Can you maintain muscle while you are sick...

[mwanah]

I'm not working out because I'm sleeping about 12 hours a day. I can't fit in all of my meals and calories into the MUCH shorter day... I've got to force myself to eat right now as it is since I'm sick as a dog (do dog's get this sick?) Anyway, I'm concerned about losing lean mass as I can already tell that I'm losing weight... NOT GOOD, as all of you know.

Does ANYONE have some good advice (even less-than-good, since I have NONE at the moment) on how I can 'maintain" while sick??

[LayzieBone085]

liquid meals will be ur best bet..

i dont know how much u can stomach right now.. or if you could stomach milk.. but if not try some of these ingrediants

Oats
Water / Milk (depending on if you could stomach)
Whey Protein Powder / Casein Powder
Fruit -- Bananas / grapes / blueberries/ strawberries .. etc etc
Peanut Butter
Yogurt
Cottage Cheese
Olive Oil

try mixing and matching and finding something that would be creamy and easy to go down.. it can add up to a good amnt of cals and you can hit all ur macros here fats / proteins / and carbs

so mix and match maybe it might go down.. i hope it doesnt come back up though

[oaks]

Originally Posted by mwanah

I'm not working out because I'm sleeping about 12 hours a day. I can't fit in all of my meals and calories into the MUCH shorter day... I've got to force myself to eat right now as it is since I'm sick as a dog (do dog's get this sick?) Anyway, I'm concerned about losing lean mass as I can already tell that I'm losing weight... NOT GOOD, as all of you know.

Does ANYONE have some good advice (even less-than-good, since I have NONE at the moment) on how I can 'maintain" while sick??

remember, too, that since you arent as active as normal, you dont need as many cals. to maintain, and any excess will be stored as fat. because of this, you dont necessairly need to be eating as much as normal because you arent as active.

[gfundaro]

Originally Posted by mwanah

I'm not working out because I'm sleeping about 12 hours a day. I can't fit in all of my meals and calories into the MUCH shorter day... I've got to force myself to eat right now as it is since I'm sick as a dog (do dog's get this sick?) Anyway, I'm concerned about losing lean mass as I can already tell that I'm losing weight... NOT GOOD, as all of you know.

Does ANYONE have some good advice (even less-than-good, since I have NONE at the moment) on how I can 'maintain" while sick??

You're doing a good job sleeping! I'm sick as well, it hit me last night...I was up all night cause I couldn't breathe.
Since I'm not as active, I cut my calories depending on what I can do that day. Today, I could lift and I did a speedwalk (I find v. light cardio opens my sinuses), but tomorrow I may have to do less and I eat accordingly.
I like to use FitDay as a rough estimate of how many calories I burn; it seems high, but I can at least compare expenditures from day to day.
Keep sleeping and eat when you can, your body needs the nutrients to heal up

[siamesedream]

Eat adequate protein, as it is the most protein-sparing macronutrient of them all. Your metabolism is also higher when sick, believe it or not, so fit in whatever protein- and calorie-dense foods you can.

[martinibluex]

Have some homemade chicken soup and (this is important) snack on fresh garlic while you are eating it. I know you will smell something fierce but humor me and try it. It should get you up within 72 hours tops and it will bring back your appetite.

[gfundaro]

Originally Posted by martinibluex

Have some homemade chicken soup and (this is important) snack on fresh garlic while you are eating it. I know you will smell something fierce but humor me and try it. It should get you up within 72 hours tops and it will bring back your appetite.

Yup, garlic is WAY better than OJ...it's an ogliosaccharide, my bf's mom is a pharmacist and she's actually the second pharmacist to recommend garlic. I have taken odorless garlic with the same effects.

[Evan2007]

Originally Posted by oaks

remember, too, that since you arent as active as normal, you dont need as many cals. to maintain, and any excess will be stored as fat. because of this, you dont necessairly need to be eating as much as normal because you arent as active.

