Weight Management

Ive recently been diagnosed with with mild to moderate UC about a month and a half ago. I was having digestion issues for over a year and only thought it was parasites. Figured why not get healthy if im gonna ahve to change my disruptive habits. i am having trouble maintaining my weight as in im losing too much. My diet consists of bananas, avocado, chicken, and sweet patatoes. Ive elminated all the supposed trigger foods, artificial sugars, fried fatty foods, wheat, alcohol/ cigarettes( over a year and half), dairy and only drink water. I consume between 1600 to 1800 calories a day. My question is what do people eat to get calories when our diet is so limited? I was always a thin person when i was younger but im now 40 and at 39 i was pushing 225. Im only 5'7", yeah i was fat. The excess alcohol and food consumption got the best of me. Now i'm 148lbs and it doesnt want to seem to stop. im getting kind of scared. The weight lost started about May of 2017 so its been about an 18 month journey but still. i was fine with 155 to 160. Im 3 lbs away from my highschool weight and thats not good for a adult man. What can i do? Any help is apprecitated.

Are you in a remission or at least darn close to it? If not, regaining weight is an almost futile endeavor. When we're flaring badly it's common to loose weight, at times rapidly and about 20 pounds of loss is common within a series of weeks to a month. As you heal, that weight loss slows, stops, and you begin slowly regaining.

When we're flaring badly, our mouth-to-anus transit rate is very, very fast (can be up to 4 hours) and that does not allow our body's natural digestion process to be as effective as needed. Things that are hard to digest and take extra time (like raw vegetables, cheeses, etc) can be passed undigested or partially digested. We can develop an aversion to eating and food during flares as there is a direct connection between input and painful output a few hours later, and not eat much at all as a consequence thereof. Limiting what we eat can lead to an acceleration of weight loss during flares.

Having a very restrictive diet makes it more complex to retain and regain weight. If you're in a remission then you should be able to able to eat a broader spectrum of foods then when flaring. It's all input versus output. Pack on the calories to regain weight when near a remission. Eat additional portions, eat snacks between meals, etc. It take time, and persistence. When nearing a remission I ate like a horse, but was only able to regain 1/2 a pound every few weeks time. It took me about 6-months to regain 12 of the 20 pounds I lost in my worse flare, all while eating a lot of food.

So theres really nothing I can do? The weird thing is i was maintaining 160 for a while with the same symptoms then suddenly in the last month i dropped 12 lbs. It doesnt add up.