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What to eat to gain weight
- Thread starter Mike6sic6
- Start date
AbsintheSorrow
New member
Well let me give you a tip... I went on anti-depressants, Depakote (a mood stabilizer) and birth control and gained 50 lbs in a year. LOL. The Depakote was the best to help that, I gained 20 lbs in 3 weeks on that one alone. And that was after trying hard to gain weight my first 18 years. I lost most of it now, but now I'm a typical girl (which annoys me) in that I read the nutrition labels for all that I eat (and not to see how much fat I can get, mind you)... to make sure they're low in fat, or fat free. It's weird, being a CFer. But that's my best advice. lol
Hey Mike, Remember to get good quality foods. Eat a variety. Vitimin supplements are ok for extra, but it's best to get them in your diet. Believe me, as corny as it sounds, you ARE what you eat! Go easy on the concentrated sweets like candy and soda. I drink ensure and boost and have a luna bar as a snak once or twice a day. Rather than eat two or three big meals, eat through out the day. Nuts are a really healthy snakc, and they have the good kinds of fat. If you like ice cream, that's good. Granola is fatty and really good in milk. I also have a powder that looks like parmesan cheese and adds calories to food.Debbie 22 yr old w/ CF
Snickers are high in calories. The king size snickers bar has over 500 calories. there is also scandishakes if you like those. If you haven't evr tried them ask your doctor about them. Anything with peanut butter is a good high healthy fat. You can do little tricks to jsut add a little extra calories to foods. Like baked potatoes add cheese, sour cream bacon bits, (all or one). You can really add cheese to anything like baked chicken, sandwhiches, salads, put extra cheese on frozen pizza, bagels etc. If you eat mashed potatoes add extra butter to your portion or have your mom (or who ever cooks at yourhouse) set aside a bowl of mashed potatoes and used milk and high calorie butter to yours instead of using water or 2% milk. If you drink a glass of milk in the morning use carnation instant breakfast instead of chocolate syrup or use both. Make sure your snacks are high caloried. In stead of just chips as a snack have chips and dip-cheese dip or other dips. Or like a snickers bar. If you don't already add things to your food start now it adds just a little extra calories that might help. For "normal" people adding things puts weight on them so fast. For me it maintains my weight. I still need to gain but at least I am not loosing. Hope some of these help a little,Amanda
I
IG
Guest
I hate to say this because it goes against everything the doctors say.... Candy, chocolate, anything that is bad for you. It kept my weight up. ANYTHING that has calories, and the trick is not to eat a whole lot in one setting but a lot over a long period of time. Have a bag of M&M's while watching TV, sitting in your car, etc. It really does wonders. Icecream is especially fattening. Go for that it's not my personal favorite but it will work. (Why do you think women complain of getting fat when depressed.. It's the chunky monkey or rockey road) DON'T eat grapefruit. Those of us on anti-rejection medications are told not to touch the stuff. It increases the absorbtion of enzymes. Basically you don't get more for your buck. Also try scandi-shakes, and if you don't like those, try mixing them up with icecream and milk to make a shake. It really worked for me. Hope it helps.~Candice17 w/CF & DB-Lung Tx
bowlingguy
New member
just some 411 from an older cf'er, i, 32 and have had so much trouble with my teeth these last 5 or so years, so if you decide to goto the junkfood diet like i did from 12-22 or so be suure to stay on those dentist appointments and make sure you are taking all the necessary vitamins, dentist told me it was a combination of vitamin deficiency and candy/soda...and if you look into scandi/boost/ensure, the best 1 of the 3 is boost either chocolate or vanilla are both great cold, you can easily drink 3 a day and add an xtra 1200 calories, also insurance pays for it...good luck
knifewieldingmonkey
New member
Chicken Korma !!! full of fat upon fat !!! <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">
Eat lot of fruits and vegetables! Eat things that are a little easier to digest. You can eat things with a lot of fat and crap but what good is it if it does not digest properly. Eat a lot of chicken breast and like others said protein drinks of some sort will work. Also vitamins are very important. You are in a growing stage and you want to make sure your body is getting the proper nutrients!! Good luck!!! Nate 25m/cf
