Water Weight Gain – How Prednisone Causes It

You know that scene from the movie, A League of Their Own, where the drunk coach stumbles into the bathroom and pees FOREVER? It seems like something only a drunk, enhanced by magical audio and video editing, could accomplish.

But when you’re on prednisone, suddenly anything is possible. Water weight gain happens in a mysterious and somewhat counter-intuitive way.

Watch How Prednisone Causes Water Weight Gain Now!

All My Prednisone Weight Gain Videos in One Place

What We’ll Cover Today

Throughout this guide, we’ll discuss:

• The science of how prednisone causes water weight gain
• The symptoms—visually describing what prednisone does
• The solution—what you can do about it

Throughout the last few weeks, we’ve talked about the metabolism changes that cause prednisone weight gain, such as:

• Food cravings
• Less fullness signals
• High blood sugar

But what we haven’t described in detail is the fat redistribution and the water weight—and how those are contributing to weight gain as well.

The Science: What Prednisone Actually Looks Like

Let me show you something fascinating about prednisone’s chemical structure.

When you look at the molecular structure of prednisone, it looks pretty much identical to cortisol and aldosterone.

If you can spot the difference between prednisone, cortisol, and aldosterone just by looking at their chemical structures, you’ve got a good eye for chemistry.

Why Does This Matter?

We give prednisone because it looks like these naturally occurring hormones that are already in your body:

Cortisol – Helps with stress response

Aldosterone – Helps with keeping the water balance in your body by telling your kidneys what to do

What We Used to Think vs. What We Know Now

What we used to think: Prednisone looks much like cortisol, so it must only go to the glucocorticoid receptor.

What we’ve discovered in recent research: Prednisone also goes to the mineralocorticoid receptor—and it actually has a greater binding affinity to the mineralocorticoid receptor.

What Do All Those Big Words Mean?

It means that prednisone might do things that are more similar to aldosterone than we used to think.

Prednisone might have more consequences from looking like aldosterone—and replacing aldosterone—than we previously understood.

Let’s explore what those might be.

The Sodium-Potassium Imbalance

You’ve probably seen information about nutrient changes from prednisone. Today, we’re going to focus on sodium and potassium—and how aldosterone is really what regulates those two nutrients.

Here’s what happens:

Sodium is HIGH when people are taking prednisone – Your kidneys are holding onto sodium

Potassium is LOW – The opposite of sodium

The Result: Water Weight and High Blood Pressure

That leads to:

• Extra fluid
• Extra water being held onto
• That’s the water weight

All that extra fluid leads to high blood pressure—because it’s harder for your heart to move more water (more blood) around your body.

That’s what’s leading to heart complications like:

• Heart attacks
• Strokes
• Strange heart rhythms

These serious complications trace back to the changes in sodium and potassium.

“Pregnant Zone”: The Belly That Won’t Go Away

So what does this have to do with “pregnant zone”?

Here’s something funny: When I’ve been doing these videos, I add the text at the bottom so you can watch with closed captioning. It’s auto-generated by the computer, and it has no idea what I’m saying when I say “prednisone.”

I’ve seen lots of different variations of what the computer thinks I’m saying, but one of the funniest to me is when it thinks I’m saying “pregnant zone.”

And why that’s funny is because that’s kind of how it is.

The Prednisone Belly

You get a round belly that looks disproportionate to the rest of you:

• Your arms and legs might be getting skinnier (you’re losing muscle mass)
• But your belly is getting bigger

Unfortunately:

• There’s no baby at the end (like when you’re pregnant)
• There’s not the rapid weight loss that a pregnant mother experiences after giving birth—suddenly losing that 7-8 pound baby, plus 5-10 pounds of water weight

That doesn’t happen as quickly when you’re taking prednisone.

Where the Water Goes

When a pregnant mama gets water retention, it’s kind of spread out throughout your whole body—like your ankles and your hands.

When I’m late in my pregnancies, I often can’t wear my wedding ring anymore because my hands get so puffy. My face gets puffy. Even my nose—I’ve been told I have a “pregnant nose.”

But prednisone doesn’t do that.

It concentrates all of the swelling. For me, it concentrated in:

• My knees
• My belly
• My face

The Visual Changes: Buffalo Hump and Moon Face

Buffalo Hump

Another place fat redistribution and swelling can concentrate is in the cervical dorsal area—that’s actually the back of your neck and shoulder area.

So you look like a buffalo.

