# Sick - Caloric expenditure question



## Habib (Mar 6, 2005)

When you are sick, does your BMR shift at all to compensate for the illness? Are more calories burned by your body in fighting the infection, or does it slow your metabolism down to concentrate more on the fight?

And in a similar vein, would raising your caloric intake while sick aid your body in repelling the disease?

(for reference I've had strep for a week and yesterday got back the lab results that said, hey, congratulations, you have mono!)


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## Brolly (Mar 6, 2005)

I had the flu... i dont think it slowed my metabolism drastically, but it did a bit most likely.. didnt notice much fat increase if any.. i did recover quickly from eating so much.. like 2 days and then i judst had a mild cough for a bit


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## Emma-Leigh (Mar 6, 2005)

Habib said:
			
		

> When you are sick, does your BMR shift at all to compensate for the illness? Are more calories burned by your body in fighting the infection, or does it slow your metabolism down to concentrate more on the fight?


When you are sick, yes, your metabolism usually increases to cope with the infection. It is due to a number of things - a higher body temperature which causes all your bodies normal processes to speed up, the increased energy needed by cells to fight the infection and the increased energy needed to cover the cost of energy actually USED by the infection.

This is why, when you are calculating your energy intake, if you are sick or injured (major trauma) you need to increase your calorie needs.



> And in a similar vein, would raising your caloric intake while sick aid your body in repelling the disease?


Yes - to a certain degree. It will help providing your body with the correct energy for fighting the infection. If you also make sure you are getting enough GOOD nutrients (vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants etc) then this helps even more.



> (for reference I've had strep for a week and yesterday got back the lab results that said, hey, congratulations, you have mono!)


Hope you are feeling better!


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## j rizz (Mar 6, 2005)

lets hope it isnt a serious case of mono. i kno when i first got it, not to scare you, but i dropped about 10 pounds. u have no appetite, and when u do u basically have to eat liquids. when i had it my mouth was so swollon with puss that i cudnt eat solid foods.
but hopefully u have a less serious case.


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## Habib (Mar 6, 2005)

j rizz said:
			
		

> lets hope it isnt a serious case of mono. i kno when i first got it, not to scare you, but i dropped about 10 pounds. u have no appetite, and when u do u basically have to eat liquids. when i had it my mouth was so swollon with puss that i cudnt eat solid foods.
> but hopefully u have a less serious case.



I hope so too. Only one of my tonsils is fucked up, so while swallowing hurts, I can still eat solid food. As far as the poundage...that will suck, but I'm not a pure body-builder, I lift to improve my athletic performance, so hopefully that won't affect me as much (hey maybe I'll even lose some fat).


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## Brolly (Mar 6, 2005)

Yep u'll lose fat.. and muscle if its worst case scenario like jrizz... ur body will go into starvation mode so be sure to increase calories by intervals.. dont just jump to 3000 calories or ur body will store most of it as fat


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