Anyone have a problem gaining weight?

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Zac

Joined
Jan 24, 2011
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A couple months ago my crohns has started into flare ups once again, and because of this I have lost 20 pounds.

I have tried everything to gain weight, and even as a last resort I bought a tub of hyperbolic weight gaining supplement from gnc. But to no avail I still lost weight.

What might be a good way of gaining weight fast without irritating the stomach?

I have tried the whole starchs thing, did not work.
 
When I was able to eat a very restricted food diet a few years ago one amazing weight gain recipe I used was as follows:

250g Quark Cheese
3 tablespoons Flaxseed oil

Mix it all up and eat it on its own, or have it on a Jacket potato/sweet potato. Delicious :ysmile:

If you can tolerate it as well you can mix a tablespoon of pesto to add flavor, but only if you can tolerate it!

Another amazing product is plain, natural greek yogurt, full fat. Its very easy on the digestive system, but only if you can tolerate dairy.

Also, have you considered asking your health practitioner for nutritional supplement drinks like Ensure Plus or Fresbins? These will help.
 
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Hi Zac

I always had real problems with weight loss when the CD was severe.
At one stage i lost nearly 3 stone.
When the CD was mild i still found it very difficult to put on weight.
I never found changing my diet helped me.
Only once i found 100% remission from CD was i able to put on weight on.
I'm now a healthy 181lbs.
18 months ago i was 160lbs.

e13 boy Serovera AMP Loperamide(due to short bowel)
21 yrs of CD 9 operations
Failed meds Steroids'Azathioprine,6mp,Pentasa.
 
If you can afford it, drink ensure plus which is 355 calories per bottle. Drink 8 of them a day. They're easy to digest and don't irritate the stomch- the other advantage is that if you drink nothing but ensure and water for several weeks you may even go into remission.

Good luck!
 
Chuck2008 said:
If you can afford it, drink ensure plus which is 355 calories per bottle. Drink 8 of them a day. They're easy to digest and don't irritate the stomch- the other advantage is that if you drink nothing but ensure and water for several weeks you may even go into remission.

Good luck!
Click to expand...

surely just drinking ensure and water wont put you into remission? im tempted to get some of these, but think i'll hang fire til my consultant appt next week.
 
My GI would always harp on me about my weight, which was 140 when I first saw her (I'm 5',10"), and each time I came in for an appointment, I weighed a little less than before. For some reason, I didn't take it seriously. That was until a couple of months ago when I weighed in at about 113. That scared me to the point where I've been loading up on calories (proteins) and trying to build muscle when I can (not always a physical possibility in my condition). I'm almost at 120 now and am hoping to be back to 140 soon enough.
 
Mr Bedfordshire said:
surely just drinking ensure and water wont put you into remission? im tempted to get some of these, but think i'll hang fire til my consultant appt next week.
Click to expand...

Definately consult your doctor : ) But yes, liquid nutrition is scientifically proven to be almost as effective as prednisone for inducing remissions. One of the studies I have relates specifically to Ensure Plus which is what motivated me to start it 6 months ago. The reason its not more popular is that almost nobody has the will power to stick to just ensure and water without cheating. And many others just can't afford the $400 per month for so much ensure. But I look at it as being a lot less than $400 since I'm not buying regular groceries. And how can you put a price on health? I'm getting more vitamins, minerals and balanced nutrition than I have ever had before in my life eating solid food...

Not sure if it would work for you, everyone is different...

EDIT: I should add that my doctor tells me to start getting back on solid food every time he sees me, he's a little old fashioned I guess. So you might not get your doctor to endose a liquid diet even when they surely know how effective it is. I actually have GI reference books discussing liquid nutrition, its not a secret.
 
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Wow, I'd really have to work to choke down eight Ensures per day.

Sometimes I'm able to do one, but it's just so heavy that after drinking it, it just sits there, making me feel worse than when I did before drinking it.
 
It is thought that liquid diet can be very effective at in inducing remission but I think research shows only really effective in small bowel crohn's.
 
I haven't seen any research that distinguishes between different types of Crohns...

The only thing I'd say negative about Ensure is that there are a lot of simple sugars in it.. the mixture is fine of protein/carbs/fats but the type of carbs is no good. So now that my body fat percent has gone up from the Ensure I'm going to switch to the High Protein ensure with a lot less carbs and calories (225 versus 355 calories per bottle) and supplement with some actual complex carbs (pasta, rice, etc) as long as I can tolerate it...
 
The ecco (latest European) guidelines 2010 state the differences in treatment etc and say that in small bowel crohns liquid diet can be effective in inducing remission when used with other medication. It says that the same cannot be said for liquid diet and inducing remission in colonic crohns. This doesn't mean that symptoms cannot be reduced by dietary manipulation in colonic disease.
 

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