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The situation: You've got an autoimmune condition.
What that has to do with belly fat: A lot of medications have weight gain as a potential side effect, but
corticosteroids like
prednisone (used to treat arthritis, multiple sclerosis and more) and
cortisone (used for arthritis, ulcerative colitis, among other conditions) lead to pounds in your stomach, specifically, says Michael Jensen, MD, an endocrinologist and obesity expert at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. They're often used to treat asthma too.
What to do about it: Ask your doctor if there are other medication options the two of you haven't discussed. If they say that corticosteroids are it, there is some good news: Weight gained from those meds usually isn't any harder to take off than weight you put on for other reasons, says Jensen, which means diet and exercise should help.
