You are probably in caloric deficit. How much protein are you taking in daily over carbs. Carbs will also make you gain weight, but not in a good way since most eat bad processed carbs. Not saying it’s all terrible either.
But I feel you. I been getting stronger. Adding weight in my workouts and doing max reps of 4-6 and haven’t gained 5 lbs of muscles yet. Hopefully I been burning fat and gaining muscle so it doesn’t reflect in weight gain
I don’t know the reason. I was losing weight before treatment. I lost 1/7 th of total weight. It is stopped post antiviral.
I want to be in good shape.
I agree with NeptuneJ, avoid the processed foods! As long as you concentrate on eating whole, unprocessed foods with an emphasis on protein, you shouldn’t need to limit your carbs, especially if you’re trying to gain weight. I would lift weight 3 to 4 times a week and walk only for cardio. You want to send a signal to your body that you want to gain weight and build muscle, so lifting is key. Make sure you’re eating enough, too, but no more than 200 to 400 calories above your maintenance calories so you gain healthy weight and build muscle, not just fat.
Just my two cents…Good luck!
Rebecca
Hi HopeForCure,
I weighed around 185 lbs. before I started antiviral treatment. I have posted on the many different issues I had after first starting treatment, but one of those issues was unexplained weight loss. Within the first month or so, I lost 35 lbs. and in the following months continued to lose another 10 lbs. and eventually got down to 138 lbs. At this point it was so bad that I had to go to the ER. For a 5’9" male that averaged 185 for decades, 138 was WAY too much weight loss. The doctors could not figure out why it was happening and they just blamed cirrhosis even though this began right after starting antivirals.
I lost a lot of my muscle mass during that time frame and became very weak. This was back in 2017. In 2020, I was doing better and averaging about 150 and this year I am averaging 160. I don’t have definitive proof of what caused the weight loss nor what is allowing me to gain some back. I still have trouble gaining muscle mass but am glad to be back at a good weight. I would prefer that I had all the muscle I had when I was 185 but with all that cirrhosis has done to me, I’ll take what I can get.
Your previous post didn’t mention that your weight loss was prior to taking antivirals, so now I don’t know how my experience can shed any light for you. I feel for you though and I know what it is like to lose weight and muscle mass and feel weakened and breakable.
I wish you the best on conquering and overcoming this,
Paul
Dear @HopeForCure,
I can understand your worry about this and there is plenty of suggestions here. I want to note that metabolism and nutrition are very complicated things and will vary from person to person. There usually is not one solution that will fit everyone. I would suggest that a trained dietician with appropriate medical training should be consulted to make sure that any approaches are tailored to you are your specific situation.
TT
Thank you guys for your inputs.
I will see how things goes in next few months. I will keep you posted about it.
Thank you @Thomas. You are always very helpful.
All the best,
Drew
Hello,
I am new to hepb community and this is my first post and I hope I am using this correctly.
I have been interested in fasting/intermitten fasting/fast mimicking diet for hep b patients.
I might have come across an article stating that fasting is harmful for hep b patients so I am curious.
What do you think?
I am relatively healthy and have been on treatments for decades. (lamivudine, adefovir, tenofovir, vemlidy) They all worked. Just kept changing because newer drugs came out.
My only issue is a high cholesterol. My diet is mostly plant based, I don’t have a rare disease of having a high cholesterol yet, it is on the higher side around 200. (it used to be 245 before I began plant based diet about 2 years ago). US standard is that less than 150 is good enough but according to some heart experts, it should really be less than around 60. My hep b specialist told me not to worry about my total cholesterol level because the ratio of total/ldl is 2.7 which is low enough. (low ratio = healty/good). But I’m still always wondering to learn more if I could improve my situation.
Because of my high cholesterol level, I became super interested in plant based diet and fasting.
I am particulary interested in fasting because of cell rejuvenation and atophagy, but given my condition of hep b and having a low bmi level of 17.8, I would not be a good candidate for fasting.
Is fasting harmful for hep b carriers with my condition?
I would appreciate any comments and thoughts on this topic.
Thank you!
SK
Hi @catcher.007,
Welcome to the forum and thanks for your question.
It is difficult to say whether short-term fasting is good or not for Hep B as there haven’t been that many studies on it.
The hepatitis B foundation has some resources on fasting and how it can be harmful in some circumstances: Is Fasting Safe for People Living with Hepatitis B? - Hepatitis B Foundation
It is best to talk to your doctor about this first.
