Dieting with Cirrhosis

[eileenet49]

Hi

I have early stage Cirrhosis and need to lose some weight. Quite a lot actually.

I'm considering the Keto diet.

Does anybody know if this is okay for someone with alcohol related cirrhosis.

Thanks for any help you can offer

[pushthrough]

Speak to a nutritionist because I can’t give advice on that. What I can say is that mine is due to the same thing. My specialist and nutritionist do not want me eating hardly any red meat, and instead stick to lean chicken and fish. High protein, high fiber, low fat, low salt diet with a lot of veggies. I can only have 2grams of salt a day as well. I’m not supposed to eat anything fried either. The salt thing is what will catch you off guard. When you read labels you will see it’s in almost everrrrything. Keep us posted.

For me it’s the Mediterranean diet

I should mention my bmi is around 28.

G.

[eileenet49 in reply to pushthrough]

Hi and thanks for replying.We're you referred to a nutritionist or did you sort that out yourself please.

My BMI is almost 40, so a long way to go.

I have always struggled with weight and have COPD as well. It's made exercise difficult and I now seem to be trapped in a viscious cycle.

I know I have to do something about it but can't seem to get myself in the right frame of mind.

I suppose its getting to the do or die stage, I just thought if I could find something to kick start the weight loss it would help.

[AyrshireK]

You'd be best trying to speak to a specialist dietician - faddy diets are generally not recommended for people with cirrhosis as you need to be fuelling appropriately in order not to suffer muscle wastage - whilst you might need to loose fatty weight you don't want to risk losing muscle mass. The best diet for fatty liver is a well balanced Mediterranean style diet. You still need carbs and protein so a Keto diet isn't necessarily recommended in cirrhosis.

Individualized dietary advice from a specialist dietician would be recommended.

Katie

[eileenet49 in reply to AyrshireK]

Seems like a nutritionist is the thing to do. Will look up Mediterranean diet.Thank you.

[AyrshireK in reply to eileenet49]

The BLT has good information on diet for fatty liver at:- britishlivertrust.org.uk/wp...

[Cat-B]

I don’t think the Keto diet will help your liver, you need to speak to the dietitian attached to the liver ward. For your liver to recover the general rule is no salt, high protein and high carbohydrates, definitely no processed food! Good luck

[Kenzone62]

Iron In Red meat may be to much I read somewhere. ii loved steaks.. Down to 1 every few months now 😥

[Roy1955]

You MUST check with your own consultant first as everyone's needs are different.The consultant I paid to see at the Royal Free advised I lose weight.

He said eating fat does not matter but I must cut carbs to the absolute minimum, that's the keto diet.

He also said the occasional donut won't hurt but only one a week if I must have it!

The only safe and reliable way to lose weight is to eat less and make healthier choices though.

The weight I lost (plus a bit more) came back fast when I stopped keto.

[Kristian]

Hi eileen, as others have said avoid the fads and extreme diets. They do have effects but are rarely effective long term and you soon end up back where you started as they are almost impossible to stick to long term.

Seeing a nutritionist or dietician is great idea. But generally the way to lose weight sustainably is basically to use more calories than you take in, and that isn't as hard as you think it would be. Set yourself a reasonable and manageable target of say 1-2lbs per week. Thats what I did and I found it was pretty easy to do with maintaining a pretty normal diet. There plenty of apps and advice out there to tell you the calorie deficiet you need each day to achieve that. Its between 250 and 500 calories per day difference between what ypu take in and what you use. In my case this was achieved with normal eating but just cutting out the crud except for odd occasions.

It can seem a bit of a daunting figure at first but, just waking up and breathing everyday uses up around 2000 calories, so add a bit of movement to that and you soon realise you can eat more than you think. Just use a bit of common sense when it comes to portion size, lol.

Exercise is a good way of using up some extra calories too. But, again it doesn't have to be execissive, walking is perfectly fine, no need to go jogging, lol. The more you can do the better, but again something is better than nothing and given your COPD its just about doing what you can manage, but you will find you will be able to do more and more as you get used to it.

You will also find in the early weeks you'll lose weight at a much quicker rate. I know I did and this is usually how these fad diets get their big claims. But, this is natural for any diet and you don't have to go to extremes to see similar results.

Good luck with it. It takes a bit of will power but it is possible.

[Sim2401]

I was actually on a keto diet 3 years ago when I was admitted to hospital with a lesion that wouldn’t stop bleeding, patched up after a short stay came home and all signs were low platelet count ( alcohol ). The staff weren’t too happy with the keto plan I was on. I decided at that point to quit alcohol get fit and followed the nutra check diet and purchased the app ( calorie counting ) Fast forward to Oct 21 diagnosed cirrhosis which was a shock having quit alcohol some 2 and bit years ago at that point and was informed as I’d gone from 17stone 4 lbs to 14 stone with nutra check , lots of walking now mountain biking my bloods were within range apart from platelets although the damage had been done at that point, I’d given my liver a breather. So personally I’d avoid the keto as it wasn’t working for me and with nutra check you can put what you want into your diet ( liver friendly of course ) and work around that. A yearly subscription is only a few quid aswell. Also includes all nutrients and everything which is an eye opener when it comes to salt. ✌️❤️☮️

[Hidden]

My physio described the keto diet as this "So you're going to feed your liver on of the worst things for it (ie. fat)and then you'll lose weight but the by-product of that will force your liver to process even more fat.......are you following me so far?"I'm following a calorie controlled diet and losing about a pound per week.

[moggomereno in reply to Hidden]

two years on and medical nutrition science has moved on but not quite enough over the whole board. Keto is frowned upon but it’s just very low carb and no processed foods. It’s the way forward. The sooner the NHS realise this the better.