When going thru treatments, your body is NOT using less energy. It is consuming more, alot more. It is burning calories at an incredible rate. Its trying to fight off the invading cancer cells and at the same time trying to repair the damage the cancer has done and the radiation treatments are doing. Thats why you need more calories while going thru treatment and recovery.

I noticed a few posts back you mentioned losing 3 pounds. That might not seem like much but its something to keep a close eye on. If you continue to lose weight then your intake is too low. Even 2500 calories daily can be too low to sustain a patient during rads and recovery.

I would drink the giant chocolate milk shakes 2 or 3 times per day almost every day of the week. So my intake was normally well over 4000 calories daily with some days taking in 7000+. I still lost weight. It seemed like no matter what I did my intake could never keep up with the cancer and radiation treatments. Overall I lost 65 pounds in less than 3 months. Its no wonder I wound up hospitalized for malnutrition and dehydration a couple times. This is why I stress the importance of your intake. To save others from going thru what I did. Its NOT fun getting stuck in the hospital and feeling like you are going to die. Having to explain it to every person that walked into the room was exhausting and burned more calories.

When a patient skimps thinking they can make it up the next day it turns into a viscous cycle of playing catch up. The next day never comes and the patient soon is malnourished and dehydrated after only a couple days. The first signs of this are weight loss. No matter if a patient is lean or has a good 50 extra pounds, optimal nutrition will have the patient not lose even a pound. When the losing weight starts it can quickly get out of hand.

I actually was planning on copying another member's relative on here and planned on carrying rocks in my pockets to my weigh ins. Those darn nurses had their eye on me and I hated it. They would make me do feedings while I was there to force me to take more in. How I despised every single one of those sweet ladies! They never let me get away with anything, always watching and calling to check up on me. They knew I didnt have a caregiver so they tried to help as much as they could.

I dont know all the medical details of losing fat vs muscle but I know what happened to me. I am now a weakling! Friends were visiting me a couple years ago and their adorable little girl wanted me to pick her up. She was built like a tank of solid muscle at about 25 pounds. I tried and tried and couldnt lift her. Finally the mother picked her up and placed her on my lap. I have since learned that only about 12 pounds is the heaviest I can lift. When I dropped all that weight, it also took my muscle. By not losing weight during treatment and/or recovery the patient will not lose their muscle mass either.

Hope this has helped you to understand why we stress the minimum 2500 calories and 48 oz of water so much. Most people think we are exaggerating but those numbers are the bare minimum. OC patients really should be shooting for 3500+ calories and 80 oz of water daily. That should ensure their intake is enough to avoid losing weight during treatment.
Intake is about the only thing a patient has control over. Too often they feel helpless like everything is out of their control so they will skimp thinking its ok here and there. By changing that way of thinking to realizing their intake is the most important thing they can work on and push themselves daily, the whole treatment and recovery process will be much easier on them. This is especially difficult for independent people. For those patients its really hard to be told what to do and for them to follow thru and do it. Maybe stubbornness comes into play a little bit too???

Eat up, Tony! No more weight loss for you, my friend.