Health concerns: GI inflammation and weight loss

So this is a slightly odd post on a topic I've mulled over for my three years with UC/Crohn's. It came back to the limelight when I found out yesterday a friend of mine who has a health problem that no doctors can figure out went to the doctor and got some disturbing news. She throws up a lot when eating and he is already tiny and thin. He was told that due to being so thin he is at risk of heart attack, stroke, sudden death, etc.

I don't think I am as thin as him (about 150 lbs and around six feet tall I suppose.) Nonetheless, I have always had a problem putting on weight. I can eat quite a bit for my size to no affect. I know how bad drinks like Ensure are but I do like the taste and if I eat a lot and drink one of those a day and snack, sometimes I can bump up to 155-158 but that's it. I would like to add weight as a 'buffer' if I got sick, etc. I feel like if I had to be hospitalized for Crohn's related issues and I had 15 extra pounds I would be better off than I am right now. I even saw a study earlier this week that people who are 'slightly' overweight are healthier and live longer than people who are at the 'ideal' weight.

I would love to go back on the Ensure but I have cut my sugar consumption drastically. I eat a lot of fruit, some dark chocolate every night (about 1.5 grams of sugar) and almond flour, some nachos if I eat Mexican and sweet potatoes. That's really about it. I'm doing that for my colon/ileum, of course.

So what are your opinions, in general, not even necessarily quantitative terms between gaining weight for health reasons even with a negative impact on GI inflammation? If I could gain weight on the semi-Paleo diet I am eating this wouldn't be an issue, but I can't. Should I be happy at 150 lbs, 5'11'', or do something that I believe will do some amount of damage to my GI tract for the purpose of weight gain?

I'm not looking to make a black-white decision about starting to cram sugar or not, I'm just curious of any opinions on the topic.

I had some success regaining weight despite uc. I had been loosing weight due to uc, about 1/2 a pound a week for nearly a year and I was at my lowest weight since high school. I was able to gain weight back by rejoining the gym, drinking a protein shake after each workout, and drinking a glass of whole milk a day. My lowest weight from uc was 128.5 lbs and I am now back to 136 lbs. I am not sure I've ever achieved remission, I've danced around the edge of remission and fallen back into flares a few times though...

As far as the philosophical question "what is the ideal weight for me" who knows? It is a personal decision and your ideal weight is wherever you feel the healthiest. BMI and other things are terrible measures of it.

I totally agree about having some 'buffer' weight, I dropped about 15 lb during my hospitalization that I haven't been able to gain back (even on prednisone) and am now borderline underweight and scared that if I were hospitalized again I would really be in trouble.

I think you are being a little closed minded about how to gain though, it doesn't have to be with sugar or Ensure or processed foods. If you do well on a paleo-ish diet you should be able to gain by increasing your servings of fatty meats and starchy vegetables (e.g. winter squash), for example. If you have a mental block about eating large servings (many of us do!) you can force yourself to eat more frequent meals. Honestly in order to gain you WILL have to eat *quantities* of food that make you uncomfortable but it doesn't have to be low *quality* food.

yep, i agree completely with the last two, obviously very intelligent and fat, posters - eat more good food - and then eat some more -

and i'll add to what pluot and lodi said -

while i wish i weighed what i did before i got dx'd, my standards have had to make adjustments -

i don't fret about what i weigh or what i look like (yikes!), it's more about what i DO - if i can get out and live life, then i'm ok -

Post Edited (soystud) : 1/4/2013 10:45:14 AM (GMT-7)

"I don't see why you couldn't gain weight back. Just eat more of the same heathly stuff you eat?"

so that's working for you dude ?

so we should start calling you chubdude ?

remission to me doesn't mean the same as before -

after almost 10 years, my body isn't the same - it really doesn't work as well as it did when i was 46 - but that's kind of a given -

and i come from a long line of skinny people - my dad probably weighed about 150-160 most of his life - his dad more like 140-150 .... so i don't have high expectations -

and some of the weight i had just before i got sick was partly due to gluten-gut !

i'm probably down at least 10-15 pounds of muscle - right now that's due more to my life situation than my health -

so what is your status weight wise ?