Poor appetite - medical

[Barry Charles]

I’ve avoided advice for a long time. I’m treading water...so thank you for everything and anything!

Any experience with lack of appetite do to chemotherapy? (My log - competitive - has some details )

My lifting is clearly stalled because I’m still losing weight. My main oncologist knows and agrees it’s chemo and not disease progress and he understands and endorses my pursuit of strength training.

I simply can’t eat enough. Food all tastes pretty bad. Some slightly less bad than others and I’m on a monthly (vicious) chemo cycle. Four more starting tonight. One thought is to tough it out.

Any suggestions? I thought about weight gainer products but I think they are just whey and sugar.

Really this is all just mentally tough. I think I’ll probably live! I hope this is generally interesting to you and the community. Thanks!

[Robert Santana]

Thanks for posting and congrats on powering through. You are going to need to drink your calories and you may have to concoct a DIY weight gainer to make it high quality. The problem for you is that high quality will also be filling and filling seems to be an issue for you. At the same time, I don't want you consuming a ton of sugar because those cancer cells are anaerobes and will want to eat it up. It's a delicate balance. So first, let's figure out, what can you consume right now?

Also, I noticed you are in NM. You should come out to Phoenix and train sometime. Carter and I will be holding a camp in a couple of months.

[Barry Charles]

Wow thanks!


After initial chemo (hospitalization for 4 days every two weeks ) I finally lost all “taste”. So severe, purified water tasted like chemicals.

Mostly I can eat anything now. Just not enough. Oatmeal is ok. Quest bars, milk shakes, bacon, eggs. Certain flavors are fine, others still vile. I won’t die of starvation. You are correct it’s a quantity problem.

I’ve basically been force feeding for over six months. My only strategy is to eat as fast as possible. I’ve never lost what I can get down. Training has ranged from pretty good to awful.

It’s an embarrassing first world problem, I know, but an awesome shake or smoothie engineered for calories might be the ticket. I can see downsides too, like that’s all I consume and increase deficit, but I’m up for an experiment!



( the sugar cancer keto fasting “thing” is an interesting topic. Right after diagnosis I got a PET scan which required a six hour fast, which to me is not fasting. Anyway they inject you with radioactive glucose because it goes to all cancer cells and they light up in the scan. This topic got bounced around a lot, needless to say.The good the bad and the ugly.

My oncology team is clearly in the losing weight equates to danger camp)

[Alexander Dargatz]

My lifting is clearly stalled because I’m still losing weight.
(...)
Really this is all just mentally tough. I think I’ll probably live! I hope this is generally interesting to you and the community. Thanks!

Barry, I agree with you and Robert. I believe the thing that helps you most is a badass attitude of going to war against that thing. So of course you will tough it out and power through - there is no other option.

On a more practical side, I've known someone to eat and drink like a mofo before and between the cycles to gain as much weight as possible, because he knew he'd lose weight during the chemo cycles. He went up and down 40lbs, but he defeated the cancer.
Sidenote: there are of course weight gainer without sugar, but really, you can just use protein and add the carbs and/or fats in any way you like (peanut butter! Or juice with protein are my favourites).


I don't have too much helpful to say, I'm afraid, but wanted to voice my support anyway. I checked your log and you did a pretty impressive job. Keep it up, man.

[Robert Santana]

Wow thanks!


After initial chemo (hospitalization for 4 days every two weeks ) I finally lost all “taste”. So severe, purified water tasted like chemicals.

Mostly I can eat anything now. Just not enough. Oatmeal is ok. Quest bars, milk shakes, bacon, eggs. Certain flavors are fine, others still vile. I won’t die of starvation. You are correct it’s a quantity problem.

I’ve basically been force feeding for over six months. My only strategy is to eat as fast as possible. I’ve never lost what I can get down. Training has ranged from pretty good to awful.

It’s an embarrassing first world problem, I know, but an awesome shake or smoothie engineered for calories might be the ticket. I can see downsides too, like that’s all I consume and increase deficit, but I’m up for an experiment!



( the sugar cancer keto fasting “thing” is an interesting topic. Right after diagnosis I got a PET scan which required a six hour fast, which to me is not fasting. Anyway they inject you with radioactive glucose because it goes to all cancer cells and they light up in the scan. This topic got bounced around a lot, needless to say.The good the bad and the ugly.

My oncology team is clearly in the losing weight equates to danger camp)

The big question is which of these items is easiest to eat? Identify it and then eat a stupid amount of it.

[Barry Charles]

Thanks all!

I added A Klondike bar to my shake today. I’ll see how lifting goes latter...

[Robert Santana]

Good now eat 4 of them.