eat, but until this becomes second nature, having some extra help will be appreciated.

Most of the books recommend not going onto the diet without testing. The true severe celiac diet is so restrictive they don't want people to have to go through that if they don't have to - but they also point out that without the test, people who do have the disease may not be as careful as they need to be.

I understand the reasoning, but I'm not really willing to go back to eating a lot of wheat, just to prove that I can't eat wheat.

The rules are so confusing though. They even say that if there are wheat-eaters in the house, you have to keep different sets of cookware for the wheat food and the gluten-free foods. You can't cook gluten-free until an hour after cooking wheat, because wheat particles in the air can settle on the gluten-free food.

They used to think that children with celiac disease "grew out of it" because symptoms became less (obviously) severe, but they've learned that continuing to eat wheat increases the adult's risk for autoimmune disease including lupus (I have an autoimmune disease that shares some features with lupus).

Since I've drastically reduced wheat, yeast, and sugar (and carbs in general), my autoimmune disease appears to be in remission, except for flares after I eat significant amounts of those foods. Since they tend to appear in combination, I wasn't (and still am not completely) sure whether it's all three, or just the wheat.

It's interesting though to read the stories in these cookbooks about people diagnosed with celiac disease, how even they (knowing for sure they had the disease) had to learn "the hard way" in the beginning. Wheat is in so many things, even foods that should be gluten-free and wheat-free aren't. Some celiacs react to oats - and oats are (in theory) are gluten-free. But often oats are processed in a plant on the same equiptment that processes wheat. In some cases, they believe that oats were contaminated not in the processing plant, but in the field (if oats are grown in a field near wheat, the oats can become cross-contaminated).

Some celiacs never eat in restaurants, others are very careful (and ask to talk to the chef and see the kitchen).

It's a bit overwhelming.

Hi all!!! I am gluten intolerant but never went through celiac testing. I know I have celiac from family history. I have been living the celiac lifestyle for 4 years now. When I first started, I lost 30 pounds because I didn't know what to eat. I didn't eat anything for fear it would make me sick. Once I found out about all the gluten free alternatives, I gained 20 pounds back. Now I am on this journey to lose the weight again. Who needs bread anyway!!! Everytime I bake it, I gain weight just from smelling it. lol

Turns out the noodles in the noodle dish luckily, WERE rice.

Thinking they were wheat, I was a bit stumped as to why I didn't get a rash, stomach ache or other symptom flare after eating the dish (it got me wondering whether wheat was the problem or whether it was something that often accompanies wheat like yeast).


Now, of course it makes perfect sense, because the noodles weren't wheat.



At the very least, this helps to verify to me that the symptoms aren't psychosomatic or imagined (As a psychologist, I'm keenly aware that I'm not immune to the possibility), and it doesn't entirely eliminate the possibility of coincidence - but is seeming less and less likely.

I do!! I was diagnosed (via bloodwork, I was too sick to do a biopsy and it seems silly to do it now) 4 years ago. Actually about 40 lbs basically just fell off me (from an all time high of 225 to 185 and I've gained/lost about 15lbs since then) within 6 months. My husband lost 75 in the first year. I think the trick is that we can't afford a lot of "replacement" foods. Those tend to be REALLY high in calories. I buy flour from Bob's red mill. Their GF flour is a mix so I don't have to buy a billion different flours. Honestly though I suck at making bread (which I guess is a good thing for my waistline LOL) so I use the flour to make TREATS (brownies, cookies, banana bread) but only once in a great while (ever 2-3 months and usually when we have guests so I don't eat much of it). But if you baked bread before (or have a bread machine) you could probably work it out. There's a GF bakery not *too* far from me if I REALLY want bread.

Honestly, the first few months of ZERO gluten (I am very aware of cross contamination and have landed in the hospital due to mistakes early on. When I say zero, i mean zero!) are truly the hardest. The scouring labels, the restriction, the inedible mistakes...... It wasn't fun. But after that, I guess it just became a part of my life. I don't even think about it every day now. It's just a part of me. The trick is to accept that life will be different (and allow yourself to mourn the loss) and then don't compare your gluteney diet to your new gluten-free diet.

So if you have any questions about the gf diet or want recipe ideas (you'll have to help me adjust to make them healthier probably) I'm always here!

Oh and some advice that nobody seems to tell new people if you have CD and need to be aware of cross contamination, don't forget to check your cosmetics (lotion, lip gloss, shampoo) cause they always find a way in (trust me!).

I am gluten free. I get moderate to severe arthritis symptoms when I eat gluten. When I first started going gluten free I gained a lot of weight due to the many highly processed gluten free cakes, etc. I was baking and eating. Now I know better. Gluten free is healthier for me but it won't lead to weight loss if I still overeat the calories. It's not magical.

Now I'm back to lowering my calories, and I'm slowly losing. I don't think I will knowingly ever eat gluten again, I feel so much better without it.

I completely, 110% agree!

I was diagnosed in Oct 2009 with Gluten intolerance (non-Celiac) and I went home and cried. I love cake with a serious passion. I love decorating fun little cupcakes and taking them to friends. I have even considered making a business plan to open a gourmet bakery focused on cupcakes.

Removing the obvious sources was easy. I was already aware of the glycemic index and carb counting associated with eating bread. What was hard was giving up sauces, gravys, salad dressings and other hidden gluten. I also noticed the high calories and cost of specialty gluten free goods, and the bread, forget it. It's only edible when it's toasted and buttered.

My weight has stabilized since going G-Free. I had been on a steady increase for the past year. We recently started calorie counting and I've started losing. I try to think about the limitations of my GI as a helper. I can't eat those carb loaded treats for two reasons and neither one of them am I willing to cheat on.

So, my dream of a cupcake bakery still exists. The menu just got a little more diverse.

If you make specialty GF cupcakes... I'd so break my diet for that. Mmmmm.....