Nutrition

Preventing Weight Gain

Maintaining a healthy weight during treatment may be challenging for a variety of reasons. If you have family and friends who want to help by bringing meals, steer them in the direction of preparing and dropping off healthy choices. Usually their instincts are to bring high fat, high calorie comfort foods. Or, they may assume your treatment will cause you to lose weight and may prepare or bring over foods that are high in calories and fat. However, treatment-related nausea and vomiting can often be prevented or greatly reduced, so encourage them to make healthy food options instead. This will prevent you, your caregiver and the rest of your family from gaining weight from these treats. Weight gain may be a side effect of certain medicines. You may also be much less active than you were before treatment, which tends to show up on the scale. Follow these helpful suggestions, and talk with your dietitian if you need additional help.

• Eat a diet low in fat (30 grams or less a day).
• Add more fruits and vegetables to your meals. The brighter in color, the better.
• Limit your intake of high-calorie and high-sodium foods.
• Drink plenty of water (10 cups a day for men, 8 cups a day for women).
• Exercise daily, if you’re able, even if only for five minutes at a time. Power walking is a great option.