I have just completed my course of Epi (CMF next) and have put on 2 stone!!! I appriciate that I am not doing anywere near the activity that I was before. Sickness has been a huge issue, on all sorts including Emend. I do have to graze as this does help, but trying to keep to ‘healthy’ snacks and only as required. My Onc is not at all concerned.
My biggest concern is will the weight gain continue? are they any excercises that I can do that will not add to my fatigued larger body?
thanks Jenny x
Thanks for the post Rugbygirl - I have also put on 2 stone!! I have finished FEC and had the first of 4 TAX.
I would also appreciate any advice, I know that it should be low down on my priority list at the moment… but this has got to be unhealthy. Added to being unhealthy, I feel so down with the weight gain, clothes dont fit, I look 10 years older… no confidence.
Any advice at all ladies
Marguerite
Hi
I’m another who has also put on weight, 1.5 stone. I am due my fourth lot of chemo later…tax this time and am dreading putting on more weight. My friends say this least of my probllems but I have always exercised and kept my weighht down.
I worry about the extra weight giving more health problems.
I have alot of nausea and feel that if I eat strong taasting foods such as mature cheddar, it helps take the awful taste away in my mouth but not for long so eat more.
I will just go back to gym and swimming every day after my treatments have finished nd hope this will help bring it down…I want to have a good night out with my friends when treatment has finished and want to feel good about my self.
Hope you are all feeling well
Chris x
Hi Marguerite & Chris,
It is good to know that I am not alone in this, I agree it may not been seem as high on my priorities however being possitive is and for me weight gain forms part of my being possitive, this coupled with hair loss (This really doesn;t bother me), I struggle with the loss of eyebrows and eye lashes, not as a vanity thing, but I feel ‘faceless’ and feel that I look in the mirror and I don’t look like me. I can justify this as I know that it will be time limiting.
Big hugs to you both love jenny xx
Hi
I was following the Weightwatchers diet when I was DX in Jan and had just lost 2 stone. I really didn’t want to gain it back, but decided that I wasn’t going to try to lose any more, but continued to eat healhily.
I have finished my chemo now - 3xFEC and 3xTax. I gained a bit
more than a stone with FEC but lost it with Tax as I had no sense of taste so found that I ate only what I really had to in order not to feel hungry and wasn’t tempted by any naughty snacks.
I found that a couple of 20-30 minute walks each day helped. Rather than tire me out I would feel a bit more energetic afterwards, so walked once during my lunchbreak and again after dinner if I could manage it. Though by the 5th treatment I found this more of a struggle.
I have recently had mx and DIEP recon … the side effect of a newly flat tummy is incentive to try to lose a bit more now that my chemo is over.
Self image is such an issue for us all going through treatment for BC. It is just too easy for other people to say don’t worry about it now.
Good luck to you all.
Jacqui x
Hi Jenny
I have always struggled with my weight, and it has just kept creeping on over the years since having children. I didn’t put much on during chemo - it was mostly water which came off again very quickly (usually in just one night requiring multiple trip to the loo!). But I needed to lose the weight as my cancer is active and excess fat produces oestrogen.
So recently I have adopted a cancer fighting diet - and it has been a revelation. There are quite a few elements to it, but one of the things I have tried to do is cut out as much sugar as possible, to the point where my only significant source of sugar is fruit. The weight is falling off and I rarely feel hungry - I have completely lost the urge to snack, which was always my downfall. This has never happened before on any of the hundreds of diets I have tried! My calorie intake is actually quite high yet I continue to lose weight without even trying. It is quite noticeable that I no longer have the highs and lows that a high carb diet gives you - including feeling tired in the afternoon - plus I no longer want to eat anything sweet.
Anyway - maybe this will be of some help - good luck with whatever you try.
finty (another rugby girl!) xx
Forgot to say I have now lost nearly two stone since finishing chemo in April - another couple pounds yesterday.
finty xx
Hello all
I’ve also put on weight during chemo - nearly a stone on top of the stone and half I needed to lose before DX. I’ve got my last TAX next Wednesday and feel like a stuffed sausage! Finty, I’m interested to hear your success on the cancer fighting diet. Can you let me know where I can read more? Have you found it hard cutting sugar out of your diet?
Emma
Hi Jacqui
I’m also due to have a DIEP once my radiotherapy has finished. Are you pleased with the results? How long did it take you to recover from surgery?
Emma
Hi All,
Great to see that we are not alone in this…
I am scheduled my 2nd TAX tomorrow, only had my taste back for 2 or three days - so intend to gorge tonight!!
That said, I wasnt prepared for the bad taste after TAX - EVERYTHING tasted bad, but in the hope of finding something palatable I spent 2.5 weeks grazing on everything and anything - probably gave me an additional half stone… the only thing that I could taste / didnt taste really bad was crispy bacon?