Moon Face

Your face gets extra puffy-looking and round—so that it looks like the moon.

Here’s an example from my own experience:

You might be thinking, “Oh, that’s not too bad. Look at those pretty cherry blossoms in your hair.”

Oh no, my friend.

She spoke broken English because it was her second language, and she said: “You need to tell your doctor—your face is too puffy.”

And I thought: My doctor’s least concern is how puffy my face is. All my doctor really cares about is getting my blood under control to stop having bleeding episodes.

My Before and After: The Moon Face Evidence

I wouldn’t pose for very many pictures while I was on prednisone. But here’s one I’ve got.

Left picture (May 5, 2018): I’m on prednisone, almost exactly one year before the right picture. My face is round with moon face. And this is actually pretty low dose for me—I was probably only on 10 milligrams or so at this point.

Right picture (August 2018): I happened to be wearing the same outfit, so I thought I would just pose for an after picture.

You might be thinking: “Oh, well, your picture on the left is a lot more pixelated—you just zoomed in and stretched it out and did it all in Photoshop.”

Nope. I assure you, this is not modified in any way except to crop it. I didn’t stretch it at all. This is the exact dimensions.

How You Can Tell It’s Real

My glasses are the exact same width. My glasses are the same, but my face is different.

Even my iPhone—all the pictures of me during this period—it didn’t know that they were me. You know that facial recognition software? It couldn’t tell that I was the same person.

I am the same person, but even Apple didn’t know that I was the same person.

It was so disturbing.

How Does This Actually Happen?

So how does it happen that sodium and potassium are being changed?

Here’s the mechanism:

1. Prednisone is received by the mineralocorticoid receptor
2. This leads to lipogenesis (building up fat)
3. All of these changes cascade from there

How Aldosterone Normally Works (And How Prednisone Hijacks It)

Aldosterone—what prednisone is mimicking at the mineralocorticoid receptor—normally works in four ways:

1. Tells you you’re thirsty (if you’re dehydrated)
2. Makes you crave salty food (if the opposite is happening—if you have too much water in the ratio)
3. Tells your kidneys to get rid of water through urine (or tells your kidneys to hold onto it)
4. Tells your kidneys to get rid of salt through urine (or tells your kidneys to hold onto it)

The Final Fact

Moon face is dose-dependent.

The higher your dose, the more pronounced it becomes.

What You Can Do About Water Weight Gain

So what can you actually do about this?

1. Limit Salty Foods

Since your kidneys are already working so hard to fight against the prednisone, you can fight back by not eating salty things.

Avoid:

• Preserved foods
• Foods made by a factory

Eat natural foods that are as close to the source as possible.

2. Drink Lots of Water

This helps dilute out that salt.

I know it seems counterintuitive—you’re retaining water, so why drink more water?

But your body needs water to help flush out the excess sodium. Restricting water doesn’t help; it makes the problem worse.

3. Eat Good Vegetables

Full of lots of the nutrients that prednisone is stealing—especially potassium-rich vegetables like:

• Spinach
• Sweet potatoes
• Avocados
• Bananas
• Beans

4. Replace What Prednisone Is Stealing

Finally, I’m so excited to share with you that I created a dietary supplement formulated especially for people on prednisone.

Nutranize Zone contains those nutrients that you need—and it’s the only supplement you need while on prednisone.

I wanted you to have confidence that if nothing else is under your control, at least you know you’re giving back the nutrients that prednisone is stealing.

Morning bottle:

• Helps manage sodium/potassium balance
• Supports metabolism
• Provides nutrients for energy

Bedtime bottle:

• Supports restful sleep
• Helps with overnight recovery
• Continues nutrient replacement

It’s now available at Nutranize.com. You can even subscribe and save money if you get it shipped once a month, because each bottle is a one-month supply.

The Bottom Line on Prednisone Water Weight

Prednisone causes water weight gain because it looks like aldosterone—and your body can’t tell the difference.

It tells your kidneys to:

• Hold onto sodium
• Dump potassium
• Retain water

The result:

• Water weight gain
• Moon face
• Buffalo hump
• High blood pressure
• Cardiovascular risk

But you’re not powerless. You can:

• Limit salt
• Drink water
• Eat potassium-rich vegetables
• Replace depleted nutrients

The water weight is real. The moon face is real. The frustration is real.

But so is the solution.

Start replacing what prednisone is stealing with Nutranize Zone →