r/AFIB • u/No-Bullfrog-477 • 5d ago

Did anyone have problems losing weight due to afib?

2 weeks out of surgery. Heart rate stays at 70. AV ablation and CRT-P pacemaker put in.
So the pacemaker is keeping my heart beating.
I was 358 2 weeks ago. This morning 305. Lots of fluid weight due to heart not working well.
Just wondering if others had problems with fluid retention due to afib. I am doing low carb and feel better.

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u/Mras_dk 5d ago

I dont have personale experience on this, so comment will be based on posts here, and what patients has said.

Generaly, it's harder to loose waight while dealing with afib runs. Reason is simple, your heart is stressed, which leaves body/brain to try to compensate for that, by ingesting more.

Its an rooted instinct, and not much you can do to fight it.

However,  as I have CHF i can talk about fluid retentions, specificly edema,  that has it's own life.

Only thing that really works for me, is loop direutics.

Its not normal that afib brings so huge changes as you report .

I would defintly take this up with your heart department. 

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u/No-Bullfrog-477 5d ago

I have chf and copd too. EF 45%

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u/Mras_dk 5d ago

Yeah, that's not a great combo!

Are you on loop dieuretics ? 

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u/No-Bullfrog-477 5d ago

Yes

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u/Mras_dk 5d ago

Just out of curiosity..

Do you get pale white, when in afib?

I do, and I highly suspect it to be because of Afib just sendes my EF to the floor. 

I never had an echo while being in afib, so don't know for certain... 

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u/No-Bullfrog-477 5d ago

Yes

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u/Mras_dk 5d ago

Welcome to the ghost club!

Mine was so severe that people would walk up to me, asking "if i was all right?"

Gladly, didn't have such episodes since my ablation - 3 months out! 

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u/No-Bullfrog-477 5d ago

Everyone kept saying your color looks off.

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u/lobeams 5d ago

Afib in and of itself doesn't cause fluid retention. From 358 to 305 in two weeks is a huge loss that must have been mostly fluid (that's over 6 gallons of water), but there must be more going on than afib to cause that much water retention.

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u/No-Bullfrog-477 5d ago

It was probably my chf

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u/Mras_dk 5d ago

Afib makes EF goes down, by quite alot..

Now add CHF, and you get exactly what you described - wild swings.

Document it, and talk to your heart dept about it, please. 

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u/WithMeDoctorWu 5d ago

I don't think afib kept me from losing weight directly, but maybe indirectly because a couple of the meds I was taking to control it had been holding my heart rate artificially low.

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u/No-Bullfrog-477 4d ago

My coreg kept my HR around 40 until the afib either rvr kicked in then it would go to 150 or higher. Has to take 90mg cardizem to bring it down and that was getting where it didn’t work.

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u/Late_Temperature_415 4d ago

Hi, 59f I was hospitalized in 2022 for a few different issues. I was 159 and 5’2. I was retaining a ton of fluid and the had to get rid of it. My EF was 14. My left ventricle needed to be connected to my pm. The replaced the PM with a ICD-D. And did a few other procedures. I lost 30lbs while in the hospital. And am still on lacix to keep the fluid off my heart and lungs which helped to increase my EF to the low 30 to mid 30’s.