Ways to gain weight

[Madhu]

Hi everyone,

My hubby has crohns and he recently had a small flare. It seems to be under control now but he has lost a lot of weight. He is a thin person to begin with. He is 5'6" and now weights 110 lbs. He feels very conscious about his weight, his clothes are loose, his arms look so thin On top of it all, he is vegetarian and doesn't take cow's milk because of crohns. Any suggestions on how to help him gain weight, in a healthy manner?

Thanks!

 

[cmack]

Hey Madhu,

Chick peas are pretty good, and fairly high in protein to maintain muscle. The fiber may be an issue though as they have a fair bit. Dark chocolate can help sustain his energy if it sits well with his stomach. Basically he needs calories that wont set him off more...I would try high protein and low fiber foods along with some source of sugar such as pieces of chocolate to keep for snacks and energy boosters. Your husband likely isn't absorbing nutrients well due to his disease and should possibly try a fairly liquid, high calorie diet. Some people, including me with Unspecific IBD have good results with bland soup broths and white, bland foods like potatoes and white bread and rice. This may help him keep weight on during this tough time. Give me a shout any time, I have other tricks to gain weight that might work. I care about you two, and I have struggled to keep my weight up as well. You always have my support.


Your friend always,

Chris

 

[hugh]

Can i ask if e is willing to change from being a vegetarian?

 

[Madhu]

Can i ask if e is willing to change from being a vegetarian?

No Hugh, our entire family (many generations) is vegetarian for religious reasons. We are not used to even eating eggs. But now we have started to eat eggs for health. That's the maximum level of compromise unfortunately.

 

[Madhu]

Hey Madhu,

Chick peas are pretty good, and fairly high in protein to maintain muscle. The fiber may be an issue though as they have a fair bit. Dark chocolate can help sustain his energy if it sits well with his stomach. Basically he needs calories that wont set him off more...I would try high protein and low fiber foods along with some source of sugar such as pieces of chocolate to keep for snacks and energy boosters. Your husband likely isn't absorbing nutrients well due to his disease and should possibly try a fairly liquid, high calorie diet. Some people, including me with Unspecific IBD have good results with bland soup broths and white, bland foods like potatoes and white bread and rice. This may help him keep weight on during this tough time. Give me a shout any time, I have other tricks to gain weight that might work. I care about you two, and I have struggled to keep my weight up as well. You always have my support.


Your friend always,

Chris

Thanks Chris. Chickpeas give him a lot of gas unfortunately. But he loves it. The last 2 times he ate it, he developed symptoms. So we are staying off it for now to see if that's a trigger food for him. Other than that he is eating a lot of white rice, bread and potatoes. He is on prednisone now the past week and has a hell of an appetite. I don't have food at home for him. Lol. But it's helping him gain some weight, so we are happy about that. I will keep the broths and soups in mind. Thanks [emoji173]

 

[hugh]

No Hugh, our entire family (many generations) is vegetarian for religious reasons. We are not used to even eating eggs. But now we have started to eat eggs for health. That's the maximum level of compromise unfortunately.

I understand,
There are two things you want to concentrate on.
One is removing anything that may cause harm, and the other is add nutrient dense foods.
On the harm side is processed foods, gluten and seed oils (corn, canola, soy etc.)
replace with coconut oil, (ethically sourced) palm oil, olive oil, or any other traditional (pre-1950) oils or fats
Cutting out gluten is a huge undertaking but many find it makes a huge difference.
On the benefit side is egg yolks, ghee, well cooked vegetables, moderate amounts of well tolerated legume.

At one stage i was 120lb (at 5'8") and it didn't matter how much i ate, i wasn't digesting it until i gave up wheat.
You mention chickpeas as a trigger food, - in my experience there are many foods that cause pain and gas, but they are probably due to an inability to properly digest the starch content rather than ' activating' the crohns.

As more becomes understood about the role of the microbiome it becomes more and more obvious that the most important thing you can do is look after the bugs in your guts by feeding them appropriately.
If you feel so inclined check out this series of articles and see if they make sense to you.
The link is to another thread (to save me typing it out again.)
Best of luck

https://www.crohnsforum.com/showpost.php?p=1004600&postcount=3

 

[Crohn2357]

Hi everyone,

My hubby has crohns and he recently had a small flare. It seems to be under control now but he has lost a lot of weight. He is a thin person to begin with. He is 5'6" and now weights 110 lbs. He feels very conscious about his weight, his clothes are loose, his arms look so thin On top of it all, he is vegetarian and doesn't take cow's milk because of crohns. Any suggestions on how to help him gain weight, in a healthy manner?

Thanks!

He can try enteral nutrition products. This product is free of milk protein.

If the reason why he avoids cow's milk is due to milk sugar (lactose) intolerance and not a specific sensitivity to milk protein, then the enteral nutrition product range he can consume vastly increases.

 

[Iricen]

my husband drank a lot of milk and it helped him gain weight!