Help to gain a little weight

[di30]

Hi folks

LOL okay something a bit different.

I was told that I now need to put on a few pounds.
Due to my diagnosis of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) in Feb of this year I weighed approx 9 stone 10, now I weigh 8 stone 6.

However, I turned to a renal diet, stopped on the cakes, chocs, cola, coffee etc, so I do think this is why I've lost that weight.

I am under a nephrologist, but UK guidelines state that I will not be referred to a dietician unless my blood labs go all out of range.

So basically my Creatinine and GFR are out of range, but all other labs so far are normal range (thank goodness), but having the disease it can vary at times.

I was also put on Statins as from last November so made lots of changes to my diet.

Before I had my youngest who is now 18 I was also rather skinny, so am thin boned and was then around 8 stone'ish, its only recent years I put on the weight, and for that had the diagnosis of CKD

What would you advice to eat (healthy/non-salt/non-sweet) to gain just a few pounds?
Would you say I would suggest that I uptake on the carbohydrates?

Any suggestions will be helpful thank you in advance my friends

[Undercover Elsa]

Re: Help to gain a little weight

Hi honey
What's a typical day of meals for you? What foods do you eat?
I got my OH's cholesterol down from 7.2 to 5.6 just using plant sterols and diet. I made him low protein too because of his gout, and low salt for the high blood pressure, so there will be similarities to your renal diet.
Hope you're coping and keeping as well as you can be otherwise xxx

[SXGuy]

Re: Help to gain a little weight

Are you ok with taking Statins? so many side effects, apparently, you get the same if not better results from raw unpasterised Honey or Cumin Seed Oil. (Can give you a contact for the oil)

You can eat pasta, rice and potatoes, but carbs will only make you put on weight in conjunction with fatty foods. Carbs bind fat which is how people gain weight, a full carb diet with no fat will actually make you lose weight (Slimming world diet).

So you will need to combine foods with high carbs as well as foods with natual fatty goodness, stuff like avacardo's. Dont have fizzy drinks or chocolate, wrong type of fat lol

[di30]

Re: Help to gain a little weight

Thank you Elsa and SXGuy.

My cholesterol is perfect but I was told that I have to stay on statins as they are strongly advised if we have kidney disease.

Basically at the start of the year I was overweight by some pounds but that was before I knew of my disease, so was told to cut back on salt, sugar,cola's, coffee, tomatoes, banana's and choccies because all these are not good for the kidneys.

But now lots a little too much weight and was told to try to put on a few pounds again.

I mainly eat, fresh fish, breast of chicken, rice, pasta, salads and veggies, I have about 2 to 3 meals a day, not huge portions, and have health bars in between.
Drink gallons of filtered water.

So desserts and sweets are something I used to eat a lot of but not any more.

I do eat, small amounts of red and green grapes, applies, plums in between meals too.

Thank you :-) xx

[SXGuy]

Re: Help to gain a little weight

Ok maybe you should start looking in to healthy fatty foods, like avacardo's and such like.

[di30]

Re: Help to gain a little weight

Cheers SXGUY

Well if it works - all the better.
The one good thing is my main blood labs are good, just the decrease in the function of the kidneys, so anything with no added salt or not too much sugar shouldnt hurt now and then, its something I need i think, am starting to feel lethargic more now too, so need an energy boost the same time :-)

[diddlydee]

Re: Help to gain a little weight

Almonds are a good snack to eat if you need to gain weight. They are reported to reduce cholesterol if eaten regularly and 100g has nearly 600 calories (as much as an additional meal!)
Just steer clear of salted or sugared varieties.

[Deepie]

Re: Help to gain a little weight

This makes interesting reading

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/ar...doughnuts.html

[SXGuy]

Re: Help to gain a little weight

Almonds are a good snack to eat if you need to gain wait. They are reported to reduce cholesterol if eaten regularly and 100g has nearly 600 calories (as much as an additional meal!)
Just steer clear of salted or sugared varieties.

Good point! i had forgotten about these

[Undercover Elsa]

Re: Help to gain a little weight

Unfortunately if you have to avoid bananas for the potassium (K) levels then avocados would be a problem too.
As a comparison, K levels in mg/100g of food:
Bananas 358
Avocado 485
Potatoes 317
Apples 107

This is a brilliant site for checking all the food nutrient levels, just type to search or choose a food group: http://dietgrail.com/renaldiet/ so you can check levels before adding anything new.

If it was me I would start by increasing the amount of your existing safe foods slightly, mainly the carbs like pasta, rice, cereals, unsalted white bread etc, and add/increase healthy oils such as olive oil/ rapeseed oil and, my favourite which I use all the time, Carotino which is high in Omega 3 & 6, Vitamins A and E. Zero salt. It has a lovely golden colour, you can cook with it, dress pasta and salads with it and mix it in with mashed potato (if you're allowed it) to make a lovely golden creamy mash.

[SXGuy]

Re: Help to gain a little weight

increasing carbs is fine, but without fat intake, you wont put on weight. Simple as that. Fat binds to carbs, without fat, you gain no weight. Common misconception that carbs increases weight, it doesn't, its the fat ingested alongside carbs which increase weight. If you disagree, just check out the slimming world diet, they work on the same opinion, and both my wife and sis in law are examples of how it works.

[Undercover Elsa]

Re: Help to gain a little weight

I totally agree with you SXGuy
That's why I said to add/increase healthy oils..

[Pixie]

Re: Help to gain a little weight

Healthy fats include nuts (not peanuts because they're not actually nuts), hummus, tahini, seeds such as pumpkin, sesame and sunflower and oils made from these plus olive, grapeseed and coconut oils.

[di30]

Re: Help to gain a little weight

WOW thank you all I appreciate all your help big time :-)

Lots to read and take in, so gonna check them all out now thanks again all xxx

[di30]

Re: Help to gain a little weight

Great info from you all and I appreciate it very much x

I also found a renal diet site whilst browsing and a forum that said although white rice is not fattening but its a good build up for our bodies.
Now I love rice but could never eat much of it before, so I shall also try by adding more rice on my plate.
I was told white rice is better than brown rice in my condition too.

I have a lovely tea, white rice with tuna/salmon mashed up, with green gibbon onions and diced red onion, and sprinkled it all over with fresh lemon, I ate a little more than I have been too

I treated myself to a few "hob-nob" biscuits lol