UC and Weight

[Andrew]

Hi there, my name is Andrew and I am 23 years old, I was diagnosed with UC when I was 12 and at that age I was about 7 stone ( I don't know what that is in the U.S) and I was immediatly put on steroids to knock the UC on the head so I was put on them for about a year and sure enough it worked. I gained a lot of weight after the first day of taking them, from 7 stone to about 10 stone and that was a hell of a shock not only to me but to my family as well, the stress my body was under was unreal, the aches and pains i was feeling was unlike anything I had ever felt before but I was wiened off of them every week or so untill I was completley off of them and the wieght gradually went away and I was back to my normal figure, but ever since then I have not been able to gain wieght I am about 6ft2 and only wiegh 9 stone and no matter what I do i just cannot put on wieght. Now I don't know if this is due to the shock my body went throuigh when I was a child or due to the actual UC its self, maybe someone can shed a little light on this?

 

[Ian]

Hi Andrew and welcome

I know that steroids can stunt your growth if you take them as a child - but I'm not sure that's the case with you, I mean you can't put weight on but you're 6' 2"?! Clearly you had no problem growing lol. Is your UC currently in remission or do you go to the toilet a lot? (that could certainly prevent you from gaining weight). Even when you're not flaring IBD can hinder your body's ability to absorb nutrients from food which can obviously make weight gain difficult - but I'd have thought that would be more the case for people with Crohns disease due to small bowel involvement (the colon only really absorbs water from waste I think). So I'm really not sure!

Don't know if this is of interest, but there's a guy on the forum who's successfully gained a lot of weight and muscle in spite of Crohns. He follows a very specific diet, maybe something like this could help? Here's his thread:
http://www.crohnsforum.com/showthread.php?t=19691

Hope you're feeling well at the moment.

 

[Michealleo]

YEs probably it's because of steriods . I know as a UC patient steriods work differently on every individual . peoples peoples gained weight with UC but mostly can't . i am also skinny and i try my best to gain some weight but things hardly working for me .

 

[Andrew]

Hey Ian, I had a mild flare recently but I am back in remission now ( before the flare i was in remission for 10 years ) and I just go to the bathroom like once or twice a day sometimes not at all haha ( which is strange cause i eat like a horse lol ) but yeah I am going to deffo check out that other forum page and see what they guy has done there to gain muscle and weight but yeah it makes sense for the nutrients in foods to not do what they are supposed to with having UC, I must say.. UC and Crohns are sh*ty diseases! (pun intended lol) and thanks for the reply michealleo and yeah UC and Crohns effect different people in different ways some worse than others which sucks cause I wish that there was only ONE setting for UC abd Crohns D:

 

[KaLa]

Hi, Andrew. I have UC and am having a pretty bad flare right now and have lost 20 lbs. over the past 6 months. Usually I stay the same weight, unless I'm flaring (which isn't too often). I am normally around 125-130lbs. and I'm around 5'4" tall. That's a pretty "normal" weight for a woman my height. I think that I'd agree with you that I don't gain a lot of weight, no matter how much I eat.

 

[Splasher]

I have UC also and don't tend to gain any weight. I am 34 and 5'6 in height and have just finished a course of pred. My weight was 113lbs before the pred and 119lbs afterwards. I have often been told i am underweight for my height but like everyone else here is saying it dosent matter what i eat i just don't gain. I have noticed tho that i dont seem to be digesting veg.