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Weight Loss & treatment changes
#1
Weight Loss & treatment changes
Hi Guys

would like to hear about what experiences people have had in regards to changes in there treatment with weight loss

My Background, im a 6'6 solid built 27 year old and prior to treatment topped the scales at 190kg (420lbs), since starting treatment a year ago and dieting since easter i have dropped about 53kg (116lbs) and on track to get down to a target weight of about 100kg (220lbs) in a number of months

im not 100% sure on what is classed as severe sleep apnea but i beleive i had a pretty bad case, i know they fast tracked my treatment within a matter of days and my doctor said he stopped counting my AHI when it went over 100 which i think is quite severe (you tell me?)

but yeah since i started treatment and now feel a HUGE amount better i was wondering or hoping to hear from other peoples success/failure stories about beating sleep apnea once they have lost alot of weight? im not expecting to be off it completely as i look back at when i was a reasonable sized teenager i had alot of OSA symptoms but id love to be able to go away camping for the night or crash at a mates place with out having to bring along my s9

did another study show a marked reduction in AHI?
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#2
RE: Weight Loss & treatment changes
Welcome to the forum and congrats on the weight loss

Weight loss is good for your general health and wellbeing but its not cure for sleep apnea. Maybe pressure decrease somewhat but if were you using an AutoSet, the Autoset adjust pressure up/down to your needs throughout the night
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#3
RE: Weight Loss & treatment changes
Good job on the weight. Get it off while you're young because it gets very hard to shift it when you get old.
You're still heavy at about 300 pounds; but, it's like dropping a 100 pound backpack to drop that much weight.
You have to feel better in terms of being able to get around.

Yes -- an AHI of 100 is severe apnea. You should still use your machine; unless your doc says to stop.
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#4
RE: Weight Loss & treatment changes
Hi BIGCAV,
WELCOME! to the forum.!
CONGRATULATIONS on your weight loss.
You might be able to change your pressure butbe sure to talk to your dock about it.
Hang in there for more suggestions and best of luck to you as you continue to lose weight and with your CPAP therapy.
trish6hundred
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#5
RE: Weight Loss & treatment changes
Congratulations, and keep it up (or is that down?)!

Weight loss is a thing I recommend practically without needing to think of it for most of my patients - most people, if they are not already stick-thin, can benefit from a loss of just 7% of their weight over a half year. For those who are overweight, that benefit increases greatly and for the obese, a loss of 10% of fat weight can translate into massively palpable benefits.

If your neck circumference drops, due to weight loss, below the magic number number of 40 cm, it is likely you will see a drop of needed pressure to keep your airway open and an overall improvement in sleep quality.

In my case, I lost 17 kilos, and the result was striking in terms of pressure needed to keep my airway open. I also had more energy and my legs had a far less hard time carrying me around, my knees and achilles tendons hurt way less and on the whole I felt better - my cholesterol moved into near perfect numbers, no need for any medications, and my blood sugar also dropped back into "safe" regions. All to the good - of course, I had to invest in a whole new wardrobe, as my trousers kept falling down and even my belts were all to big, a real problem because I like a certain make of trousers that I cannot buy in Europe and cannot get sold to me on-line from N.A., but otherwise, alles IO, as we say here.

BTW, it is better to cut carbs than fats, in terms of health benefits (in terms of amount of weight lost, cutting either works out to about the same over a year, but the health boost is higher with carb cutting than with fat cutting).
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#6
RE: Weight Loss & treatment changes
The weight loss is amazing!

But (and I think you know this) you probably would not have been able to do that if you had not started apap therapy. By getting your apnea resolved, you got the energy and the desire to continue to do great things for your health. The dieting's a big part of that but I'll just bet you are much more active than before and are in general just much healthier. So that's tremendous.

As to ever getting off cpap? I cannot imagine a universe in which I would want to do that. I'm sleeping better than I ever did in the past zillions of years. So I never entertain the notion of not using the machine. If the man wants my machine, they will have to pry it from my cold dead nosie. That's just the way it is. So enjoy your machine and understand that not using it would probably mean you would get back into the habits that got you where you were in the first place, and then you'd have to go back on a machine. So why not just stay where you are and save a lot of time.

You're an inspiration to the rest of us with your weight loss. Keep us posted, if not a bit envious, of your progress.
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#7
RE: Weight Loss & treatment changes
Hey congrads, very happy for you. I was diagnosed as you with extreme apnea on the very high said, they said basically I was awake 95% of every hour and never got to sleep. My initial pressure was a flat 18. I have lost 85+ pounds so far since starting and my pressure is down about 2 now based on my new machine. I don't think I am getting off the machine, but my quality of life is 100x what it was.

Hope that helps you, and I wish you all the best.
If everyone thinks alike, then someone isn't thinking.
Everyone knows something, together we could know everything.
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#8
RE: Weight Loss & treatment changes
Never had another study myself, but after dropping about 70 pounds I lowered my pressure quite a bit and still have <5 AHI according to my autoset.
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#9
Weight Loss & treatment changes
Lose the weight if you need to. You'll probably be healthier if you do.

However, don't assume it will get you off of CPAP. Many apneacs find it's no cure and there are plenty of thin apneacs.

There are probably a lot more thin apneacs than we know because the doctors tend to not consider apnea for their thin patients. We sort of have fat blindness in terms of apnea.
Get the free OSCAR CPAP software here.
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#10
RE: Weight Loss & treatment changes
(09-23-2014, 07:08 AM)zonk Wrote: Weight loss is good for your general health and wellbeing but its not cure for sleep apnea. Maybe pressure decrease somewhat but if were you using an AutoSet, the Autoset adjust pressure up/down to your needs throughout the night

Thank you, i am not on an auto machine and actually like my pressure (14), with the epr set at 3 i sleep easier then when i tried the lower start pressures of the auto machines

(09-23-2014, 07:47 AM)justMongo Wrote: Good job on the weight. Get it off while you're young because it gets very hard to shift it when you get old.
You're still heavy at about 300 pounds; but, it's like dropping a 100 pound backpack to drop that much weight.
You have to feel better in terms of being able to get around.

