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Any Tips For Gaining Weight After celiac disease Diagnosis?

GLUTEN FREE IN SLC

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GLUTEN FREE IN SLC Rookie
GLUTEN FREE IN SLC
Posted

I was recently diagnosed with Celiac (April 10th, 2012). In the past two years I have unintentionally lost nearly 50 pounds. 20 of which have been within the past couple months. Finally being diagnosed with Celiac was a Godsend, in that I finally knew what was most likely causing my weight loss. I have always worked out and have been in really good shape. Being a male, and someone that didn't have much weight to loose in the first place, I have really taken a hit to my self confidence and self esteem (not to mention all the other side effects of Celiac).

If anyone has any tips for getting back to being healthy and eating gluten free, nutritious/high calorie foods, diet regimens, etc. please let me know. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

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ravenwoodglass Mentor
ravenwoodglass
Posted

What worked for me was eating 3 balanced meals and in the morning I would open a bag of Wylde pretzels, they are about 1000 calories a bag and soy and gluten free, and I would munch them off and on all day. That would give me an extra 1000 calories without much effort. Wouldn't work for someone watching their carbs but for me it helped me gain back the 10 lbs I needed within a couple weeks.

lucky28 Explorer
lucky28
Posted

I ate a lot of hardboiled eggs as well as bananas with almond butter for breakfast and snacks for the first few months. I also ate at least one batch of gluten-free brownies a week for the first 6 months. LOL not very nutritious, but they are yummy and help put on some lbs! Look around the boards here. There's a few threads with breakfast lunch and dinner suggestions. Good luck and Welcome.

oh, I almost forgot, LARABARS come in tons of flavors and at least the one's I've tried have been pretty calorie laden.

TightLoli Rookie
TightLoli
Posted

Don't forget about peanut butter.

woodnewt Rookie
woodnewt
Posted

I was recently diagnosed with Celiac (April 10th, 2012). In the past two years I have unintentionally lost nearly 50 pounds. 20 of which have been within the past couple months. Finally being diagnosed with Celiac was a Godsend, in that I finally knew what was most likely causing my weight loss. I have always worked out and have been in really good shape. Being a male, and someone that didn't have much weight to loose in the first place, I have really taken a hit to my self confidence and self esteem (not to mention all the other side effects of Celiac).

If anyone has any tips for getting back to being healthy and eating gluten free, nutritious/high calorie foods, diet regimens, etc. please let me know. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

In my own experience, it just took time. After a terrible issue with chronic (and unknowingly) consuming small amounts of gluten through cross contamination a few years ago, my weight dropped from a healthy 135 lbs (BMI 22) to around 90 lbs (BMI 15) over three months. Once I'd discovered the source of cross-contamination and eliminated the gluten, the weight loss stopped, but I only gained weight up to 102 lbs and stayed that way for about one year no matter what I ate. I kept a food journal and consumed on average 2500+ calories a day and gained not a single pound. Scale seemed to be stuck at "102." It took one year of being totally gluten-free and eating very simple, home-prepared, whole foods before the weight came back. My current diet is primarily: avocados, some potatoes, some bananas, some nuts, lots and lots of red meat, some chicken, eggs, yogurt, easy to digest veggies, minimal fruit, refined sugars in extreme moderation (the yogurt I eat has some added sugar... I've also recently added very dark chocolate which has a little sugar added too, so that would be the sources of sugar in my diet), and absolutely no grains... I guess you could say that in addition to being hyper-vigilant for gluten sources of cross contamination, I'm on a high protein, relatively high fat, moderate carbohydrate (about 60-100g a day), totally grain free diet. And for me, this works and helped me to recovery. I do not know if this would work for others, however. It took me a lot of trial and error to figure out what was "right" for my digestive system. In the beginning I was so sick my diet was extremely limited (almost exclusively banana, potato, avocado, and meat) but I added foods like nuts and eggs and vegetables one by one as I could tolerate them.

My weight is 125 lbs now - still ten pounds below my target goal but at least in the normal range for my height.

GLUTEN FREE IN SLC Rookie
GLUTEN FREE IN SLC
Posted
  • Author

Why do you stay away from all grains? Even rice...? And what about brands of bread and so forth that claim to be completely gluten free?

Thanks, Everyone's comments have been greatly appreciated.

woodnewt Rookie
woodnewt
Posted

Why do you stay away from all grains? Even rice...? And what about brands of bread and so forth that claim to be completely gluten free?

Thanks, Everyone's comments have been greatly appreciated.

I would say the best brands of gluten free breads are Udi's and Kinnikinnick. I don't eat them anymore, but I used to. They are both very tasty IMO.

I avoid all grains because through trial and error I have determined that they are detrimental to my health. I follow a diet that somewhat resembles a hybrid of SCD (Specific Carbohydrate Diet) and Paleo diet. As said, this may not be ideal for all persons, but I know without doubt it is ideal for me. I used to eat soft white rice and meat soups when I was first recovering and I eventually realized it was not doing me any good. It wasn't until I replaced the rice with potatoes and bananas that I noticed improvement.

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