Cystic Fibrosis and diet.

[MGorgon]

I have CF, and have been under 130 pounds, 5'7'' for the past few years (I'm 17), and right now I'm starting to eat a whole lot more. I have 2 shakes of 4 whey scoops/2 cups of homogenized milk, in the morning and at the end of the day. 3 pb/j sandwiches at school for lunch, along with 2 fruit/veggie bars, when I get home I eat 4 eggos with loads of butter/syrup. Then a few hours later I eat a package of sidekicks with homo milk and extra butter. I also drink about 3-4L of water a day.

I asked my dietitian about gaining weight, and she said that I should just eat loads of calorie dense foods, like bacon, pastas, protein shakes etc. My goal is to look buff, but I don't want the hulking physique, just a well-defined body. How should my diet be different, if at all?

 

[BigDyl]

What does CF do?

 

[MGorgon]

Whoops, forgot to post the link, here it is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cystic_Fibrosis

 

[Emma-Leigh]

Firstly - this is going to rely heavily on the extent of your GI involvement.

How good is your digestive tract at the moment? Do you have issues with obstuctions? How good is your pancreas function - Are you heavily reliant on enzymes? Do you have any issues with developing diabetes? Are you still taking all of your fat soluble vitamin supplements?


Most importantly - Are you finding it hard to keep weight on with what you are eating?

With having CF you are going to have to rely on the calorie dense foods just to get the energy you need to maintain your weight - let alone trying to cover the cost of training and growth as well... And then you have to think of the cost of the higher fat intake in that it may cause an issue if you have major digestive deficiencies - playing havoc with your... errmm... toilet habits...

I suggest you read the sticky at the top of the forum and then integrate this with information you get from your dietitian and also with what you know about your specific expression of the condition.... So you know that you are going to need more fats and energy dense foods.... and that you are going to have to make sure you eat some of the 'non-bbing' type foods like your higher fat meats pizza and other things..... But you should not neglect the healthy stuff either - so ensure you get nuts and seeds, olive oil, avocado and other things for those fats too.

Basically - eat 80% clean and 20% dirty and just eat LOTS.