Plan of action is to eat crispy (burnt) bacon for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the next 2.5 weeks and see if that helps - a bit of atkins?
Will check with Onc tomorrow that this is ok.
Would love to eat fruit for this period, but again, cant find any that tastes ok
Marguerite
Hi Emma
No, to my surprise I haven’t found it hard to cut out sugar - there have been chocolate biscuits in the cupboard that have remained unmolested for weeks! I didn’t think I ate a lot before, but when you look at all the hidden sugar in food I realised I was eating more than I thought. I’ve cut out most white carbs as well (rice, pasta etc - never really ate white bread except the occasional bagel). The main thing with sugar is the more you eat the more you want - it gives you an insulin rush, and as you’re coming down from that you crave more sugar. Once it’s out of your system, if my experience is typical, you lose the desire for it.
Regarding the cancer diet - it is fairly radical - but I have secondaries so am happy to go the extra mile. I’ve based it on three books:: Foods to Fight Cancer by Prof Beliveau and Dr Gingras, Anti Cancer a New Way of Life by Dr Servan-Schreiber, and Your Life in Your Hands by Prof Plant.
Feel free to PM me if you’d like a brief synopsis - I won’t post it here because diet seems a very controversial topic, and I’m not in the mood to debate it today! Although if you’re interested there is a thread from a couple days ago titled something like “has anyone got any advice about diet and cancer” - read from the end backwards!
finty xx
Hi Marguerite
Have you tried fresh pineapple chunks - I found them quite tolerable with Tax? Also roast chicken seemed to be ok, but we’re all different. Bacon sounds good - maybe the appetising smell helps a bit as well.
finty x
Hi Marguerite
How are you finding the TAX (apart from if affecting your taste)? Have you had many joint pains? Ironically I felt worse and for longer on the FEC but emotionally I feel quite low on the TAX. Not sure if that’s to do with the steroids or just the relentlessness of living with cancer. When I was on FEC the only way I stopped feeling sick was to eat! And now I’m feeling fed up I cheer myself up by eating! Happy days.
Emma
Emma - you may find a lot of the weight with Tax is water retention that will go when you finish. I don’t know if it’s the tax or the high dose of steroids that does it, but it seems to be quite common. I blew up a like a balloon on my last Tax cycle - almost went to get my rings cut off it was so bad. Then in little more than one day I lost 4kg of liquid!
Oooh, fingers crossed then! How long after you finished the TAX did you lose it?
Hi Ladies…
I think I put on most of my weight between surgery and starting FEC, maybe comfort eating / no exercise? 1 stome after surgery, half a stone during FEC and already another half a stone in the three weeks since first TAX.
On FEC I was absolutely fine, no real side effects apart from head hair - still shaving legs!
TAX knocked me sideways… bad bone pain, in back and neck particularly, didnt poo for a week and when I did it was like a rabbit poo - so disappointed. Indigestion that makes me burp like a drunken sailor, only louder! But the taste was by far the worse - even water was bad.
Having to cheer myself up by buying shoes (even they are a half size bigger!) and wigs - went brunette yesterday!.. if I have to get a large size wig I am getting a gastric band!
Tried pineapple, didnt work - but will try chicken - thanks for the hint Finty
Marguerite
Emma - I can’t really remember - I think about a week after the last one but my memory is now shocking. But I found my weight fluctuated with each cycle - gained in the first week, usually lost again by the time the next one came round. As Marguerite pointed out - constipation probably paid a big part.
Hi girls, some great suggestions, Finty I am interested in the ‘low suger’ diet, is it the same as following a low GI diet?
Marguerite, big hugs to you, sounds really rough. you have probably tried this, my mouth rather than lost taste, feels nasty. I find that fizzy water with PLJ works wonders in keeping my mouth clean.
love to you all Jen xxx
Hi rugby girl - yes pretty much. Complex carbohydrates are ok as they release sugar slowly - but I try to avoid all refined carbohydrates. The only carbs I have are wholemeal bread and pasta in moderate amounts, fruit, unsweetened muesli, dark chocolate, one glass of red wine a day and the occasional fruit juice. I started doing this because of the link between high circulating insulin levels and cancer - it was only afterwards that I discovered it seems to be the secret to successful dieting too!
In fact I’ve just started reading a book called The Diet Delusion by Gary Taubes - recommended by another poster here - and it is fascinating. If you read some of the reviews on Amazon they will give you a good idea his thesis - but his basic contention is that the convention wisdom that high fat / low carb diets are the cause of obesity is completely wrong, and it is the move towards high carbs and low fat in the last 30 years that has fuelled the obesity epidemic.