Welcome back! Lung disease can make it hard to maintain weight–whether you’ve lost weight due to your illness and want it back or gained weight and want it gone, I’ve got some tips for you. Here is part two of last week’s post–weight management. Like always, I’ll share the information given to me from Pulmonary Rehab and add my own experiences in.
Tips for Gaining Weight
For those of us with lung disease, losing weight can happen without even trying. We have to work harder to breathe, which increases our energy usage. I mentioned last week that breathing problems can make it difficult to eat, and along with that comes a potential for malnutrition. It’s important to get to a healthy weight so your body can function properly. The suggestions I was given are as follows:
- Drink nutrition supplement drinks between meals for added calories and protein. The examples they provided were Ensure, Boost, Carnation Instant Breakfast, etc. You can get creative with them too, making milkshakes or other fun treats. I have a friend who uses drinks like this and loves them. I’ve never used them myself, outside of Shakeology, so I don’t have an opinion on them.
- Avoid low-fat or low-calorie foods. Whole or 2% milk and full-fat dairy products would be more beneficial than reduced-fat.
- Add powdered milk to foods for extra nutrition. It would probably be good in anything you could mix in. If I were to try it, I’d think oatmeal, pudding, smoothies, or hot foods where you wouldn’t even notice it’s there.
- Add foods with a higher fat content to your meals. For example, adding butter or mayo to sandwiches, putting cheese on stuff, or mixing in a bunch of options on your baked potatoes. The possibilities are endless.
- Adding peanut butter to your toast, apples and bananas, cookies, or even the milkshake I mentioned earlier.
- Get that protein in at every meal and snack. There are loads of options, so just choose some of your favorites and go for it.
Tips for Losing Weight
Gaining weight with lung disease is pretty easy to do thanks to the medications and being less active because breathing is hard. The weight gained puts added pressure on the lungs and makes breathing even more difficult. Losing some weight can help, so here are the tips given:
- Eat three times per day and avoid skipping meals.
- Pay attention to your body and stop eating when you feel satisfied not stuffed. If you’re still hungry, give it about 10 minutes until you have more. (This is something I’m working on.)
- Drink plenty of calorie free drinks, like water, tea, or flavored water. Sometimes our bodies are thirsty and they make us think we’re hungry.
- Eat lean meats and plenty of fiber. The information suggests low or non-fat dairy, but that isn’t something I can get behind. Granted, I don’t eat a ton of dairy due to my lactose intolerance, but low or non-fat dairy tends to not taste as good and/or is not something I want to consume ingredient wise. I won’t tell you what to do though. Do what works for you.
- Get your fiber in. 20-35 grams per day, just like we talked about last week (also something I am working on).
- Cut back on sugar. Things like juice, pop, and other sweet treats can add up, so try to do them in moderation. I like to use honey, maple sugar, and coconut sugar.
- Limit alcohol to 2 drinks per day for men and 1 drink per day for women.
- Keep all food in the kitchen and eat at a chosen place like the kitchen table. I’m not good about this either. I like to watch TV while I have dinner, so I do. This can lead to not being mindful of hunger cues, but I’ve been doing better.
Exercise
Exercise is important for everyone, especially those with lung diseases. Functioning wise, if we don’t use it, we lose it. But it’s also plays a part in weight management. Pulmonary rehab suggested 3-5x per week for 30-60 minutes each time. The goal is to reach 150 minutes per week per the American Lung Association.
The level of exertion will vary based on your specific abilities. A good marker is keep your shortness of breath at the walk and talk level. You have some shortness of breath, but you can still hold a conversation.
Tips
- Avoid exercising in extreme temperatures–hot or cold.
- Wear supportive and comfortable shoes. I have orthopedic insoles, so moving hurts less.
- Be mindful of your limits. Overdoing it helps no one and can do more harm than good.
- Hold of on exercising when fatigued from other activity or when you’re not feeling well. This one can be tricky. If you’re anything like me, the fatigue is real a lot of the time so feeling up to exercising can be hard.
- Remember to warm up and cool down. 3-5 minutes for each of them is good. I like to stretch and do light work for both. Sometimes I need closer to 10 minutes to warm my body up and that’s okay.
Personal Goals
I’ve been thinking about doing a once per month post about my weight loss goals. If you’ve been here for a while, you know I’ve been driving the struggle bus for a long time when it comes to losing the prednisone weight. It just doesn’t want to come off and I’m frustrated about it.
So, that being said, I am going to work hard at getting my exercise in and making sure I get close to or meet the food related requirements we talked about last week. I know I don’t get enough fiber or protein, so it’s something to try. The exercise thing is going to be tough as I was usually spent from the twice per week sessions at rehab, but we’ll see what happens. I’ll keep you updated.
If you’d like to join me, I’d love to hear about it. Comment below.
Also, if you found this helpful or have anything to add, comment below too.
Remember to take care of yourselves and be safe out there! Seeyalaterbye <3
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