I need advice on weight GAIN

LiLi1964 · November 2013

If any of you wonderful ladies have suggestions to gain weight, I'd appreciate any help I can get.

I had been eating Protein bars that were high in calories before my first chemo and was able to put on 10 pounds. I had water retention from the steroids used w/chemo and added another 5 pounds in 24 hours. Here's the bad part....I lost 15 pounds in the next 5 days because eating just made me so nauseous.

Does anyone know about a tasteless fluid or powder that can be added to food or drink that is high protein/high calories that I might try?

I can't do protein shakes (purchased everything for this before chemo started). I simply cannot stomach anything milk based so I stay away from them completely.

I'm hoping for many responses and suggestions. This is now become my biggest concern going thru chemo because I don't have any weight I can loose. I'll soon be considered mal-nourished if something isn't done so I'm reaching out to the same place I reached before for other issues and have been so blessed w/responses to help me out.

Thank you in advance!!!!!

Zillsnot4me · November 2013

Ensure makes a clear fruit flavored protein drink. I haven't tried it. I couldn't do milk based shakes either but could eat a bowl of cereal. Chemo makes no sense.

My best thing for nausea was green tea and ginger. You can either steep fresh ginger about an inch or I found it frozen at Walmart (with the veg). I drank it every day.

Tell you dr how sick you are. You may need to change meds or alternate them. I was sick for about 10 days but could feel a gradual lessening. Then one day I woke up fine. It could be acid reflux too. Talk to your dr.

So that last week before my next round I would eat like a little pig. Good luck.

MCbeach · November 2013

There are protien shades that are non-milk based too! I have lactose issues so I use these and I've had no problem with them. I get my protein powder at GNC. Best of luck to you.

curveball · November 2013

I am also on chemo and also trying to gain weight. I talked with a nutritionist--she said I was not taking in enough calories and that my idea of using a supplement drink to add calories would probably help. I looked at the ingredients of commonly available drinks like Ensure, but they have soy protein isolate in them, which I want to avoid due to being ER+. I found a drink at Super Supplements called Komplete Ultimate meal replacement shake. These shakes are vegan and come in three flavors, vanilla, chocolate and coffee. They contain no soy, dairy or gluten. And they taste pretty decent, at least the vanilla ones. They are expensive though. There is another, less expensive shake called Orgain. It has no soy but IMO didn't taste as good as the Komplete. Also, Orgain may not be dairy free.

In the past, I have used protein powder (rice or hemp) in baked goods like muffins, with quite edible results. I'm not a fan of smoothies myself so I don't know if they would change the flavor. I always get the unflavored but if you are only going to use it in smoothies, vanilla might be better.

Hope that helps

Rdrunner · November 2013

stay away from the soya protein sources. Gatorade have a post workout high protein drink that taste ok.

LiLi1964 · November 2013

Thanks Ladies for all the ideas. My PCP did a little research as well and provided me with some options. She also contacted a dietician who in turn provided some info (most was what I already knew, though). See, the problem is chemo is making me feel so awful and insanely fatigued that anytime my husband even asks me if he can fix me something.....he gets the evil eye. I just don't want to eat anything BUT my daughter had a good idea. Since my taste buds are so out of whack (and the textures of foods are really bothering me - even my all time favorite mashed potatoes I simply cannot eat!) she was asking what foods I have tried that I liked. She saw a pattern...I like tart and spicy foods because I can actually taste them so she told me this next chemo to try those foods (and I have been lucky so far to NOT have any mouth sores or any oral issues as all). Granted, I'll stay away from those foods days 5-10 when my infusion nurse told me the mouth to the "other end" tract is "sloughing" all the cells which leaves me vulnerable to more upset w/spicy and tart foods. I'll have to figure something out for those days.

YoungTurkNYC · November 2013

Can you have full fat yogurt, peanut butter or nuts? These were recommended to me by my nutritionist (specializing solely in patients going through chemo). Not sure if you can have beans but another thought. I am a pescatorian. During chemo, I did not even have much fish. (AC really destroyed my digestive tract and could eat only a few things). Also, mashed potatoes?

YoungTurkNYC · November 2013

So sorry I just saw that you could not even eat mashed potatoes.

ziggypop · November 2013

I was taking care of my dad who had cancer when I was diagnosed. I never had problems with weight, but he did. There were a few things that I found helped. I put honey in anything he would drink that it seemed feasible to add it to. I added the clear ensure to anything that it seemed reasonable to add it to - cranberry juice with some mixed in worked well. I would try to sneak in a few extra calories to anything he could eat - so if he wanted 'corn' - I'd fix him that, but I'd add butter, and put some spoonfuls of black beans on the side. Small amounts throughout the day seemed to work the best. Smoothies (without cream if you can't handle it) are good. If you can do it, milkshakes - and I found that he could stomach the insure if I added it to a milkshake rather than trying to get him to drink it straight.

Also, do ask your doc about meds. Sometimes one thing will work for a little while & then won't and another thing will.

I need advice on weight GAIN

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