Hyzaar and weight loss Question

[chenevy]

I'm on Hyzarr for high blood pressure. This is a Angiotensin blocker and diuretic pill. My question is will this stall my weight loss? I'm going to the Doctors tommorow,should I suggest another medicine,if so, what kind?
Thanks!

[stevenroy]

I don't have a scientific answer for you, but I can tell you what happened to me.

I too have HBP and take Hyzaar. It works fine to lower the BP and I don't notice any side effects. But after low-carbing for a month and losing ok, (down about 10 or 11 lbs) all of a sudden the weight loss just stops. I try all kinds of stuff, counting the carbs strictly, cutting out cheese and just doing carbs from salad, increasing fat, increasing protien, doing fewer eggs in case its an A. acid reaction. Nothing helps and I stay the same or go up and down a couple pounds for two months.

So in reading Dr. A. and the Eades', I see all the info about diurettics and other meds making you resistant to weight loss. I think, I must have lost all the water weight and now the Hyzaar is making me resistant to any more loss. So I taper off the Hyzaar to see if I can kick start the weight loss (and if the diet can keep the BP low as is claimed).

After 3 weeks (including one week tapering off the pills) I gained about 7 lbs. and my BP was back up. I figure that this sure isn't working too well, so I go back on the Hyzaar.

After 3 days back on the Hyzaar, the extra weight was gone and I felt a lot better. Just recently I increased my level of exercise and now have started loosing again.

I don't know why I stalled, but I don't think the Hyzaar was behind it and the exercise (I hate exercising) seems to have had more to do with getting over the stall than the Hyzaar.

There are so many theories out there about what will start and stop your progress that it can drive you nuts. I hope that you can find the key to get your weight loss going.

[kjturner]

Hyzaar contains a thiazide diuretic which will raise your blood glucose level (it raised mine 30 mg/dl and didn't really make any difference in my BP so I tossed 'em in the trash). Please do be sure you are also measuring yourself and not just weighing. Water gain/loss can make sessions on the scale most frustrating. I prefer to measure now. My scales have said I weigh about 180 pounds for several months now, but I've gone from size 18 to 16 to 14 and now have my first pair of 12's on! (Mind you, they are *roomy* 12's, but 12 just the same) I do exercise pretty often, so I'm obviously gaining muscle and losing fat because my clothes say I am, not the scale.
Drink your water--lots of it. High blood pressure problems can often be 'cured' by drinking MORE water, not less. I highly recommend the book "Your Body's Many Cries For Water". As you lose weight, your blood pressure will gradually come under control as well, so you may need to adjust the medication. Just FYI when it was obvious the thiazide was not the way to go for me, my doc added a calcium channel blocker to my ACE inhibitor. That appeared to work ok, without affecting my weight loss or blood sugar levels. I also added a supplement designed to bring excessive cortisol levels down (stress hormone) and my blood pressure looks much much better since I added that, so I will soon tell the doc I'm dropping the CCB and if things stay ok, then I will also drop the ACE inhibitor (as long as my BG also looks good). My goal is to become med free.

[stevenroy]

Thanks for the info on Hyzaar. I agree that med free is the goal. I hope that if I shed a few more lbs. and get further into the exercise mode the BP will come down enough that I can get off the meds.

[chenevy]

Thanks both of you for the information.I went off the diet for a few days(whoops)and never made it to the Doctors.I started the Suzanne Sommer program to see how that works for me.After I'm on this for a couple weeks I'll talk to my Doctor about hyzaar. I'm also borderline diabetic,so now I'm wondering why he has me on this if it raises your blood gluclose level.