What to eat to gain weight

creed

New member
Hi out there. My name is Brian and I'm 16 and weigh 150 lb's. My suggestion would be to eat alot of meat, which is basically protein, and drink alot of protein shakes. another suggestion is get Scandical, it's a product that you mix with your food that adds calories to whatever you are eating with out affecting the taste. you should also take other multi vitamins besides the ADEK's if you dont already do so. This may sound weird but you can gain weight without eating by lifting weights as well... There are some other ways to gain weight as well but I recomend these ways. If you would like to talk you can reply or e-mail me at bflanagan@direcway.com or if you have any questions.

Brian...
 

Beowulf

New member
As a cf adult, i strongly disagree that any calorie is a good calorie. I suspect a fair percentage of our general ailments are due to horrible dietary habits encouraged by the ignorant CF dieticians. Stuff like Scandishake is full of crappy calories from sugar and dairy fat. This is the diliema, no nutrients, just synthesized garbage. CFers should be eating tons of foods that come with natural enzymes. What foods are these? Oh, just every food under the sun that is not processed or mass produced in a factory. Best of luck.
 

Emily65Roses

New member
In most CFers, not everything they eat is garbage. They'll have a Scandishake, or some butter or what have you, on the side of some meat and potatoes, or some bread. If these people eat nothing BUT butter and candy and garbage, you're right, they're not really helping themselves. However, I would be willing to guess that most of us do not eat only garbage. I always ate a lot of butter, but it was on bread on the side of chicken or pork or steak and some carrots and onions. There's nothing wrong with eating some of that "garbage" as long as it's not the ONLY thing you eat.

I've always been somewhat small, but never been sickly underweight. I've never needed a G tube. And I still understand this concept. I think it may be harder for CFers that have never had trouble with weight to understand how important it is for some of us to eat whatever we can get our hands on (Coll is really the one who said this to me, I just happened to agree). But in the case of friends that I know that need or have G tubes, I'd have said to them at any given time throughout their growing up, "Eat whatever the hell you want if it helps you keep away from the G tube." There's nothing wrong with a G tube, but wouldn't we rather avoid it if we were able? I think we all know the answer to that one. <img src="i/expressions/rose.gif" border="0">
 

NoDayButToday

New member
I just wanted to second what Emily said. I have struggled desperately with my weight for a few years now. I have a G-Tube, and it has been somewhat helpful but frankly I've been fairly dissapointed in it (if I am healthy, I gain weight very easily, it slips off even with tube feedings as I begin to need IVs again). In general, I am a healthy eater- I don't like desserts much (though I did eat 3 cupcakes tonight), I've always liked my veggies and shun soda 100%-- I'm a milk girl. But to gain weight, I do eat things I know are fatty and for normal people unhealthy. Would I eat a 10 pounds of lard a week if it came with the promise of never having to work for my weight again? Yes, I would- you get that desperate to gain weight when you struggle with it so much. It would just be such a burden off of me that I don't think I'd care so much about the consequences. It would make life easier- I wouldn't feel the pangs of guilt that I do now when I drink 'pink juice' (Crystal Light Kiwi Strawberry- 10 calories a bottle but delicious) at lunch, which I love but hardly drink since a cup of chocolate milk is infinitely more caloric. I guess what I'm saying is don't judge/condemn until you've been there, and most of us do realize we're eating unhealthily sometimes, but send your condemning to the obese in America-- who are 'eating' away tons of health dollars with their self-induced (in part) ailments.
 
You got to eat a balance between healthy foods and junky foods. And that's ridiculous(yes, sometimes Christians say ridiculous) that somebody rattles on and on and on...about your eating. Just tell them! Frankly, I LIKE AND AM PROUD OF my disease!
In Christ,
 

Beowulf

New member
First of all, I didn't say that all CFers eat garbage. I didn't even reference what any particular CF patient eats. I said CF dieticians push garbage. I said Scandishake was garbage. Second, how do you know whether or not I am having or have had a weight problem? Perhaps I speak from the wisdom that only comes from experience. Third, I made no reference to the use of a G-tube or those in a more desperate situation who might require a G-tube.

