weight gain and tamoxifen

There is no stop to my weight gain since taking Tamoxifen. I am on it 7 months and have gained about 25 pounds. My eating habits have not changed so it has to be the Tamoxifen. I just can't seem to lose the weight.
Any suggestions? Thanks.
Oh, I was thin for my first 53 years and I'm very uncomfortable with this extra weight.

Hi Rachel, I hear ya. My dr's wanted me on thyroid but can't say it helps with that extra wt.--about 15 to 20 lbs., but it could be worse!

atsila wrote << Sorry that you're not getting the results that you hoped for.
But at least you're keeping your body as healthy as you can.
That can't be bad...>>

Thanks--am trying, most of the time

Okay, Glenfiddich! Now you've got my attention. How do you make pickled onions??? They sound yummy! I KNOW where to get the cheese! ;-P

I've always been fairly thin. At 5'7", I usually weighed 127 -- until I quit smoking in '93. Then I was able to stabilize myself at 130 thanks to aerobics and *really* watching my diet -- and teaching aerobics every day.
Since I've been on tha Tamoxifen (for the past year), I'm now struggling with 140 - 145 and I hate it. But, I know it's because #1 at age 53, my metabolism has slowed down a bit. #2 the Tamoxifen has probably also slowed down my metabolism (why, oh why, can't hot flashes be momentary increases in metabolism!?). I'm tired of looking in the mirror and seeing a flabby middle-aged woman looking back at me (who let HER in?!). My husband still sees his 130 pound wife (love is blind). Today, my step-daughter gave me a
Health Rider knock-off called an Aerobic Rider. I've started back onto my usual low-fat, high-fiber diet and I'm using the rider. Plus, I start teaching aerobics 5 days a week on September 16th. If I can't starve the fat off me, I'll exercise it off! If I'm lucky, I won't have to starve that much because of the exercise. BTW, those of you who feel too heavy to do that kind of workout, just walk, walk, walk. It's better for you than running or jogging!

Nonetheless, I'm intrigued by the pickeled onions. At least, since we all seem to have this "craving" for them, we're not pregnant! I'll have to find out how to make them.

I am on Arimidex and have had a 25 pound weight gain which nothing seems to work as far as losing. I am also on Neurontin, which someone said that she read it caused weight gain. My problem is that I don't feel up to much exercise and I always used to power walk and lift hand weights every day. My thyroid is on the borderline but my doctor won't give me any thyroid medicine. I am at the point I can't tuck any blouses in and I look awful. I really am getting depressed and I know I shouldn't seeing that so far my mammograms have been o.k. (I had microcalcifications and a lumpectomy.) I watch what I eat but no matter how little I eat I don't lose and before I could lose 5 pounds even without exercising. I'm beginning to think that this is a hopeless cause and I am doomed to start wearing so called "fat clothes" the rest of my life.

Did I miss something? Who or what is Belsen? Is that some special treatment center??

BTW, I hope you all are right and it is not the Tamoxifen which is causing the weight gain on the original poster but I have been told and read that certain drugs "can" cause weight gain because they change the way we metabolize our food. I was the same weight all my life until a doctor started me on this drug called Neurontin and to my dismay I started to gain weight! I did a research on the drug and found others complaining about the same problem with the drug so it could not have been our imagination. However, sometimes if we need a certain medication we have to put up with that terrible side effect.

I "sure" hope my oncologist doesn't want to use Tamoxifen on me because
I have a terrible feeling the poster may be right about her concerns about the drug. If I eat less I get hypoglycemic so I sure would be in a pickle if I had two drugs messing up my weight!

<< One side effect of many medications is that you don't feel like getting as much exercise as you used to.
Of course, the disease that prompted the medication can also be part of that problem.>>

