How can anyone do the diet and not lose weight?

[Sorphal79]

Unfortunately, I have lost so much weight since first getting LC (20 pounds). I am 5'9" and 102 pounds with a BMI of 15.5. In an effort to gain weight, I am eating a few servings of white rice and potatoes every day, along with chicken and turkey and some nut butters. I am not sure if eating so many white carbs is helping or hurting my LC since I haven't been getting much better, despite being on Enterocort for 5 months and now, Uceris for one month.

My question is, if getting better means eating low fat, low carbs, and low fiber, how can anyone possibly do this diet and not lose a ton of weight? What is there to eat? What did everyone else eat to get them to reach remission? Just meat and a little bit of vegetables? I can't understand how anyone can eat only that and not lose weight like crazy.

Is there anything else that everyone was able to eat? Coconut oil and olive oil seem to make diarrhea worse, as does any nut butter since it is so high in fat.

I am just so confused. There must be more to eat. I am afraid to take out rice and potatoes for fear that I will drop even more weight.

[Marcia K]

Hi, Sarah. Have you read the Suggested Eating Plan at the top of the page? I have been in remission for around 5 years, but I remember the weight loss and wondering if I would ever put the weight back on. I ate a lot of turkey and lamb and a sweet potato with lunch and dinner. Bone broth will help your gut to heal, which in turn will help you to gain weight. I could tolerate bananas and I had a small banana as a mid-morning snack. Can you tolerate avocado oil? Hang in there, you can get your life back if you stick with the eating plans.

[tex]

Hi Sarah,

Your small intestine must have a lot of damage if you're losing weight while taking budesonide. Please check and double-check your food to make sure that it isn't somehow being cross-contaminated with gluten. Time to remission is impossible to predict. You might reach remission tomorrow, or it might take another month or several. In the meantime, Lamb is bound to be more fattening than chicken or turkey. I agree with Marcia's suggestions, and see if you can add lamb to your diet. Are you taking in enough calories? You can't gain weight if you're on a diet that contains insufficient calories. Grains are fattening, so continue the rice (and potatoes). Even if you react to such foods, the Uceris or plain budesonide should mask those kinds of reactions (unless it's not working at all). One thing it can't mask is gluten.

The weight loss is due to the malabsorption problem caused by the disease, not the diet. The diet has no restrictions on calories, only on types of food. When you eat less variety, you must make up for the calorie loss by eating more of the foods that are safe for you. Like many here, I was hide and bones too, before I reached remission. All my life, I never worried about gaining weight, because my work required a lot of hard, physical labor. Therefore I always ate a lot, so it was easy to eat as much (of my safe food) as I could comfortably hold. So after the symptoms stopped, the pounds came back fast. You have to eat, to gain weight. So eat plenty, but be sure you eat safe.

Tex

[Sorphal79]

Thank you, Marcia and Tex for your help and suggestions.

I see some people say that they ate, carrots, sweet potato, and a couple of different meats while they were recovering. I guess I am just thinking, is that all they ate? Morning, lunch, snacks, and dinner? The same veggie 4-5 times a day? That just can't be right. There must have been more of a variety. I am eating 4-6 times a day and getting about 2000-2200 calories now and appear to be maintaining my weight, but not gaining. I also feel like I'm just eating so much rice and potatoes all the time. I keep thinking this might be why I am not getting better? Perhaps the Budesonide is actually working but I am still having diarrhea because there is now so much bad bacteria in my colon that is feeding off all the white carbs that it is just making things worse?

The next step for me, according to my doctor, if the Uceris doesn't work, is to try Prednisone. I know he is keeping me on the Budesonide as long as possible in the hope that it will just one day start working because he wants to avoid the Prednisone. I am also very afraid to take it. I don't know what kind of side effects it will have on my body since I am in such bad shape. My liver enzymes and glucose have already jumped much higher in just a few months after being on the Budesonide (I'm sure all the carbs aren't helping either) so I am afraid they will get even worse after starting Prednisone. However, I supposed it might all be worth it if the Prednisone helps me reach remission.