In fact, I have had reoccurring weight problems. I have best defeated my weight challenges by eating healthy. Don't assume I haven't used all of the prescribed methods of gaining weight, I have. It is a fact that sugar in its typically processed form is not particularly good for even a healthy body much less a CF patient. The best form, the healthiest form of sugar is the natural unprocessed sugars found in fruits and veggies. Sugar doesn't in itself make or help one gain weight, it is the insulin response that sugar catalyzes that promotes weight gain, and then what one consumes once his/her insulin level exceeds a certain point. One can achieve the same insulin response drinking organic juice as they can by drinking a coke or soda, only drinking the natural juice is full of other nutritional benefits, where as most of the other drinks full of corn syrup (processed) offer nothing other than the bio-chemical physiological insulin response, and one that is physiologically more harsh than that of a natural consumable.

The same applies to food. Our bodies, mutated with CF or not, were designed to consume the earth’s bounty, not a processed or highly-synthesized marketable package-able interpretation of food. As CFers we should just eat a bit more and be wiser to overcome our weight dilemma.
 

Beowulf

New member
(Furthermore...)
--The following is a bit rigorous, and dramatic, but it is so to make a point. So, don’t critique it without this consideration…--

Think about it. We don’t have the natural digestive benefits of pancreatic enzymes. So we should be eating food that is rich with its own biodegradable enzymes (all natural food), not food made in an industrial warehouse with the synthesized chemicals, some basic like C-6 H-12 O-6, and others far less reasonable, like MSG, sulfides, disodiumoxide, or ferrous sulfate, etc. There is a reason why sugar isn’t a powder or grain you find growing in the earth like salt. Even sweet sap from trees (syrup) is rich with natural and nutritional elements before it distilled in to an industrial syrup. Again, I know this is very hard core, or “granola”, and that few can eat a processed free food diet in today’s modern world, but it clearly is what is best for everyone, us in particular. And a balanced diet is the way to go, but “balanced” with different nutritional benefits not balanced as in a little crap food with a little healthy food, e.g., balanced with a meat, vegetable, fruit, or grain, not balanced by eating a bowl of Frosted Flakes with berries, or a nice turkey sandwich with Cheetos and Oreos, and a soda to wash it down.

As for fat, fat is tough for CFers to digest. You don’t have to eat fat to get fat. Fat in its typical form is a LCT or Long chain triglyceride. Digesting too much fat is taxing on the liver and gall bladder, if you have one (I don't have a gall bladder because I ate, as the dietician prescribed, anything I could get my hands on, particularly fatty foods). The natural fats that exist in the world exist in only a small percentage of the food. Ask yourself, what percentage of a nut is pure fat? What percentage of fish (salmon even) is pure fat? What percentage of a free ranging animal if fat? Very little. We humans are not designed to consume the amount of fat we do. So why would someone who has a challenged digestive system, and has particular trouble digesting fat like a CF patient, consume an inordinate amount of fat in his/her diet? To get fat? You can just as easily, if not more easily put fat on you body by eating a raw sweet potato, baked potato, or even oatmeal immediately after drinking a healthy juice. The juice jacks up your insulin levels, and the carbohydrates from the potato or oat is easily converted to fat. The only benefit of eating straight fat, or having it in your diet, is that it is the most easily form of food convertible to energy (ATP, Adenosine Triphosphate). ENERGY! It is good to consume for immediate fuel, not to consume for storage. Again if you are going to consume for storage there are plenty of other food items one can consume with greater nutritional benefit and are less taxing on the digestive tract.

Also, there exists a functional relationship between the liver and the lungs. If the liver experiences problems, it is likely the lungs will be affected in some fashion, at some level. While most of you consume excessive fat to gain weight in the form of milk, pizzas, or chips, you are taxing your liver and complicating your lungs with systemic inflammation responses.

Fat is also not found in the environment, ripe for harvest. It found in food, coupled with natural enzymes and complex nutrients. Fat is found in raw meat, raw nuts, and raw vegetables for a reason. The way we mostly encounter fat is as an additive to make food taste richer.

Look I eat crap (usually Hostess Chocodiles or a bowl of super crap cereal) very occasionally, and I pay for it when I do, so I learn to eat less and less of it. I can’t eat the exact diet I recommend every single day, it is just too tough, expensive and time consuming. But I strive to improve towards the ideal I mention, and as I get closer to perfecting my diet, I manage to reduce the challenges I am posed digestively with my CF. The older you get the more you will come to meticulously identify what you consume as being good for your health or bad for your health. And if age doesn’t inspire you to adhere to a strong truly healthy diet, unfortunately, poor and poorer health will.