At the time of my b.c. dx, exercise was not part of my repertoire--mostly due to work schedule, other commitments, etc. However after my dx I took that time that I was able to take off of work (accumulated sick days) and used that time to change things around. My reasoning that whatever condition my body had been in to allow the cancer to proliferate, I wanted to change--in the hope that might help change things. However, I now know that is an individual response and those changes alone might have had the oppositive effect of what I was trying to do--caused it to even proliferate more, perhaps.
Anyway, I began an exercise program, changed my eating habits, possibly put myself into a state of ketosis. I lost alot of weight.
I wonder, in the back of my mind if I even had possible liver mets--since there was a single lesion on my liver (per report) that wasn't there four years earlier that somehow then became two lesions--another long story I won't go into--but do wonder if some of that wt. loss was possibly related to that and then after I had the chemo., whatever may have been going on in the liver--if anything--was arrested. My onc. said that is a possibility--that something positive was there from the start (not clearly identified--hemangioma or metastasis) that the chemo, stopped.
Anyway, I initially lost around 35 to 40 lbs. I kept that off with exercise and changed eating habits--which are the same--but I had a hysterectomy 10 mos ago and since then have put on 20 lbs. I only stopped exercising for 2 weeks and did not put on weight then. I am actually exercising more--my husband bought me a treadmill last December, and I do 30 min. at 3 m.p.h. about 6 to 7 times/week, plus still occasionally go to the gym and walk outdoors. Still, that extra 20 won't come off. Some of it seems to be in my lymphedma arm, some swelling in abdominal area, and lots of lower leg swelling...so who knows...

<< 1000 calories is definitely a 'reducing' diet!
If you find yourself eating less and less, I'd suggest some vitamin/mineral pills to help guard against deficiency.>>

I think being hypothyroid has something to do with it. I do eat protein and lots of vegetables and fruits--so am not concerned about the vitamin/mineral thing. In fact vitamins don't agree with my stomach when I take them in supplement form.

<<And DO see someone about that fluid - it really needs to be dealt with.>>

I have been. NO explanation has been found. I started seeing someone about 4 years before my b.c. dx. In fact I had just had yet another ultrasound around the time of the last normal mammogram I had when I found the mass in my chest. (I showed my ob-gyn the mass and he flippantly reminded me I'd had a normal mammo. 9 mos. later when my nipple began to change daily, that same mass, about 4 inches from the nipple was biopsied and found to be malignant).
Anyway, all tests done at the time were negative. None of the dr.s I saw through our HMO had any explanation about the lower leg swelling. About 2 years before my b.c. dx, I asked the podiatrist who was seeing my daughter if he could check something on my foot. He took one look at my lower legs and said they looked like those of a 70 year-old woman. I was only 48 and have been embarrassed enough about them that I wear jeans or other slacks whenver possible.
The podiatrist ordered a venogram of my legs to test for blood flow, I think.
That supposedly came out normal. I had also been anemic for the past few years, too. No explanation for that---was told to take iron which I did although it never agreed with me.
In retrospect, since I was told that b.c.--particularly the type I had--was growing there for the past 5 to 10 years--I am guessing that the leg problem is somehow cancer-related. I also feel that now that I know something about b.c.
(and cancer, in general) that I suspect I was more at stage IV than at stage
II(b) at time of dx. (The dr. later changed my staging to stage III after I asked whether inflammatory was more than stage II)...

Shaz x wrote << Maybe your sugar craving was to do with Tamoxifen? If like you say, you are off it now and you don't crave sugar as much now? Interesting! >>

I was never on Tamoxifen. I noticed this soon after my dx. I immediately gave up all foods with sugar. Within a couple of weeks anything sweet no longer appealed to me, In fact if I ate anything sweet, it seemed 'too sweet.'
And, if I did have a few pieces of something with sugar--like a couple of cookies at a party (i.e. wedding), soon after I found myself wanting more of 'em. It sure seemed like an addictive-type response to me. Why else would someone want more of something for the taste alone, especially if they weren't hungry?
This craving happens whenever I do have something with sugar again. I have very little of it now, mostly don't but soon after I do have it, I seem to want it again. Then again, if I don't have it for a day or two, it doesn't appeal to me and seems way too sweet if I do have it.
Now, for those who want to satisfy their sweet-tooth, there is a calorie-free natural product called stevia. It comes in either liquid or packet form (and the packet form can be bought with or without fiber). It can be found at some upscale markets and at Whole Foods grocery stores.
I don't use it since I don't add sweeteners to my food, but it can be used for baking, too, I believe, in place of sugar and other artificial sweeteners.

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So WAS I until all these weird things started happening to me. What I have may very well just be lymphedema in my abdomen and legs--especially since they seem to double in size from the time I get up in the a.m. until I go to bed.
In addition I became hypothyroid.
I would assume that if I did stop eating I would eventually starve but I do think the weight would come off at a much slower pace than ever before. My metabolism has definately changed post-chemo, post-menopause and being hypothyroid.
I eat way less than I ever did--and until a year or so ago if I ate this little would lose quickly but am maintaining at this point. I am not 'fat' but would like to lose the extra pounds I did gain. I work out daily and eat less than one thousand calories per day. I am not sure what's going on. My biggest concern is the possibility of ascites (malignant? fluid) which I hope is not what is happening. I would give anything for it to be 'normal' excess weight!