[Sorphal79]

Also, I have not had gluten in about 7 months. I don't think there is any way I could be getting it since I live alone and don't have any gluten in my house and never go out to eat. Several months ago, when I had my colonoscopy, a biopsy was taken of my terminal ileum and no inflammation was found. I was also blood-tested for celiac (negative) and just had a recent EGD with multiple biopsies of my small intestines which also showed no inflammation, damage, or celiac. I suppose I could still be gluten-sensitive, but I am still not eating it so I'm not sure why the weight loss is there.

[tex]

Sarah,

Believe it or not, yes, for some of us every meal looks pretty much like every other meal while we are recovering. And many of us eat surprisingly few foods. A few eat only meat. Is that boring? I suppose; if you live to eat. But if you eat to live, it's not so boring — because your food is your medicine. It's your ticket to leading a life without such miserable symptoms. Our combined experience shows that, in most cases, the fewer foods we eat, the more likely we are to achieve remission, and the sooner we're likely to do it. If you want to gain control over this disease, you have to show it that you mean business. You have to be willing to do whatever is necessary to gain remission.

I'm not fond of prednisone either, because it can sometimes have regrettable side effects. However, it would only be fair to point out that we have one or two members for whom prednisone shocked their system into remission, when nothing else was working. Here's a link to a post by one such member. You might be interested in reading it.

Bobs Prednisone -> Entocort

Tex

[tex]

If you've only been avoiding gluten for 7 months, you may just need more healing time. The half-life of gluten antibodies (anti-gliadin antibodies) is 120 days. For most other foods, it's only 5 or 6 days. That gives you some idea of how seriously the immune system views gluten. It took me a year-and-a-half to reach remission after I cut out gluten, and before I tracked down and eliminated the last food-sensitivity.

Tex

[Charlene]

Paul here - Charlene is recovering from her flare up during the holidays. We had three family members here for 10 days. It was a wonderful visit but the stress (I'm sure) caused the flare up. Yes, the diet can seem very boring. I do the diet with Charlene because I just can't make two separate meals all the time. The meals are meat (she seems to tolerate any meat and seafood - shrimp and lobster (as long as we don't do the butter, I actually use Avocado butter and it's quite good)) and as far as side dishes go, it's white rice and white potatoes. I've had to get pretty creative with it to keep it from getting too boring. Of course just plain old rice sometimes, but then occasionally I throw in some fried rice (olive oil or coconut oil) with some shrimp it. I use lemon grass stalks and celery stalks for seasoning (pull them out before serving) along with a little turmeric powder. She eats Gluten free rice chex for a snack, bananas also. She's a real trooper about not complaining, especially for a lady 83 years old with some dementia and two broken hips! She did lose weight at first but it has stabilized now at 100 pounds and her appetite is pretty good.

[Gabes-Apg]

Some of us gained weight on the eating plan.

There is more to weight loss/weight gain than just the foods you eat.

[Erica P-G]

I too just finally recovered from a flare....but I did a little something different this time....I read a book by Dr. John Sarno and then was introduced to another one by Steven Ozanich....and that helped me get through this last stress flare.

I think I have come upon something that is working for me...in a Mind/Body kind of way.

I have to admit that my LC diagnosis really put a tension on me about everything I was doing and who I was now - that was 5 years ago....I think I have been holding onto a lot of emotions about numerous things and i'm finally realizing it with the help of those books.

If you like to read and explore new ideas and have an open mind this avenue may really help a lot of others at this site.
Hugs
Erica

[gailbarnes]

For the first 6 months I went from a size 6 to size 2. I could not gain weight. My doctor had me test for parasites that revealed Guardia infection and tape worm. Once those were gone my weight increased and can wear 2's and some size 4's.