Can antibiotics affect your weight?

jenniewb

I have just come to the end of a course of antibiotics, I was on amoxicillin and it was for 5 days. I had toothache and the antibiotics seemed to partially help that (but not fully). I am wary I may end up on another course!


What I had noticed was that my weight went up and quite quickly! I don't notice my clothes feeling any tighter but I do know I've jumped up almost half a stone in those 5 days and it really seems a lot to me! I have not been eating any more than I normally do and if anything being more active than less -though its not a huge difference either way.


Has anyone else noticed a huge weight jump in a short space of time on antibiotics? Does it go within a few days or is it actual weight gain? I am not so sure Googling is such a good idea so I thought I'd ask here first.

Toothsmith

There's nothing in the way antibiotics work that would cause this.

cherryblossomzel

Rapid changes in scale weight is very likely to be water weight. Many people (women in particular) go through days where they simply retain water, it could be hormonal, it could be due to food you ate over the last few days.

Maybe it's possible that the antibiotics can cause you to retain water, or the infection that you took the meds for that caused inflammation and water retention. Or maybe there is some hormonal effect, some food effect, some infection and it all adds up. Any way, I wouldn't worry about it. This is temporarary and will go away. You'd have to eat a LOT of extra food to gain half a stone in fat, I'm not even sure it would be pysically possible to do that in a few days.