Everyone's reactions to prednisone are different. I did not gain weight or change my diet. I had already cut back alcohol when symptoms started. I was not correctly diagnosed for four months. Prednisone did interfere with my sleep (but not as much as pmr did), it thinned my skin and made healing slower. But I would trade those symptoms for pmr any day of the week. I started at 10 mg and took 2 or 3 weeks to feel 100%. Then I felt like superwoman until I started tapering. I tell people I was 68, then felt like 100 with pmr, then felt like 30 on prednisone, now feel my age at 70 and 1mg and side effects are subsiding. Only had one slight flare tapering 10% a month. You must decide, but I hope my experience has been helpful.