Cheers,
Thomas
Hi SK, just an FYI, your cholesterol levels could also be increasing due to Vemlidy. That’s a known side effect some patients experience. My liver specialist wants to put me on a statin since I can’t get my cholesterol level down to 200 even though I eat healthfully and am not overweight. So your cholesterol may not actually be diet related. With that said, however, eating healthfully is always good for your overall longevity and well-being. And I agree with Thomas about the intermittent/fasting diets. Talk to you doctor. Do your research on credible medical websites. Always, Joan
Hi Kinoti,
I hope you doing well. sorry for the late reply. Catching up on the old threads.
I regularly take black Coffee. No milk, no sugar. It took me a few weeks to get adjusted when I started coffee without sugar and now I love it.
Occasionally, with milk/creamer and no sugar.
I think if you are taking with sugar, as long as you control your total sugar intake you will be fine. Totally depends on your taste and overall your diet management.
Thanks,
PM
@ThomasTu @NeptuneJ
On the other hand, I found an information that whey protein can be beneficial for the liver. Now I don’t know…
Hi @Arb,
Nutrition is a very complicated subject, but also one that a lot of people seem to think is simple or they have a secret trick for. You can find an article online supporting any argument you want to put forward. The important thing is to read carefully and provide reasonable scientific references.
I had a look at that article and the only scientific study they reference is one that is quite old (2006) and was carried out in rats that have their livers injured by injecting them with a compound called D-galactosamine. So there is not any supporting evidence in humans or clinical trials, or even in any hepatitis B models.
Hope this clears up some things for you,
Thomas
I read something like that as well.
I have couple flavors of whey protein I ll drink when dieting. I don’t drink more than 2 serving a day and don’t drink them more than a week straight.
I guess you have weigh the risk. I wouldn’t take it as a miracle benefit to the liver, but would take it as source of protein. Just my opinion and nothing more.
I ve read egg yolks have something that benefits the liver. So if your unsure or don’t want risk taking processed protein source, I would eat like 4-5 eggs a day.
Thank you ThomasTu, for always so generous with your time and knowledge.
What would you say what phase of infection I am in based on HBeAg (-) and HBeAb (+). I have been in this stage since I had been diagnosed 20 years ago?
I had my Fibroscan done last week.
Both Fibro score and CAP score increased from two years ago;
Fibro score 4.2 from 2.9kPa and CAP score 246 from 215.
It is so frustrating that even though I am eating healthily, have a normal weight and exercise regularly, I still develop fatty liver. Does being CHB carrier put one in high risk to have fatty liver? Does reducing intake of complex carbohydrates helps to reverse fatty liver?
Thanks for any inputs or sharing experiences.
Happy New Year to you all!
Dear @westrong,
This depends on other test results, particularly your ALT and HBV DNA levels.
The changes in these lab values are slight and for the fibroscan score is still within normal range. This can be affected by many factors (such as the person doing the scan) as with the tests mentioned above. It is worth keeping under monitoring to see if this is a consistent trend.
People with CHB are actually less likely to get fatty liver, but probably more likely to pick it up as we are recommended to stay under constant monitoring. This means we actually can do something about it (changing lifestyles and diet) before it gets too out of hand.
I think nutrition is not as easy as this. You really need to talk to a certified nutritionist to see what works best for you and your context. I am not trained to provide this sort of medical advice. Simple sugars and saturated fats have been linked to greater levels of liver fat though (recent review talking about all of this here: Dietary carbohydrates and fats in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease | Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology)
Hope this helps,
Thomas
Thank you Thomas, as always.
I can totally relate to that. I weigh 57kg at 61 years old. I weighed 55 kgs at 39 weeks pregnant for 3 of of my children. And have fatty liver.!! I eat healthy and exercise, indulge but all in moderation. I can’t remember the last time I had a can of soda or fried takeout. Frustrating
Blessings
Caraline
My CAP score was 240 dB/m last year; this year it is 194, almost the same as my first scan (2019) : 193. My fibrosis was 6.6 kPa last year; this year 4.1 kPa, compared with 6.0 of the first scan (2019). It seems that my stiffness has improved over time. I read in the forum that scores fluctuate and the stages of stiffness aren’t linear but recursive. My own results seem to bear that out. But the person administering the scan and the scanner may also have something to do with the results. The PA used a different machine this time.
Best,
TM
