How to Gain Weight with Crohn's

[Lil_Lisa08]

Hello, I was wondering if anyone could tell me what they do to keep the weight on living with Crohn's? I thankfully have it mild, they caught it very early, only 20% of my ileum is affected. I went through a period a couple months ago where I had very bad flares, I lost 8 lbs. in the process which doesn't sound like a lot but when you are 5'6" and only weigh about 115lbs. it becomes a different story! So now, I currently weigh 108lbs. which is less than I weighed when I graduated high school 10 years ago. I went to my GI doc who told me to add a protein shake to my diet, I have and now I fluctuate between 108lbs.-110lbs., I can't seem to put on any more weight. On the bright side, I'm not losing any more weight either but it's frustrating because to me I look sick. You can see ribs and my shoulder blades protrude out, I just look very boney. I take the generic of Imuran and the generic of Entocort for my stomach pains. My Crohn's is in check too, with the occasional stomach pain but the Entocort is helping and it really only happens when I eat too fast. I eat three meals a day + the protein shake + snacks so it's not like I'm starving myself. I haven't had any flares since February and have regular bowel movements so there really isn't a reason for me to not gain weight. I'm mildly active, take my dog on walks 2x/day and sit at a desk most of the day at work. Any helpful suggestions you might have I am welcome to it! Thanks for reading!

Edit: I take a multivitamin + a B12 vitamin every day and should probably start taking a vitamin D supplement since my last blood work revealed I have a deficiency.

 

[Stevi (:]

Hey Lisa I dont know if I have Crohns yet because the doctors are taking their sweet old time... But I increased my calorie intake intensely for a few weeks and gained back about 5 pounds after losing 15 from nowhere. I feel like my best high calorie food was this smoothie/shake i made...and im lactose intolerant so I substituted all my milk products for this.. but it was A giant spoonful of Peanut butter, Chocolate Milk(mine was hemp its super healthy), Banana, And either more milk or yogurt. I also did a lot of fruit smoothies...and even some boost.... I cut boost out because it was the worst for me. I also went with the shake method because I cant seem to digest any of my food... I see wayyy to many pieces when it comes out(tmi) ...Well I hope it works for you I also find my peanut butter shake tasty.

 

[theOcean]

Even after getting back into remission, I was stuck at the 110 ~ 113 range for a very long time and couldn't get my weight higher than that. (It's very underweight for my height, by the way.) Like Stevi recommended, I would say to up your calorie intake if that's possible. My doctor told me it's not the quantity of food you eat, so much as the calories that are important. So try and eat higher calorie food when you are hungry, and drink higher calorie drinks where you can.

 

[kel]

If you can tolerate dairy, making shakes/floats out of whole milk and ice cream is one of the easiest ways to get more calories.

Red meat is very calorie dense compared to other protein sources, peanut butter is also good.

You will need to actually put in an effort to gain the weight, alot of people add one extra spoonful of peanut butter per day and expect to see a difference. You need to eat that spoonful after every meal, drink a big glass of milk with every meal etc.

 

[Stevi (:]

I get almond, hemp, and hazelnut milk theres also rice, soy and coconut.... unfortunately steak hurts me too much...too dense.

 

[eleanorruby]

I've got the whole weight loss thing really bad--always have with Crohn's. My healthy weight is somewhere around 110-115 lbs for my body type and height, but right now I'm a whopping 86 lbs because I'm in a flare. I just upped my Prednisone again (sigh) in hopes of gaining a bit of an appetite and slowing the diarrhea.

To gain weight, I try to drink at least two Ensure drinks (ew) and one homemade "weight gain" smoothie per day. In my smoothie, which I have shortly before bed, I put about 5 oz whole milk, a couple of ice cubes, some frozen banana, a scoop of peanut butter, two scoops of whey protein powder, and a bit of cold water. It's actually rather tasty and super high-calorie. Besides that, I try to eat whole milk yogurt, fruit (whatever I can tolerate, sometimes just in smoothies), and nut butters every day when I'm sick.