I was just wondering if any of you had any delays in weight loss due to certain medications or steroids. I was recently in a bad car accident and have been refusing to get trigger point injections for the last few weeks, but the doctor gave me no choice yesterday and hit me up with two of them. I am normally a person who avoids medication of any kind and like to rely on all natural and herbal remedies. I'm not happy about getting the steroids and know that they can cause weight gain, but I'm in so much pain that I cannot function at work and do my normal activities. I'm just starting out on this diet and an worried about it stalling my progress.

I'm not 100% sure that it causes weight gain. Are you confuzing steroids that athletes take vs. medical steroids? Cause there are different types of steroids...I was once put on a steroid to reduce inflamation in my liver .I noticed no weight gain whatsoever. In fact i have heard that steroids in some people can work as an appetite suppressent because the steroids can cause nausea. I think in this case, its highly unlikely you will gain weight from the steroids. But its really important that you take care of your body and the pain before you worry about losing weight...yes, its important to be healthy and lose weight if you need to, but being able to function in life on a daily basis is way more important...Dont worry..you will be alright.

I think it will be interesting to see how your body responds the the steroid injections because ketosis has a natural diuretic effect that may negate the water retention that typically leads to weight gain. Steroid also cause hyperglycemia leading to hunger and weight gain......but you may not experience the hunger while eating low carb. I think if a person has to be on a steroid and wants to avoid weight gain, this is probably the best diet! Good luck

Did they put you on Prednisone? It seems like it's one of the most common steroids. I was put on it about 3 weeks ago due to a hyper-active immune system response to Poison Oak. For me though, it as just she short course: high dose 2 days, intermediate dose 5 days, low dose 7 days. Prednisone is strongly associated with weight gain, there is a lot of information online about it. But there are pretty much two reasons: it can act as an appetite stimulant (you can mentally overcome this) and it increases water retention (irritating and disheartening on the scales, but will eventually go away, along with all the fat you're still losing while on it.)

If anything, I have only noticed mild if any increased water retention, and otherwise have kept losing at the same rate. If you are on it for longer you will probably be more likely to experience some of the common side effects. But are you saying that you received 2 separate injections of steroids? Again, hopefully if this is a more limited time thing, any side effects that you may experience will be more short term. Even if it does cause a small stall or decrease in weight loss rate, if it helps ease your pain and return you to a higher activity level it seems like it would be a net improvement overall for your quality of life and weight loss efforts.

I have lots of experience with trigger point injections (I get them every 6 weeks in my shoulder). My pain management doc started doing them without the steroid. Trigger points aren't necessarily inflammatory, and a lot of recent research shows that steroids don't necessarily make them more effective. So you might want to discuss that option with your doctor.

I always gain water weight after steroid injections (back when I got them), but it came off as the swelling went down.

It was medical steroid injections to my neck and shoulder, directly into the muscles. I work at a pain mgmt clinic (since 12/10) and still not that familiar with all of their procedures and have never gotten anything like this before and do not take well to medication either, I'm all about alternative remedies. I am their massage therapist and have been unable to schedule many patients for about a month now due to my own injuries. I'm not taking any oral medications other than OTC pain reliever. I was told the injection should cause weight gain and would last 2-3 months of "relief". I'm on my second week on IP and was looking forward to another big weight loss week, but now, I'm not so sure. I hope the diet does help with the water retention at least and I will not gain.

Thank you for the replies, I know # 1 is my health and recovering from this accident and being able to service my patients at 100%, but I'm afraid it will take a long time to reach that and do not know how much more my doctors will make me endure. I have had alot of tragedy in my life in the last 3 months and deciding to do this diet program was the first positive thing happen and is helping me get out of depression and become more motivated to make REAL change in my life and move on. I guess I am just sad that they made me get the injections. BTW... my shoulder has since swole up and froze and hurting more than ever, but my neck has improved slightly enough to gain a bit more range of motion, but it's still not enough. I guess only time will tell...

Cajun - that's what I get, too (injections directly into the knots in my muscles due to an exercise-related accident...around my left shoulderblade and up my neck on the left side of my spine). If you're not interested in continued use of medication, one alternative is to "dry needle" the same trigger points. That's basically the same action of the cortisone shots, but without injecting any steroid. It's a little more sore right afterward, but in my experience, it provides just as much relief to do the dry-needling as it does to actually inject anything. The thing that actually helps release the muscle spasm is the needle piercing the knot...the steroid just reduces inflammation temporarily, and you may or may not need that (although if you do dry-needle, you'll probably need something stronger than tylenol afterward. There is no anesthetic in the needles either like you have in a cortisone shot, so it makes the pain worse before it gets better).

Unfortunately, this injury (coming up on two years ago in May) has made me somewhat of an expert on trigger point injections and therapies. I'm not on IP, but if you have questions about them, I'm happy to help.

Thank you,
I haven't tried acupuncture yet, if that is what you are referring to. I've gotten one massage so far and it has made things worse so I am sticking with the chiropractic help instead for now. I am so lucky to have all these therapies at my disposal, I'm just not thrilled about temporary relief, I want real results. In your case, I would hope you've tried massage therapy in conjunction with the acupuncture, many of my patients see lasting results with contunuing therapy instead of medications.

Not acupuncture (though I have tried this) - just "dry needling". It's the same injection you're getting from your doctor with the steroids, only without injecting anything. Same exact procedure, only the needle has nothing in it.

From wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trigger_point

I've done acupuncture (which is different), though, as well as massage and chiro. It's definitely a tricky problem to treat.

Thanks for the info, that is interresting. But I doubt I would try that for myself. I am a massage therapist and hope that and chiropractic care will work for me...just wish I could work it out myself, but that's impossible, lol. Most of my patients have chronic pain from injuries and surgery and I hear all kinds of stories about different things they've tried, but I never heard of dry needling. I hope you continue to heal and live pain free.