Help with gaining & maintaining weight

[thunderbear]

My husband has CD. He has very limited choices when it comes to foods. He needs high caloric easily digested foods. Malabsorption & losing weight are his worst enemies. Hes always been slim 5feet 11inches & 140 lbs pre CD. Now hes around 130 lbs. Hes been that weight since he first got sick in '03. He drinks Ensure plus for maintaing weight. And eats alot of stuff he really shouldnt (sweets & chocolate) cause he thinks those kind of calories will help him gain. I have read about the SCG (?) diet but all that greasy stuff would make him so sick. Anybody have any suggestions?

 

[rygon]

you really need to find out why hes losing weight, sorting that out will help him the best. I guess carbs will helop a lot (poss protein as well) but it all depends on what he cab eat

 

[thunderbear]

Hi rygon. He hasnt lost alot since the very beginning. Sometimes he'll lose 1-2 pounds during a flare because he wont eat due to pain. Hes always had a hard time getting above 135-140 lbs even before dx. In the beginning when he got seriously ill he was on a liquid diet for a week and had alot of diareah. He doesnt have alot of that anymore its just the pain he gets digesting. He'll eat something & 30 minutes later he has to lay on his side because he says its like a knife running thru his right side. Its so intense he breaks into sweat and gets nauseous. It happens with whatever he eats. Even crackers on the really bad days.

 

[Beach]

If your husband is up for it he might start a food journal. That is what I did when I began lifting this winter. ( I took a short break from weight lifting for awhile.) My thinking was to see if any patterns showed up with weight loss and gain concerning foods that I ate. For each meal I would record what I was eating and every so often would record my weight.

I guess to tell my story if it might give him an idea - slowly, over months it appears I might have found a trend with the food journal. It is hard to say for sure, but seems that a meat or meat(s) cause weight loss and an upset gut. Nothing has been pinned down, but of late I've found myself only eating fish for protein, with some cheese from time to time. As a result weight is up, at 185lbs this evening. I started around 170lbs when I began the food journal early January. (I think this evening was an aberration, I'm probably closer to 180lbs. I was around 175lbs when i started the fish diet though so who knows.)

I'm avoiding other foods too, so I should not just highlight meats. There might be a spice, or something else problematic. Grains cause my gut issues leading to weight loss. That I have known for a long time. Regardless, details are yet to be worked out but most importantly my gut is healthier on the fish diet. It hasn't been this well in years. I've stopped the D. (The taste buds are not very happy about all the fish eating though!)

Hope the food journal idea might be of help, and that your husband finds some relief.