Forget diet and exercise, I lost 10 pounds the easy way!

Kamushka said:

Weight gain!

I'm probably the only one who can have body parts removed...lose all her hair ...have no appetite and suffer from diarrhea and GAIN WEIGHT from those darn steroids! 

Weight gain and loss on Dexamethazone/Chem, and water retention

My hunch is that people eating a typical North American or Western-World diet of processed foods and high carbs and sugars are gaining weight even as they are losing lean muscle mass and having organ damage from the chemo.  Also, the corticosteroids used in chemo to protect you from the inflamation and damage caused by the "poison" can cause edema and high blood sugar as in diabetes.   THEN, things taste awful during chemotherapy, and most of us are used to throwing sugar or a sugary sauce, starchy gravy or something similar onto our foods to make it taste better -- only --  nothing is going to make food really taste better.  A couple of times I have put tablespoons of sugar into my coffee trying to make it taste "right" and finally decided to go back to no sugar in my coffee.  But it is easy to fall back on bad habits or have people cook for us to try to make things better with starches and sugars.    And the corticosteroids make us crave sugars and carbs.   JMHO.

CONFESSION:  my favorite food right now is a real egg custard made with eggs, half-and-half or cream, and a little sugar and salt,  steamed in my Insta-Pot -- although I have made this many times in a open casserole dish in a water bath (large pan with water in it, then the casserole in it) in the oven.   Egg custard gives you all the nutrients you need -- including protein.   If you want to thicken or firm the custard, you use more eggs and/or mix powdered milk into the liquids before cooking.   MUCH more nutritious than the corn-starch custards and instant puddings we are used to buying in the supermarket.  Egg custard is easy, and by making it from scratch at home, can decrease the sugar in the recipe, or even make a savory version -- which is like quiche.  Actually, quiche is a fancy savory egg custard!

Long before I was diagnosed with cancer,   I was treated, repeatedly, with corticosteroids (like prednisone and dexamethazone) for other conditions, and suddenly gained huge amounts of weight from water retention alone,  with an insatiable craving for foods -- especially sugars and starches.  Have fluctuated by 70-90 lbs this way -- and nothing much to be done about it.  If I went two years without any corticosteroids, the puffiness under the skin would go away, and people would beg me for my diet advice -- thinking I had suddenly lost a ton of weight (those last puffy bits under my skin were only about 10 lbs but looked like 40).    But when I was sick, I might go to the ER on a Friday and on Monday I would return to work many pounds heavier, puffier from water retention under my skin, and people would look at me strangely and think I had eaten a horse over the weekend! They would suddenly start giving me diet advice!

I learned as a young adult that appearances were deceiving, people and doctors could make snap judments that were wrong, and "common sense" wasn't so common.

  I never knew how the corticosteroids would affect me - -because sometimes they did not affect me so badly, and sometimes I would get stretchmarks and immediately look like the Pillsbury Doughboy or a blimp.    My skin would be so painful!   Everything would be more painful.   I'm now 57 and have become diabetic -- not just a little carb-sensitive.  Chemo and corticosteroids by IV can make my blood sugars go up.

With this history, when I went on the chemotherapy, I asked my oncologist to use the smallest amount of corticosteroids (dexamethazone).  Then was losing 5-6 pounds a week and the nausea became unbearable.  My oncologist gave me dexamethazone pills for the nausea so I could taper and control the dose -- and I blew up with edema. Also saw higher blood sugars.  Now we go with the lowest amount of dexamethasone that I can take, and other anti-nausea treatments.  

I moved all the sugars, starches, cake mixes and cookies to the top shelves in my kitchen so that I would have to think a moment before I ate them. That's important when feeling the euphoria of IV doses of corticosteroids like dexamethazone!  You become more impulsive and easily distracted. 

I plan to eat fewer carbs -- even throw away the bread and eat the insides of a sandwich.  I might eat just a bite of the bread for the pleasure of it, but just a bite.

I was advised by thoughtful doctors to drink tons of water -- I have an app that I set for up to 12 glasses of water a day -- I try to get at least 8 glasses of fluid of some sort into me no matter what.  Believe it or not --  water can wash out corticosteroids, excess chemo and other poisons, and break-down products from your body and reduce edema.  Try it.   I wear incontinence pants in case I can't make it to the bathroom fast enough.   But I have much less edema -- sometimes no edema -- and feel better.

Prior to being diagnosed on cancer, I, too, got most of the carbs and sugars out of my diet (not all -- I still occasionally eat cookies or toast, and have an amazing amount of carbs in my kitchen that I moved to the top shelf so that I can't reach for them so easily, and have to think about it before I eat them).

Without the sugars and carbs,  and being picky about eating because of chemo, I can still lose 6 lbs a week.   I had a medical complication and my oncologist said to skip a treatment, and another specialist was concerned that I looked like I had lost more muscle and weight, so I took protein shakes and a lof of half-and-half cream -- and gained nine pounds in a weak.  I'm also doing exercises to try to maintain my lean body mass.   Ideally I would eat enough calories and nutrients to maintain and hold onto as much healthy body weight and to heal somewhat as I do chemo.   

Friends who have maintained good health for decades while being diabetic, recommend nutrient-dense foods like meat, eggs, with vegetables, nuts and berries as the main parts of the diet.  They are type I and type II diabetes patients who measure their carbs and then counter them with an exactly measured amount of insulin - they have to be careful to keep themselves so healthy.   They've recommended fats (minimally processed butter, cream, cheeses)  for calories.  People only started eating white flour, processed pasta and white sugar by the pound in the 20th century, and human population health has deteriorated ever since.   So I have the half-and-half and protein shakes as a backup to make sure I maintain as much of my lean-muscle body mass and some weight as I go through this.   I'm also trying vitamins and supplements, although I am a skeptic and I'm not going to go into that here (I may be wrong, really wrong, but I'm trying things that are also low carb but supposed to help energy and immune function). 

I don't know what the ideal diet  is -- but it is NOT what the USDA dietary recommendations allow -- most people become carb-sensitive or diabetic on chemo (whether or not it is recognized or treated or treatable).   I have had roommates who thrived on vegetarian diets, and others (including myself) thrive on dairy and meat.  Different people have different metabolisms and needs (this is a scientific fact -- people from different regions and sub-regions of the world thrive on vastly different foods).    I think that more "real" food -- less processed - - and less sugar is a good idea.  I have never been able to stop all carbs and sugar, but find that I have less edema and fat gain when I reduce them in daily life. Nothing is a forbidden food, so I don't crave and fuss and dream about foods --- just sample a little of this and that. It becomes really important with CHEMO when everything tastes different and NOTHING tastes good.