What do you do when sick?

TRUST YOUR BODY!

When you're sick, the last thing you should be worrying about is calories in and calories out.

Eat when you feel up to it, and keep yourself hydrated.

Oh, and get well soon!

For me, I try to eat at least my BMR calories when sick, unless I am actively vomiting.

The reason why I do this is because I lose my natural hunger signals when sick and almost ended up in the hospital when I had pneumonia and "didn't feel like" eating for almost 2 weeks.

Liquid calories like soup and non-dairy shakes are the easiest to get down. Toast if you can hack it.

When I am sick with the stomach flu my body basically craves everything that we have taught ourself not to eat (or in moderation) on our weight loss journey's - all the "whites" and salties - white toast and butter, white rice, white salted crackers...and then as I recover it craves grease (getting back the grease you lost when ill) - chinese food (chicken fried rice), greasy french fries. The best I can do for produce is maybe bananas, grapes, and apples. Listen to your body and get back on track when you are recovered. (Don't forget the gingerale).

During these times the most important thing is to remain hydrated. I find that broth (vegetable, chicken, beef whatever), clear soda (7-up, sprite, ginger-ale, sierra mist, or any of the off name brands of the same thing), and water. I also throw in a little jello into the mix too. You need to take in some calories, but be easy on your tummy.

Dehydration is a serious concern when you are sick, a stomach bug increases that concern. At least when you just feel yuck you can make yourself drink, but when your stomach is topsy turvy it is hard to make yourself drink. Do like I did with my kids, afterwards rinse your mouth, brush your teeth, and drink a half a cup of water, wait 10-20 minutes and drink a half cup of clear soda. Repeat in about 30 minutes. Small amounts are easiest on your stomach. If half a cup is too much, then increase the frequency and do sips and keep the liquids going.

If I'm sick, I don't think about this. I eat when my body tells me I'm hungry and I eat what I feel like. I figure I need energy to get better. I'll get back to it when I'm healthy and i have l less to stress about.

Hi everyone,

I am fairly new and started getting sick. I really do not feel like eating anything and only drinking tea. Do I really need to eat when I can't keep food down? That just seems silly to me but I don't want to go into starvation mode by not eating. I also don't think straight when I don't feel well so someone just tell me what to do. I can follow directions fairly well.

Thanks in advance.

It's going to take a lot longer than a day or two before lower calories start effecting your metabolism, and even longer and more extreme than that before you hit starvation mode (like think, literally starving for an extended period of time). Just worry about getting better.