undisclosed asked:
If someone has diabetes and losing weight from anxiety and nervous issues how do you safely gain pounds? Sugar laden foods will affect blood sugar? All the foods to eat are low glycemic and therefore don’t pack on the pounds. What are some ways to gain without adding sugar and junk food?
It’s for a 77 yr old man that is losing muscle tone and weight this summer. Ideally to gain 20 lbs back so he has something to fall back on this winter if he gets sick.
4 replies on “How can you gain weight if you have diabetes”
can you clarify if he is type 1 or 2. im not sure about type 2 but i know that type 1 diabetics can eat normal food that will cause weight gain.
Glucerna makes a nutritional supplement kind of like Ensure. It doesn’t have a huge amount of sugar, but provides some calories and fat. It sounds like he needs to visit a doctor and a nutritionist right away though! The anxiety issues need to be treated as well as his dietary needs.
A nuritionist specializing in diabetes would be a good help.
It’s the carbohydrates that affect blood sugar levels, so you are right, he would want to be careful about the sugar and junk food. Protein would be a good way to add calories and nutrition without adding the carbohydrates; protein has almost no carbs. Chicken, fish, even eggs and cheese if cholesterol isn’t an issue. Also, he could probably not pay a lot of attention to the fats (as long as they are the good kind, like olive oil, etc.). You don’t want to overdue it on fats, but they are high in calories and do not have carbohydrates.
Insulin causes weight gain. If he isn’t on insulin, maybe he should be?
It might be that he needs a bit of injected insulins to help him.