Dealing with Low-Grade Nausea

Training
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(Mods: Ideally I’d like this to stay in beginners and not be moved to supplements & nutrition… )

I’ve been dealing with low-grade nausea for awhile now (at least a month and a half). It’s been a major hindrance toward calorie intake, since it’s also affected appetite. Medically, I’m working with a couple doctors, so this will be getting better as we figure out what’s going on.

But for now, I’m looking for some tips and tricks.

I’d like to increase appetite, and decrease nausea. Both, ideally.

Things I’ve found:

  • good, expensive, anti-nausea meds work great… but don’t help my appetite

  • ginger gum calms my stomach, but actually makes my appetite worse

  • proper 20-rep squats seem to drive up my appetite for the next few days, but unless I’ve already got enough food in me to begin with, I have issues doing them (i.e., my squatting has suffered due to not eating enough to begin with)

  • eating a little bit here and there, spread across the whole day, helps get in the calories; I eat just enough at a time to keep it down

  • I’m having trouble getting in the necessary frequency of eating with the smaller meals

  • GOMAD, spread through the day, can help me get calories in. However, it affects my ability to eat any other food, since I’m constantly “full”. So… 1.5+ gallons of milk a day IS an option, just not a good one.

I’m able to force myself to get in the calories to maintain weight, but not to grow.

Ideally, I’d like some tricks to help drive up the appetite so that my body will be so hungry it doesn’t care that it’s nauseous. Willpower only goes so far.

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This isn’t really answering your question but methods that I have found great for increasing calories when I feel full are blending oats into shakes and snacking on nuts and seeds. They are good quality high calorie foods and I find they don’t fill me up at all.

As far as increasing appetite I only know what you have said - high rep compound lifts increase my appetite, especially squats and heavy kettlebell swings. If good anti-emetic medication is working then that’s great, stick with that. Sorry I can’t be more help, all the best.

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Anything special with the oats? Just basic not-quick-cooking rolled oats?

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I’m nauseous pretty much every day.

Are you throwing up? You say Low Grade which to me is what I qualify mine as and it’s easy to work with.

I think you’ve got two separate issues.

  1. Low Grade Nausea
  2. Low Appetite

20 rep squats are hard on everyone. Have you tried neural charge workouts and explosive lifts or something metabolically demanding?

Kettle Bell swings as Furo said are a great tool for increasing metabolic rate and hunger for me.

I know you say willpower only goes so far, but there’s people much worse than you and me who do better. Try throwing out the milk. Milk is never a good idea when Nausea is involved anyhow. Blend up some nut butters and oatmeal with protein powder. Nice and thin, drink up.

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[quote]LoRez wrote:
Anything special with the oats? Just basic not-quick-cooking rolled oats?[/quote]

Yeah I just buy basic normal unprocessed porridge outs and throw them in the blender with everything else. If I’m making a 1 litre shake I’ll use around 150g of oats, any more than that and I find it gets a little too thick, but thats down to personal preference. I don’t really notice them, if anything they improve the taste. They are also really cheap which is nice.

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[quote]corstijeir wrote:
I’m nauseous pretty much every day.

Are you throwing up? You say Low Grade which to me is what I qualify mine as and it’s easy to work with.[/quote]

A couple times, but not regularly. I’ve woken up and thrown up on an empty stomach. It’s like it’s always there, but not it’s not leaving me curled up on a bathroom floor.

[quote]I think you’ve got two separate issues.

  1. Low Grade Nausea
  2. Low Appetite[/quote]

Agreed. However appetite went down when the nausea increased, for what that’s worth. I was getting in 3500-4000 calories pretty consistently, and now I struggle with 2500. I’ve also been gravitating toward being dehydrated unless I keep a close watch on it.

[quote]20 rep squats are hard on everyone. Have you tried neural charge workouts and explosive lifts or something metabolically demanding?

Kettle Bell swings as Furo said are a great tool for increasing metabolic rate and hunger for me.[/quote]

I haven’t, but that gives me some ideas.

Yeah, basically I’m hitting the point where the old strategies aren’t working, and I’m having trouble forcing them to work with willpower alone. So I’m looking at other approaches. There’s obviously an element of just being a pussy about it, but what I’m finding is it’s actually taking real work just to keep myself from losing weight.

Not saying you’re wrong, but milk is one of the few things that actually makes the nausea feel better consistently for me. (Potential indicator of a peptic ulcer.) I’m very lactose tolerant. I actually start getting aches without consistent dairy intake. (Bad mineral absorption anyone?)

I’m hesitant toward dropping it, mainly because I don’t know of any other dense form of liquid calories. And without liquids, I’m not sure I’d even be able to force maintenance caloric intake right now.

I’m open to options though.

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I wouldn’t say it’s low grade if you’re vomiting :slight_smile:

Get some blood work and good luck with it!

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[quote]corstijeir wrote:
I wouldn’t say it’s low grade if you’re vomiting :slight_smile:

Get some blood work and good luck with it!
[/quote]

Blood work’s been done. H pylori positive. More results here: Bad Absorption or High Metabolism? - Supplements and Nutrition - Forums - T Nation

I’m not sure vomiting 3 times in 6 weeks is THAT significant. I mean, yeah, it’s bad, but it’s not like it’s even once a week.

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I’m a beginner but when it comes to this topic I consider myself an expert. I have had chronic severe nasuea every day for the past 8 months. I have vomited every morning since it began. I have done every hospital test known to man (ok thats kinda an exagerration but not really), taken almost every nausea medication even the ones for cancer (didn’t help), and gone to so many doctors I can’t even begin to count. Lowered appetite is also another severe symptom.

At one point I was drinking only shakes all day long (about 6 months of this). Now I’m getting most of my calories from shakes and a couple whole meals a day. I’m still very sick and the investigation as to what I have is ongoing but I’ve learned to manage my life, college education, and training pretty well. I am continuing to gain weight at this point regrdless of my condition and I’m currently getting in about 4000 calories a day.

The best advice I can give you is to have a dense meal or shake (whatever you can tolerate) every two hours. Also try digestive enzymes with your meals, anti nausea medications (homeopathic ones are the only ones that have kinda worked for me), look into probiotics, and theres prlly plenty more advice I could give but you would have to ask specific quesitons. Also try reducing dairy

Heres my smoothie recipe, makes about 3 full glasses that you can spread throughout the day. (It does not taste great at all, but not too bad either)

6 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup ensure (great doctor recommended meal replacement product)
2 scoops whey protein
1/4 serving optimum nutrition serious mass (this alone with milk is a great weight gaining supplement)
1 cup yogurt
2 bananas
whole can of canned peaches

Comes out to about 2500 calories

Like I said before theres so much more I can prlly help you with but you have to ask specific questions. And also keep in mind that my condition is undiagnosed and unfortunately a lot more severe so you may not have to take as drastic steps. Good luck