Diet and food advice please

Hi Midlands20,

I cleaned up my diet as a knee jerk reaction to my diagnosis & began with cutting out all processed foods & sugar. This in turn made me lose just below 3 stone pretty quickly! As I mentioned to you prior to this post I was told to stabilise my weight-loss during treatment as it was in danger of affecting the measurements on the radiotherapy machine which would mean halting my treatment & being rescanned etc.

Also depending on your reaction to the treatment you may find that your tastes change & your body’s reaction to certain foods alter too. 

I didn’t lose my appetite as such during treatment but found eating little & often rather than bigger meals suited me better. 

Hopefully others will be along soon to offer some advice from their experience but I would say just try eating as healthy as possible before, during & after treatment as it all helps with the healing process & getting your gut flora & immune system back up & running as quickly as possible after the chemo. If you find your bowel is affected by the radiotherapy there'll obviously be certain foods that are better avoided. 

Now that Christmas is over I’m again back to eating ‘clean’ & trying to avoid processed foods & sugar again, shift some of this menopausal spread! 

Nicola 

Hi Midlands20,

My journey started in January 2019, operation February, then 6 months chemo and three weeks radio which took me upto end of November. During this time I ate what I wanted for I felt that having abit of meat on me would keep my strength up during this time. I have put quite a bit of weight on so now I am focusing on daily walks and eating healthy to lose the excess weight. All through out 2018 no one told me how to eat so I just went with my gut feeling as everyone is unique and different. I never googled anything either just dealt with things as and when I needed to. (Bit of a scary cat)

Take care and I wish you well

x

Hi

This is what scares me, I do not want put on any weight, I'm paranoid about it.  Man this is not fun is it!

Hi Midlands20,

I don’t think you’ll gain any weight during treatment, your body will be working hard between daily radiotherapy sessions to recover before the next blast therefore burning any fuel you put into it. Then once you’re through treatment you can concentrate on eating well in your recovery. 

Nicola 

Hi Midlands20

Happy New Year to you also!

You will read conflicting information unfortunately, it can be frustrating but our cancers are as individual as us, so our reaction to the drugs are also very individual.

I think its more likely you’ll loose weight during treatment, rather than putting it on. My experience was different to Nikki’s. Possibly as I was diagnosed stage 3, so had to take x4 chemo tablets every day, including weekends.

Prior to treatment I ate normally but tried to be more healthy drinking vegetable smoothies to boost my immune. However, I think I’d already started to loose a little weight in the 7 weeks leading up to treatment, purely out of worry. 

During treatment and after I lost about 1.5 stone altogether. The chemo pretty much killed my appetite and when I did want to eat, I only wanted certain foods. Mainly cold pieces of fruit and strong tasting things such as fish and cheese. I remember everyday on the way to hospital I’d buy a tuna baguette from Pret, pieces of melon/mango fruit and popcorn. I’d nibble away and never really finish them fully. I think I lost a far bit of weight two weeks post treatment as I was sleeping so much. 

My weight loss was never a concern to my oncologist although, she did advise me to eat high fat foods and said that if I “fancied a trifle to have two instead” but I never did. She also gave me a load of very sweet tasting orange drinks and milkshakes but I just couldn’t stomach them. My appetite returned about 4/5 weeks post treatment and by about 6 months I was back to the same weight I was pre-treatment. 

It was actually quite nice being a little thinner for a while!

I was also advised to eat as much as I wanted during treatment. The nurses told me it was best not to worry about food and the better I ate the more it would help me with recovery. As it turned out, I felt quite sick to begin with so didnt really eat much and then started craving chicken! The amount of times I had to swing past Maccy Ds for a chicken burger was unreal (dont normally eat them, but really needed it!!

I lost about a stone and a half in total however during treatment and 4 months post treatment am only now putting it back on a little. I am finding that I now have a very different relationship with food now though, eating healthier and smaller portions, not that I ate unhealthy before, it's just made me more aware. Especially as I know what goes in has to come out of a still quite sore bottom!! 

I think it's pretty unlikely that you'll gain weight during treatment, but I guess everyone is different.

All the best! 

Deb x 

I lost 2 kilos in the first two weeks of treatment  and was told very firmly that was a bad idea and I needed to exercise less and eat more.

i don’t like gaining weight at all, but once I’d been told off by the nurse I stopped exercising and ate as normal. My weight stayed steady throughout the treatment so I think your body needs extra while it’s going on.

I’m starting to gain weight now but I think maybe if I stop trying to finish the Christmas chocolates that might be less of an issue!

Best wishes,

Interesting to read the above. When I was diagnosed I was about a stone underweight, was a bit obsessed with being thin. Before treatment I put on a stone figuring I would lose it during treatment but I didn’t lose my appetite or a single pound. I’m pretty sure chemo doseage is determined by weight so once treatment has started if you’re having chemo probably not wise to lose weight. One good thing about my Big C experience is that it has stopped me being obsessed with being thin. I now actually am feeling fairly ok about my new weight& I have breasts now!! X

Hello,

I am not happy with body size and the thought of gaining weight feels like another hurdle to have to overcome. So many posts saying they gained weight is causing me added stress.  My chemo has delayed a week for a rather embarrassing reason.  My ‘member’ blocked the CT scan so they had to do it again with it strapped down! Lol.  You couldn’t make this up! But I’ve become obsessive over cleaning and my weight.  Probably a diversion technique, but it’s how it is.  I’ve bleached skirting boards. Ffs! I’ll see what they say on the pre assessment day.  

The majority of posts and info I have previously read suggest that most people do lose weight during this treatment which is the reason I deliberately put weight on after diagnosis.  I didn’t put any more on during treatment, I just didn’t lose any. Good you’re cleaning it’s a distraction. Funny about your CT ‘issue’, I wonder if the radiographers have seen that happen before?!