Gaining Weight

I regained most of my lost weight by drinking three Boost or Ensure drinks daily, on top of my regular meals.

Food quantity is very subjective (and deceptive) - have you tried estimating your daily calorie intake?

https://www.j-pouch.org/topic/...2#677290383398873562

I have not actually. I’ll try doing that. I feel like I eat more than enough but maybe I don’t. Thanks!

https://www.j-pouch.org/topic/...7#677290383396996377

Three a day?! I drank ensure while I was first recovering, but I stopped because they’re kind of expensive where I live and I hate the taste. Guess I’ll give it a round 2 though.

I can't gain weight at all. I am 5'7 and between 111 and 115 lbs now. Would love to hit 130. I eat too. Odd thing is I could keep my weight up with the bag but not the j pouch. Not sure what the difference would be? BTW, 200 cal shakes at Costco, kirkland brand, are like 10 bucks for 24. Pretty affordable and not bad tasting. It's very frustrating trying to gain.

KMiller - I'm in the same boat as you. I'm 6'0 and holding steady at 121lbs. Can't seem to increase my weight. It could be attributed to a decreased appetite as well as the three bouts of pouchitis I've had since my takedown in January 2021. I'm on antibiotics currently and I'm able to hold it longer, so I hope I'm absorbing nutrients. I'm also fairly certain I'll have to go on some form of biologic in the very near future to keep the inflammation at bay, so hopefully that will lead to some form of weight gain. I also found that I was able to gain weight easily with the bag. Before my first surgery I was on TPN and weighed 110lbs. About two months after the first surgery I was 155lbs, only 5lbs shy of my pre-UC flare up, felt like my old self again. Crazy what our bodies can do! It's strange because I was never the skinny guy, at my heaviest I was 180lbs and could've stood to lose some of that weight. Funny enough that UC led me to my desired weight of 160lbs.

@BK 123 I don't usually take immodium but may start a few a day, thinking maybe if things slow down more time to absorb some nutrients? It's frustrating.

About a week ago I started taking 3/day. Once right when I wake up, one with lunch and one an hour before bed. It seems to help slow things down and bulk me up, but the antibiotics also have that factor so it could be the two working together. Last night was the first time since my takedown that I only got up once to use the restroom. Usually I’m 3-4 times a night, I’m contributing that to the constant inflammation I’ve been having. Hopefully whichever course of treatment my GI uses will bring that number down. I have a pouchoscopy on Friday.

Good luck @BK 123, hope all goes well.

Does loperamide cause weight gain?I'm gaining weight alot but I eat alot of wholemeal bread.

@Kmiller posted:

I can't gain weight at all. I am 5'7 and between 111 and 115 lbs now. Would love to hit 130. I eat too. Odd thing is I could keep my weight up with the bag but not the j pouch. Not sure what the difference would be? BTW, 200 cal shakes at Costco, kirkland brand, are like 10 bucks for 24. Pretty affordable and not bad tasting. It's very frustrating trying to gain.

I’m in the same boat. 5’6” with a normal fighting weight of 120-125 for my entire adult life. Dropped down to 93 while sick but now post takedown can’t seem to get above 105. I was able to get back to 115 when I had an end ileo for a year. Weird, I agree. Worry about bone health at this weight. Interestingly (and not to worry y’all featherweights), I recently saw Bo Shen and apparently the very thin and the very fat tend to have poor pouch outcomes. For the thin, it’s floppy pouches that don’t have enough padding for support. Go figure. I’m having a sinus tract repaired with him and he seems to think that may allow me to put on some weight—treating a source of low grade, chronic inflammation.  So if you have any concerns about/or have pouchitis, enteropathic arthritis, subclinical infection, etc. could be the cause of the difficulty gaining.

Hi I'm 6'1" and I was down below 120lbs. It took some time and getting my pouchitis under control was critical but with a very high calorie diet (about 4000 calories or more daily) and a highly reduced physical demand on my body and I am finally back to 180lbs. I also have a high metabolism and always struggled to gain weight. Cannabis is the only way I can eat as much as I do. Not everyone can stop doing a physical job but I needed to.

Good luck and definitely try and find out what you need your calorie intake needs to be, I also thought I was eating enough but you might be surprised.

Hey PouchLogic, I took use medical marijuana for both appetite and for general relief. It definitely increased my appetite! I’ve talked to a nutritionist who basically recommended adding extra calories to meals, which I’ve been doing. Hoping once I can get the pouchitis under control I can start gaining weight again.

No matter if you want to lose weight or gain weight the first thing you do is the same either way. Download a calorie tracker app on your phone and buy a scale of you don't already have one. Next you record your weight every morning, 7 days a week. Then you also record literally everything you eat and drink. Once you establish a baseline for calories in and calories out you can start playing around with your diet to see what you need to do to hit your goals.

Are there obese people with a jpouch?I'm classed as overweight but couldn't imagine eating all day and I cant bring myself to buy pizza or cheetos ,fizzy drinks anymore.

@Chook2 posted:

Are there obese people with a jpouch?I'm classed as overweight but couldn't imagine eating all day and I cant bring myself to buy pizza or cheetos ,fizzy drinks anymore.

I’m guessing most people have lost weight going into surgery if they have UC or even cancer but not necessarily if the indication is FAP. Though it’s only a guess.  Also some have more of a buffer so losing 20-30 lbs while sick with a UC flare may not be such a big deal. I personally looked like a skeleton after that wt loss and still look too thin. After surgery I’m sure plenty have put on more weight than they would like ;-)

Jaydog, I agree it’s all about calories in/calories out. I think the hard part is being able to increase caloric intake to the point of compensating for ongoing illness/inflammation which tears though calories. My pouch isn’t functioning well enough and I feel too uncomfortable eating to slam down 4000 cals per day. So I focus on trying to ingest healthy high cal foods. I’ll be so happy if I can get to the point of not thinking about this crap. Pun intended.  

I've gained alot of weight.I went from 55kg up to 91kg .I drink alcohol to much that leads to overeating.I eat chicken breast cut up and coated and mixed with eggs,pork sausages in wholemeal bread,fish battered.chicken wholemeal sandwiches ,bananas.ham or chicken burgers.when I returned to work everyone said they were expecting a skinny sickly guy like I was not a big fat healthy looking guy.but I will still try to lose the weight.