Has Your Appetite Changed

[lissy]

I have noticed that I rarely have an appetite at all and by time I eat I have waited so long I'm nauseas head achy and really don't want to eat. I am very thin 100lbs and it goes lower throughout the month and back up to 100.

I don't crave anything except chocolate

I'm never thirsty

I think I read about the hypothalamus controlling appetite thirst and all other little functions but I did have all those blood tests with TSH,cortisol,lutenal,fsh,prolactin and of coarse they were all normal for me.

I have no idea how I can gain weight when I can barely eat.

Lissy

[comfortzone]

Sorry ~ I've got the other problem - no appetite - then ravenous - then I do eat too much.... Or the opposite - huge appetite and then 2 bites has me full. You know dark chocolate is loaded with good for you things I've read. And it has fiber which is good too. Can you incorporate chocolate into foods to boost nutrition, fat, antioxidants etc? Like a nutella sandwich or french toast.... Or chocolate in a bit of hot cereal.... Real deal cocoa to drink..... Chocolate and nut butters.... Banana and chocolate some-mores... Chocolate sauce in milk, over pancakes, on top of ice cream? Chocolate in yogurt or ricotta cheese... Your struggle cannot be an easy one - I wish I had answers.... I just know that I too get chocolate cravings and I'll seriously eat it and count it as a nutrient blessing and I'm glad at least you are fond of it or crave it... Boost and other supplements can be made to taste more real by adding unsweetened cocoa.... I share your lack of thirst - so driinking can be a chore - so you might as well make it something you enjoy - smoothies with raspberries and chocolate, oranges and chocolate.......... can you tell I have a thing for it too? Best wishes

[Crow]

if you google "new intense dark" you'll get to the ghiardhelli (sp?) chocolate site and there is a coupon there for $1 off of 2 dark chocolate bars.

I have chocolate cravings too and eat a square of dark chocolate almost every day.

Cymbalta really put a damper on my appetite. I could stand (heh) to lose some weight though.

[dianne.fraser]

Lissy

I was often under-weight before my diagnosis - since then, I've gained a bit. No-one would call me plump, but I've got curves now.

I don't feel thirst either. Its something that I first noticed at 18, when I was a junior nurse - it was part of my job description to badger patients to drink more, and yet sometimes as I climbed into bed at night it would cross my mind that I hadn't had anything to drink at all through the day. I really thought that the need for fluids had been grossly exaggerated.

I wasn't diagnosed for another 25 years - by then, I was so sick that I was willing to do absolutely anything to feel better. Drinking was something that I struggled with. The evidence suggested that I should drink around 2 litres per day, but I had no idea how to go about it - there were no instructions for people who had never had much of a fluid intake. In the end, I realised that other people drank at breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and again sometime before going to bed. I no longer measure my fluids, I just drink a glass of water (before eating) on waking, then at 9am, 12 noon, 3pm, 6pm and around 7.30-8pm. I actually feel much, much better for being hydrated.

Re hunger - I recently did a disastrous carb challenge, and I noticed that on the day that I ate two carb meals I had no hunger at all. I also felt extraordinarily fatigued. I'm a chocoholic, but I was so sick that I've pulled my carbs back as far as I can take them - I haven't eaten chocloate since. Its taken almost two weeks to recover, but I'm much more functional now and I've noticed that I wake up every morning hungry, and I feel hungry at appropriate times during the day.

This might not be helpful for you - there are big differences between us all, as well as big similarities.

I do hope you work it out - let us know how you go.

With best wishes

Dianne

[skiberthoud]

I, too, have noticed a change in my appetite. I will go whole days without being hungry at all. I make myself eat somthing nutritious anyway. Somedays I chaulk it up to nausa, ( i do have days that i just can't keep anything down) but there are days that I'm not nauseous and don't feel hungy. I wish I had the chocolate issue - just the thought of it makes my stomach turn these days, sad but true. At least I've lost all the baby weight! Something good has come out of all of this! LOL

[lieze]

I seem to stay the same size but I have no appetite either.

I have to remember to eat or I start gettting symptomatic.

I never drink enough either so I am constantly trying to drink something.

Sometimes I actually drink instead of eat I think.

I am mixed up between what sensation is what thirsty and hungry and the fluid serves to fill my belly but doesn't give me the required nutrients that I need for my blood sugar to remain stable or so I think.

I used to not worry about anything and was just fine for years til I get sick.

I don't know if the self neglect caused the illness in the first place.

Or I already wasn't getting the right signals and now it is just much worse.

[houswoea]

I've lost a lot of weight, but I haven't noticed that much change in my appetite.

[Nikki]

My appetite has changed a little bit..Only because I'm almost always dizzy and sometimes that causes me to feel sick in my stomach, so I don't feel like eating as much. I lost like, 15 pounds when I was first diagnosed, but I think the last 5 of those fluctuate when I'm feeling better, and I lose it again when I'm going through a rough patch.