Plasma donations

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DyneSalcar
DyneSalcar Posts: 45 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Anyone else here donate plasma? Do you adjust your calories for the day when you do? Enter it as exercise because of the extra calories burned while your body restores your plasma levels? Make no changes? I'd really like to know how different people address this.

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  • 777Gemma888
    777Gemma888 Posts: 9,578 Member
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    @plasma:logging: weight loss, I cannot be of help.

    Started young as I was 'seemingly' the ONLY match for my then traditional betrothed's father. They needed me to donate every two days. No bueno for my body, as they say.

    As an adult, I now only donate to help my community raise funds for our Emergency Supplies in case something happens. That's once every 4 months.

    * Food: I'm strange where I cannot feel like donating plasma or blood IF my stomach feels full, so FOR ME, eating a loaded oatmeal bowl (500 calories) at 6am sets me up for donating at 3pm. Granted, I would have eaten roasted turkey/chicken/cornish hen with seasonal roasted veggies the night before.
    *Sleep: I do try to get at least 8 hours the night prior to donating.
    * Water: I drink a lot of it. Day before and on the day of
    * Workout: I usually skip it on the day of donating.
    * Recovery: I like a glass of OJ immediately after. My sister makes me a hearty steak dinner with either steamed or roasted pan veggies as my pick me up with loads of coconut water all night long until 2am. She cannot donate ( beef eaters in the UK during the Mad cow era).
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
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    DyneSalcar wrote: »
    Anyone else here donate plasma? Do you adjust your calories for the day when you do? Enter it as exercise because of the extra calories burned while your body restores your plasma levels? Make no changes? I'd really like to know how different people address this.

    My understanding is the extra calorie burn happens in drips and drops over several days. All I really do is eat my maintenance calories on the day of donation and drink extra water. Whatever extra calorie burn there may be, it doesn't seem to be enough to affect the scale one way or the other, at least not for me.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
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    We are talking about plasma, not whole blood, just to be clear.

    There is a small loss of red blood cells in the handling, which is not significant and should not affect your workouts.

    Plasma volume is replaced very quickly-I believe within 24 hours. So while you might experience some effect on a workout during that time, the effects should be short lived.

    There should be neglible effect on calorie burn.

  • neugebauer52
    neugebauer52 Posts: 1,120 Member
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    We are allowed to donate blood every 6 weeks - a max of 8 times a year. I have donated blood for the last 50 years and never felt a difference - even at my top weight of 170 kg / 375 pounds.
  • DyneSalcar
    DyneSalcar Posts: 45 Member
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    I donate plasma twice weekly. While plasma is restored quickly, it takes 450 calories over a few days to replenish from each donation.

    I appreciate the responses but none of them really address my question at all.

    If you are someone who donates plasma twice a week, how have you adjusted your logging or calorie goals to compensate?
  • autumnblade75
    autumnblade75 Posts: 1,660 Member
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    DyneSalcar wrote: »
    I donate plasma twice weekly. While plasma is restored quickly, it takes 450 calories over a few days to replenish from each donation.

    I appreciate the responses but none of them really address my question at all.

    If you are someone who donates plasma twice a week, how have you adjusted your logging or calorie goals to compensate?

    I've been known to add 600 calories (I go ahead and count it as exercise, regardless) per whole blood donation. I've never been able to keep my iron up without supplementing my iron, and I've had bad experiences with over-supplementing my iron, so I'm not a good candidate for plasma donation.

    The generally accepted number for plasma (and I don't know why there's only the one number, as I know that plasma donation allowances vary, based on the weight of the donor) is 450 calories per donation. I'd probably try adding that to (as exercise, same as a whole blood donation) for a few weeks and seeing what that did to my overall weight loss. If I wasn't losing weight at the expected rate, I'd adjust how many calories to allow myself for each donation.
  • DyneSalcar
    DyneSalcar Posts: 45 Member
    edited December 2019
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    Autumnblade thank you so much for the advice! I think the plasma amount taken is the same for anyone above 175 pounds, although below that is smaller increments. Maybe that's where they got the average of 450 from 🤷
  • AlexandraFindsHerself1971
    AlexandraFindsHerself1971 Posts: 3,106 Member
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    I did it for several years and thankfully no longer needed the money. I have a chronic pain disorder, and found that donation really made me feel sick and tired the rest of the day. Not any hungrier, but definitely thirstier.

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