Weight gain advice for coaliacs

fteale

Does anyone have any advice for a friend of mine? She is has coeliac disease so gluten free, and really struggles to keep weight on. She has always eaten around 2000 cals a day or more(at 5'8"), and can't get her weight above 130lbs, which is fine, but if she is stressed or busy it plummets. Being a last year medical student she won't have a lot of time to prepare proper meals next year and is worried.

I have completely the opposite problem, so find it hard to identify! If I ate as much as she does I'd be huge. Just wondering if anyone has any good tips for maintaining or gaining weight for someone who struggles with it.

abeachlady

My daughter and granddaughter both have celiac disease. They both were very thin before they were diagnosed. As soon as they went gluten free they started to gain weight. There are lots of good websites now for celiacs. More and more stores are carrying gluten free products too.

jo_marnes

Coeliacs go one of two ways.... they gain when GF as their body is able to absorb all the food again, or they lose because they have to cut out a lot of the foods they were used to eating.

Your friend needs to make sure she's eating high calorie GF items, like nuts (though watch for coatings/ seasoning), rice, potatoes, meats and if she likes them, GF breads.

Also, she needs to eat dairy - yoghurts, milk drinks, ice cream etc. Eggs are good too and they are easy to cook quickly.

As a coeliac myself I have to be prepared and have GF foods prepared and frozen, ready to grab and reheat. I'll make myself a loaf of bread, slice and freeze it and thaw as required. Otherwise with only me eating it, it will go stale. It's about being prepared. We can't grab food on the go.... it's hard work, but hey, that's just the way it is for us. xxx

fteale

My daughter and granddaughter both have celiac disease. They both were very thin before they were diagnosed. As soon as they went gluten free they started to gain weight. There are lots of good websites now for celiacs. More and more stores are carrying gluten free products too.

She has prescriptions for gluten free food so she doesn't have to pay the exorbitant prices for it, and we have a good choice locally for gluten free. She has had it for years so has stabilised that problem now. The problem is that no matter how much she eats she doesn't seem to gain weight.