I don't know whether it's the Tamoxifen that makes you crave sweet things? I know i have always had a craving for sweet things and it isn't anything to do with Tamoxifen.
I can't blame that one on the medication!!

Take care

Exactly, you didn't see any of those who came out of Belsen or other concentration camps over weight, did you?...............

But getting back on the subject of weight gain while taking Tamoxifen. I have been taking it for approx 3 mnths now and i have been dieting but i don't seem to be losing any weight, i'm sure this is coz of Tamoxifen!
I am so scared of becoming over weight from Tamoxifen, that's why i started dieting as soon as i started to take it, so at least i would stay the same as i already was before starting with Tamoxifen and not put any weight on.
Well that's the theory anyway!!!

Let's just hope it works!

Keep your fingers crossed for me, that my diet does the trick and i don't end up putting on anymore weight than what i was originally!

Take care

I have been on Tamoxifen for 4 years now and have put on weight.
Previously I had a 36/38 waist, but now I have more like 42! It might be the Tamoxifen, or comfort eating, or even old age, I have never been sure which.
One side effect I have noticed is a craving for pickled onions. Do they put weight on you?

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I think sugar may be addictin? I am just guessing on that because since I am off it I really don't enjoy anything that is sweet. However, if for some reason I do have a couple of sweet foods (with sugar), I find myself craving more of something sweet almost immediately and soon after...

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LOL...pickled onions? Well, some of it could possibly be related to sodium retention from the pickling juices
Seriously, it could be hormonal and Tamoxifen does influence hormones...so...In addition, at least in women, menopausal changes contribute to a slowed metabolism. In addition, what affects one person might not have the same effect on anothers. So, there is no way to know for sure unless one who is on Tamoxifen goes off it and does not change their eating habits and the weight comes off.

I have been on tamoxifen for almost 5 years. I am supposed to continue until June, but I have 1 week left in my current prescription, and I'm not going to get it renewed. The hot flashes have been miserable, the weight gain even worse. I never had a problem staying under 130 before my breast cancer. Now I'm at 160 and hating it every time I look in the mirror. I have tried exercising for an hour a day, and am lucky to drop a few ounces. I will be finding out shortly if being off the tamoxifen makes weight loss easier, and I'll be sure to let you all know!

Please let me know if you are able to lose weight now that you're off the tamoxifen. I am 34 and have been on it for 3 years. I weighed 135 when I started and now I weigh 160. I didn't have a problem keeping my weight down before. I eat a very clean diet and do intense weight training 4 times per week as well as cardio 3-4 times a week and I cannot lose a pound! My doctors don't seem to take me seriously when I talk to them about it because I don't look overweight to them....but I don't feel good about myself anymore and it's affecting my whole life.

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Try upping your protein, water, and fiber. I almost always start my day with a bowl of oatmeal (with cinnamon). This seems to kick up my metabolism. It helped me lose the 10 lbs. that I gained during Chemo.
Also, if you are dehydrated, your body holds on to fat (not sure why). I get weighed each month with a scale that tells this kind of thing. So, drink that water.

i am experiencing weight gain and i am unable to exercise due to weak muscles is their any suggestion how to loose weight.
i dont wanna get chubby, is this side effect of tamoxifen gets over?
help

I am 35 and have been on Tamoxifen for 2 years. I have gained 30 pounds despite an intense routine of cardio and weight training alternating days with straight cardio. While I have noticed some muscle gain, the fat that surrounds them is all still there. I have not been able to lose a single pound in two months despite more than an hour of vigorous exercise daily! One thing I read said I should be happy to be a survivor regardless of my weight. While I am certainly happy to be a survivor, I will never be happy at this weight! I am tempted to see my PCP to see if there is anything else I can do. I would welcome any suggestions!

I am 47 years old and have been on Tamoxifen for almost two years. In the first four months on Tamoxifen I gained 24lbs. When I spoke to the oncologist about this she said about 5% of her patients did gain weight, but it would eventually stop. Well the weight gain stopped, but I have been trying for 2 years now to lose weight without any luck! I am also having joint pain in my right leg now and I was told I have high blood pressure recently...probably brought on by the weight gain! I am seriously thinking about stopping the Tamoxifen because I feel worse now than when I had cancer!