How to account for daily vomiting (due to illness) in calorie counting

Due to various illnesses (partially undetermined cause), I experience daily vomiting. It is unpredictable and sometimes occurs immediately following eating, while at other times occurs hours after eating. Some days no food stays down while other days a meal+ does.

How should this factor into my calorie counting? How can I know how many calories my body actually has the chance to absorb?

Thanks in advance for any information.

Replies

  • Panda8ach
    Panda8ach Posts: 518 Member
    Sorry I can't help even after googling the heck out of it! Get well soon.. :)
  • Muscleflex79
    Muscleflex79 Posts: 1,917 Member
    Is this a flu bug or are you saying that you vomit daily? Every day. Sometimes multiple times per day. And your doctors cannot determine what is causing it?? I would be more concerned about why my body is rejecting food every day.

    yeah, sounds like the calorie intake of your non vomited food should be the least of your worries right now!
  • MyLovesMyLife
    MyLovesMyLife Posts: 424 Member
    How does your stomach work? My husband has Gastroparesis. Many throw up daily. Thankfully, he had a fundoplication surgery so he doesnt experience that symptom. But he got Gastroparesis from a botched surgery. If your stomach is processing slowly and you are vomiting. I would look into something like gastroparesis.
  • inertiastrength
    inertiastrength Posts: 2,343 Member
    I vomit in a bucket and then weigh the vomit on a scale at the end of the day. I add up all the grams and fluid ounces I've eaten that day and then I subtract the vomit.
  • aljstark
    aljstark Posts: 2 Member
    Thank you all so much for the replies.

    To elaborate on my particular situation, the issues began over a year ago. It started with 3 weeks of severe vomiting and abdominal pain (inability to keep anything down whatsoever) which caused severe dehydration and 40 lbs inadvertently falling off within those 3 weeks and I finally went into the ER where blood work determined my kidneys were failing and body was septic (hospitalized end of May 2016). They never determined the cause of the renal failure, though it was potentially due to a very prolonged klebsiella pneumoniae UTI. My renal function bounced back within a couple days at the hospital after being on antiemetics, pain meds, fluids, and antibiotics, and has maintained strong numbers since. Though this hospitalization has been followed by a multitude of varying bodily infections (viral, bacterial, and fungal) and the constant nausea/vomiting/severe abdominal pain has persisted with no known specific cause. My blood work, which I have to get done every 1-2 months or more, has been mostly normal with the exception of elevated CRP a couple of times and sometimes indicators of infection. My docs have obviously ordered many imaging, blood, etc. tests as would be expected, but nothing conclusive has been determined. I have another Nuc Med scan coming up to confirm a suspected kidney abscess on the right side. In addition to this I have a weaker than average immune system per a combo of severe sleep and other disorders which doesn't help any of it.

    I am on 3 antiemetics (antinausea) which
    absolutely help, though I still vomit almost daily. Again the timing and frequency is random though I have only had a couple of days in the past few months that didn't include vomiting. The severe abdominal pain is also fairly constant especially on the right side and I've spent most of the past year bed-ridden.

    Following my initial hospitalization, I immediately gained some weight back per fluids and the ability to eat more/keep more down with new antiemetics, and I then ended up putting on a fair bit of weight last fall as I had about two months where I was vomiting far less frequently for whatever reason and I was eating a lot. The vomiting returned to a high frequency, though my body has assumedly been in starvation mode as my weight hasn't changed much since going up, despite the fact so much comes up, and I hardly expend any calories due to being bed-ridden so often. Due to this I started counting my calories more recently as being overweight doesn't help the ongoing health issues, but I'm trying to ensure adequate nutrition and to get to a more comfortable and healthy weight. For many months I avoided this as I felt counting cals should be my last priority, but at this point the cause of my illness still remains undetermined and it's been over a year so I'm trying to be proactive with regards to something I can control.

    Again determining the cause of my symptoms is very important to me, as is maintaining adequate nutrition, especially at this time. However I also think it is important to reduce my weight both for physical and mental health needs as my weight is quite high. I worry that my cal and nutritional tracking is completely off due to food regularly coming up, so I'm hoping someone has an idea of how to account for such.
  • L1zardQueen
    L1zardQueen Posts: 8,753 Member
    What is your starting weight and height?
  • everher
    everher Posts: 909 Member
    edited June 2017
    I wish I could say something helpful OP, but I don't think there is a way you could account for the vomiting and with your health issues it may be possible you are retaining fluid or experiencing weight gain for some other reason than overeating.

    I would try to eat nutritionally balanced meals as well as things I think may be easier to keep down or are easier going up.

    I hope you get a diagnosis soon and get the medical help you need. Stay strong and don't be afraid to get another opinion or see a specialist if you feel your current medical team isn't getting anywhere.
  • laurenebargar
    laurenebargar Posts: 3,081 Member
    How does your stomach work? My husband has Gastroparesis. Many throw up daily. Thankfully, he had a fundoplication surgery so he doesnt experience that symptom. But he got Gastroparesis from a botched surgery. If your stomach is processing slowly and you are vomiting. I would look into something like gastroparesis.

    Just wanted to add, my mo got gastroparesis from a botched surgery as well.
  • counting_kilojoules
    counting_kilojoules Posts: 170 Member
    That sounds really horrible! I would ask your doctor to be honest. Even if they're not sure precisely, they'd have a better idea than most exactly how much nutrition is actually being absorbed by you. I would also ask if you need to get blood tests to make sure you're getting an adequate amount of key vitamins etc. (I don't absorb B12 properly because I have IBS, it wouldn't surprise me if constant vomiting did something similar.)

    Also, I don't know if you've thought about it but vomiting that often can lead to dental problems. If you haven't seen your dentist it might be a good idea to do so and see if you can mitigate any damage.