Yes -- an AHI of 100 is severe apnea. You should still use your machine; unless your doc says to stop.
Welcome to the forum.

feel so much better then before, different person now completely to what i was pre cpap

(09-23-2014, 08:54 AM)trish6hundred Wrote: Hi BIGCAV,
WELCOME! to the forum.!
CONGRATULATIONS on your weight loss.
You might be able to change your pressure butbe sure to talk to your dock about it.
Hang in there for more suggestions and best of luck to you as you continue to lose weight and with your CPAP therapy.

cheers, i had a quick chat with her and we have discussed another study in a few months when i reach my target weight, im comfortable with my pressure now so wont muck around with it myself now

(09-23-2014, 12:34 PM)DocWils Wrote: If your neck circumference drops, due to weight loss, below the magic number number of 40 cm, it is likely you will see a drop of needed pressure to keep your airway open and an overall improvement in sleep quality.

In my case, I lost 17 kilos, and the result was striking in terms of pressure needed to keep my airway open. I also had more energy and my legs had a far less hard time carrying me around, my knees and achilles tendons hurt way less and on the whole I felt better - my cholesterol moved into near perfect numbers, no need for any medications, and my blood sugar also dropped back into "safe" regions. All to the good - of course, I had to invest in a whole new wardrobe, as my trousers kept falling down and even my belts were all to big, a real problem because I like a certain make of trousers that I cannot buy in Europe and cannot get sold to me on-line from N.A., but otherwise, alles IO, as we say here.

BTW, it is better to cut carbs than fats, in terms of health benefits (in terms of amount of weight lost, cutting either works out to about the same over a year, but the health boost is higher with carb cutting than with fat cutting).

Cheers for the advice mate, i feel alot of the differences already, luckily i had to have full blood tests and doctors checks before they would send me for a sleep apnea referral so have a full report of my health before hand and plan on going back for the same once im done, will be interesting to see the differences in blood pressure and all that stuff

in regard to the neck circumference i cant remember what i was at, i know i was told i had the 2nd biggest neck my 50 something year old sleep apnea doctor had seen in her career and i think it was 55cm but it also could of been 45cm, i just cant remember and i cant find anything to measure it with now but it doesnt feel like its shrunk anything yet, doing the hands around the throat check it hasnt really changed so im pretty sure im still going to be well over the magic 40cm mark

(09-23-2014, 03:49 PM)retired_guy Wrote: The weight loss is amazing!

But (and I think you know this) you probably would not have been able to do that if you had not started apap therapy. By getting your apnea resolved, you got the energy and the desire to continue to do great things for your health. The dieting's a big part of that but I'll just bet you are much more active than before and are in general just much healthier. So that's tremendous.

As to ever getting off cpap? I cannot imagine a universe in which I would want to do that. I'm sleeping better than I ever did in the past zillions of years. So I never entertain the notion of not using the machine. If the man wants my machine, they will have to pry it from my cold dead nosie. That's just the way it is. So enjoy your machine and understand that not using it would probably mean you would get back into the habits that got you where you were in the first place, and then you'd have to go back on a machine. So why not just stay where you are and save a lot of time.

You're an inspiration to the rest of us with your weight loss. Keep us posted, if not a bit envious, of your progress.

Thanks for the support mate, your right, if it wasnt for the sleep apnea treatment i would either be stuck in the same old rut without the energy to do anything

its not that i really want to get off cpap, i love what it has done and love how different i feel but it does get in the way at times, if anything spur of the moment ever comes up i cant crash at friends places, or stay at a hotel somewhere if a night gets a bit too long etc, i always have to drive the hour plus drive home to get to my cpap machine and sometimes i just wish i could have a night off without having to worry about it, i know before i lost weight but right after i started treatment i lost power one night and couldnt use the cpap, i was absolutely wrecked the next day and will always come home to my cpap then risk sleeping without it ever again but was hoping once i reached my target weight i could have the odd night off here or there but by the sounds of it i wont be any better off

i was 99% positive from my own research and talking to my specialist id have it for life but there are too many people (friends & family) who keep sayings its related to my weight and nothing else that they throw doubt in my mind, i feel i know its not the main reason behind it and even though these people have done next to no research on sleep apnea when there is 10 of them telling you the same thing it throws doubt in my mind if you know what i mean

(09-23-2014, 10:52 PM)Galactus Wrote: Hey congrads, very happy for you. I was diagnosed as you with extreme apnea on the very high said, they said basically I was awake 95% of every hour and never got to sleep. My initial pressure was a flat 18. I have lost 85+ pounds so far since starting and my pressure is down about 2 now based on my new machine. I don't think I am getting off the machine, but my quality of life is 100x what it was.

Hope that helps you, and I wish you all the best.

thanks mate, its not the news i want to hear haha but its what i expected to hear so thanks, from what im reading here most people have found the same results, minor reductions but no major changes to treatment, your right too, quality of life is indescribable compared to before

(09-24-2014, 12:41 AM)eviltim Wrote: Never had another study myself, but after dropping about 70 pounds I lowered my pressure quite a bit and still have <5 AHI according to my autoset.

i didnt like the feeling of the autosets, it was too hard to breathe for me, felt suffocated so if i have to still have treatment i will stick with the cpap rather then apap but the apap would be great to work out a new pressure without having to pay the huge prices and dealing with the awkwardness of doing another proper study
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