Struggling to Gain Weight After UC Flare

When I had postpartum thyroiditis and needed to eat 4,000 kcal a day in order to gain the weight back that I had lost, I did the following: -1 ensure plus every day (dark chocolate flavor is the least gross, in my opinion) -1 Benecalorie supplement every day (these are not appetizing and they are very expensive, so they might not be the best option.. but if you mix them with ice cream or into oatmeal, they are tolerable and they add a lot of calories for not a lot of mass) -I ate as much high calorie, low-volume food as possible (peanut butter, eggs, butter, chocolate, cheese) -I drank my calories whenever possible (I chose juice or milk over water whenever possible). It literally felt like all I did was eat and it was very hard and exhausting, but it worked. Putting alarms on my phone every two to three hours to remind me to eat helped a lot as well. And if you have any people in your life who are willing and able to keep you motivated, lean on them as much as possible! My partner helped me tremendously. Good luck!

If found it helpful to supplement my diet with high protein ensure nutrition smoothie drinks. They aren’t the best tasting, but there are some flavors that are better than others. Eat the meals you can, supplement with Ensure, and just snack whenever you feel like snacking. Cheese sticks, or peanut butter and crackers are good calorie dense options. Also fitting in some light physical activity tends to up my appetite. Or using marijuana products, that definitely gives you the hunger cues.