I'm a little confused with what happens when I don't take my pills

[Enzo2311]

Alright. So say I eat 2,000 calories today and had my enzyme each time I ate, yet I don't want to go over that 2000 calorie limit, if I were to have a big bowl of 900 cal pudding WITHOUT my enzymes. Would I still have eaten 2000 calories? Or would I still have had/absorbed those calories from that pudding and have eaten 2900 calories?

Cause my thinking, is since enzymes help me digest milk, if I don't have enzymes to digest that milk, then I won't receive the calories from that pudding but I get to enjoy that pudding. So basically I get the benefits of eating, tasting, etc. the pudding without the calories from that pudding. Correct?


Im wondering this cause I'm doing a difficult diet plan that makes me eat only 1500 calories. But I'm really craving pudding or something like that. I want to work toward getting a good body so that's why I'm doing this diet so I can lose some extra fat. I'm at around 18% bf. so that's why I'm wondering if I could eat pudding without sacrificing the 1500 calorie a day diet. So since I don't digest food without my enzymes, I can eat a 900 calorie bowl of pudding (w/o enzymes) without me digesting the calories?

 

[bcl0328]

Why are you limiting calories? You should be absorbing everything. And if you are trying to bulk up, calories is what makes you big. Not taking your enzymes will make you bloated and have a big gut.

 

[Aboveallislove]

and land you in the er with an obstruction, followed by some enimas, golytle, and potentially surgery.

 

[SoyaSauce]

Well, to answer your question directly, Yes, you will not absorb those calories , you will not absorb your fat and protein, but you will probably absorb some of the carbs from the pudding, but at the expensive of extreme pain, bathroom problems, and malnutrition, and stupidity.

 

[LittleLab4CF]

I'm with SoyaSause on the enzyme trade off.

You need a better way to approach your weight loss plans. Thank you for raising the issue of CF and more than optimum body fat percentage. I think another post assumed your weight problem was on the low side as I did upon reading. I am terribly dyslexic so everything gets read at least twice and I caught the 18%BF on the second reading.

Another post topic a year or so back, cried out over the "survivor guilt" of sitting plump in a waiting room full of CF skeletons. CF is in part a metabolic disease and a compromised metabolism can go hot or cold. Human metabolism varies within a person's lifetime let alone from one CF person to another. I have been 18yrs old, 113lb and 5’11” and 36yrs old 180+ and it was all hanging off my bellybutton. Now I am 63 and finally all the furry of CF has caught up with me. As polar as my current weight issue is to yours, they stem from the same source. If you haven’t engaged an endocrinologist in your health management, it might be a good time. And please, please don’t despair over any stigma associated with this or any health challenge. Leave stigmas to the stigmatics.

Pudding, yeah, I’ll be right over. Sounds sweet to me? What do you crave that isn’t being satisfied? Seriously, you have put together a plan to manage a health issue and you hit a snag. Sugar can be directly metabolized by the brain and a few other cellular power plants so if exercise isn’t an option to counter those calories, play chess for a few hours with a challenging opponent, do puzzles or Sudoku, you would be amazed how much the brain can use up. I don’t think worrying inspires the brain the same way intellectual pursuits might so moderating up to some exercises or activity you can enjoy as a bonus to your added health.

Every trick in the book has been tried with enzymes and weight reduction. A horribly gone bad trial in the ‘50’s involved detaching the pancreatic duct, shunting it to the ileocecal valve. Boy that one worked like a charm! NOT!!! With pancreatic insufficiency looming over mal-absorption and our inability to thrive on less than twice the average calories we often overlook the damage and stress CF puts on the entire endocrine system. With our bodies put into hyper-drive to combat CF issues like chronic infections, we often overlook all the other endocrine organs under attack. The thyroid, hypothalamus and such are largely duct based organs with lots of those pesky mucus cells spurting too sticky fluid. A portion of damaged endocrine systems are going to fail switched “on” rather than fail switched “off”.

Good Luck,
LL

 

[Enzo2311]

Why are you limiting calories? You should be absorbing everything. And if you are trying to bulk up, calories is what makes you big. Not taking your enzymes will make you bloated and have a big gut.

so that's why I've always been bloated!? Wow. So I have a question, when I stand up, it looks like I have a gut or it looks like I'm a pregnant guy yet when I lay down, my ribcage actually sticks out a little more than my stomach. Is this a sign that I'm bloated?

and land you in the er with an obstruction, followed by some enimas, golytle, and potentially surgery.

surgery? For what?
Also, I've never really taken my pills. Now I'm starting to take them a lot more, during the school year, I'd mostly only take them with lunch and that's it.

Well, to answer your question directly, Yes, you will not absorb those calories , you will not absorb your fat and protein, but you will probably absorb some of the carbs from the pudding, but at the expensive of extreme pain, bathroom problems, and malnutrition, and stupidity.

so out of that 900 calorie bowl of pudding (I have to add 4 cups of milk to the pudding mix, the Jello Brand) how many calories would I absorb without my pills. Cause I'm craving pudding but I don't want the calories from it so I don't ruin my good eating progress.

So without my pills, I don't get the calories from foods that contain protein and fats? Do I absorb proteins from plant based foods without enzymes?

 

[calebf]

You dose enzymes by the grams of fat you are consuming in a meal. Calories from fat will not be digested - most nutrition facts charts will show calories specifically derived from fat. Calories are also derived from protein and carbohydrates - which enzymes help with - but enzymes are dosed specifically by grams of fat. There's no way to accurately calculate how many calories you are digesting - only what you are consuming.

2000 calories/day is the FDA recommendation for normal people - even that is just a recommendation, it fluctuates per person. Depending on how severe your pancreatic insufficiency you probably have to consume anywhere from 3000 to 5000+ calories/day - again you cannot accurately calculate digested calories only consumed calories. Personally I have found 3500-4000 cals/day is what I need.

For bloating talk to your dietitian about how many enzymes you need to take per gram of fat and then begin dosing accordingly. Don't skip or you will have symptoms. If you're still experiencing bloating and floating/unformed stools try adding a probiotic as well. I find taking probiotics twice a day totaling 4 billion organisms - even when I'm on an antibiotic - keeps me regular.

Eat up those calories and take your enzymes!! Good lung function directly correlates with good nutrition!!