HIV+ and Weight Loss

[Blueyedsoul]

Gentlemen, I am a neg versatile top that is looking at PrEP. However, if I turn up poz between now and then, I will deal with it. As a stockier older male, I have dealt with weigh issues my whole life even while I was an athlete in school and am conscious of my food intake. That being said, I have heard many pozzed men say to me that once they were diagnosed, they lost a ton of weight and in essence 'got their dream body.' I know of the wasting effect but I am not sure if this weight loss is this due to the side effects of older medications or prior to treatment, is this a normal symptom of being poz? Any thoughts? If you were larger and stockier and now your not due to HIV tell me about it. Was it being poz or a side effect of the meds? I am very curious about this.

[bearbandit]

I'm long term poz having picked it up in 1980 (diagnosed retrospectively). Wasting syndrome (or malabsorption syndrome) happens more often in inadequately treated people with HIV. It seems to be caused by HIV taking up residence in the gut which is one of its favourite hangouts. You eat as normal, but it literally goes straight through because the cells of the gut are too busy dealing with HIV. In the first few years of my actual diagnosis (1987) I was overweight at about 190 pounds. I developed wasting syndrome and dropped eventually to 126 pounds or thereabouts. Older drugs may have had some impact in that vomiting and other GI distress was a common side effect.

In 1992 I was down to 155 pounds and I have a photo from 2002 that shows me as clearly thinner than I am today. (Most of the photos I have from 1999 onwards are of our dogs - at one point we had three rottweilers). As use of the first protease inhibitors some nasty side effects were revealed, including diabetes and lipodystrophy. Lipo is when the body fat migrates to central areas leaving you with stick-like arms and legs but with what looks like a beer gut, except that the fat is visceral, wrapped around your organs rather than lying just under the skin as a conventional beer gut would. There also occurs "buffalo hump" a collection of fat across the shoulders and lower back of the neck. I got fucked hard by an expert recently and I could feel the fat in my shoulders responding to the pounding my ass was taking. Since it covers the spine I'm taking advantage of it by putting my biohazard tattoo there. As a side note women with lipodystrophy tend to find that the fat collects in the boobs - I have a friend who is skinny except for her overlarge bosom.

Getting your dream body... well I did it a couple of years ago with a load of weight lifting, the exercises designed to put muscle on my upper body. I had to replace my bike jackets because I could no longer wear a sweater under them (the mountains of Snowdonia are cold, even in summer). I looked, in the words of the guy who designed my programme "like a rugby player who likes a pint". For the first time in years I could look at my body in the mirror and think "yes!". The area that most poz men I know have trouble is the ass: it's remarkably difficult to restore your ass after it's lost weight. I can't walk far because of neuropathy in my feet, so I've got an exercise bike sitting upstairs waiting for an engineer as it's not charging properly. The weight loss from my thighs wasn't so evident because of the amount of walking I used to do (remember the dogs!).

Even with a good start with a gym body, you're going to take some physical hits with HIV which may well change your body shape. HIV doesn't magically give you the body you want: it takes work, and it's probably easier to do that work without HIV working against you.

One of my drugs bit me on the ass last year and I dropped back to 125 pounds. I've only just got my weight and appetite normalised and I've got a long road ahead getting the muscle back. My arms aren't as skinny as they used to be - my body has remembered part of how I looked before dropping all that weight last year: my biceps for example are still their, just nowhere near the size they were. Wiry rather than skinny, so I haven't lost all the work I put in before I got sick. HIV is a disease not a body-sculpting program. Get yourself down the gym and revise your diet. If I can do it, you sure as hell can!

Strangely I'm not worried by the wasting in my face. It's like my grey hair: shows I've been there...

Best of luck...

[Blueyedsoul]

Bearbandit, thanks for sharing. I really appreciate your honesty. I am hoping to hear from others regarding this subject. Best wishes and again, thank you.

[TigerMilner]

I lost about 18 pounds when I first got sick. It's been a little over a year and a half and I've gained back about 10 of the pounds. I work out and do spin classes a few times a week and I watch what I eat, but I'm not fanatical about it. Life is too short. I've decided that I am going to enjoy dessert or pasta when I feel like it. I think I have a few pounds extra at 155 lbs, but thats ok. Lipodystrophy is a bigger concern. I really don't want to get the fat deposits around the middle that I have read were common in "the old days". I'm taking Complera which is supposedly better than the older meds, but I do worry about that.