though the previous post is correct he is incorrect in one thing. though his phylosophy may be different about what you should and should not eat, he defiantely could voice that opinion differently. that is one thing that is different about cfers, individually there are different answers to some of th problems many of us face. any good cf doctor or family physician thatknows your case will have several ways to treat different ideas. most of us face the reality of cfrd. i personally take th phylosophy of what helps meat the time nd later on i will deal with what comes from it. though this can be a distructive decision it can also be a very valid decision as long as youmonitor what you use this phyosophy in. my thought is yes, there are healthier ways for you to get what you need into your body to gain weight. but in that same respect junk food and sweet high calorie things like ice cream and candy bars may either be a better fit for your lifestyle or maybe just work better with your body and deliver what you need the way you want it. high fats and sugars are defiantely a good way but as with everything no matter what it is, it comes with inherint reisk down the road.my doctors belive it in what ever it takes to stay healthy, and if a problem does arise treat the problem. i am newly diagnosed with cfrd, my doctors and nutritionist have said to me in no uncertain terms NOT TO CHANGE ANYTHING. not to change my sugar consumption not to changemy calorie intake because with cfrd it is not condusive to the other problems we face. my advice is find the happy medium but if tht happy medium is someplace over the edge one way or another but "may cause problems down the road go with it for a while if it works stay with it and gain the way stay health and live life. hope someone agrees and i truly hope this helps someone out there torn in this delimma we all facesincerely Joe G. 23 m w/cfps. to thepost about beer. yes it is high in calories and for a very inactive person can help gain weight. but those calories are very empty and can take more energy of your body to break them down then what they are worth in caloric intake to add weight to your body. they are a very fast acting sugar and will be broken down dependant on your body. but there is no body in the beer to make it "stick to your bones" and it will be the first to go. a beer everyonce in a while is great and can have some value (even doctors say) but in the long term it is very little and few and far between.
Actually,Just wanted to say....what you eat does NOT increase the risk of CF related diabetes. I made sure I asked the doctor about it. You get it when you pancreas doesnt produce the insulin like it should...and what you eat does not affect that. However, if you do get CF related diabetes, of course sugars and junk foods will affect the blood sugar level. I have had CF related diabetes for 5 and a half years now.Dea
Hi I know this is a teen board but I wanted to tell you what we have tried with our daughters. Both teens by the way. Our oldest has had the hardest time gaining weight. She doesn't like any of the supplements and really doesn't like milk. She says it makes her mouth slimey. She's not a big junk food eater either. No Mikey D's or Burger King. If you like the fast food places they are a great way to get in calories. My daughter does like Wendy's Frostee's though. A small frostee has about 340 calories. Thats the 12oz cup! She would eat one, two to three times a week. That popcorn chicken from KFC or Sonic, lots of calories. We tried looking for high cal, low quantity. Believe it or not, those Lean Cuisine's people eat, not so low in calories for what you get. My daughter would eat two Glazed Chicken's for an after school snack, that was 580 calories. We were trying to get in 3000 calories a day! Ice Cream. Dairy is good, get your calcium at the same time. Cheeses. I'm sure you've been told to get extra calcium already. Like I said, she isn't a junk food eater but Kudo bars are a pretty good snack. There's a recipe for a fortified shake if you like milk. If you are interested I will post it here. I try not to post here because it is for teens but I thought I might be of some help on this one. As Mom with two CF teens, I know the struggle that we all go through. You who I am sure is sick and tired of eat, eat, eat and maybe your parents too, tired of saying eat, eat, eat. My daughter said that eating wasn't enjoyable when you are always having to do it. That it got to the point to where she just didn't want to eat anymore. NOT that she was NOT going to eat, but that she was tired of focusing so much on it. She did not want a feeing tube, she told her docs that was out of the question, don't even bring it up. The doctors put her on Megase (Megesterol). She was on it for about 6 months, ate like a horse and gained weight. It is an appetite inducing med. used primarily for cancer patients and AIDS patients to help them to gain weight. It had not been tested for young children just young adults/teens. You might want to ask your doctor about it. Might it help you out? It is a type of steroid. She was not on it very long, then went off and on for about a year. Some people will gain the weight then lose it again when they stop taking it. She did not, the doctors were really happy with her weight gain, she was happy. I will say, she did not gain a ton of weight but she finally broke the 100lb mark. That was two and a half years ago, she was a freshman then, she is now finishing up her Jr. year, 5'5" and around 105 lbs Lastly, here are a few other ideas... Chicken nuggets/strips from any fast food place. KFC, Arby's, Sonic, Dairy Queen, and Chick-fil-A. Sonic