Question
What could help my partner put on weight?
15 August 2007. Related: All topics, Changing treatment, Opportunistic infections, Side effects, Starting treatment.
Hi Simon
Thanks for all your help.
Please can you answer this question for me?
My partner is on Sustiva (efavirenz) and Truvada (tenofovir + FTC), both once-daily. He occasionally gets night sweats and nightmares as possible side effects.
I am worried about his weight. He looks very skinny and the medication has not helped him gain weight. I am worried that people will start suspecting. He says that this is his stature.
His consultant prescribed him fortified drinks which he took for sometime and that stopped as he says he didn’t like them.
Is there anything that we should do that will help him put on weight. 3 months ago at his last visit he had only gained 2 kgs. He was previously 60kg which for someone who is 6ft tall is a bit extreme.
I’d appreciate any advice you would give us.
Thank you!!
Answer
Hi
Although 60kg does sound low for someone who is 6 ft tall, if your partner is slowly putting weight on, this trend may continue but will just take a bit more time. It also isn’t clear is this is a normal weight for your partner and his build is just very slight, but if it is not the following information may be useful.
You need to know that he is not losing weight though so keeping an eye on this is important.
How is his appetite? Increasing calories eaten in a wide range of food, more frequent meals etc in theory should help put weight on. The balance is important – just increasing high fat foods is likely to lead to diarrhoea and digestion problems.
How active is you partner?
If he can start even a gentle resistance exercise programme using weight training, then developing muscle will increase his weight (muscle weighs more that fat). It may also be appropriate to talk to the doctor about using a short course of steroids, which with an exercise programme, will help build muscle faster.
If the side effects from efavirenz continue, (nightmares and interrupted sleep etc) then switching to a different drug (ie protease inhibitors like lopinavir/r or atazanavir/r) may also help his weight gain.
Without details of your partners treatment history (ie his CD4 count when starting treatment) it is difficult to comment on whether something else may be responsible for weight loss, but his doctor should take this seriously and consider other less common causes (including opprtunistic infections).
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