[tboyer]

I never lost weight, and I was pozzed no later than 83, even when my t-cells were 190, I still didn't lose weight

[bearbandit]

Tiger, the thing to watch with Complera is your kidney function as it contains tenofovir. None of the ingredients drugs of complera have, to my knowledge, been associated with weight gain or lipo, so you can stop worrying about that. As I've said before I don't understand the American health system, but you need to have your kidney function checked every time they do bloods and at the first sign of kidney trouble, switch drugs rather than stick with Complera: the trouble the tenofovir component can cause just ain't worth it, believe me!

[kinkygradstudent]

As I've said before I don't understand the American health system...

We don't have a health care system here in the US - One of my favorite bumper stickers is "America needs A health care system." A friend of mine just died of a heart attack because he didn't have insurance and couldn't see a doctor to get his heart looked at. I myself am struggling just to pay expenses relative to my HSV infection (see my blog post about that). It would be nice if we had an actual health system here, where people actually got the care they needed...

[bb1991]

I have heard many pozzed men say to me that once they were diagnosed, they lost a ton of weight and in essence 'got their dream body.'

Sorry to be blunt, but if you want to loose weight you get your backside of the sofa and you stop shoveling the pies in your mouth. You don't go trying to catch some disease!

[bearbandit]

Sorry to be blunt, but if you want to loose weight you get your backside of the sofa and you stop shoveling the pies in your mouth. You don't go trying to catch some disease!

The essential core of what I was saying in the long post above

[Blueyedsoul]

BB1991: I am willing to let your arrogant and presumptuous statement slide since you are obviously making large assumptions about my health and caloric intake; let alone not knowing that I continue to study martial arts (already achieving the level of 2nd Degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do) and walk 7 miles a day, 3 times a week. But because you are obviously an over educated Registered Nutritionist or possibly a Medical Doctor, I am happy to inform that my dietary vitals are:

Average Daily Caloric Intake: 1250

Average Daily Carbs: 27

Average Daily Water Intake: 12 Glasses a Day

I know these stats because I am not some duff sitting on my back shoving pies in my mouth. I am a Professor of Medical History at a leading U.S. university. Now, I see you are in the U.K.. Should I start making blanket statements about the British and dental care? Of course not! Maybe you should chose your words more carefully. Especially when your screen name is ''bb1991." The last time I checked, your posting on a site with content advocating high risk sexual behavior which puts you in the arena of "trying to catch some disease," as you put it. It is ironic to see that on a site like this, which is very open minded and not one for conformity due to our sexual practices, you find it acceptable to be prejudicial towards people who deal with weight issues.

Edited September 5, 2013 by Blueyedsoul

[guilfordcigarman]

You tell'm!!!

[totalasspig]

I had lost weight when I was diagnosed, but Intelence is a Pound Packer and I have put the weight back on.

Diet and Exercise is the only way your going to get your dream body - there is not magic pill or injection.

If there was there would be no heavy people in this world (except for those that choose it)

[PhatWhiteButt]

The weight loss was the one thing that tipped me off I was poz. I couldn’t keep weight on to save my life. I ate everything and anything and was just wasting way. At one point people kept asking “are you ok?” “What is wrong with you!?” and eventually I got tested and found out I was Poz. I WOULD NOT recommend this as a way to lose weight. Plus about a month after takeing the medication the weight comes right back. 

[Guest]

hmmm i am very confused with why we complain about healthcare in the usa. i have been excellently taken care of here never an issue and had no insurance and not enough insurance and never once was denied anything i need. if i couldnt afford the bills there was charity care to help me. i also have relatives in canada and mexico and all wish they had our health care. they wait for doctor appointment and surgeries  there medicine is constantly being dropped on insurance and they have to pay for it. i think we need to stop just listening to people and actually look into it before we say we need to change the system not always is change better.

[Guest hodannyboi]

If your check engine light turns on in the middle of a race, do you stop to refuel?