The Link Between Weight Loss and Crohn’s Disease

Crohn’s disease affects many aspects of your health, including causing inflammation in the digestive tract and leading to weight loss. Maintaining a healthy weight with Crohn’s disease is often difficult for many reasons.

Living with Crohn’s means paying close attention to your nutrition to keep your entire body healthy — but it may not be easy. However, some tips help you maintain your weight with the condition.

When you’re struggling with Crohn’s disease and weight loss, Dr. Ilyas Memon and the team at Texas Digestive Disease Consultants provide treatments and tips to keep the condition under control.

Dr. Memon is an experienced gastroenterologist who offers nutritional advice and treatments such as corticosteroids and immunosuppressants for Crohn’s flare-ups.

Crohn’s disease and weight loss

Crohn’s disease is a problem that affects your gastrointestinal tract and may lead to chronic inflammation. It’s a lifelong disorder that you have to manage through lifestyle changes, dietary modifications, and medications that control your symptoms.

It’s an inflammatory bowel disease that affects various aspects of your life and may lead to recurrent weight loss. There are several reasons that you may experience weight loss from Crohn’s disease, including:

• Reduced appetite
• Malnutrition
• Food intolerances
• Side effects of medication
• Nutrient loss

Symptoms related to Crohn’s disease, such as nausea, vomiting, or extreme fatigue, may reduce food intake and malnutrition, both of which can cause weight loss quickly.

You may also be unable to eat certain foods with high nutritional values due to their effect on your gut. Food intolerances can also lead to weight loss, along with certain medications you may need to control the symptoms of Crohn’s.

Why is weight loss problematic?

A little unexpected weight loss is a gift for many people — but not for those living with Crohn’s disease. Rapid weight loss from intestinal inflammation, malabsorption of nutrients, and medication side effects can lead to dangerous weight loss that affects every aspect of your health.

Weight loss due to Crohn’s typically means your body isn’t getting the proper nutrients to work correctly. If your body is not absorbing certain vitamins and nutrients, its systems and organs begin to slow down and work inefficiently.

There are several reasons why weight loss with Crohn’s disease is a problem. One primary concern is your bone health. Chronic weight loss prevents the bones from getting the vitamins they need to stay strong and healthy, possibly leading to an increased fracture risk.

Your immune system also requires the proper nutrition to thrive. Rapid weight loss affects the immune system’s ability to function at its best, leading to infections and other illnesses.

Other complications of weight loss with Crohn’s disease are poor wound healing, chronic infections, and recurrent hospitalizations, which increase the risk of complications.

How to maintain weight with Crohn’s

Crohn’s disease creates various issues with your health, but your weight doesn’t have to be one of them. Maintaining your weight with Crohn’s is crucial to your overall health and wellness, so our team offers the following tips to keep your weight up:

Make a food journal

Keeping a food journal helps determine what foods cause uncomfortable symptoms and which are okay. It also allows a dietician to create a customized plan that checks your weight and Crohn’s.

Think outside the box

Many factors play into Crohn's disease, including what you eat, whether you're in remission or an active flare, and previous surgeries or procedures. Look at the big picture when deciding on a diet plan that works best for your needs.

Develop a customized diet

Take careful consideration when developing a diet plan to maintain weight and avoid Crohn’s symptoms. It would help if you avoided the following when discussing a plan with a dietician:

• Fatty and fried foods
• Spicy foods
• Citrus foods
• Certain dairy products
• High fiber foods

To prevent weight loss, drinking plenty of water in small doses throughout the day and taking nutritional supplements as needed is essential.

Consider medications

Nobody wants to take medications, but sometimes, they’re necessary to relieve discomfort from conditions like Crohn’s. Talk to our team about what medications can control your symptoms and allow you to eat a healthy diet that checks your weight.

Enteral nutrition can help

If you’re struggling to keep your weight routine, consider enteral nutrition for a boost. Enteral nutrition goes right into the stomach with a tube that we insert through the nose to provide the food you need to increase caloric intake.

Call Texas Digestive Disease Consultants in The Woodlands, Magnolia, and Willis, Texas, today to discuss Crohn’s disease treatments or request a consultation on the website.