I am 33 with CF, and have a M.S. in Environmental Biology and a B.A. in Nutritional Sciences. My weight also fluctuates between 135 and 145lbs when I am healthy. When I am sick it has dropped as low as 114. The heaviest I was ever able to get was 163 lbs. But to attain that weight was a very expensive and time consuming process. So, I feel I know what I am talking about. And yes, I have required a G-tube. …once.
 

NoDayButToday

New member
<blockquote>Quote<br><hr>As CFers we should just eat a bit more and be wiser to overcome our weight dilemma. <hr></blockquote>

If only it was that easy for me.

I do agree with you that preservatives and overly processed foods are bad for you. I avoid preservatives if I can, and when I do eat them, I sometimes feel the effects. If I have so much as a sip of Hawaiian Punch, it usually leads to a coughing fit. I guess I just found your initial response kind of annoying because I felt like it put blame on those who struggled with weight on the patient. I'm very sensitive to this since people do it to me all the time (including sometimes medical professionals).
 

Emily65Roses

New member
Ahh Coll, one important thing to remember about doctors, is that if they can't fix us, they tend to focus the blame on us, so that they come off guilt-free. If we aren't blamed, then they, as the medical professionals, get blamed, and then they look bad. So instead they figure, hey why the hell, let's not blame the patient, because it's easier that way.
 

aznbabygurl729

New member
wat should i do 2 GAIN WEIGHT/MUSCLE i'm 13 and weigh 95-100 pounds !!!!!!!!!!!!!! HELLLP ME! tell me foods 2 eat.. excerises 2 do.. anything
 

anonymous

New member
Hi my name is Amanda. I have never been on this website befor and just today i discovered it! I have alot of friends with CF but none of them have had a lung transplant. I recently moved to Vancouver B.C so i could start the prosess of getting on the list for one. Im really scared and im thinking about backing out. I've got it in my head that i can fix this. When i was younger i didn't do my physio or take my med's faithfully and i know that that is a big part of why im here now. I was wondering if you could email me and tell me a bit about how you dealt with the whole transplant thing and how you feel now. I really need someone to talk to about this. Also almost a year ago my best friend unexpectadly past away of CF and every since i have had no hope. Thanx very much<img src="i/expressions/heart.gif" border="0">
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-Amanda. 19yr old w/CF
 

anonymous

New member
hi i'm wanting to know if you can help me i'm way to skinny and would like to know what i can take to make me hungry can you please let me know thanks
maria
 

lilcutie05

New member
i eat quite a bit i like chips,cheese(very good),i love breakfast burritos,eggs, junkfood (if yiu dont eat it all the time) is pretty good you can gain a few pounds......i eat all this all the time and i am 70.6p and 10 yrs <img src="i/expressions/light.gif" border="0"><img src="i/expressions/lips.gif" border="0"><img src="i/expressions/light.gif" border="0"><img src="i/expressions/heart.gif" border="0"><img src="i/expressions/present.gif" border="0">
 

anonymous

New member
<blockquote>Quote<br><hr><i>Originally posted by: <b>lilcutie05</b></i><br>i eat quite a bit i like chips,cheese(very good),i love breakfast burritos,eggs, junkfood (if yiu dont eat it all the time) is pretty good you can gain a few pounds......i eat all this all the time and i am 70.6p and 10 yrs <img src="i/expressions/light.gif" border="0"><img src="i/expressions/lips.gif" border="0"><img src="i/expressions/light.gif" border="0"><img src="i/expressions/heart.gif" border="0"><img src="i/expressions/present.gif" border="0"><hr></blockquote>
hello
 

anonymous

New member
<blockquote>Quote<br><hr><i>Originally posted by: <b>Anonymous</b></i><br>hi i'm wanting to know if you can help me i'm way to skinny and would like to know what i can take to make me hungry can you please let me know thanks

maria<hr></blockquote>have you ever heard about a g-tube or a feeding tube
 

anonymous

New member
<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif" border="0"> hI MY NAME IS LAURA AND HAVE CYSTIC FIBROSIS ASWELL
I like chips and cheese how many creons do you take a day
 

anonymous

New member
Hi there I see that you need something to eat I was think about build up drink because I have cf to can you send1 back to pls thinking of you

p.s my name is Laura by the way ok
 
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