and DQ both offer a country gravy to go with, that adds some more. To be honest all the fast food places, the burgers and fries. YOu don't want to eat them all the time. Milk Shakes and those Blizzards and stuff like that. Go slowly, don't try to eat alot, just try to eat high calorie. Enjoy the fact that you don't have to stay away from those enjoyable foods. I tell my girls to enjoy that they don't have to worry about not eating things that will "make them fat". And exercise, do physical activity, it helps build muscle, which weighs more than fat. One of the tough things though is to not keep eating the same thing all the time because then you will get tired of it and stop eating it. My daughter no longer eats the Frostees. If you like Mexican food, get a cook book and cook your own. Make your own soft tacos by buying corn tortillas, heat them up by dipping them in a shallow pan of hot oil, put in on a paper towel and pat both sides to get the excess oil off, put in your meat and/or cheese and what ever you like on a taco. YOu can do chicken, ground beef, shredded beef. You can make shredded beef by cooking a small roast in a slow cooker. Well it's time to get off to work. I hope that I have been of some help today. I didn't mean to ramble on and on. Liza(Mom of 2 CF teens)
knifewieldingmonkey
New member
About 3 years ago i was seriously underweight for my age 16 at the time around 45kg, going even lower during infections. Got to the point where i just was not eating enough food to gain weight.Tried a lot of supplements, Scandishake, (horrible powder mixed with milk, was horrible especially when it was not mixed right and cloggy, made me spew <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif" border="0"> ) Clinutren (very nice, extremly high calorie drink, made by nestle) drank that a lot as it was enjoyable and i also had Polycal (drink full of sugars) its really think but diluting it with coke or any other juice helped, but overall i was still at a standstill in weight After a few more months after i kept demanding more time, it was just not happening. So i brought up the subject of a tube feed to my docs and they agreed to try me on it, brought me into hospital and the dreaded time came for the tube to go in places ur body doesn't want it to be, damn reflux !! I was confident about it for getting weight gain and was happy to go through with it all, but after 10 tries of failed attempts (tube kept curling up, i kept spewing due to reflux) i gave up. Even tried it the next day with my doc and she had no joy.So they sent me home, couple of months later i came back i was 50kg, 3 months next check up 53kg, 3 months again another 2kgs and to this day ive put on 20kg in 3 yrs (65kg now). I think the experience of what i went through with the feeding tube was enough to scare the sh*t outa me and somehow i gained a lot of weight, i also still take Polycal and stopped the Clinutren due to my successful weight gainAlso i eat a lot of fatty food, healthy food, junk food, a mix of everything whihc i think helps. Regularly eat curry from my local indian (also finding out about the spice of life thing as well made my day to) lots of kebabs and fatty food, have a lil belly on me to hahaha but i don't care what anyone else thinks, if i get sick that lil belly could be what saves my life <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">
Mockingbird
New member
Dea, Are you sure diabetes can not be caused by what we eat? If there is always a high amount of sugar entering the body all the time, I would think the pancreas would have to work harder to produce insulin and eventually get worn out. =-) Well, i guess I kind of just assumed that would happen, so I don't know for sure. I'm not trying to discredit you or your doctor, just wondering. Anyway, it certainly does not hurt to be careful about things like that. On another note, to those who want to gain weight, i suggest keeping close track of the calories you are eating. Take a chart around with you or something, and tally the calories up after every time you eat something. Every day, work toward eating 4500 calories, or whatever it is you need (For me, it was at least 4500 when I was a teen) I know keeping track like that helped me to be more conscious of what I was needing to be eating, and i was able to gain a lot of weight. Also, a lot of people have said it already, but your body needs more than just calories. =-) Vitamins, minerals, whatever. It is very possible to eat healthy and still get a lot of calories. When people (any people, not just cf people) don't eat right, they get sick more often, and more severely. You can eat all junk food and gain weight, but how is that going to help you when you get sick a week later, and lose it all? =-) Jarod22 with CF <img src="i/expressions/moon.gif" border="0">
I am positive....Diabetes can not be caused by what we eat. It just depends on how badly the pancreas is affected. I'm sure you can look it up on the internet somewhere as well...and get specifics. Not everyone with CF will develop diabetes....meaning their pancreas is working better...than mine for example. I know that many people think that....but it is not true.Dea