Not entirely true. When u are sick your body goes into overdrive to try to repair itself therefore making adequate nutrition a must.
My little cousin got pretty badly burned about 2 years ago and was having to consume minimum 6500 cals a day just to get through the day as his body was trying to repair itself and he was only 12 at the time.....

but in this case u could be right

[tinyman5000]

If you're on top of it, I lost 7 lbs of muscle from being sick.
Doctor recomended this for me-

Eat slow digesting protein, i.e cottage cheese, low fat cheese, stay away from milk or anything that can irritate your stomach if you have a problem

Eat TONS of veggies, drink TONS of water, he told me to eat alot of stuff like home made rice pudding, ww pasta, just stuff that digests slowly or is soft textuerd

[meanmo]

Originally Posted by mwanah

I'm not working out because I'm sleeping about 12 hours a day. I can't fit in all of my meals and calories into the MUCH shorter day... I've got to force myself to eat right now as it is since I'm sick as a dog (do dog's get this sick?) Anyway, I'm concerned about losing lean mass as I can already tell that I'm losing weight... NOT GOOD, as all of you know.

Does ANYONE have some good advice (even less-than-good, since I have NONE at the moment) on how I can 'maintain" while sick??

its really hard to maintain when your sick and the body needs fuel for fighting infection. My advice would be to try to eat what you can every 3 hours and perhaps up your macro nutrients to 40/40/20 perhaps.. favoring protein.


bodybuilding is a lifetime game, I understand how you feel and have been there but just let yourself heal, the muscle will come back fast. In my experience it takes about twice as long to get back to normal as the total time you were ill. If your sick for a week it will probably take around 2 weeks to get back to normal.. whats the hurry.. just get well..


nice calves btw..

[LayzieBone085]

Originally Posted by tinyman5000

If you're on top of it, I lost 7 lbs of muscle from being sick.
Doctor recomended this for me-

Eat slow digesting protein, i.e cottage cheese, low fat cheese, stay away from milk or anything that can irritate your stomach if you have a problem

Eat TONS of veggies, drink TONS of water, he told me to eat alot of stuff like home made rice pudding, ww pasta, just stuff that digests slowly or is soft textuerd

i cant even tell u the last time i got sick for a day or two.. but i rememeber that i took in a **** load of liquids.. not milk .. but i made a bunch of shakes n stuff to try n get nutrients in me.. took oats water whey bananas blueberries yogurt cottage cheese.. just mixed it up and slurped on it throughout the day..

it was easy to take down and it was calories.. got to have it

[tinyman5000]

Yeah i kept it simple..I have a ravenous appetite, even when i'm sick. It's actually really ridicolous lol...Buy sugar free pudding, mix whey or casein powder in it and thats pretty good...just eat all you can.

[gfundaro]

Originally Posted by Evan2007

Not entirely true. When u are sick your body goes into overdrive to try to repair itself therefore making adequate nutrition a must.
My little cousin got pretty badly burned about 2 years ago and was having to consume minimum 6500 cals a day just to get through the day as his body was trying to repair itself and he was only 12 at the time.....

but in this case u could be right

Burns aren't exactly the same thing...I looked that up a while ago, it was pretty interesting. If you're fighting an extreme infection or you're trying to produce large amounts of new tissue, your BMR will shoot up. It's a much smaller increase with a virus.

[beastmodeit]

I wouldn't know much, but my guess would be the average cold lasts a week. unless you are bedridden for a couple of weeks, probably months, you won't lose to much muscle... if any.

[hooked4life]

Originally Posted by mwanah

I'm not working out because I'm sleeping about 12 hours a day. I can't fit in all of my meals and calories into the MUCH shorter day... I've got to force myself to eat right now as it is since I'm sick as a dog (do dog's get this sick?) Anyway, I'm concerned about losing lean mass as I can already tell that I'm losing weight... NOT GOOD, as all of you know.

Does ANYONE have some good advice (even less-than-good, since I have NONE at the moment) on how I can 'maintain" while sick??

i my personal experience (take it with a grain of salt) i've been in a lot of places of the world where you get sick a lot (well not keeping food down) for me 3-4 days hasn't ever been an issue. you get right back on track.

if it was me i'd just sleep and eat what you can, get better and get back at it.

[Blindead]

Originally Posted by gfundaro

Yup, garlic is WAY better than OJ...it's an ogliosaccharide, my bf's mom is a pharmacist and she's actually the second pharmacist to recommend garlic. I have taken odorless garlic with the same effects.

no...it's not. oligosaccharides are IN onions, of which garlic is a type of.