Weight Gain for chronically ill?!?!

jessicawebster1481

Hi everyone! I’m new here, my name is Jess and for the last 8 months I have developed an (undiagnosed) condition which has caused my body to firstly lose interest in food due to changes in tastes and smells, and reduced my appetite. A series of badly prescribed medications resulted in some pretty crap side effects like; severe anxiety, depression, massive panic attacks, dizzy spells, mood swings, suicidal thoughts, nausea and regular vomiting. Since seeing early 2019 my heath has continued to decline rapidly. I now get full after a few mouthfuls of food; and then spend the next up to 5 hours in pain. When I was finally malnourished enough to be admitted to inpatient care, i received a gastroscopy and endoscopy which showed no physical reasons for this weight loss. I was discharged and disagnosed with an eating disorder despite the fact I have none of the physiological symptoms of bulimia or anorexia and have since been discharged from community mental health because of that. ☺️ really just needing a little support in my recovery, I’ve lost a lot of hope and after 8 months I’ve dropped from ~170lbs to 97lbs with no answers, i am skin and bones and looking for any advice out there so anyone who has recovered from a similar experience, I would love to hear from you 🥰

ElizabethKalmbach

I was nowhere near as extreme as you, but I lost 23 lbs due to pernicious anemia about 5 years ago. I halted the weight loss (once I noticed) by setting alarms and getting my calories in every day - paying particular attention to protein, and cheating with protein shakes as needed based on my level of nausea. It took about 2 years to get my strength back to previous levels, with regular lifting and careful eating and compliance with doctor's orders.

When I am healthy, I live to eat. When I'm not doing as well, I eat so that I may live the life I want.

RealWorldStrengthLLC

I don't usually endorse their use but mass gainer shakes might be of help to you as they are really quick to make and drink, and can be upwards of 1200 cals.

Sorry to hear about your condition.

Vune

I was given a prescription for Ensure when I lost weight due to dialysis. Not quite the same, but they threatened to hospitalize me for an eating disorder I didn't have, so I can empathize. If drinking your calories works for you, you might want to look into investing in a Vitamix and get good at making soup.

jessicawebster1481

I have Ensure, the prescription weight gain supplement, I can’t stand it on its own but will add it to smoothies and that kind of thing when I’m not getting solid food down but sadly drinking my calories isn’t much different in terms of the amount I can consume and how much pain it causes. I’ve found keeping track of my food intake on this app is helping me stay aware of when I’m substantially below what I should be eating, and holding me accountable when I avoid eating due to pain but not having any answers is frustrating me more than anything else.

ElizabethKalmbach

If Ensure is giving you stomach pain, try a different kind of shake with a different protein source. A friend's daughter in law seemed to like the Orgain plant based protein shakes when she was on chemo and really sick. I've tried them and they're not disgusting, flavorwise.

If I don't have any kind of restriction on my feeding, I also like adding fruit and things like cinnamon, yogurt, or avocado to my shake to add better textures and different flavors.