Question by H M: Just got diagnosed with celiac disease. How long will it take to feel energetic again after giving up gluten?
Doc just told me I have celiac disease and said to cut out gluten products. He said that I would notice I’m much more energetic and I’d feel a lot better after a while. I’m a healthy and active 23-year-old guy. Anybody know how long it could take to actually start gaining weight and feeling better like the doc said?
Best answer:
Answer by Yahnswers Guru
It’ll take time, and the duration would depend on how much gluten has affected your system. But it’ll probably be better in a few weeks.
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Stick to the gluten free diet as strictly as possible and you should begin to feel better in about 6-8 weeks, it won’t be like waking up one day and saying WOW I feel like singing and dancing! it’s more like little things, like when that foggy brain feeling goes away, or the mid day sleepies, or when you realize that you ate three hours ago and you still haven’t had to do the bathroom dash, you know the one…and there’s no toilets in the middle of the 401 highway… I began feeling human after about six weeks and I really noticed how much I had improved during a camping trip, six months after going gluten free. The previous year was misery (We lived on ramen noodles while wilderness backpacking -imagine the misery!) the GF trip was amazing.
I’m a 24 year old guy with celiac. I switched about a year ago.
I write a blog, hear TONS of other people’s stories, and do lots of research. Everyone is different! but, here is what I can generally say: It comes in waves:
2 weeks: Most people notice a change in their everyday type symptoms after about a week or two.
2 months: This is where you start to feel better overall and your longer term symptoms decrease, like rashes, energy level, amount of sleep, etc.
6 to 12 months: Depending on how bad your intestines were, it will take at least 6 months to heal. This will be when your body starts to absorb all the nutrients again. Overall, you will start feeling great and back to life as you knew it. You will be “cured” of the disease, until you cheat on it again.
Stick with it! Once you are a couple months in, the benefits will keep you highly motivated. I don’t care for “normal people” foods anymore, although I had a miserable time resisting during the first few months. Your whole life will change for the better!
I felt better almost instantly!
I did notice that I began losing weight and felt overall higher levels of energy level after about 8 – 10 weeks.
Just remember – look for hidden gluten in foods. That can drastically set back your time scale of feeling better. Gluten seems to creep into tons of foods, so be extra careful as you begin to navigate a gluten free lifestyle.
I started feeling better after two weeks. I was super careful and didn’t cheat at all, which probably had something to do with it. After those first two weeks, I noticed I didn’t have daily stomach pains, headaches, joint aches and fatigue. And it’s only gotten better over the past 9 months that I’ve been GF. I was sleeping 8-10 hours and still feeling tired. Now I have so much energy, it’s sometimes hard for me to get to sleep!